In response to the call of this new blog to articles on “northern Catholicism” as opposed to scholasticism or later denominational tendencies, I received this paper on Erasmus and the Bible from its author, Luke DeWeese. I have stored the pdf file on my website server, and it can be accessed here:
- Erasmus and the Bible by Luke DeWeese.
Knowledge of the Scriptures is largely due to the Renaissance and Humanism. In this article, we will discover the medieval tradition of reading the Scriptures and the enormous contribution brought by Erasmus. The vital dimension of biblical exegesis is being able to read the languages of the Bible – Hebrew and Greek. Any translator knows that translating is betraying – traductore traditore. No translation is ever perfect.
Erasmus was aware that knowledge of the Bible would bring far-reaching changes to the Church by a renewal of biblical theology, based on philological study of the New Testament text, and supported by a knowledge of patristics, itself renewed by the same methods. He believed that European society could be transformed by making the texts of Scripture available to every literate person. But that requires vernacular Bibles – and the quality of the translation depends on very profound knowledge of the exegetical tradition, the languages themselves and the whole theological dimension.
Read the paper and please encourage Mr DeWeese with your comments.
The Blue Flower 
I have read the paper. Fascinating to read the controversies over Erasmus intentions. What it does do, however, is stimulate an interest in reading Erasmus’ work, showinghis revised Vulgate with the Greek text and his Annotations? Is it available readily?
Stephen,
Some of the critical editions of Erasmus’s corpus are still being published. You can take a look at a synopsis of the work already accomplished here:
Click to access ASD2010.pdf
When everything is finished, Erasmus’s biblical work will be contained in ordines 6 and 7, much of which has already been completed. I wrote my master’s thesis on Erasmus’s paraphrase of the eighth chapter of Luke.
Luke