Editio Regia

Editio Regia ("Royal edition"), it is the third and the most important edition of the Greek New Testament of Robert Estienne (1503-1559). It is one of the most important printed editions of the Greek New Testament in history, the Textus Receptus. It was named "Editio Regia" because the beautiful and elegant Greek font.

It was edited by Estienne in 1550 at Paris. It is the first Greek Testament that has a critical apparatus. Estienne entered on the margins of the pages variant readings from 15 Greek manuscripts as well as many readings from the Complutensian Polyglot. [T. H. L. Parker, "Calvin's New Testament Commentaries", (London: CSM Press, 1971), p. 103. ] He designated all these sources by symbols from α' to ις'. The "Complutensian Polyglot" was signified by α'. The critical collation was the new subject, and although Estienne omitted hundreds important variants from used witnesses, it was the first step towards modern Textual Criticism. The oldest manuscript used in this edition was the Codex Bezae, which had been collated for him, "by friends in Italy". The majority of these manuscripts are held in National Library of France to the present day.

The text of the editions of 1546 and 1549 was a composition of the Complutesian and Erasmian Novum Testamentum. The third edition approaches more closely to the Erasmian fourth and fifth editions. According to John Mill first and second editions differ in 67 places, and the third in 284 places. [Cited by Scrivener, "A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament", pp. 387-388. ] The third edition became for many people, especially in England, the normative text of the Greek New Testament. It maintained this position until 1880. The fourth edition used exactly the same text as the third, without a critical apparatus, but the text is divided into numbered verses for the first time in the history of the printed text of Greek New Testament. It was used for the Geneva Bible.

Manuscripts and sources used in "Editio Regia"

Manuscripts γ', δ', ε', ς', ζ', η', ι', ιε' were taken from the King Henry II's Library.

See also

* Complutensian Polyglot Bible
* Novum Instrumentum omne
* Textus Receptus

References

Futher reading

* S. P. Tregelles, "The Printed Text of the Greek New Testament", London 1854.
* Bruce M. Metzger, B. D. Ehrman, "The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration", Oxford University Press, 2005.

External links

* [http://www.christianhospitality.org/TRStephanus.pdf Text of "Editio Regia" 1550]
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_New_Testament_in_the_original_Greek_-_1881.djvu/78 The New Testament in the original Greek - 1881]