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Theodore Bezas 1565 & 1598 New
Testaments in Greek/Latin with Annotations
Beza, 1565. Theodore Beza, Novum Testamentum, cum versione Latina veteri,
et nova Theodori Bezę. Geneva, 1565 (folio); 2nd folio edition 1582; 3rd
folio edition 1589; 4th folio edition 1598.
The basis of Beza's text was Estienne 1551 with a few minor changes,
amounting to less than a hundred. Beza was a prominent theologian and
scholar in Geneva, and his changes were generally taken to be improvements
upon the text; but in many places this is doubtful. Despite his
qualifications, he seems not to have applied himself to the improvement of
the Estienne text, which was substantially that of Erasmus' later
editions. Beza's annotations to the text showed more critical
independence, as may be seen in the note to John 8:1-12, which he regarded
as inauthentic. That he did not omit the passage from his text shows,
however, that by 1565 the text of Erasmus had attained a kind of
prescriptive right as the text in common use, duly corrected and
established (as was thought) on manuscript authority by Estienne. His
annotations included the readings gathered by Henry Estienne for his
father Robert, whose collations had come into Beza's possession, and also
included notes on the readings of the Peshitta Syriac version (as
translated into Latin by Tremellius).
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