Luther’s Textual Study of the Greek New Testament MATTHEW OSEKA The present paper explores Luther’s textual study of the Greek New Testament which is reconstructed from his approach to Galatians 1,6; 2,5 and 1 John 5,7-8 with reference to the eminent scholars of the 16th century (Laurentius Valla, Jacobus Faber Stapulensis and Erasmus) whose commentaries he consulted. Keywords: Martin Luther, Textual Study of the New Testament, Comma Johanneum, Greek grammar in the 16th century. A Historical Context Luther had no access to Greek manuscripts of the New Testament but rather discovered and examined various readings found in Erasmus’ Greek New Testament1 (perhaps in the Complutensian Polyglot2 too), in many editions of the Vulgate as well as in the commentaries of certain church fathers (cf. Ambrose [in fact Ambrosiaster], Augustine, Chrysostom and Jerome) and of the Renaissance scholars (cf. Laurentius Valla3, Jacobus Faber Stapulensis4 and Erasmus5). In 1516 Erasmus published his Greek New Testament but its quality was rather poor because the text was collated from incomplete manuscripts and where the Greek original was missing, he made his own translation from Latin (namely from the Vulgate) into Greek (cf. certain verses in Revelation 22)6. In the subsequent editions Erasmus improved 1 Editio princeps: Erasmus Roterodamus, ed., Novum instrumentum omne (Basel: Froben, 1516). 2 Novum Testamentum graece et latine in academia complutensi noviter impressum (Alcala: [sine nomine], 1514). 3 Laurentius Valla, In Novum Testamentum annotationes (Basel: Cratander, 1526). 4 Jacobus Faber Stapulensis, Epistolae divi Pauli apostoli cum commentariis (Paris: Regnault, 1517). Idem, Commentarii in epistolas catholicas (Basel: Cratander, 1527). 5 Erasmus Roterodamus, “Novum Testamentum cum annotationibus,” in Opera, vol. 6 (Basel: Froben, 1541). Idem, In Novum Testamentum annotationes (Basel: Froben, 1527). 6 Bruce Manning Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), 95-106 [II, III, I]. Filología Neotestamentaria - Vol. XXVI - 2013, pp. 49-59 Facultad de Filosofía y Letras - Universidad de Córdoba (España)