BIBL 5111: Greek Exegesis: Bibles from Rare Books

Codex (A) Alexandrinus is one of three great parchment codices of the 4th–5th centuries, the other two being Codex (א) Sinaiticus (4th c.) and Codex (B) Vaticanus (4th c.). These codices are written on animal skins in the form of tanned leather called vellum or parchments. Alexandrinus contains the Greek Septuagint (i.e., the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) and most of the New Testament except parts of Matthew, John and 2 Corinthians. It is named after its Alexandrian text type for most of the NT (except the gospels which represent the Byzantine type of text)

Codex (א) Sinaiticus (“discovered” in the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai by Constantin von Tischendorf and written ca. 4th century AD) is one of the three great parchment codices (the other two are Vaticanus and Alexandrinus) that are written on animal skins in the form of tanned leather called vellum. The facsimile we have is published by Hendricksen and it is a beautifully photographed edition of the original which is housed in London at the national British Library. While we have earlier fragments of the Greek New Testament on papyri, Sinaiticus is the oldest complete Greek New Testament and also contains parts of the Septuangint (Greek Old Testament), the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Shepherd of Hermas.

Also known as Codex 2400. This manuscript is an example of a minuscule, which features handwriting developed in the 9th century characterized by cursive lettering in capital and lower case letters, spaces between words, and punctuation.

The invention of the printing press allowed for the first printed Bible in Latin. Johannes Gutenberg published what would later be known as the Gutenberg Bible around 1454-55. 180 copies were initially printed and only portions of 48 survive today. The facsimile edition held at North Park library’s archives has its own history. It is only one of 1000 printed in the United States in 1961. Famous for its beautiful script and decorative art, the publication of the Gutenberg Bible was the precursor and catalyst to the first print edition of the New Testament in Greek.

The first printed edition of a critical Greek New Testament by the famous Roman Catholic medieval scholar Erasmus based on six Greek manuscripts (1516). The library copy is a 1516 original (11 1/2 by 8 by 1 3/4 inches) and lays out the Greek New Testament and Erasmus’ own Latin translation in parallel columns. Though Erasmus’ Greek NT was published first, there was actually a prior work by a team of scholars led by Cardinal Ximeses of Toledo, Spain, which had the Hebrew, Latin and Greek texts (OT/NT) in parallel columns and was known as the Complutensian Polygot (NT complete in 1514; OT complete in 1517; but not published until 1522). It was, however, Erasmus’ 3rd edition (1522) that influenced subsequent textual editions of the Greek NT.

(Oxford: Printed at Chiswick by C. Whittingham for W. Pickering, 1848 from a manuscript held at the Monastery of Sion Middlesex)

At the direction of John Wycliffe, the group of English translations in the pre-Reformational era translated the Latin Vulgate into Middle English. This translations predates the appearance of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament in 1516.

William Tyndale (c. 1492 – 1536) was a leading figure of the Protestant Reformation in England. He was the first to translate the Bible into English drawing directly from the Greek New Testament of Erasmus. The publication of his illegal translation eventually led to his own execution and martyrdom in 1536 since all English translations other than the Wycliffe Bible (14th c.) had been banned. He was tried as a heretic and burnt on a stake for his faithful work.

No versification. In this copy someone handwrote in the verses from some gospel pages.
Vol. 1: Matthew – Acts
Vol. 2: Romans – Revelations

Robert Estienne (Stephanus) took Erasmus’ Greek NT, combined portions of the Polygot, and used 15 additional manuscripts to produce the Stephanus text. Though Stephen Langton (Archbiship of Cantebury) had introduced chapter divisions as early as 1228, it was the 4th ed. of the Stephanus Greek NT (1551) that first introduced versification. This versification continues to be used today in our current Bibles.

2 volumes, 4th edition with versification.
Vol. 1: Matthew – Acts. Includes an appendix – a harmony of the four gospels based on the Latin translation.
Vol. 2: Romans – Revelations. Includes an appendix – a concordance of NT verses based on the Latin translation plus a French summary or commentary on the whole Bible by Philbert Hamelin.

The Geneva Bible, preceding the King James Version by 51 years, was the official English translation used by the Protestant Reformers of the 16th century and influenced such figures as William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Milton, and John Bunyan. It was the first “study Bible” with guides, aids, maps and tables. Its translation is based on the Erasmus–Stephanus text.

Oddly without versification which was introduced with 4th edition, 1551.
Reprint of 1549 original first edition.

The Rheims New Testament is the first Roman Catholic translation into English and also the first Roman Catholic Study Bible.

The Elzevir brothers (Bonaventure and Abraham) published seven editions of the Greek NT based on the Erasmus-Stephanus text but in the preface of the 2nd edition (1633) they wrote this in the preface: Textum ergo habes, nunc ab omnibus receptum... (“You have therefore the text now received by all...”). From this statement came the term Textus Receptus (the ‘received text’) which refers to the Greek NT produced by Stephanus. Textus Receptus is the Greek New Testament upon which the King James Bible translation is based.

Isaiah Thomas, Jr. was the son of a famous publisher of illustrated Bibles in America. Thomas, Jr. was the first to publish the New Testament in Greek in America based on the 1678 Elzevir edition (Textus Receptus). He also published a Greek grammar for seminarians.