Christian Spiritual Heroes

 Seventeenth Thursday after Pentecost

Erasmus of Rotterdam

First, thanks to April for her beautiful and insightful comment. And yes, I would say that about her comment, even if she weren't my kid. And yes, April (and most of the rest of you), you could use more Bible Study.

Today is prayer and spirituality day on the blog. I'm starting a new, not every week but often, series on some of my spiritual heroes throughout Christian history. I'm starting with a man today, but the series will alternate men and women.

If you had lived in Europe in the early sixteenth century, on the eve of the Protestant Reformation, you would know of two major figures in the Reformation debate. One was Martin Luther; the other, Erasmus of Rotterdam. Luther is now considered one of the three or four most important Christians who ever lived; Erasmus, barely remembered--though tremendously important.

Erasmus and Luther never met, but they corresponded. They also published treatises against each others viewpoints. Their discourse was always civil. We can't say that about Martin Luther's discourse with a number of his other opponents. Erasmus was as aware of the corruption of the Catholic Church of the time as was Luther, but unlike Luther, Erasmus believed that the Church could be reformed from within.

Both men were incredibly brilliant intellects. Both began their careers as monks. Erasmus stayed with the Catholic Church all his life. He published many writings. Luther's writings tended to be bombastic; Erasmus's, subtle and at times satirical. His best seller was a little 120 page satire called The Praise of Folly. It was required reading in my Freshman World Civilization course. I read it again in my Renaissance History course. I wrote papers on Erasmus for both my Renaissance History course and my Reformation history course in my undergrad history major. 

For me, and probably for all of us, the most important thing Erasmus did was to edit and publish the first printed Greek text of the New Testament. He completed it in 1516. He had opposition from some of his Catholic ecclesiastical superiors, who thought that the Latin Vulgate Bible was the only version that should be allowed. Erasmus knew we needed the original language text--Greek. He was a superb critical scholar. He travelled to the locations of five Greek NT manuscripts, carefully copied them all and collated them all. His comparisons showed many variations among his five manuscripts. He used critically thought out criteria to determine decisions about which variant most likely was original to what the NT writers actually wrote. His criteria are still used by textual critics today (along with a few more criteria). His printed text captured the non-Catholic scholarly populace. It came to be called the Textus Receptus (Received Text). It was the sole basis for the New Testament of the King James Bible. For the next three centuries it dominated New Testament scholarship. Only the discoveries of vast numbers of much older manuscripts in the nineteenth century dislodged its dominance in New Testament studies. 

Erasmus lost his long distance debate with Luther over splitting from the Catholic Church. Erasmus stayed Catholic. Luther began Protestantism. In 1522, while hiding in exile from the Catholic authorities, Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German. Later he would do the OT. The Luther Bible still holds the place in German speaking countries that the King James holds in English speaking countries. 

And, of course, guess what edition of the Greek New Testament Luther used to make his German translation?

Faithfully,

Christian