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| Erasmus (1466-1536) Painted by Hans Holbein, 1523 |
Chapter 7, “The Greek New Testament of Erasmus, 1516, and
After (pages 113-119): After Erasmus, England Couldn't Put the Toothpaste Back in the Tube.
We come now to the period “after printing,” specifically
the influence of the Greek NT of Erasmus in 1516. We had discussed the Bible in Britain from its
earliest times to AD 850, the Anglo-Saxon Bible and “glosses” (inter-linears to
teach the Latin-illiterate people), the Wyclif (“Lollard”) Bibles and the strenuously hostile
environment in England against Wyclif, his Bible and his theology—the hostility
as a direct and enduring (130-plus years) result of Wycliff. The Parliament and Canterbury put the screws
to the English nation and churches.
However, Erasmus was “a motor” of the revolution. So was William Tyndale who worked from
Erasmus’ NT, but back now to Erasmus.
Erasmus was integral to European vernaculars coming into a “Continent-wide
flood that should be properly called the Reformation” (113). This cannot be
overstated.
Erasmus was reared in a Dutch monastery in a “strict
puritanical” tradition of Devotio moderna
in the general tradition of the German mystic Thomas A’ Kempis (113). It was a reaction to scholasticism. Mr. Daniell’s calls it
anti-intellectual. But anti-intellectual Erasmus was not. The focus was on
meditation. During travels by Erasmus to Italy, he fell in love with all things
Italian.
In Italy, he encounted Lorenzo Valla’s Adnotationes in Novum Testamentum. He devoured it as well as other
works by Valla who had been writing from Rome.
It represented, Mr. Daniell tells us, a “break from the medieval to the
modern era,” that is, methodologically a “new exegesis based on philology” (114).
Backgrounds
to the Greek NT, 1516.
In 1504, Erasmus in the library of the Louvain studied
Jerome and Origen’s Hexapla. Soon, he was at Magdalen’s College, Oxford and
was encouraged by John Colet. In 1505, Erasmus wrote a commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans with Valla’s Adnotationes at hand. In 1506, Erasmus published his own Latin
version of the Gospels and Epistles based on Greek manuscripts shown to him by
Colet. By 1508, we find Erasmus in Venice with a printer, Manutius, where he
further developed his involvement and knowledge of the Greek writers:
Chrysostom, Basil and Origen. His time at Cambridge began in 1509 [remember,
Thomas Cranmer was at Cambridge during this time…we’ve commented on that
elsewhere]. Erasmus had contacts with Thomas More from London while in England
(among many others). As such, Erasmus was beginning to see the need for a new
critical Greek edition, but we get ahead of ourselves.
By 1508-1509, Erasmus’ goals were:
“…to reform the Church from within by a renewal of biblical
theology, based on philological study of the New Testament text, and supported
by a knowledge of patristics, itself renewed by the same methods. The final
object was to nourish that chiefly moral and spiritual reform already quite
clearly conceived in the Enchiridion
militis Christiani, published at Antwerp in February 1504” (115).
Erasmus’ bottomline was to
expound the philosophi Christi.
Erasmus opened up and achieved four fronts:
1.
Produce a new critical Greek edition. He did
this by 1516.
2.
Produce a sound edition of the biblical
expositors from the Fathers
3.
Based upon the first two, develop new
commentaries. This he personally did
(not to mention the flood-gate of other Reformers).
A.
In 1502, he already had developed four books of
notes on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
B.
By 1523-24, he had “paraphrases” on all
epistles.
C.
By 1523, he had a “paraphrase” of Matthew
dedicated to Charles V (at this point, Luther was already in operation,
excommunicated by his church and under the Imperial ban with emerging
consequences for English scholars and early English Reformers).
D.
By 1524,
he had “paraphrased” Mark, Luke and John.
E.
He produced commentaries on Psalm 2, 3, 4, 85
and the Lord’s Prayer.
F.
Of note, these “paraphrases” were ordered up
for all English parishes alongside the English “Great Bible” in 1539. This was a major advance for the English
church
4.
He expanded his influential Preface to the Greek NT, a “treatise of
methodology” (116).
Erasmus did all these things, not aspirations but
achievements.
The
Printed NT in Greek, 1516.
Floating up the Rhine in 1514 and “feted everywhere,”
Erasmus landed in Basel (115). He met Frobus, the publisher. He stayed 2 years. In February 1516, he published
his Novum Instrumentum...it rolled off the
press. It was a Latin translation from the Greek NT. It contained the Latin
alongside the Greek. Half of the volume—some
300 pages themselves—discussed Greek annotations citing certain errors from the
Vulgate; he cited 400 changes from the Latin. This was also the first new Latin
translation in over 1000 years. This also contained chastisements of
ecclesiastical abuses (actually, this was a common complaint not just in
England, but also in 15th-16th Europe which we’ll develop
elsewhere, e.g. Hardwick on the Articles).
Three Prefaces over
time constantly advocated two things: (1) “diligent study of the New Testament”
and (2) assertions “of the heretical point that no layman should be denied
access to Scriptures in his own language” (emphasis added, 116). This was entirely revolutionary for an
English context, buried under the 1401 Act of De Haeretico Comburendo and
Canterbury’s 1409 Constitutions. These
prefaces, of all things, proceed under the Privilegium,
an authorization, of Emperor Maximilian with a dedication to Pope Leo X. Luther wouldn't be far behind and Leo would have to deal with him...and those consequences.
Mr. Daniell’s notes that the Preface contained exhortations to the Pope that “the New Testament
should be used to acquaint the people with the Holy Scriptures”(again in their
own languages). The title page contained
an oblique sarcasm with an allegorical drawing, Envy Defeated (117). This
underscores the widespread reports that the rank-and-file were not exposed to
the vernacular Scriptures, that the OT and NT were essentials to their
instruction in the faith, and that the Pope, divested of his super-claims and
false claims, would, in time, become envious. Direct hit! But dangerous stuff too!
One writer summarized the
force of Erasmus’ Preface:
“…a remarkable, passionate prefatory piece. He called it Paraclesis—a Greek word meaning summons or exhortation. It was […] an exhortation precisely to the
universal mastery […] of God’s self-revelation […] as it was completed in
Christ the Word of God incarnate, the fullness of wisdom, discovered in
scripture and appropriated as the rule of life” (emphasis added, 117).
Here’s on passage of Erasmus’ explosive (when applied) Preface:
“Christ wishes his mysteries to be published as widely as
possible. I would wish all women [PV: note the words “all women” despite an
all-male clergy, even “women”] to read the gospel and the epistles of St. Paul,
and I would wish that they were translated into all [PV: repeat “all”] the
languages of all Christian people, and that they might be read and known, not
merely by the Scotch and Irish [PV: apparently outliers and backwoodsmen in
Erasmus’ mind], but even the Turks and Saracens. I wish that the husbandman
[PV: or, farmers, non-clergy] might sing parts of them at his plow [PV: exactly
what Tyndale would say later], that the weaver [PV: again, laymen] may warble
them at his shuttle, that the traveller may with their narratives beguile the
weariness of the way” (117).
This was stunning, staggering, explosive and revolutionary. In time, it would prove that one couldn't put the toothpaste back in the tube.
4 more editions would follow from Eramus: 1519, 1522, 1527,
and 1535. He died in 1536. Beza published one. Robert Estiennes, Paris,
published one. Luther and Tyndale worked from Erasmus Greek NT. One survived his persecutions while the other
died in 1536.
Complutension
Text.
About 1500, a Spanish scholar and Cardinal, Francisco
Ximenes, established a “trilingual university” (119). He was devoted to
producing a Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He
assembled scholars for the task. A 6-volume text was produced in 1517,
including the Septuagint. The Pentateuch contained the Targums of Onkelos and
an Aramaic version. The Greek had a Latin interlinear. The Hebrew was keyed to the
Latin. But, printing issues including getting and imprimatur. Ultimately by 1522, 600 volumes were printed.
But, by 1522, Erasmus’ editions had already emerged at
lower costs with greater availability (3300 volumes in the 1st edition). By 1522, Luther had a German translation
based on Erasmus. By 1522, vernacular editions were published in the French,
Dutch, Danish, and Swedish tongues. By 1525, Tyndale had been long at work. During
these years, Cranmer was figuring out what and who he was. 11 years later, in 1536, Tyndale would fall
to the shenanigans of a persecutory English bishop (at least 1), a bishop executing long-standing English policy.
More as this story develops. Let is be noted that after Vatican II, 1962-1965), finally, vernacular readings were authorized for Roman services with allowance for readings by the people. Lest we forget the 600-year blackout.
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