PORTRAITS FROM THE PAST/ Desiderius Erasmus

 GREEK TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

In 1516, Erasmus published his first edition of the New Testament in Greek-the first printed copy of the Christian Greek Scriptures ever to be released. Erasmus' work included annotations as well has his own translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures  into Latin, which differed from the Vulgate.  Over some time, he continued to revise his version, leading to a final product that included even more dramatic departures from the text of the Latin Vulgate.

 One of the differences was at 1 John 5:7.  To support the unscriptural teaching of  the Trinity.  Some spurious words known as the comma Johanneum had been added to the Vulgate.  They read:  "In heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."  However, Erasmus excluded those words from his first two editions of the New Testament because none of the Greek manuscripts he consulted contained them.  He was later pressured by church to include them in his third edition.

Improved editions of Erasmus' Greek New Testament provided the basis for better translations into European languages.  Martin Luther, William Tyndale, Antonio Brucioli, and Francisco  de Enzinas  used them to translate the Greek Scriptures  into  German, English, Italian, and Spanish respectively.

Erasmus lived through a period of momentous turmoil, and his Greek New Testament was considered an invaluable aid  by the Protestant reformers.  Erasmus himself was considered by some to be a reformer, until, that is the Reformation began in fearsome earnest.  Then he refused to take sides in the great theological debates that followed.  Interstinly, over 100 years ago, scholar David Schaff wrote that Erasmus  "died in isolation without a party.  The Catholics would not claim him; the Protestants could not."

An International Celebrity

Erasmus was a truly cosmopolitan scholar.  He lived and worked in Several European countries, where he made influential friends at royal courts and universities. Scholars from many lands  consulted him.  His writings widely read and appreciated -made him famous .  For time, everywhere he traveled he was welcomed with fanfare and acclaim by princes, prelates, and scholars alike.  One modern writer thus calls him the  "Renaissance equivalent of today's international celebrity."

Next time: A Book You Can Trust/Babylon in Bible History

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