Erasmus and the New Testament

Book excerpt: Erasmus was a sixteenth century educator, theologian, satirist, and scholar and there have been a number of attempts to describe his intellectual development and to measure his greatness. However, Rabil believes that most interpretations of Erasmus and his work fail in analyzing Erasmus in a way consistent with all the source material on which such an interpretation must be based. The author argues that religion and humanism are the proper poles in relation to which Erasmus' intellectual development must be understood. In Rabil's own interpretation of Erasmus, he covers Erasmus' intellectual development as it relates to his editing of the New Testament in Greek, his translation of it into Latin, a look at the methodology in Erasmus' annotations and paraphrase of Romans, and a comparison of Erasmus and Luther on Romans. Rabil demonstrates that Erasmus' intellectual development occurred at every turning point, from his first poem in 1483 until he achieved a maturity of outlook in his edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516. Originally published in 1972 by Trinity University Press.