Happy Birthday Erasmus
Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger
Who caused the 16th century Reformation? Erasmus did. Desiderius Erasmus was nearly as important as Luther, Calvin and Cranmer in bringing the church back to the Bible. But unlike the others who would become Protestant leaders, Erasmus of Rotterdam remained Roman Catholic in order to agitate there for reform. He was born on this day in 1467, October 27.
So how is it that someone causes a reformation that he doesn't come to uphold? The ad fonts (back to the sources) cry of the Renaissance and 16th century Humanism is what drove Erasmus to write and publish the first edition of the Greek New Testament from ancient sources, Novum Instrumentum, in 1516. He wisely dedicated it to the pope. In the course of two decades he published five editions. This was the text used by the 16th century Reformers (including Tyndale and Luther) to translate the Holy Bible into the languages of their people. A shock wave went throughout Europe when the Bible was released from ecclesiastical captivity for the first time in 1,500 years! "Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched," was the motto his Franciscan detractors chanted.
Erasmus was as much admired as he was despised: a true provocateur. Lutherans turned against him because he wouldn't join them. Catholics threatened his life and banned his books because they blamed him for starting the Reformation and for poking fun of the blatant abuses of the church of his day (In Praise of Folly). But as lines began to be drawn in the sand, Erasmus chose to be a spectator rather than an actor. "Let others court martyrdom," he said, "I don't consider myself worthy of this distinction.”
Along with the Greek New Testament, Erasmus also translated a new Latin version and he wrote paraphrases of every book in the New Testament (except Revelation). The Latin translation corrected eroneous words and phrases from Jerome's Latin Vulgate, to the dismay of church traditionalists. Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, who was a devout Evangelical (the word used then for "Protestant"), arranged for Erasmus' Paraphrases to be translated into English. In 1547 King Edward VI issued a royal proclamation requiring the Pharaphrases, along with a copy of the English Bible, to be publicly displayed in every parish in the Church of England.
Erasmus mostly wanted people to know the Bible, not an interpretation of the Bible that was covered with 1,500 years of dust and spin. As he put it, he wanted it to be read by everyone - "the farmer, the tailor, the mason, prostitutes, pimps, and Turks." He had confidence that God's word that goes out will not return empty, but it will accomplish all that God purposes. When people begin to read the Bible for themselves they see the importance of the primacy of Holy Scripture over all other authorities, they discover the freedom and hope of a righteousness that is more than their failed attempts at self-righteousness, and they experience a relationship with Christ who is their only true and sufficient mediator between God and man.