World History
The sources surrounding the earliest manuscripts of the Bible are vast and varied. In the first five centuries of the New Testament text, for example, the Bible was copied by hand in stylish capital letters called uncials, but in the next five centuries it was copied in lowercase letters called minuscules. Thus, there were different text forms, to say nothing of the variations caused by human copying in the first thousand years of the written biblical tradition.
In 1454 Johann Gutenberg put an end to textual diversity when he invented a new form of printing press. In one fell swoop he standardized the Bible that a community would use for its reading. The question Jews and Christians faced, however, was which Bible text they should use as the Textus Receptus (“received text†or standard, TR) for all printings of the Bible.
The Jewish Bible (Old Testament) was not hard to standardize because the rabbis used a version going back to the first millennium c.e. called the Masoretic Text (MT). The MT kept variations to a minimum by strictly controlling the reading and the use of the Bible, though even here the most careful copying could not prevent ambiguities and errors to slip in.
As time went on and more discoveries were made, it became clear that the MT indeed was the TR, but there were other less-influential rival texts used by Jews in various places and times.
The first printed version based on the MT was the Venice edition of 1524–25, done by Daniel Bomberg and edited by Jacob ben Hayyim. This Bible was dominant among Jews until the 20th century. At that time scholars began using the Leningrad Codex because it reflected the MT from a single and self-consistent editor.
Matters were more complicated with the Christian Bible (New Testament). Here there are thousands of Greek manuscripts, quotations from the fathers of the church, and ancient versions.
Research on which text was “correct†and therefore to be standardized for the religious community began as early as Origen (185–254) and Jerome (347–420). These scholars noted that there were a number of readings for each of the verses that they interpreted, and they set up rules to justify the ones they used.
The issue of text became important in the time of the Renaissance when scholars questioned the millennium-old Latin Bible used by the Western Church. The most influential intellectual of the time Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536) published a Greek New Testament in 1516 based on a mere five to six manuscripts. In spite of his many errors and educated guesses about the original text, his pioneering work was the basis for later editions.
When Robert Estienne compiled his “Stephanus†version of the Greek (four editions, 1546–51), the Protestant world picked it up as its TR, in use until the 19th century. Martin Luther used Erasmus for his German Bible in 1519, and Anglicans in England used Stephanus after 1550. The popular King James Version of the Bible is based on the TR, and continued as the best-selling translation until the last 20 years in the United States.
As time went on it became clear the Renaissance scholars of the Bible relied too much on the minuscule texts of Byzantine manuscripts and not enough on the earlier uncial sources. Nonetheless, the TR was dominant until B. F. Wescott and F. J. A. Hort decisively led biblical scholarship in new directions with their The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881–82).
- Johann Gutenberg
Johann Gutenberg The dissemination of knowledge occurred more quickly after Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440. Gutenberg, the son of a businessman named Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden, was born in Mainz, Germany, and was a goldsmith by...
- Europe And The Printing Press
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- Ultimate Bible Quiz
Not bad for an agnostic... You know the Bible 96%! Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic! Ultimate...
- Papers Show Isaac Newton's Religious Side, Predict Date Of Apocalypse
Isaac Newton is known for many things. These include contributions in physics, math, optics, and astronomy. However, he was also a Bible scholar and he ventured into the tricky area of trying to predict when the end of the world would occur. An Associated...
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World History
Bible Traditions
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| Bible Traditions |
The sources surrounding the earliest manuscripts of the Bible are vast and varied. In the first five centuries of the New Testament text, for example, the Bible was copied by hand in stylish capital letters called uncials, but in the next five centuries it was copied in lowercase letters called minuscules. Thus, there were different text forms, to say nothing of the variations caused by human copying in the first thousand years of the written biblical tradition.
In 1454 Johann Gutenberg put an end to textual diversity when he invented a new form of printing press. In one fell swoop he standardized the Bible that a community would use for its reading. The question Jews and Christians faced, however, was which Bible text they should use as the Textus Receptus (“received text†or standard, TR) for all printings of the Bible.
The Jewish Bible (Old Testament) was not hard to standardize because the rabbis used a version going back to the first millennium c.e. called the Masoretic Text (MT). The MT kept variations to a minimum by strictly controlling the reading and the use of the Bible, though even here the most careful copying could not prevent ambiguities and errors to slip in.
As time went on and more discoveries were made, it became clear that the MT indeed was the TR, but there were other less-influential rival texts used by Jews in various places and times.
The first printed version based on the MT was the Venice edition of 1524–25, done by Daniel Bomberg and edited by Jacob ben Hayyim. This Bible was dominant among Jews until the 20th century. At that time scholars began using the Leningrad Codex because it reflected the MT from a single and self-consistent editor.
Matters were more complicated with the Christian Bible (New Testament). Here there are thousands of Greek manuscripts, quotations from the fathers of the church, and ancient versions.
Research on which text was “correct†and therefore to be standardized for the religious community began as early as Origen (185–254) and Jerome (347–420). These scholars noted that there were a number of readings for each of the verses that they interpreted, and they set up rules to justify the ones they used.
The issue of text became important in the time of the Renaissance when scholars questioned the millennium-old Latin Bible used by the Western Church. The most influential intellectual of the time Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536) published a Greek New Testament in 1516 based on a mere five to six manuscripts. In spite of his many errors and educated guesses about the original text, his pioneering work was the basis for later editions.
When Robert Estienne compiled his “Stephanus†version of the Greek (four editions, 1546–51), the Protestant world picked it up as its TR, in use until the 19th century. Martin Luther used Erasmus for his German Bible in 1519, and Anglicans in England used Stephanus after 1550. The popular King James Version of the Bible is based on the TR, and continued as the best-selling translation until the last 20 years in the United States.
As time went on it became clear the Renaissance scholars of the Bible relied too much on the minuscule texts of Byzantine manuscripts and not enough on the earlier uncial sources. Nonetheless, the TR was dominant until B. F. Wescott and F. J. A. Hort decisively led biblical scholarship in new directions with their The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881–82).
- Johann Gutenberg
Johann Gutenberg The dissemination of knowledge occurred more quickly after Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440. Gutenberg, the son of a businessman named Friele Gensfleisch zur Laden, was born in Mainz, Germany, and was a goldsmith by...
- Europe And The Printing Press
Europe and the Printing PressBefore 1450, books were produced by scribes who laboriously copied an existing book by hand. Between 1455 and 1500, the printing press, containing movable type using manufactured paper, revolutionized book production. By 1500,...
- Ultimate Bible Quiz
Not bad for an agnostic... You know the Bible 96%! Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic! Ultimate...
- Papers Show Isaac Newton's Religious Side, Predict Date Of Apocalypse
Isaac Newton is known for many things. These include contributions in physics, math, optics, and astronomy. However, he was also a Bible scholar and he ventured into the tricky area of trying to predict when the end of the world would occur. An Associated...
- Bible History Online: Augustus
Bible History Online: Augustus - General overview of the life and history of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. Provides biographical timeline, maps and images, text of dictionary and encyclopedia entries, and selected translations from the Res Gestae and...