Publishing the First Greek Text

While he taught Greek at Cambridge University in England for a time, Erasmus continued with his work of emending the text of the Christian Greek Scriptures. A friend, Martin Dorpius, tried to convince him that the Latin translation needed no correction from the Greek. Was it likely, Dorpius argued, “that the whole Catholic Church would have erred for so many centuries, seeing that she has always used and sanctioned this translation?” Thomas More joined Erasmus in replying to these criticisms, stressing the need for an accurate Bible text in the original languages.

In Basel, Switzerland, a printer, Johannes Froben, urged Erasmus to speed up the completion of his work. He had heard that Cardinal Ximenes of Toledo, Spain, had been working on a Greek and Latin Testament in 1514, but had delayed publication until the whole Bible was completed. It was finally issued as the Complutensian Polyglot in 1522. Erasmus’ edition was published in 1516, the first time a text of the “New Testament” in the original Greek had ever been issued.

The haste with which it had been completed meant that it contained many errors.a More than anyone Erasmus realized this, and in later editions he corrected as many of them as possible. Both Luther and William Tyndale used these for their translations of the Bible into German and English. This was the hope and desire of Erasmus, and it was in the preface to this volume of the Greek text that he wrote: “I would have these words translated into all languages. . . . I long for the ploughboy to sing them to himself as he follows his plough.” However imperfect was the text of Erasmus, it began the important work of textual criticism, which has led to accurate Bible translations in our time.

Not everyone, however, welcomed this publication. Some of Erasmus’ notes were very critical of the clergy. For example, take the text of Matthew 16:18, which says: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” (Douay) Erasmus expresses his surprise that these words should have been applied exclusively to the pope, and he rejects entirely the primacy of Peter. This was a bold statement in a volume that was dedicated to the pope. Little wonder that many of the writings of Erasmus were prohibited, even in the universities.

That Erasmus was concerned about the understanding of God’s Word is evident from a work written by him in 1519 entitled Principles of True Theology (shortened to The Ratio). This sets out his method for studying the Bible, with a set of rules for its interpretation. These include never taking a quotation out of its context nor out of the author’s line of thought. He saw the unity of the Scriptures as a whole. Interpretation then comes from within, he argued, and is not imposed from outside its pages.​—Compare Genesis 40:8.