Bible Manuscripts 101

The copies behind every translation

Every English Bible is a translation of something. This page explains what that something is: the old handwritten copies of the Bible, what language they are in, how many survive, and when they were written and found. With that background, the debate over the Textus Receptus, the Critical Text and the Majority Text becomes much easier to follow.

1.The originals

In short

The first copy of each Bible book, as its author wrote it, is long gone. Every Bible today is translated from later copies, and thousands of them survive.

The Old Testament was written over more than a thousand years. The New Testament was written in about AD 50–100. The originals were written by hand, and they wore out. None of them survives today.

What survives are copies, and copies of copies. Before printing, every Bible was copied by hand, one letter at a time. Hand-copying creates small differences, such as a skipped line or a misspelled word. Because so many copies survive, scholars can compare them and usually work out the original wording. That work is called textual criticism.

How close are the copies to the originals? The oldest New Testament copies were made within about 100 to 300 years of the originals. For the Old Testament the gap is longer: even the Dead Sea Scrolls were copied centuries after most of its books were written.

These old handwritten copies are called manuscripts. The rest of this page is about them.

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2.The three languages

In short

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with a few chapters in Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. A translator needs all three languages.

Hebrew

Almost all of the Old Testament. It is written from right to left. Originally only the consonants were written down, as if English were written “Gd s lv.” Before AD 1000, Jewish scribes called the Masoretes added small marks for the vowels so the reading would never be lost.

Aramaic

A language closely related to Hebrew. It is used in about half of Daniel (2:4–7:28), two parts of Ezra (4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26), one verse of Jeremiah (10:11) and two words of Genesis (31:47). It was also the everyday language of Jesus. A few of his Aramaic words survive in the Gospels, like “Talitha koum” (Mark 5:41).

Greek

The whole New Testament. It is written in Koine (“common”) Greek, the everyday language of the eastern Roman Empire. The early copies use only capital letters with no spaces between words, LIKETHIS. From the AD 800s, scribes switched to a faster lower-case handwriting.

Why translators also know Latin, Syriac and Coptic

Nobody translates the Bible from these languages. But very early on, Christians translated the Greek New Testament into Latin (for the western Roman Empire), Syriac (for the Middle East) and Coptic (for Egypt). Some of those translations were made in the AD 100s to 300s, from Greek copies that no longer exist. Reading them shows what those lost Greek copies said. The most famous is the Latin Vulgate, made by Jerome around AD 400. It was the standard Bible of the Western church for over a thousand years.

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3.What they wrote on

In short

Early copies were written on papyrus, a paper made from a reed, or on parchment, made from animal skin. Some were scrolls. Most Christian copies were books with pages.

Papyrus

Sheets made from strips of the papyrus reed, which grows in Egypt. Cheap but fragile. It survives mainly in Egypt’s dry ground.

Parchment

Specially prepared animal skin, usually from sheep, goats or calves. Expensive but tough. Most big, complete Bibles are parchment.

A three-column page of the Leningrad Codex: pointed Hebrew consonantal text with tiny masoretic notes filling the margins between and around the columns. — Leningrad CodexA parchment page of the Hebrew Bible, AD 1008

Scroll

One long strip, rolled up. Jewish Scripture was traditionally copied on scrolls.

Codex

Pages stacked and sewn together: the ancestor of the modern book. Christians took to it early, so most New Testament copies are codices.

In the later Middle Ages, paper came into use as well. Click any picture to enlarge it.

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4.Old Testament manuscripts

In short

The main Hebrew text, the Masoretic Text, survives in thousands of medieval copies. The Dead Sea Scrolls, found in the 1940s and 50s, are about a thousand years older, and they mostly agree with it. The Septuagint is an early Greek translation.

How many Old Testament copies are there? Nobody keeps one official count, the way the New Testament has (section 5). Scholars estimate that Hebrew manuscripts and fragments run into the tens of thousands, most of them small pieces from the Cairo Geniza. On top of that come about 230 biblical Dead Sea Scrolls and over 1,500 copies of the Greek Septuagint.

The last column answers a question that matters later on this page: did the translators of the King James Version (1611) have it to work from?

The main sources for the Old Testament text
Source	Language	What survives	Written	Scholars got access	KJV translators had it?
Masoretic TextThe standard Hebrew text, copied by Jewish scribes. Every translation on this site uses it as its base.	Hebrew (a few chapters in Aramaic)	The whole Old Testament. Thousands of medieval copies. Best known: the Leningrad Codex (complete) and the Aleppo Codex (about 60% survives).	Leningrad Codex: AD 1008. Aleppo Codex: about AD 930.	Never lost. Leningrad Codex in a public library since 1863; Aleppo Codex reached Israel in 1958.	YesThrough a printed Hebrew Bible (1524–25) made from later copies.
Dead Sea ScrollsJewish scrolls hidden in caves near the Dead Sea. The oldest Old Testament manuscripts of any real size ever found.	Mostly Hebrew; some Aramaic and Greek	About 230 biblical scrolls, mostly fragments, out of over 900 scrolls in all. Every book except Esther.	About 250 BC to AD 68	Found 1947–56. Most fully published only in the 1990s and 2000s.	No
SeptuagintA Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, begun by Jews in Egypt before the time of Jesus. The name means “seventy,” from an old story about 70 translators, so it is often written LXX. New Testament writers often quote it.	Greek	The whole Old Testament. Over 1,500 copies and fragments were catalogued by 1914. The fullest are inside Vaticanus, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus.	Translated from the 200s BC. Oldest fragments: about 150 BC. Complete copies: AD 300s–400s.	Never lost. The Greek church has always used it.	YesIn printed form.
Samaritan PentateuchThe Samaritans’ own copy of the first five books, kept apart from the Jewish copies for centuries.	Hebrew, in the Samaritan alphabet	Genesis to Deuteronomy only. Differs from the Masoretic Text in about 6,000 places, mostly spelling.	Oldest copies: no earlier than about AD 1000	First copy reached Europe in 1616	No
Cairo GenizaA synagogue storeroom in Cairo where worn-out writings were set aside for centuries instead of thrown away.	Mostly Hebrew; also Aramaic and Arabic	About 400,000 fragments of every kind of writing, including many thousands of pieces of Hebrew Bibles.	Mostly about AD 900–1300	Most of it brought to Cambridge in 1896–97	No

Masoretic TextThe standard Hebrew text, copied by Jewish scribes. Every translation on this site uses it as its base.
Language
Hebrew (a few chapters in Aramaic)
What survives
The whole Old Testament. Thousands of medieval copies. Best known: the Leningrad Codex (complete) and the Aleppo Codex (about 60% survives).
Written
Leningrad Codex: AD 1008. Aleppo Codex: about AD 930.
Scholars got access
Never lost. Leningrad Codex in a public library since 1863; Aleppo Codex reached Israel in 1958.
KJV translators had it?
YesThrough a printed Hebrew Bible (1524–25) made from later copies.
Dead Sea ScrollsJewish scrolls hidden in caves near the Dead Sea. The oldest Old Testament manuscripts of any real size ever found.
Language
Mostly Hebrew; some Aramaic and Greek
What survives
About 230 biblical scrolls, mostly fragments, out of over 900 scrolls in all. Every book except Esther.
Written
About 250 BC to AD 68
Scholars got access
Found 1947–56. Most fully published only in the 1990s and 2000s.
KJV translators had it?
No
SeptuagintA Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, begun by Jews in Egypt before the time of Jesus. The name means “seventy,” from an old story about 70 translators, so it is often written LXX. New Testament writers often quote it.
Language
Greek
What survives
The whole Old Testament. Over 1,500 copies and fragments were catalogued by 1914. The fullest are inside Vaticanus, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus.
Written
Translated from the 200s BC. Oldest fragments: about 150 BC. Complete copies: AD 300s–400s.
Scholars got access
Never lost. The Greek church has always used it.
KJV translators had it?
YesIn printed form.
Samaritan PentateuchThe Samaritans’ own copy of the first five books, kept apart from the Jewish copies for centuries.
Language
Hebrew, in the Samaritan alphabet
What survives
Genesis to Deuteronomy only. Differs from the Masoretic Text in about 6,000 places, mostly spelling.
Written
Oldest copies: no earlier than about AD 1000
Scholars got access
First copy reached Europe in 1616
KJV translators had it?
No
Cairo GenizaA synagogue storeroom in Cairo where worn-out writings were set aside for centuries instead of thrown away.
Language
Mostly Hebrew; also Aramaic and Arabic
What survives
About 400,000 fragments of every kind of writing, including many thousands of pieces of Hebrew Bibles.
Written
Mostly about AD 900–1300
Scholars got access
Most of it brought to Cambridge in 1896–97
KJV translators had it?
No

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5.New Testament manuscripts

In short

About 5,700 Greek copies of the New Testament survive, more than for any other ancient book. The oldest are from the AD 100s and 200s. Scholars got access to most of the oldest ones only after 1611.

The Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster, Germany, keeps the official list of Greek New Testament manuscripts. In 2023 it counted 5,700. They come in four kinds:

about 135

Papyri

Copies on papyrus. They include the oldest New Testament copies we have, some from the AD 100s and 200s. Most are fragments, and almost all were found in Egypt.

about 280

Majuscules

Also called uncials. Copies on parchment written in all capital letters, mostly from the AD 300s to 900s. Some are nearly complete Bibles.

about 2,860

Minuscules

Copies in a faster lower-case handwriting that took over from the AD 800s. Most are from the Middle Ages.

about 2,420

Lectionaries

Church reading books. Instead of running in order, they arrange passages for each day’s service. Most are from the Middle Ages.

Which copies count?

Only copies written by hand, before printing took over. The ones on the official list run from the AD 100s to the 1700s. Once printed Greek New Testaments appeared (the first in 1516), new copies were usually made from printed books. A copy of a printed book adds no new evidence about the original wording, so later copies, and any copy made today, aren’t counted.

Besides the Greek copies, there are early translations into Latin, Syriac, Coptic and other languages. Early church writers also quoted the New Testament constantly. Both help show what the text said in their time and place.

The best-known New Testament manuscripts

All are in Greek (Codex Bezae also has Latin). The papyri are on papyrus; the codices are on parchment. The colored label is the manuscript’s family, explained in section 6.

The best-known New Testament manuscripts
Manuscript	Family	Contains	Written	Scholars got access	KJV translators had it?
Papyrus 52A scrap about the size of a credit card. Usually called the oldest piece of the New Testament.	Too small to tell	A few verses of John 18	AD 100s (often given as about 125–175)	Bought in Egypt 1920; identified 1935	No
Papyrus 46The oldest surviving collection of Paul’s letters.	Alexandrian	Most of Paul’s letters	About AD 200	Bought in Egypt in the early 1930s	No
Papyrus 66One of the earliest copies of John’s Gospel.	Alexandrian	Most of John	About AD 200	Bought in the 1950s	No
Papyrus 75Very close in wording to Codex Vaticanus, but about 100 years older.	Alexandrian	Large parts of Luke and John	About AD 200–225	Bought in the 1950s; published 1961	No
Codex VaticanusOne of the two oldest nearly complete Greek Bibles.	Alexandrian	Most of the Bible; the end of the New Testament is lost	About AD 300–350	In the Vatican Library since the 1400s; first reliable edition 1867	NoNo usable copy existed.
Codex SinaiticusThe other of the two oldest nearly complete Greek Bibles, and the one with the whole New Testament.	Alexandrian	The whole New Testament and much of the Old	About AD 330–360	Found at a monastery at Mount Sinai, 1844 and 1859	No
Codex AlexandrinusA nearly complete Greek Bible, given to King Charles I of England.	MixedByzantine in the Gospels	Nearly the whole Bible	About AD 400–450	Reached England 1627	NoArrived 16 years too late.
Codex BezaeGreek on one page and Latin on the facing page.	Western	The Gospels and Acts	About AD 400	Obtained by Theodore Beza 1562	PartlyBeza owned it but seldom followed it.
Codex WashingtonianusAn early Gospel book, now in Washington, D.C.	MixedDifferent families in different parts	The four Gospels	About AD 400	Bought in Egypt 1906	No
Codex KoridethiNamed after a monastery where it was once kept. The best-known Caesarean copy.	CaesareanIn Mark	The four Gospels	About AD 800–900	Kept in the Caucasus region; published 1913	No
The medieval minusculesThousands of hand-copied New Testaments. Erasmus printed his Greek text from about seven of them.	Byzantine	Anything from one book to the whole New Testament	Mostly about AD 900–1500	Never lost; in use in Greek churches	YesThrough Erasmus’s printed text.

Papyrus 52A scrap about the size of a credit card. Usually called the oldest piece of the New Testament.
Family
Too small to tell
Contains
A few verses of John 18
Written
AD 100s (often given as about 125–175)
Scholars got access
Bought in Egypt 1920; identified 1935
KJV translators had it?
No
Papyrus 46The oldest surviving collection of Paul’s letters.
Family
Alexandrian
Contains
Most of Paul’s letters
Written
About AD 200
Scholars got access
Bought in Egypt in the early 1930s
KJV translators had it?
No
Papyrus 66One of the earliest copies of John’s Gospel.
Family
Alexandrian
Contains
Most of John
Written
About AD 200
Scholars got access
Bought in the 1950s
KJV translators had it?
No
Papyrus 75Very close in wording to Codex Vaticanus, but about 100 years older.
Family
Alexandrian
Contains
Large parts of Luke and John
Written
About AD 200–225
Scholars got access
Bought in the 1950s; published 1961
KJV translators had it?
No
Codex VaticanusOne of the two oldest nearly complete Greek Bibles.
Family
Alexandrian
Contains
Most of the Bible; the end of the New Testament is lost
Written
About AD 300–350
Scholars got access
In the Vatican Library since the 1400s; first reliable edition 1867
KJV translators had it?
NoNo usable copy existed.
Codex SinaiticusThe other of the two oldest nearly complete Greek Bibles, and the one with the whole New Testament.
Family
Alexandrian
Contains
The whole New Testament and much of the Old
Written
About AD 330–360
Scholars got access
Found at a monastery at Mount Sinai, 1844 and 1859
KJV translators had it?
No
Codex AlexandrinusA nearly complete Greek Bible, given to King Charles I of England.
Family
MixedByzantine in the Gospels
Contains
Nearly the whole Bible
Written
About AD 400–450
Scholars got access
Reached England 1627
KJV translators had it?
NoArrived 16 years too late.
Codex BezaeGreek on one page and Latin on the facing page.
Family
Western
Contains
The Gospels and Acts
Written
About AD 400
Scholars got access
Obtained by Theodore Beza 1562
KJV translators had it?
PartlyBeza owned it but seldom followed it.
Codex WashingtonianusAn early Gospel book, now in Washington, D.C.
Family
MixedDifferent families in different parts
Contains
The four Gospels
Written
About AD 400
Scholars got access
Bought in Egypt 1906
KJV translators had it?
No
Codex KoridethiNamed after a monastery where it was once kept. The best-known Caesarean copy.
Family
CaesareanIn Mark
Contains
The four Gospels
Written
About AD 800–900
Scholars got access
Kept in the Caucasus region; published 1913
KJV translators had it?
No
The medieval minusculesThousands of hand-copied New Testaments. Erasmus printed his Greek text from about seven of them.
Family
Byzantine
Contains
Anything from one book to the whole New Testament
Written
Mostly about AD 900–1500
Scholars got access
Never lost; in use in Greek churches
KJV translators had it?
YesThrough Erasmus’s printed text.

A page of Codex Sinaiticus reproduced in Greek capitals across four narrow columns, with an editor's notes in the margins. — Codex Sinaiticus (Alexandrian family)About AD 330–360, shown in an 1862 facsimile

Two columns of Greek from Codex Boreelianus — the opening of Mark in a large uncial hand, with a gold-and-blue decorated initial. — Codex Boreelianus (Byzantine family)A Gospel book from the AD 800s

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6.Manuscript families

In short

Copies made in the same region tended to share the same wording, so scholars group them into families. Two matter most: the Byzantine family has by far the most copies, and the Alexandrian family has the oldest.

When a scribe copied a manuscript, any small changes passed on to every copy made from it. Over time, each region ended up with its own recognizable wording. These groups are called families, or text-types.

The two main families

The two main manuscript families
Family	How many copies	Where	Oldest copies	Best-known examples	Its wording
Byzantine	Roughly 4,500 to 5,000 (80–90% of all copies)	Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) and the Greek-speaking East	About AD 400–450. Most copies are from AD 800 on.	Codex Alexandrinus (in the Gospels), most medieval minuscules	Fuller, smoother wording. The standard text of the Greek church for about 1,000 years.
Alexandrian	A few dozen, but they include most of the oldest copies	Egypt, named after the city of Alexandria	About AD 200	Papyrus 66, Papyrus 75, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus	Shorter, plainer wording.

Byzantine
How many copies
Roughly 4,500 to 5,000 (80–90% of all copies)
Where
Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) and the Greek-speaking East
Oldest copies
About AD 400–450. Most copies are from AD 800 on.
Best-known examples
Codex Alexandrinus (in the Gospels), most medieval minuscules
Its wording
Fuller, smoother wording. The standard text of the Greek church for about 1,000 years.
Alexandrian
How many copies
A few dozen, but they include most of the oldest copies
Where
Egypt, named after the city of Alexandria
Oldest copies
About AD 200
Best-known examples
Papyrus 66, Papyrus 75, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus
Its wording
Shorter, plainer wording.

The smaller families, and the rest

The smaller manuscript families and unsorted copies
Family	How many copies	Where	Oldest copies	Best-known examples	Its wording
Western	A handful in Greek; more in early Latin translations	Rome, North Africa and Gaul (France)	Quoted by church writers in the late AD 100s; copies from about AD 300	Codex Bezae	Tends to rephrase and expand.
Caesareandisputed	A few dozen at most, Gospels only	Possibly Caesarea, in what is now Israel	About AD 200–250, if it is a real family	Codex Koridethi; two small groups called Family 1 and Family 13	Between Alexandrian and Western. Many scholars doubt it is a real family.
Mixed or unsorted	The rest: roughly 500 to 1,000	Everywhere	All periods	Codex Washingtonianus (mixed), Papyrus 52 (too small to tell)	Copies that mix families, scraps too short to judge, and copies no one has studied closely.

Western
How many copies
A handful in Greek; more in early Latin translations
Where
Rome, North Africa and Gaul (France)
Oldest copies
Quoted by church writers in the late AD 100s; copies from about AD 300
Best-known examples
Codex Bezae
Its wording
Tends to rephrase and expand.
Caesareandisputed
How many copies
A few dozen at most, Gospels only
Where
Possibly Caesarea, in what is now Israel
Oldest copies
About AD 200–250, if it is a real family
Best-known examples
Codex Koridethi; two small groups called Family 1 and Family 13
Its wording
Between Alexandrian and Western. Many scholars doubt it is a real family.
Mixed or unsorted
How many copies
The rest: roughly 500 to 1,000
Where
Everywhere
Oldest copies
All periods
Best-known examples
Codex Washingtonianus (mixed), Papyrus 52 (too small to tell)
Its wording
Copies that mix families, scraps too short to judge, and copies no one has studied closely.

How does that add up to 5,700?

Roughly 4,500 to 5,000 Byzantine copies, plus about a hundred in the other families put together, leaves roughly 500 to 1,000 more. Those are copies that mix families, scraps too short to judge, and copies no one has studied closely enough to sort. All of these numbers are estimates. Many scholars today treat the families as rough groupings rather than sharp categories.

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7.Written vs. found

In short

Most of the oldest manuscripts were written long before the King James Version, but scholars only got access to them long after it.

This explains much of the debate. The translators in 1611 weren’t careless. Most of the oldest copies simply weren’t available yet. The chart shows a few famous examples, not every manuscript, marked OT or NT. Each row shows when a manuscript was written (the dark bar) and when scholars could study it (the gold dot).

When it was writtenWhen scholars got accessThe KJV is published (1611)

OTDead Sea Scrollswritten about 250 BC – AD 68 · found 1947–56
OTLeningrad Codexwritten AD 1008 · public library 1863
NTPapyrus 52written about AD 125–175 · identified 1935
NTPapyrus 75written about AD 200–225 · published 1961
NTCodex Vaticanuswritten about AD 300–350 · first reliable edition 1867
NTCodex Sinaiticuswritten about AD 330–360 · found 1844 and 1859
NTCodex Bezaewritten about AD 400 · obtained by Beza 1562
NTCodex Alexandrinuswritten about AD 400–450 · reached England 1627
NTErasmus’s manuscriptswritten about AD 900–1500 · printed 1516

The red line marks 1611, when the KJV was published. Every gold dot to the right of it is a manuscript the KJV translators never had. Only two land before it: the medieval manuscripts Erasmus printed from in 1516, and Codex Bezae, which Beza owned but seldom followed.

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8.The translator’s desk, then and now

In short

Translators don’t work from the old manuscripts directly. They use printed editions. The KJV translators had a few printed books made from medieval copies. Translators today have editions that gather the evidence from thousands of copies, including the oldest ones.

What the KJV translators worked from, compared with translators today
	KJV translators (1604–1611)	Translators today
Old Testament text	A printed Hebrew Bible (Venice, 1524–25), made from medieval copies of the Masoretic Text.	Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977), a printing of the Leningrad Codex (AD 1008). A newer edition, Biblia Hebraica Quinta, is in progress.
New Testament text	Printed Textus Receptus editions, mainly Beza’s (1588–89 and 1598) and Estienne’s (1550).	Most translations: Nestle-Aland 28 (2012) or UBS 5 (2014), the Critical Text. KJV-line translations: a Textus Receptus edition. A few: a Majority Text edition.
Other sources they checked	The Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and earlier English Bibles.	The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, early translations (Latin, Syriac, Coptic) and Bible quotations by early church writers.
Oldest Old Testament copies in reach	Medieval Hebrew copies, through the printed edition.	Dead Sea Scrolls from as early as about 250 BC.
Oldest New Testament copies in reach	Medieval copies from about AD 900–1500, through the printed editions. No papyri, no Sinaiticus or Alexandrinus, and no usable copy of Vaticanus.	Papyri from the AD 100s and 200s, and the great codices of the AD 300s.
How they see the evidence	A few printed books. Estienne’s 1550 edition was the first to note differing readings in its margins, from about 15 manuscripts. Beza’s editions added a few more.	Printed editions whose footnotes (the apparatus) list where thousands of copies disagree and which ones say what.

Old Testament text
KJV translators (1604–1611)
A printed Hebrew Bible (Venice, 1524–25), made from medieval copies of the Masoretic Text.
Translators today
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977), a printing of the Leningrad Codex (AD 1008). A newer edition, Biblia Hebraica Quinta, is in progress.
New Testament text
KJV translators (1604–1611)
Printed Textus Receptus editions, mainly Beza’s (1588–89 and 1598) and Estienne’s (1550).
Translators today
Most translations: Nestle-Aland 28 (2012) or UBS 5 (2014), the Critical Text. KJV-line translations: a Textus Receptus edition. A few: a Majority Text edition.
Other sources they checked
KJV translators (1604–1611)
The Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and earlier English Bibles.
Translators today
The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, early translations (Latin, Syriac, Coptic) and Bible quotations by early church writers.
Oldest Old Testament copies in reach
KJV translators (1604–1611)
Medieval Hebrew copies, through the printed edition.
Translators today
Dead Sea Scrolls from as early as about 250 BC.
Oldest New Testament copies in reach
KJV translators (1604–1611)
Medieval copies from about AD 900–1500, through the printed editions. No papyri, no Sinaiticus or Alexandrinus, and no usable copy of Vaticanus.
Translators today
Papyri from the AD 100s and 200s, and the great codices of the AD 300s.
How they see the evidence
KJV translators (1604–1611)
A few printed books. Estienne’s 1550 edition was the first to note differing readings in its margins, from about 15 manuscripts. Beza’s editions added a few more.
Translators today
Printed editions whose footnotes (the apparatus) list where thousands of copies disagree and which ones say what.

The languages haven’t changed: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Committees today also draw on experts in Latin, Syriac and Coptic, for the reason explained in section 2.

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9.Textus Receptus, Critical Text, Majority Text

In short

These three names belong to the New Testament. None of them is a set of manuscripts. Each one is a printed Greek New Testament, and they differ in how their editors chose between the manuscripts where the copies disagree.

Think of each one as a book on a translator’s desk. Translators translate from one of these printed books, not from the manuscripts themselves. The Textus Receptus is the printed text Erasmus first made from his handful of manuscripts. The Critical Text and Majority Text are each a method, plus the printed books that method produces.

The Dead Sea Scrolls play no part here, because they are Hebrew copies of the Old Testament. The Old Testament faces the same kind of question in its own way, covered in section 10.

Where it started: what Erasmus had in 1516

The Dutch scholar Erasmus published the first Greek New Testament in 1516. It became the Textus Receptus, the text behind the KJV. Here is what he had to work with:

About seven Greek manuscripts. Most were lent to him by a monastery library in Basel, Switzerland, where he was working.
All were medieval, copied between about AD 900 and 1500. Most were Byzantine.
He had only a few copies of each part of the New Testament, and for Revelation just one. That copy was missing its last page.
So for the last six verses of Revelation (22:16–21), he used the Latin Vulgate, the standard Latin Bible of his day, and translated those verses from Latin into Greek himself. A few words of that back-translation are still in the Textus Receptus and the KJV. For example, Revelation 22:19 says “book of life” in the KJV, where the Greek manuscripts say “tree of life.”

The last page of Erasmus's 1516 Greek New Testament — the end of Revelation, set with his Greek in one column and his own Latin translation beside it. — The last page of Erasmus’s 1516 Greek New Testament: his Greek beside his own Latin.Johann Froben, Basel, 1516 — public domain.

Textus Receptus

The first published Greek New Testament, lightly revised by later editors.

What kind of thing: A specific printed text. Strictly, it is a family of closely related editions, from Erasmus (1516) through Estienne, Beza and the Elzevir brothers (1633). The name means “received text.” It comes from a line in the 1633 edition’s preface.
How it decides: Erasmus mostly printed what his manuscripts said, correcting them in places from other copies and from the Latin Vulgate. Later editors made small changes.
Built from: Erasmus’s seven or so medieval manuscripts (see the box above), with small changes from a few more copies by later editors.
Leans toward: Byzantine family
Printed today as: Scrivener’s edition (1881, reprinted 1894). It reconstructs the Greek text behind the KJV.
Used on this site by: KJV
LSV
MEV
NKJV
The LSV draws on both the Textus Receptus and the Majority Text.

Critical Text

A Greek New Testament rebuilt verse by verse by weighing all the evidence.

What kind of thing: Both a method and the printed text it produces. The method is to compare all the evidence and judge, in each disputed spot, which wording is most likely original.
How it decides: Editors weigh how old each reading is, how widely it spread, and which reading best explains how the others came about.
Built from: The whole body of evidence: about 5,700 Greek manuscripts, the early translations, and quotations by early church writers. In practice, the oldest copies carry the most weight, and most of those are Alexandrian. Its best-known early edition was by Westcott and Hort in 1881.
Leans toward: Alexandrian family
Printed today as: Nestle-Aland 28th edition (2012) and United Bible Societies 5th edition (2014). Both print the same text.
Used on this site by: AMP
BSB
CEB
CEV
CSB
ESV
GNT
GW
ISV
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Majority Text

A Greek New Testament that prints, at each spot, the reading found in the most manuscripts.

What kind of thing: Both a principle and the editions built on it. The principle is to count the manuscripts and go with the majority.
How it decides: Wherever the copies disagree, follow what most of them say.
Built from: In effect, the Byzantine copies, since they are 80–90% or more of all manuscripts. The editors could not compare all 5,700 copies word by word. They relied heavily on samples and on earlier scholars’ surveys.
Leans toward: Byzantine family
Printed today as: Hodges and Farstad (1982), and Robinson and Pierpont (first edition 1991).
Used on this site by: LSV
MSB
WEB
The LSV draws on both the Textus Receptus and the Majority Text.

How different are they?

The New Testament has about 7,950 verses.
The Textus Receptus and Majority Text differ in about 1,800 places. They are close cousins, since both rest on Byzantine copies.
The Critical Text and Majority Text differ in more than 6,000 places. One widely cited count is about 6,500.
Most of these differences are tiny: spelling, word order, or a small word like “the” or “and.” Many don’t show up in English at all.

Each side has serious arguments. The FAQ covers why the Majority Text stayed a minority choice, and the translation differences page shows the verses where the three visibly part ways.

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10.The Old Testament’s version of the question

In short

Every translation uses the Masoretic Text as its base, and for nearly every verse it simply translates the Masoretic Hebrew. But in a small number of verses, translators decide that an older source (a Dead Sea Scroll or the Septuagint) has the better reading, and use that instead, usually with a footnote. Translations disagree about which verses those should be.

Why no rival Old Testament text?

Because the Masoretic Text is the only complete Hebrew Old Testament. The Dead Sea Scrolls are mostly fragments, and the Septuagint is a Greek translation, so neither can replace it, only correct it in individual verses. That is why New Testament translations can differ in thousands of places, while Old Testament translations differ in a much smaller number of verses.

This is where the Dead Sea Scrolls matter. They are about a thousand years older than the oldest complete Masoretic copy. Most of the time they agree with it, which is strong confirmation that the Hebrew was copied carefully. Where they differ, translators have to choose.

Translators also check early translations of the Old Testament, such as the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta and the Aramaic paraphrases called Targums. They show what the Hebrew copies of their day said.

Some translations keep the Masoretic reading more often, and others adopt the older readings more often. But no translation does either every time. Here are three real examples across ten widely used translations.

1 Samuel 10:27

A Dead Sea Scroll has a whole extra paragraph here. It explains that King Nahash had been gouging out the right eyes of Israelites. The Masoretic Text doesn’t have it.

Print the extra paragraph: NLT
NRSVue
CEB
Leave it out, but mention it in a footnote: NASB
NIV
CSB
Leave it out, with no footnote: KJV
NKJV
LSB
ESV

The NLT prints it in square brackets.

Deuteronomy 32:8

God set the nations’ boundaries “according to the number of the sons of Israel.” That is the Masoretic Text. A Dead Sea Scroll reads “sons of God” instead, and the Septuagint reads “angels of God.”

Follow the Scroll and the Septuagint: ESV
NLT
NRSVue
CEB
Follow the Masoretic Text, with a footnote: NKJV
NASB
LSB
NIV
CSB
Follow the Masoretic Text, with no footnote: KJV

Psalm 22:16

Most Hebrew manuscripts have “like a lion” before “my hands and my feet.” The Septuagint, some Hebrew manuscripts and other early translations have a verb there instead, usually translated “they pierced.”

“They pierced” (or “pierce”): KJV
NKJV
NASB
LSB
ESV
NIV
CSB
NLT
Something else: NRSVue
CEB

The NRSVue has “they bound” and notes that the Hebrew is uncertain. The CEB keeps “like a lion.”

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11.How much do the manuscripts differ?

In short

The manuscripts agree on the great majority of the text. The well-known differences are marked in the footnotes of most modern Bibles.

The differences are real, and some are well known, such as the ending of Mark (16:9–20) and the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53–8:11). But they are a small share of the whole. Christians on every side of these debates generally agree that no core belief depends on a disputed reading.

One famous case shows how a difference can arise. 1 John 5:7 in the KJV reads “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” That sentence is in many later copies of the Latin Vulgate, but only a handful of Greek manuscripts have it, all of them late. Erasmus left it out of his first edition in 1516. He added it in his third edition, in 1522, after a single Greek manuscript with the sentence was produced. From there it passed into the Textus Receptus and the KJV. Most modern translations leave it out or put it in a footnote.

To see the differences for yourself, the translation differences page goes verse by verse. For the history of how these texts became English Bibles, see How We Got the English Bible.

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