DEFINITION: the Received Text. The Elsevier Brothers, enterprising publishers at Leyden and Amsterdam, Holland, took up the work of publishing the Greek Testament. In 1624, they published a neat little Testament. In 1633, they published a second edition. In the preface they printed these words, translated into English:
“Therefore, thou hast the text (textus) now revised (recpetum), by all, in which we give nothing altered or corrupt.”
From these words came the words “Textus Receptus,” the Received Text.
A. It is also known as (1). The Majority Text usually called the Byzantine Text by modern textual critics. This is because all modern critics acknowledge that this was the Greek New Testament Text in general use throughout the greater part of the Byzantine Period (A.D. 312-1453) For many centuries before the Protestant Reformation, this text was the text for the entire Greek Church, and for more than three centuries after the Reformation it was the text of the entire Protestant Church.
B. It is found in the vast majority of the Greek New Testament manuscripts.
C. It is the true text because it is that form of the Greek New Testament which is know to have been used in the churches in unbroken succession, i.e.
1. the Majority Text
2. the Traditional Text,
3. the Syrian Text
4. the K (kappa) or Common Text,
5. the Authorized Version