Textus Receptus (Beza 1598)

Theodore Beza, Novum Testamentum. 4th folio edition. Geneva, 1598.

The basis of Beza's text was the Stephanus 1551 edition (which adds verse numbering to his 1550 edition), which in turn was substantially that of Erasmus' later editions. Beza made only a few minor changes to the Stephanus text, amounting to less than a hundred. Over a dozen of these changes where to the Bible book titles and did not affect the body of the text. Further to this, many of his changes where to diacritical accent markings which had little or no affect on any subsequent translation to English.

Beza was a prominent theologian and scholar in Geneva, and his changes were generally taken to be improvements upon the text. Despite his qualifications, he seems not to have applied himself to the improvement of the Stephanus text but his annotations to the text where of interest to later scholars. His 1598 text was the one most often followed by the translators of the King James version, and it also became the basis of the later Elzevir editions of 1624, which on the continent held a place comparable to the Stephanus editions in England.