Unfortunately, however, because these two manuscripts tended to differ in many respects from the generally received Greek text of the time, Beza tended not to include the variant Greek readings in his actual text but merely mentioned the variants in his annotations. This codex, like Codex Bezae, dated to the fifth or sixth century and contained the Pauline epistles written in parallel columns of Greek and Latin. Additionally, it also appears that Beza consulted a second ancient manuscript, Codex Claromontanus, which he had found in Clermont, France. This ancient codex, which came into Beza’s possession sometime after 1562, dated to the fifth or sixth century and contained on the left-hand page the Greek text in a single column and on the right-hand page the Latin text in a single column. A codex is a book with leaves bound together (as opposed to a scroll).

At times Beza did consult the Peshita, a Syriac translation of the Bible, for various readings, and he also would consult what has since come to be known as the Codex Bezae. However, it should be noted that Beza did attempt with his editions to find older Greek manuscripts upon which to base his Greek text. For his Greek text, Beza was principally indebted to an earlier Greek text produced by Stephanus, who was in turn dependent on Erasmus consequently, Beza’s text was virtually the same as these earlier editions. In these editions, Beza provided the text of the New Testament in three columns: in the left the Greek, in the middle a Latin translation of the Greek, and in the right the Latin version of Jerome (Vulgate). In fact, they relied so heavily on these editions that the KJV New Testament is basically a translation of Beza’s Greek New Testament. The translators of the King James Bible made extensive use of Beza’s 1588– editions.

Over the course of the next forty years, Beza would go on to publish nine different editions of the Greek New Testament. First, in 1556 he published an annotated Latin edition of the New Testament and then in 1565 he added a Greek text. In 1549 he became a professor of Greek at the academy in Lausanne, and in 1558 Calvin invited him to return to Geneva so that he could hold a professorship at the newly founded academy there.ĭuring Beza’s time as a professor of Greek at Lausanne, he became very interested in the New Testament-so interested, in fact, that he determined to publish his very own edition. Later that same year, he went to Geneva and joined the Calvinist movement and formally renounced the Catholic faith. When he recovered, he took it as a sign of divine providence and abandoned his legal career in favor of ecclesiastical pursuits. Shortly after the publication of this work, he fell seriously ill.

Though he would earn a reputation as a capable litigator, his real passion was not law but classical literature, and he would eventually earn some notoriety for publishing a collection of Latin poetry in 1548. The Greek text that was ultimately used as the basis for the KJV New Testament was one produced by the French Calvinist Theodore de Beza (1519–1605).īeza had come from a prominent Catholic family of Vézelay in Burgundy and had studied law at Orleans before settling in Paris, where he began a career as a lawyer in 1539. He specializes in Greek New Testament, early Christianity, and Greek and Coptic papyrology.Īccording to the explicit instructions of King James that the translation of the Bible he ordered be based on manuscripts written in the original languages of the Bible, Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament, the two committees assigned the task of providing a translation for the New Testament employed the Greek texts of the day. He received a BA in classical and early Christian studies from the University of Calgary, an MA in religious studies from the University of Calgary, an MSt from the University of Oxford (Christ Church College) in Jewish studies, and a PhD in religious studies from the University of Toronto. Blumell is an assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.

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