On March 1, 1516, a Dutch priest named Desiderius Erasmus published the Greek New Testament\u2019s first ever \u201ccritical edition\u201d — a version that drew from all available Greek manuscripts to compile a text with wording as close as possible to that of the original inspired authors. That work, which went through four revisions, was the first published Greek text available to the public. It is credited with changing Bible translation, preaching and even the course of church history.<\/p>\n
HBU commemorated the anniversary with a Feb. 25-27 conference and an exhibit in its Dunham Bible Museum scheduled to run through Dec. 16 titled \u201cRenaissance of the Bible: 500th Anniversary of Erasmus\u2019 Greek Text, the Foundation for Reformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the first three editions of Erasmus\u2019 Greek text in our collection, as well as Erasmus\u2019 \u2018Annotations\u2019 and \u2018Paraphrases\u2019 in English, so it was natural for us to have a special exhibit for this 500th anniversary,\u201d Dunham Museum director Diana Severance told Baptist Press. \u201cAs I began studying and putting together our exhibit, I gained new appreciation for Erasmus\u2019 foundational importance to the Reformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cErasmus saw the corruption in the church of his day and wanted to go back to the original source of the Christian faith, the Bible,\u201d Severance said in written comments. \u201cHe believed the Bible should be for everyone, not just for the educated elite, and should be translated into the common vernacular of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Textus Receptus\u2019<\/p>\n
Erasmus was born in 1466 in Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands today. After both his parents died of the plague, Erasmus was raised by monks in a monastery, where he fostered a love for books. Eventually, he left the monastery to study at the University of Paris and became a leading scholar of the 16th-century \u201chumanist\u201d movement, which studied ancient Greek and Latin works.<\/p>\n
He experienced what church historian Timothy George called a \u201cturning point\u201d in 1504 when he discovered a century-old manuscript by Lorenzo Valla with notes about Paul\u2019s Epistles based on various Greek manuscripts. Inspired by Valla, Erasmus decided to publish a critical edition of the Greek New Testament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat had never been done before,\u201d said George, a keynote speaker at HBU\u2019s conference and dean of Samford University\u2019s Beeson Divinity School. Erasmus \u201ccollected manuscripts from all the places he could go — universities and monasteries that kept these manuscripts — brought them together, and began to collate them. And in 1516, a publisher in the city of Basel, Switzerland, named Froben published the first-ever critical edition of the New Testament, which Erasmus had edited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not even Erasmus realized the significance of his accomplishment, George told Baptist Press. His work became the basis for Martin Luther\u2019s German translation of the New Testament, William Tyndale\u2019s English translation and Hungarian and Spanish translations.<\/p>\n
A century later, Erasmus\u2019 work was dubbed the \u201ctextus receptus\u201d (Latin for \u201creceived text\u201d) and became the basis for the King James Version.<\/p>\n
In the late 1520s, Erasmus proposed a \u201cnew\u201d way of pronouncing Greek he believed to be consistent with classical Greek pronunciation. Known as \u201cErasmian\u201d pronunciation, his scheme remained the standard method used in academic settings to pronounce biblical Greek for nearly 500 years until some scholars challenged it recently, George said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The egg Luther hatched\u2019<\/p>\n
In Germany, Luther studied the first edition of Erasmus\u2019 Greek New Testament as he formulated his \u201c95 Theses,\u201d the document widely credited with launching the Protestant Reformation in 1517 by articulating a series of grievances against the Roman Catholic Church. The first three theses drew on Erasmus\u2019 translation of the Greek word metanoeite , in Matthew 3:2 and elsewhere, as \u201crepent\u201d rather than the traditional Catholic rendering of \u201cdo penance,\u201d which supported the sacramental system.<\/p>\n
Erasmus, George said, \u201cuncovered\u201d that the Greek word referenced \u201ca change of heart, a conversion of life\u201d and \u201cnot just an act you do, a good work you perform.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLuther got that, and he used Erasmus\u2019 Greek New Testament to give a whole different understanding of what repentance and penance was about,\u201d George said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what triggered the Reformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Erasmus never left the Roman Catholic Church, it has been said since of the Reformation for five centuries, \u201cErasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched.\u201d<\/p>\n
A change in preaching<\/p>\n
Rick Melick, distinguished professor of New Testament at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, told BP it is \u201cunclear how many manuscripts [Erasmus] used in his work,\u201d but most originated in approximately the 10th century — much later than the third- and fourth-century manuscripts that have since been discovered and are used by contemporary scholars.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow most scholars reject the Erasmus text as the best text,\u201d Melick said in written comments, \u201cand therefore the translations based on it are also considered less than the best,\u201d though they are quite accurate.<\/p>\n
Still, Erasmus\u2019 work \u201cmarked a significant turning point in history,\u201d Melick said, and \u201cchanged the way serious pastors approach preaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
When today\u2019s preachers reference Greek words and language-study resources, they are following a tradition instituted in part by Erasmus.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Erasmus and his successors who produced other critical New Testament editions, \u201cpastors can read the Greek texts to verify the content of the New Testament,\u201d Melick said. \u201cCritical editions enable them to make choices they believe are correct in places where there are variants. Pastors should work from the Greek text and in seminary are taught how to use it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond, there are an abundance of resources that help pastors, based on the critical texts,\u201d he continued. \u201cThese include word studies, theological dictionaries, commentaries, lexicons and translations. These significantly improve the content of preaching. Third, the critical text enables pastors to make their way through the multiplicity of translations in any language.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I vehemently dissent\u2019<\/p>\n
Erasmus wasn\u2019t without flaws, George said, noting he \u201cmissed … the total gravity of sin and the depth of our alienation from God and so, therefore, the necessity of a grace that reaches deeper and is much more transformative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet \u201cat his heart, I think he really wanted to follow Jesus Christ and encourage other people to live a Christian life,\u201d George said.<\/p>\n
That included providing common people with access to the New Testament, which appeared in Latin translation alongside the Greek in his original edition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI vehemently dissent from those who would not have private persons read the Holy Scriptures nor have them translated into the vulgar tongues,\u201d Erasmus wrote in the preface to his 1516 edition. \u201c … Would that they were translated into all languages so that not only Scotch and Irish, but Turks and Saracens [a medieval term for Arabs] might be able to read and know them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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