Theological Word of the Day

(Latin, “received text”)

The Textus Receptus (TR), or “received text,” refers to the first published Greek New Testament edited by Desiderius Erasmus in 1516 and later, with some changes, by Stephanus, Beza and Elzivir. This text was initially compiled using only seven late Greek manuscripts (11th-13th centuries). The TR became the underlying text for many important translations including the King James Version. While most scholars would not consider the TR as the best representation of the Greek text, it, nevertheless, is an extremely important text in the history of the Bible.