Erasmus

Before I took a trip to England or Scotland, I began to see the role that Erasmus played in church history. When we went to Cambridge, his role was confirmed. This man, "made the reformation possible." Erasmus attended Cambridge and was a professor of divinty there.

Erasmus set out to provide an accurate translation of the New Testament based on the best source documents possible. One example of how he identified and corrected the Latin translation of his day follows.

Prior to the Erasmus translation the Greek word for "repent" had been translated "do pentance" or "penance." Repenting occurs in the heart. Doing penance is an action one takes. Thus, an accurate translation of the Greek is very important. Luke quotes Jesus here,

Luke 13:3 (NIV) I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Luke 13:3 (Amplified Bible) I tell you, No; but unless you repent (change your mind for the better and heartily amend your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins), you will all likewise perish and be lost eternally.

If you don't believe that there were and still are translations that say "do penance" look at the following commentary: Look at the Luke 13:5 quote under subtitle: Necessity here. Scan the Douay-Rheims Bible for proof that this Vatican authorized version emphasizes penance instead of repentance, click here.

Erasmus brought a clear and more accurate translation of the new testament and based on this translation the new reformers of the 1500 and 1600's called to count the church hierarchy. They also paid a high price for doing so in many cases, even giving their lives for the truth.

Here is a quote from an an unknown web site about the great work of Erasmus.

"In considering the experiences of Linacre and Colet, the great scholar Erasmus was so moved to correct the corrupt Latin Vulgate, that in 1516, with the help of printer John Froben, he published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. The Latin part was not the corrupt Vulgate, but his own fresh rendering of the text from the more accurate and reliable Greek, which he had managed to collate from a half-dozen partial old Greek New Testament manuscripts he had acquired. This milestone was the first non-Latin Vulgate text of the scripture to be produced in a millennium… and the first ever to come off a printing press. The 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus further focused attention on just how corrupt and inaccurate the Latin Vulgate had become, and how important it was to go back and use the original Greek (New Testament) and original Hebrew (Old Testament) languages to maintain accuracy… and to translate them faithfully into the languages of the common people, whether that be English, German, or any other tongue. No sympathy for this “illegal activity” was to be found from Rome…even as the words of Pope Leo X's declaration that "the fable of Christ was quite profitable to him" continued through the years to infuriate the people of God."

From Sinclair Ferguson on what Repentance really means, click here.