Erasmus

The late middle ages saw the rise of a new form of learning throughout all areas of academic life, focused around the re assessment and remodelling of classical sources. The lost languages of Greek and Hebrew were promoted again by many 15th and 16th Century scholars allowing them to study and translate the original texts and make them available for the masses. In previous centuries, the main port of call for biblical scholarship was St Jerome’s Latin Vulgate Bible, yet it was well known that this contained serious inaccuracies, highlighted in 1516 by Erasmus in his Novum Instrumentum, a retranslated bible in Greek that also touched upon the weaknesses of the Vulgate. On the surface, it would seem that the rise of a text critical model of

Valla, who so famously influenced the work of Erasmus with his Annationes, does not agree with Erasmus in many aspects of their biblical reading, highlighting inconsistencies between the two scholars. So although Erasmus has been hoisted as the real hero of the Renaissance biblical scholars, Valla receives criticism to the extent that he ‘cannot devise sophisticated techniques’ for ‘restoring the Greek text to its original purity’ . So although his work was not as widely circulated as Erasmus’, he still influenced the Christian followers in a big way and if as Bentley says, his abilities were questionable it is undoubtedly true that his overall effect on the Christian bible cannot be viewed as positive. Especially considering the fact Erasmus was influenced so greatly by his work

In 1582, Beza created his Novum Testamentum and in the preface to this he outlines how ‘the unpolished and choppy style’ of Erasmus’ writing should be avoided as his translation is too informal and instead he should have attempted to keep his writings as near to the Greek and Hebrew originals so as not to mask the ‘marvellous mysteries’ of Christ . Beza also emphasizes how Erasmus rejects the Latin Vulgate too much in favour of his Original Greek Manuscripts. Erasmus supposedly gives too much weight to Greek Originals, especially when they do not agree with the Vulgate. Nevertheless, it is known that a lot of the originals that were used in the creation of the vulgate were missing during Erasmus collation of sources, so the fact that they do not coincide with the texts Erasmus picked does not necessarily mean they lack in value . Beza is known to have a command of the classical language which is far more superior to that of Erasmus and in some ways, Beza’s criticism of Erasmus does imply that these humanist scholars did begin a downward spiral for the Christian bible as his rejection of some sources and promotion of others led to a dilution of the true word of