BIBLE DOCTRINE I
LECTURE 10
BIBLIOLOGY – PRESERVATION III
The following are excerpts from David Cloud’s excellent ebook ‘The Bible Version Issue’. Pastor Warner’s statements are in [brackets].
A. The Greek New Testament underlying our King James Bible has many different names:
(1) It is called the Received Text [Textus Receptus in Latin], because it was the text commonly passed down through the
centuries in Greek, Latin, and in various ancient translations, such as the Syriac, Slavonic, Georgian, and Gothic.
(2) It is called the Majority Text, because it represents the vast majority of the more than 5,400 existing manuscripts.
Roughly 98% of the Greek manuscripts are of this type. (Note that the term Majority Text has taken a slightly different
meaning today, since the publication of a Greek text by that name in 1982 by Thomas Nelson. The Hodges-Farstad
Majority Text is a somewhat different from the Received Text.
(3) It is called the Traditional Text (John Burgon’s term), because it represents the text traditionally used in the
churches.
(4) It is called the Byzantine Text, because it was preserved in the Greek Byzantine Empire. However, the Traditional
Text is not strictly Byzantine, as that was only one area in which it was maintained. We have Traditional type Greek
manuscripts from the western part of the old Roman Empire as well as from the east.
(5) It is called the Antiochian Text or the Syrian Text (Hort’s term), because it was that form of text preserved in
Antioch, the capital of the Roman province of Syria, which, of course, is where the great missionary church was located
(Acts 13:1-4).
The following is a summary of the evidence that the Traditional Text underlying the Reformation Bibles (Tyndale’s,
Luther’s, Coverdale’s, Matthew’s, Great, Bishop’s, Geneva, and the King James) is the Preserved Word of God. There
are three witnesses: Greek manuscripts, the ancient versions, and quotations from Church Fathers. After this discussion
we will close with a brief look at the Reformation Bibles that heavily influenced our beloved King James Version Bible.
B. The vast majority of extant Greek New Testament manuscripts support the Traditional Text.
A large percentage (roughly 98%) of the extant Greek manuscripts, numbering roughly 5,400, represent the Traditional
type of text found in the Reformation Bibles.
(1) The testimony of the Greek uncials (also called majuscules, written in all capital letters)
(a) There are about 263 uncials extant, dating from the 2nd to the 11th centuries (mostly as fragments).
(b) Most of the uncials represent the Traditional text, as admitted by the textual critics. “A great number of uncials
(especially those of the later centuries) actually preserve little more than a purely or predominantly Byzantine Majority
text” (Kurt Aland [who is in favor of the non-KJV textual lineage] ).
(2) The testimony of the Greek minuscules
(a) The minuscules were written in lower case with some punctuation and spaces between the words and thus are much
easier to read and interpret than the uncials. There are roughly 2,937 minuscule Greek manuscripts extant.
(b) The minuscules replaced the uncial style from the 9th century forward. This was an important step in the transmission
of the Scriptures, and faith in divine preservation implores us to see the hand of God in this critical transition. At that
time the most important New Testament manuscripts written in majuscule script were carefully transcribed into
minuscule script.
(3) The testimony of the Greek lectionaries
(a) The lectionaries are collections of New Testament readings used in church services. (The word lection is from a Latin
root meaning “to read”)
(b) There are about 2,280 Greek lectionaries extant (Aland)
(c) They are in a large majority of “a Byzantine type of text” (Aland), meaning they represent the Traditional Text found
in the Reformation Bibles.
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(4) The testimony of the Greek Byzantine Empire
(a) The Traditional Text is called the Byzantine Text because it represents the Greek Text that was preserved in the Greek
Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire lasted from roughly 452 to 1453 A.D.
(b) The Byzantine Empire received the Greek New Testament from the area most saturated with apostolic churches and
most zealous for the sound faith. In 565 A.D. the Byzantine Empire covered all of the sections of Asia Minor and Europe
where the early apostolic churches had been founded, including the cities of Jerusalem, Antioch, Caesarea, Ephesus,
Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Thyatira, Athens, the province of Galatia, and Rome.
(c) While the Greek language died out as a living language in the Roman Empire, it remained so in the Byzantine
Empire. Having received the Greek text from the part of the world most saturated with apostolic churches, it preserved
that text for more than 1,000 years.
(d) This lasted until the fall of Constantinople to the Muslims in 1453. At that time the Greek Orthodox Christians were
disbursed to the west and carried with them the precious Greek manuscripts and their knowledge of the Greek language.
(e) In God’s providence, this was exactly the same hour in history in which movable type was invented in Europe. A
mere three years after the fall of Constantinople the Gutenberg Bible (in Latin) was printed and books began to be
multiplied in Europe. During the last half of the 15th century, Bibles were printed not only in Latin but also in German,
Italian, French, Dutch, Swedish, and other languages. The Greek New Testament was printed in 1516.
f) It was thus that the Constantinopolitan manuscripts., the representatives of the common text of former ages, became
the parents of our received text” (Robert L. Dabney)
C. The Ancient Versions support the Traditional Text.
The following is a summary of some of the important ancient versions:
1. Old Latin (Italic)
(a) Old Latin is so called because it predated the Jerome Latin Vulgate adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. It was
likely first translated from Greek in roughly 157 A.D. (Scrivener and Miller)
(b) There are only about 60 fragments of these, dating back to the 4th thru 13th centuries.
(c) The Old Latin continued to be used by Christians separated from Rome, particularly the Waldenses and Albigenses,
until the 13th century.
2. Syriac Peshitta
(a) This translation is from Syria, which was the home of the famous missionary church at Antioch (Acts 13).
(b) It is very ancient, perhaps going back to the time of the apostles. “Bishop Ellicott in 1870 wrote, ‘It is no stretch of
imagination to suppose that portions of the Peshitta might have been in the hands of St. John’”. The Syrian Orthodox
churches still use the Peshitta, even in some parts of southern India, and according to their tradition, the Peshitta was
actually translated by Mark or Jude.
(c) There are about 350 ancient manuscripts of the Syriac Peshitta and they represent the Traditional Text (i.e. TR, 98%
of all manuscripts being in basic agreement; of which the KJV is translated solely from, but not the other perversions).
3. Romaunt or Occitan
The Romaunt or Occitan New Testaments were used by the Waldenses and date back to the 12th century. Romaunt was
the language of the troubadours and men of letters in the Dark Ages. It was the predecessor of French and Italian. The
Romaunt Bibles were small and plain, designed for missionary work. “This version was widely spread in the south of
France, and in the cities of Lombardy. It was in common use among the Waldenses of Piedmont, and it was no small
part, doubtless, of the testimony borne to truth by these mountaineers to preserve and circulate it” (J. Wylie). The
Romaunt New Testaments represented the Traditional Text and contained the Trinitarian statement in 1 John 5:7.
4. German
The Tepl is an old German translation used by the Waldenses from the 14th through the 15 centuries. Comba, who wrote
a history of the Waldenses, said the Tepl was a Waldensian version (Comba, Waldenses of Italy, pp. 190-192). Comba
sites two authorities, Ludwig Keller and Hermann Haupt, for this information. Comba also states that the Tepl was based
on old Latin manuscripts rather than the Jerome vulgate. The Tepl’s size identifies it with the small Bibles carried by the
Waldensian evangelists on their dangerous journeys across Europe. It represents the Traditional Text rather than the
Alexandrian (where the main manuscripts were found that the perversions are based upon; i.e. Sinaiticus, Vaticanus,
Americanus, etc).
5. English
The first English New Testament was completed by John Wycliffe and his colaborers in 1380 and used extensively by
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the persecuted Lollards throughout the 15th century. It represents the Traditional Text rather than the Alexandrian. These
ancient Bibles used by persecuted saints in the process of fulfilling the Great Commission were the predecessors of the
Reformation Bibles that went to the ends of the earth from the 16th to the 19th centuries and textually they were very
similar, with only minor differences. They did not represent the Alexandrian text preferred by modern textual critics
(which explains why they have been largely ignored by textual scholars in the last 150 years).
D. The evidence from quotations of ancient “Church Fathers” support the Traditional Text
Church Fathers are not to be confused with the Catholic Church Fathers (Origen, Cyprius, etc). They are non-Catholic
church leaders; many were very Baptistic or even Baptists. Not all their theology was correct, though. The quotations
they give from the Scripture is an important testimony to the original text, and taken as a whole the quotations from these
ancient writings favor the Traditional Text of the Reformation Bibles.
(1) Ignatius and Polycarp
Ignatius (107 AD), a pastor at the great missionary church in Antioch, was martyred for his faith. He has many examples
of using scripture that is found only in the ‘Traditional Text’ (like 1 Tim 3:16). Polycarp (70-155 AD), the pastor of the
Smyrna church was also martyred for his faith. He refers to many Traditional Text only passages also (like 1 Jn 4:3,
Rom 14:10).
(2) The testimony of John Burgon.
Burgon’s textual research into New Testament quotations from ancient church writings has never equaled. His
unpublished work on the quotations from ancient “fathers,” which resides in the British Museum, consists of 16 thick
manuscript volumes containing references to 86,489 quotations. Burgon’s research established that the Traditional
Reformation Text was the prominent text of the early centuries. Some 4,383 of these 86,000 quotations are from 76
writers who died before the year 400 A.D. By a margin of 3 to 2 these writers favoured the Byzantine text vice the
Alexandrian, despite most of these writers living in the Egypt and more Western areas.
Burgon was a truly eminent textual scholar; fluent in many languages; and he traveled throughout Europe and parts of the
Middle East collating ancient manuscripts; he personally examined the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. He did probably the
most extensive personal textual research into the quotations of “church fathers” that has ever been accomplished. John
Burgon was not only a great scholar; he believed in the absolute infallibility of biblical inspiration. John Burgon
concluded: “Call this text Erasmian or Complutensian,--the text of Stephens, or of Beza, or of the Elzevirs,--call it the
‘Received,’ or the Traditional Greek Text, or whatever name you please;--the fact remains, that a text has come down to
us which is attested by a general consensus of ancient Copies, ancient Fathers, ancient Versions” (The Revision Revised,
p. 269).
E. The Reformation Bibles used only the Traditional Text (D. Warner)
The fourth great period that we need to examine in understanding the preservation of the New Testament is the
Reformation, when handwritten manuscript era ended and the Bible was put into print.
Faith in divine providence is the only way we can possibly have confidence in the Bible after it endured so many
centuries of continual, vicious assault. [You either believe that God was able to and indeed did preserve His eternal word
for us, or you believe that He did not…that it is forever lost…that we have no hope of ever having the complete and
inerrant word of God!
“The God who brought the New Testament text safely through the ancient and medieval manuscript period did not
fumble when it came time to transfer this text to the modern printed page. (Edward F. Hills)
God’s true word was preserved in the Reformation period also. This is when the handwritten manuscript era ended and
the Bible was put into ‘print’; the first printed Greek New Testament was in 1516.
1. Desiderius Erasmus
(a) The Greek Received Text was first published by Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536). Erasmus published five editions of
the Greek New Testament (1516, 1519, 1522, 1527, 1535) [of which the 3rd edition became most noteworthy]. [This is
the most significant translation work underlying our King James Bible (but it has been rejected by the translators of the
perversions). is his 3rd edition; this edition had the former ‘misprints’ resolved.
(b) He was probably the greatest scholar then living. “By his travels he was brought into contact with all the intellectual
currents of his time and stimulated to almost superhuman efforts. He became the most famous scholar and author of his
day and one of the most prolific writers of all time. Ten columns of the catalogue of the library in the British Museum
are taken up with the bare enumeration of the works translated, edited, or annotated by Erasmus, and their subsequent
reprints. ... To conclude, there was no man in all Europe better prepared than Erasmus for the work of editing the first
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printed Greek New Testament text, and this is why, we may well believe, God chose him and directed him providentially
in the accomplishment of this task” (Edward Hills).
(c) Erasmus was a humanist; and he is often put down by anti-KJV folks because of this. A ‘humanist’ in that period was
simply someone who was interested in classical literature, culture and education, as a means of attaining a higher
standard of civilized life. Stephanus, Calvin and Beza were all humanists in this sense…” (Andrew Brown).
Erasmus was a lover of learning and personal liberty and that he refused to depend strictly upon the “church’s” authority
but wanted to go back to original sources such as the Greek for the New Testament. Also to note, Erasmus was a
Catholic, but an apostate one; better put, he was a Baptist in Catholic clothing. Just for one example: Erasmus advocated
believer’s baptism by immersion; In the introductory notes to the third edition of his Greek New Testament, Erasmus
advocated re-baptism for those who were already sprinkled as infants (Friesen).
2. Robert Stephanus
Robert Stephanus (also known as Estienne) (1503-1559) published four editions of the Greek Received Text (in 1546,
1549, 1550, and 1551). He was responsible for the modern verse divisions of the Bible. He was the first to incorporate
italics into his Bibles, indicating words that are not in the original languages. [This is probably the second most
significant Greek NT text that was used for our KJV NT text translation].
3. Theodore Beza
Theodore Beza (1519-1605) published ten editions of the Greek Received Text, four of which were independent folio
editions and the others were smaller reprints of these. Beza traveled to many cities to represent the persecuted
Waldenses of Italy. In his writings Beza viewed the Roman Catholic Church as apostate and the Waldenses as faithful
Christians who had maintained the New Testament faith through the Dark Ages.
4. The Elzevir brothers
A family of Dutch printers named Elzevir published two editions of the Greek Received Text, the first in 1624 and the
second in 1633 (yes, after the 1611 KJV came out). In the preface to the second edition the phrase Textus Receptus
(Received Text) made its first appearance -- “You have therefore the text now received by all [textum ab omnibus
receptum] in which we give nothing changed or corrupt.” This was not merely an advertising blurb but a statement of
faith that was shared by all Protestants and Baptists of that day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kurt and Barbara Aland, prominent textual critics who reject the Received Text, admit that it was formerly accepted as
the inspired apostolic Scripture by Protestants in general. Note the following two statements: “Every theologian of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (and not just the exegetical scholars) worked from an edition of the Greek text of the
New Testament which was regarded as the ‘Revealed Text.’ This idea of verbal inspiration (i.e., of the literal and
inerrant inspiration of the text), which the orthodoxy of both Protestant traditions maintained so vigorously, was applied
to the Textus Receptus...” (Aland, The Text of the New Testament… 1987). “It is undisputed that from the 16th to the
18th century orthodoxy’s doctrine of verbal inspiration assumed … [that the] Received Text [was that inspired text] …
they regarded it as the ‘original text.’ … it was regarded as preserving even to the last detail the inspired and infallible
Word of God Himself” (Aland, The Text of the New Testament, 2nd edition, 1987).
The Received Text was still regarded as the preserved apostolic Scripture by Protestants and Baptists in general until
well into the 20th century and it continues to be regarded as such by a hundreds of thousands of biblical fundamentalists
to this very day.
There is only a very slight difference between any of these various editions. According to the comparison done by Reuss
in 1872, Beza’s 3rd edition of 1582 only departs from Stephanus’ 4th edition of 1551 only 38 times in the entire New
Testament (Hills, p. 206). And according to Frederick Scrivener’s research, the King James translators departed from
Beza’s 5th edition only 190 times. In contrast, of three of the chief Alexandrian manuscripts, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus
and Codex D, Vaticanus disagrees with Vaticanus 652 times and with Codex D 1,944 times in Mark alone. Sinaiticus
and Vaticanus disagree with one another in more than 3,000 places in the four Gospels alone! Jack Moorman makes this
important observation about the Received Text: “These ... differences for the entire New Testament, many of which are
very small, are a striking demonstration of the narrow limits of variation within the Received Text tradition. There is, in
fact, just enough variation to show the independence of witnesses. Their work reflects a refining process in the
providential preservation of the Word of God” (Moorman, 8000 Differences between the Textus Receptus and the NestleAland NT Greek Texts, 2002, p. vii).
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