That is incorrect. Has a hundred plus Greek papyri, is attested almost exclusively by early church fathers, and is supported by the earliest translations into Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic and Syriac; and more....
Sorry but Erasmus only had 7 incomplete manuscripts... I was mistaken at 5.... It's documented history!!! He was trying to beat the Spanish in making the first Greek text translated into English... He met that goal but had to use the Latin Vulgae to complete His manuscript.... This is the 1500's
en.wikipedia.org
Manuscripts 1eap and 1rK Erasmus borrowed from
Johannes Reuchlin. The rest of the manuscripts he borrowed from Basel
Dominicans Library.
[n 2] It is significant that he did not use the
Codex Basilensis, which was held at the
Basel University Library, and was available for him. Erasmus had three manuscripts of the
Gospels and
Acts, four manuscripts of the
Pauline epistles, but only one manuscript with the
Book of Revelation.
In England before coming to Basel in 1515, Erasmus had consulted with four Greek manuscripts.
[18]
In every book of the New Testament he compared three or four manuscripts, except the last book,
Revelation, for which he had access to only one manuscript. That manuscript was not complete, as it lacked the final leaf, which contained the last six verses of the book. Instead of delaying the publication on account of the search for another manuscript, he decided to translate the missing verses from the Latin
Vulgate into Greek. He used an inferior Vulgate manuscript with textual variant
libro vitae (book of life) instead of
ligno vitae (tree of life) in
Revelation 22:19.
[19]
Even in other parts of Revelation and other books of the New Testament, Erasmus occasionally introduced self-created Greek text material taken from the Vulgate.
F. H. A. Scrivener remarked that in Rev. 17:4, Erasmus created a new Greek word: ἀκαθάρτητος (instead of τὰ ἀκάθαρτα). There is no such word in the Greek language as ἀκαθάρτητος.
[20] In Rev. 17:8 he used καιπερ εστιν (
and yet is) instead of και παρεσται (
and shall come). In Acts 9:6 the question that
Paul asks at the time of his conversion on the Damascus road, Τρέμων τε καὶ θαμβὣν εἲπεν κύριε τί μέ θέλεις ποιῆσαι ("And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will you have me to do?") was incorporated from the Vulgate.
[21][n 3]
The last page of the Erasmian New Testament (Rev 22:8-21)
The printing began on 2 October 1515, and in very short time was finished (1 March 1516). It was produced quickly – Erasmus declared later that the first edition was "precipitated rather than edited" (
praecipitatum verius quam editum) – with numerous
typographical errors[22]
Yet Westcott and Hort spent 25 years and had thousands of manuscripts.... Yet.... You keep following the traditions of men.... Why? Because that's what you were told to believe.... Just like a
Muslim in Iran... You believe what you were told... never to seek for yourself...
History holds the truth... Not your traditions of men...
Paul
