Greek New Testament
The Greek New Testament is the original form of the books that make up the New Testament as they appeared in Koine Greek, the common dialect from 300 BC to 300 AD. There are several Greek-language versions of the New Testament that approximate the original form of the New Testament books in Greek. The first published edition of the Greek New Testament was produced by Erasmus in 1516. There are multiple Greek copies of the New Testament Byzantine text-types, used by the Greek Orthodox Church. There exist multiple copies of the New Testament Textus Receptus, the basis of the King James Bible of the New Testament.
Modern translations of the Greek New Testament are mostly based on the Novum Testamentum Graece, which is the Nestle-Aland versions of the Greek New Testament, currently in its 28th revision, abbreviated NA28. These versions of the Greek New Testament come primarily from the Alexandrian text-type manuscripts and fragments in place of the Byzantine or Textus Receptus Koine Greek text, in an effort begun by Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton Hort (1828–1892).
Greek text versions are used as the basis for most modern copyrighted English translations of the New Testament, with their chief foundations being:
- the New Testament text of the Codex Sinaiticus, an Alexandrian text-type manuscript version of the Bible written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment, which lacks many passages found in the Byzantine text-type and Textus Receptus; and
- the New Testament of the Codex Vaticanus an Alexandrian text-type manuscript version of the Bible, which ends at Hebrews 9:14 and does not have many passages found in the Byzantine text-type and Textus Receptus.