Beza's Resources
Critics of the Received Text claim that the text-critical work done in the Reformation-era was deficient due to limited access to ancient manuscript evidence.
The quotation below is from the preface of Beza’s 1598 edition and it tells a much different story:
“It is now forty-two years, Christian reader, since I set out to correct the Latin translation of the New Testament, by collating the Greek text, not only with nineteen manuscripts, most of them very old, and many codices printed far and wide, but also with the Syriac translation, and by comparing it, with the best faithfulness and diligence I could, partly with the writings of the old Greek and Latin fathers, and partly with the more recent versions and various expositions by the theologians most outstanding for both piety and learning.”
Related article: No, Beza Was Not Doing Modern Text Criticism
