Page:The New Testament in the original Greek - 1881.djvu/76

 Ixviii INTRODUCTION TO TUB AMERICAN EDITION.

aided by (Ecolampadius, published five editions, with slight improvements, all Graeco-Latin. Second edition, 1519 (the basis of Luther's translation); third, 1522; fourth, 1527; fifth, 1535 ; besides other editions which appeared at Ven- ice, Strasburg, Basle, Paris, etc.*

The entire apparatus of Erasmus never exceeded eight MSS. The best he had he used least, because he was afraid of it ; namely, a cursive of the tenth century, num- bered 1, which agrees better with the uncial than with the received text. He also took the liberty of occasionally cor- recting or supplementing his text from the Vulgate.

(2.) The COMPLUTENSIAN New Testament, in the Polyglot Bible of Complutum, or Alcala de Hcnares, in Spain, pre- pared under the direction of Cardinal FRANCIS XIMENES DE CISNEROS (archbishop of Toledo), and published 1520, with papal approbation, in 6 vols. The work was begun 1502, in celebration of the birth of Charles V., and the New Testament was completed Jan. 10, 1514; the fourth vol., July 10, 1517 (the year of the Reformation) ; but not pub-

p. 26) that they vary in sixty-two out of a thousand places which he compared. Mill's estimate of the variations is far below the mark; see Scrivener, p. 385. Of the first edition Erasmus him- self says, " prcecipitatum fuit tenus quam editum," in order that his publisher might anticipate the publication of the Complu- tensian Polyglot. The second edition is more correct. The third edition first inserted the spurious passage of the three wit- nesses (1 John v. 7) from the Codex Montfortianus of the six- teenth century. The fourth edition adds, in a third parallel column, the Latin Vulgate, besides the Greek and his own ver- sion. The fifth edition omits the Vulgate, but otherwise hardly differs from the fourth; and from these two, in the main, the Textus Receptus is ultimately derived.
 * Reuss gives the titles of these editions, and says (Biblioth.

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