receptus

Receptus, in the scholarly sense, refers to the Textus Receptus—the traditional designation for a family of Greek New Testament editions that were widely used in the early modern period. The name itself is Latin for “received text,” signaling that these editions were regarded as the standard Greek text in their time and places of use.

Origins and development began with Erasmus of Rotterdam, whose 1516 Greek New Testament (Novum Instrumentum omne) became the first printed Greek text to circulate widely. Erasmus relied on a small set of late Greek manuscripts available in Western Europe, and he published subsequent revised editions in 1519 and 1522. The Textus Receptus tradition was then expanded by Robert Estienne (Stephanus), whose 1546/1550 editions incorporated additional manuscript evidence and introduced a more systematic textual apparatus. Theodore Beza further revised the text in 1565 and 1569, drawing on more manuscripts and refining readings.

The designation Textus Receptus became common after the 17th century, particularly with the Dutch printer Daniel Elzevir and his 1624 edition, which bore the motto textum receptum on its title page. From that point the name came to denote the broader lineage of editions stemming from Erasmus’s base text and its successive updates by Stephanus and Beza.

Textual character and influence: the Textus Receptus generally reflects a Byzantine text-type in many parts of the New Testament and served as the basis for numerous Protestant translations, including key editions of the Latin Vulgate and the King James Version. Modern biblical textual criticism, however, favors earlier and more diverse manuscript witnesses (such as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus) found in critical editions like Nestle-Aland and UBS. As a result, the Textus Receptus is viewed today as a historical stage in the transmission of the Greek text rather than the definitive text of the original New Testament.