Who was Desiderius Erasmus?

Reuchlin studied at the university of Paris. Happily for him, the celebrated Wesselus was then teaching Hebrew at that renowned school of theology. There he received, not only the first rudiments of the language, but a knowledge of the gospel of the grace of God. He also studied Greek, and learned to speak Latin with great purity. At the early age of twenty he began to teach philosophy, Greek, and Latin, at Basle; "and," says D'Aubigné, "what then passed for a miracle, a German was heard speaking Greek. " He afterwards settled at Wittemberg — the cradle of the Reformation — instructed the young Melancthon in Hebrew, and prepared for publication the first Hebrew and German grammar and lexicon. Who can estimate all that the Reformation owes to Reuchlin, though he remained in the communion of the Romish church!

Erasmus, who was about twelve years younger than Reuchlin, pursued the same line of study, but with still higher powers and greater celebrity. From about 1500 to 1518, when Luther rose into notice, Erasmus was the most distinguished literary person in Christendom. He was born at Rotterdam in 1465; was left an orphan at the age of thirteen; was robbed by his guardians, who, to cover their dishonesty, persuaded him to enter a monastery. In 1492, he was ordained a priest, but he always entertained the greatest dislike for a monastic life, and embraced the first opportunity to regain his liberty. After leaving the Augustinian convent at Stein, he went to pursue his favorite studies at the university of Paris.

With the most indefatigable industry he devoted himself entirely to literature, and soon acquired a great reputation among the learned. The society of the poor student was courted by the varied talent of the time. Lord Mountjoy, whom he met as a pupil at Paris, invited him to England. His first visit to this country, in 1498, was followed by several others, down to the year 1515, during which he became acquainted with many eminent men, received many honours, formed some warm friendships, and spent most of his brightest days. He resided at both the universities, and, during his third and longest visit, was professor of Greek at Cambridge. All acknowledged his supremacy in the world of letters, and for a long time he reigned without a rival. But our object at present is rather to inquire, "What was his influence on the Reformation?"

Erasmus, of high literary fame, and in some respects the forerunner of Luther, died in 1536 at the age of sixty-nine. His name must ever be associated with Luther and the Reformation, though latterly, Luther considered him one of its greatest enemies, and the enemy of all true religion. He lacked the essential principles of a Reformer. He was insincere, unstable, without courage, and trembled at the results of his own work. He was a reformer, until the Reformation became a great reality. He fled from Basle when the Reformation was established on the destruction of the images, and returned to it when tranquillity was restored. Yet, notwithstanding his inconsistencies, he commanded great respect from his literary reputation, his manners and accomplishments; and his death was deplored as a great national affliction. He died, professedly, in the bosom of holy mother church, and declaiming against the new evangelical practices.

Erasmus, a learned Dutchman, died soon after this (in the year 1536). He had long seen the follies and errors of the priests, and had very freely censured them, mostly in a sarcastic style, but had always managed to escape punishment, though he offended many, indeed he was caressed by kings and popes. It was said that "Erasmus laid the egg, and Luther hatched it;" but Erasmus had never gone beyond pointing out errors and follies; he had not faith to follow the light or to suffer for Christ, though he valued the scriptures and published a New Testament in Greek and Latin (in 1516). He was solicited to attack Luther, but declined. Of him he said, "Luther has given us a wholesome doctrine, and many a good counsel. I wish he had not defeated the effect of them by intolerable faults. But if he had written everything in the most unexceptionable manner, I had no inclination to die for the sake of truth. Every man has not the courage requisite to make a martyr; and I am afraid, that if I were put to the trial I should imitate St. Peter."

Reuchlin and Erasmus — these famous names — may be conveniently and appropriately introduced here. Although not reformers, they contributed much to the success of the Reformation. They were called "Humanists" — men eminent for human learning. The revival of literature, but especially the critical study of the languages in which the holy scriptures were written — Hebrew, Greek, and Latin — rendered the highest service to the first reformers. As in the days of Josiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, the great Reformation was in immediate connection with the recovery and study of the written word of God. The Bible, which had lain so long silent in manuscript beneath the dust of old libraries, was now printed, and laid before the people in their own tongue. This was light from God, and that which armed the reformers with invincible power. Down to the days of Reuchlin and Erasmus the Vulgate was the received text. Greek and Hebrew were almost unknown in the West.

Erasmus had many tempting offers as to pensions and promotion, but his love for his learned labours led him to prefer comparative poverty with perfect liberty. In 1516 he took up his abode at Basle, where his works were printed by Froben, and he diligently laboured in correcting proofs, and otherwise assisting that learned printer with his fine editions of classical works.

But the great work for which he seems to have been specially fitted by God was his Greek New Testament. "Erasmus," says D'Aubigné, "thus did for the New Testament what Reuchlin had done for the Old. Henceforward divines were able to read the word of God in the original languages, and at a later period to recognize the purity of the reformed doctrines. The New Testament of Erasmus gave out a bright flash of light. His paraphrases on the Epistles, and on the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John; his editions of Cyprian and Jerome; his translations of Origen, Athanasius, and Chrysostom; his "Principles of True Theology," his "Preacher," and his commentaries on various psalms, contributed powerfully to diffuse a taste for the word of God, and for pure theology. The result of his labours even went beyond his intentions. Reuchlin and Erasmus gave the Bible to the learned; Luther gave it to the people."*

Under the gracious, guiding hand of Him who sees the end from the beginning, Erasmus bent all his great mental powers, and all his laborious studies, to the preparation of a critical edition of the Greek Testament. This work appeared at Basle in 1516, one year before the Reformation, accompanied by a Latin translation, in which he corrected the errors of the Vulgate. This was daring work in those days. There was a great outcry from many quarters against this dangerous novelty. "His New Testament was attacked," says Robertson; "why should the language of the schismatic Greeks interfere with the sacred and traditional Latin? How could any improvement be made on the Vulgate translation? There was a college at Cambridge, especially proud of its theological character, which would not admit a copy within its gates. But the editor was able to shelter himself under the name of Pope Leo, who had accepted the dedication of the volume. "

To question the fidelity of the Vulgate, was a crime of the greatest magnitude in the eyes of the Roman Catholic church. The Vulgate could no longer be of absolute exclusive authority; the Greek was its superior not only in antiquity, but yet more as the original text. At this time, Erasmus stood at the head of scholars and men of letters. He was patronized by the pope, many prelates, and by the chief princes of Europe. Sheltered behind such an ample shield, he was perfectly secure, and, knowing this, fearlessly went on with his great work.*

There are Bibles where it says, "from the book of life", and let me add here some thoughts here as to the reason and the causes why these different readings can occur. We had one before in the course of the day already, and this goes back to the famous Erasmus of Rotterdam who was a very learned man but a humanist. He was interested in the old languages, a feature of the Renaissance, and he was the first to say, 'Why not print the New Testament in the original language' (the printing press had just been invented some fifty years before). This had never been done before and Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1515 was the first to do so, but for that enterprise he needed manuscripts. Until the invention of the printing press every Bible had to be written by hand and there were comparatively few of them, only about six to ten of them. Nowadays we have about 5,300 manuscripts of the Greek Bible, but when Erasmus five hundred years ago printed his first Bible in Greek he had about six to ten manuscripts, all of them dating from about one thousand years after Christ and when the first New Testament scriptures were written. Unfortunately also these rather late manuscripts which he used for the printing of the New Testament were not complete and for our present interest, there was a serious gap in the Revelation. Thus when Erasmus wanted to print it in Greek he had no Greek text retranslated the Bible (and this is very important). He retranslated this part of the New Testament from the Latin back into Greek and he used the normal Latin Vulgate Bible of the Catholic church at the time. It was from this source he got "the book of life". But now we have about 5,300 manuscripts of the Greek Bible and there is not one in which the word "the book of life" occurs. This New Testament of Erasmus became naturally a forerunner, and it became world famous. The first to use it was Martin Luther in 1522 when he was translating the Bible into German. He used the New Testament in Greek, the original language but with these two weaknesses, it had only a few manuscripts and very late manuscripts, and secondly the last part of the Revelation was not the original Greek but retranslated into Greek from Latin. But the Lord used Luther for a great blessing in Germany and all over the Western world. Later on the Dutch Bible, the French Bible and the English Bible were translated from texts which stemmed back to what Erasmus had published. This is the basis of the Authorised Version. This Greek text became so well known that after fifty or sixty years it was called "The Received Text", the text received by all scholars as the only one, and there was no other at that time. About a one hundred and fifty years ago when Mr. Darby started to translate a new translation and at that time scholars had found about one thousand manuscripts of the Greek Bible in comparison with six to ten of Erasmus, and in these manuscripts which were at the disposal of Mr. Darby and his collaborators there were manuscripts which were five, six, seven hundred years older nearer to the original than the manuscripts of Erasmus had used. But in these further manuscripts the words "the book of life" never occurred and it became the basis for other new translations done mostly by unbelievers. Tischendorf was probably a believer, but later scholars and modern scholars are mostly unbelievers. They had many Greek manuscripts although not so many as we have today. Even the unbelieving modern editor of the New Testament says the text of the New Testament is practically one hundred percent sure. They base it mainly on the oldest manuscripts which were not known to Erasmus. Nowadays in certain Christian circles (and we are not untouched by it) there is a battle between those who cling to the Received Text and those Christians who cling to the text reconstructed by the modern scholars based on 5,300 manuscripts which we have now. Some go back almost to the time of John. The oldest portion of the Bible is the Gospel by John going back to the year 130 AD or even 125 AD (number P53 is the oldest part of the New Testament).

In the meantime the learned ERASMUS brought out his first edition, with a Latin translation (on which he had worked for years), in 1516. It was done in great haste, Erasmus being urged on by John Froben, printer at Basle, so that it could be issued before the Complutensian. The book was gladly hailed by those who desired the light of the word of God, but was strongly opposed by many of the papal clergy. Next to Wycliffe's edition of the N.T. in English among the people, stands Erasmus' Greek Testament among the learned as an instrument used by God in forwarding the Reformation in England. Bilney, Tyndale, and Fryth, three English martyrs, trace their conversion to reading, under God's enlightenment, Erasmus' Greek Testament.

Erasmus had courage to publish the principles of the Reformation and satirize the priests; but he dared not associate himself with the humble, ignorant, and somewhat disorderly peasantry led by the Saxon miner's son. He said Luther was "too violent and extreme." And the worst of it was, that this was quite true; Luther often was so, and so were his adherents. It is unfortunately too true that the contemptible few who hold the truth in any age are excessively open to attack, and are — like Israel's family — blemished with great sins and inconsistencies, which their critics are swift to detect and exaggerate. Nevertheless they are the people of God, and His servant identifies himself with them. He says not only, "I will speak of Thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed," but, "I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep thy precepts." (Psalm 119:46, 63.) Yea, he eats for them the sin-offering in the holy place, and confesses, as the Messiah does in the sixty-ninth Psalm, their sins as his own. The world despises them cordially, but yet fears them, and never tires of chronicling their sins and caricaturing their infirmities; yet, strange to say, the gravest charge against them is a matter in which they are not only innocent, but commendable. The Egyptians hated them mainly because they were shepherds! (Gen. 46:34.)

John Froben, an enterprising publisher at Basle, having heard of this forthcoming Bible, and eager to forestall it, urged Erasmus to undertake immediately an edition of the New Testament. The first was very faulty, as Froben's haste gave him little leisure to do his work. It passed through three editions in six years: on the fourth and fifth editions Erasmus bestowed more pains, having seen the Complutensian in 1522.-See an able and useful book, entitled, "A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament," by Dr. Scrivener: George Bell and Sons, London. See also some interesting particulars in J.C. Robertson's Church History, vol. 4, p. 664.}

To give the reader some idea of the popularity of this singularly great, yet in some respects weak man, we may just notice that his book, entitled "Praise of Folly," went through twenty-seven editions during his lifetime; and his "Colloquies" were so eagerly received, that in one year twenty-four thousand copies were sold. In these books he assailed with great power, and the most bitter satire, the inconsistencies of the monks — their intrusiveness and rapacity in connection with deathbeds, wills, and funerals and thus indirectly served the cause of the Reformation.*