The third edition of Stephanus' Greek New Testament ( ΤΗC ΚΑΙΝΗC ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗC ΑΠΑΝΤΑ : Paris, 1550), known as the editio regia , is held in high regard in English Protestantism. It was this text which underlay the English translation (by W. Whittingham and others) published in Geneva in 1557 that greatly influenced the Geneva Bible published three years later. In effect, Stephanus' edition was the Textus Receptus of the Greek New Testament for over three hundred years.

The study explores the textual history of the book of Revelation with special regard to the angels of the congregation in chapters 2–3. These angels has been interpreted in the reception history as either earthly or heavenly beings. Both interpretations are accounted for in the most ancient textual traditions. The A-text, normally regarded as the best text of Revelation, mirrors an earthly location of the “angels” (see esp. 2:1, 18, 20a). The S-text (א and accompanying manuscripts) allows their nowadays preferred heavenly location (angels in strong sense). The prototype may be a middle text speaking of “angels” in the sense of representatives mediating between heaven and earth through an earthly presence. The contribution correlates interpretational history and textual history and shows that the interpretation of the texts influenced the history/development of the Greek text as well as the history/development of the Greek text influenced the interpretation. Thus, the interdependency of textual history and interpretation needs to be Taken note of when dealing with the book of Revelation. The apparatus in the present critical edition (Nestle-Aland 27 ) of Revelation, which selects manuscripts and variants, shows the problems insufficiently. Therefore the currently starting Editio critica maior of Revelation will be very helpful. It must rework the apparatus and perhaps will correct the critical text (“Obertext”) in some of the addresses to the congregations (2:1, 18).

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Manuscripts Cited by Stephanus

The angels of the congregations in Revelation : textual history and interpretation

The 500th anniversary of Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum commemorates the first printed and published Greek New Testament in 1516. This article emphasizes that Erasmus’s original motive for this publi...

“Novum Testamentum editum est”: The Five-Hundredth Anniversary of Erasmus’s New Testament

The text of the New Testament

Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes

Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments

This book comprises a general survey of the study of New Testament manuscripts, and outlines for students of the New Testament the basic tools and skills involved in studying those manuscripts. The present edition is a thoroughly revised and updated version of Leon Vaganay's Initiation a la critique du Nouveau Testament, published in 1933, and each section of that original work has been brought up to date in light of the latest research in the field. In its aim to provide a solid foundation to study of New Testament textual criticism, this comprehensive survey will be of great value to those who are looking for basic information about the subject; while the documentary information it contains about the extant manuscripts, and its original theoretical sections, will ensure that the book has much of value to offer the more advanced student of the New Testament.

Manuscripts Cited by Stephanus

Citations

The angels of the congregations in Revelation : textual history and interpretation

“Novum Testamentum editum est”: The Five-Hundredth Anniversary of Erasmus’s New Testament

References

The text of the New Testament

Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes

Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments

An Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism