Latin for "received text." The Greek New Testament text underlying the Protestant Reformation-era translations (Luther's German Bible, Tyndale, Geneva, KJV). First published by Erasmus in 1516 based on a handful of late (12th-15th century) Byzantine-family manuscripts. The name "Textus Receptus" comes from the 1633 Elzevir edition's preface ("the text received by all"). The TR is essentially a subset of the Byzantine text-type; it differs at about 1,800-2,000 points from modern critical editions (NA28/UBS5) that draw on earlier and broader manuscript evidence.
The Textus Receptus served the Reformation admirably given the manuscripts then available to Erasmus. But it is not identical to the text of the earliest Greek manuscripts. Key differences: (1) The Textus Receptus contains the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7 — "there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost") — absent from virtually every Greek manuscript before 1520. Erasmus added it under pressure in his third edition. (2) The TR contains the longer ending of Mark (16:9-20) as text without brackets, though early witnesses (Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus) lack it. (3) The TR contains the Pericope de Adultera (John 7:53-8:11) — largely absent from early Alexandrian witnesses. Modern critical editions (Nestle-Aland 28, UBS5) use the full evidence of all early manuscripts including the papyri (Oxyrhynchus, Bodmer, Chester Beatty collections) and Alexandrian uncials. Where the TR reading has early and broad support, the critical text agrees; where the TR reading is late and thin, the critical text diverges. The overwhelming theological content is identical between TR and critical text; no central doctrine depends on a contested TR reading. The KJV-only movement treats the TR as uniquely authoritative — a position without textual or historical foundation.