Greek BIBLES. There is a great number of editions of the Bible in Greek; but they may be all reduced to three or four principal ones, viz. that of Complutenum, or Aleala de Henares, that of Venice, that of Rome, and that of Oxford. The first was published in 1515, by Cardinal Ximenes, and inserted in the Polyglot Bible, usually called the Complutensian Bible: this edition is not just, the Greek of the Seventy being altered in many places according to the Hebrew text. It has, however, been reprinted in the Polyglot Bible of Antwerp, in that of Paris, and in the 4to Bible, commonly called Vatablus's Bible.
The second Greek Bible is that of Venice, printed by
by Aldus in 1518. Here the Greek text of the Septuagint is reprinted just as it stood in the manuscript, full of faults of the copyists, but easily amended. This edition was reprinted at Strasburg in 1526, at Basel in 1545, at Franckfort in 1597, and other places, with some alterations to bring it nearer the Hebrew. The most commodious is that of Franckfort; there being added to this little scholia, which show the different interpretations of the old Greek translators: the author of this collection has not added his name, but it is commonly ascribed to Junius.
The third Greek Bible is that of Rome, or the Vatican, in 1587, with Greek scholia collected from the manuscripts in the Roman libraries by Pet. Morin. It was first set on foot by Cardinal Montalbo, afterwards Pope Sixtus Quintus. This fine edition has been reprinted at Paris 1628 by J. Morin, priest of the oratory, who has added the Latin translation, which in the Roman was printed separately with scholia. The Greek edition of Rome has been printed in the Polyglot Bible of London; to which are added, at bottom, the various readings of the Alexandrian manuscript. This has been also reprinted in England in 4to and 12mo, with some alterations. It has been again published at Franeker in 1709 by Bos, who has added all the various readings he could find.
The fourth Greek Bible is that done from the Alexandrian manuscript, begun at Oxford by Dr. Grabe in 1707. In this the Alexandrian manuscript is not printed such as it is, but such as it was thought it should be; i. e. it is altered wherever there appeared any fault of the copyists, or any word inserted from any particular dialect; this some think an excellence, but others a fault; urging that the manuscript should have been given absolutely and entirely of itself, and all conjectures as to the readings should have been thrown into the notes.