Page 234 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

EPISTLE - ERASMUS

imagining by A GOD WHO MADE US THE WAY WE ARE biblical studies. He then went back to France and the
AND PROCLAIMED IT GOOD.” Netherlands. In 1505 he again visited England and
Feminism. The Episcopal Church authorized the then passed three years in Italy. In 1509 he returned to
ordination of women to the deaconate in 1970 and England for the third time and taught at Cambridge
University until 1514. In 1515 he went to Basel, where
approved women’s ordination to the priesthood in 1976. he published his N.T. in 1516, then back to the
Today there are 1,070 ordained women in the Netherlands for a sojourn at the University of Louvain.
denomination. The Episcopalians ordained the first Then he returned to Basel in 1521 and remained there
Anglican female bishop in 1989. until 1529, in which year he removed to the imperial
Charismatic. The charismatic movement has swept town of Freiburg-im-Breisgau. Finally, in 1535, he
through the Episcopal denomination. It has been noted again returned to Basel and died there the following
that “among major Protestant denominations, the year in the midst of his Protestant friends, without
Episcopal Church has been the most receptive to the relations of any sort, so far as known, with the Roman
Catholic Church.
movement.” Episcopal Renewal Ministries [charismatic]
coordinator Charles Irish estimates that 35 of the 149 “One might think that all this moving around would
have interfered with Erasmus’ activity as a scholar and
active Episcopal bishops, 3,000 of the 13,000 priests, writer, but quite the reverse is true. By his travels he
and 18 percent of the laity are charismatic (Christian was brought into contact with all the intellectual
News, May 19, 1986). This is not surprising, for, sadly, currents of his time and stimulated to almost
the charismatic movement seems to feed upon apostasy. superhuman efforts. He became the most famous
[See Adultery, Anglican Church, Baptism - Infant, scholar and author of his day and one of the most
Charismatic, Ecumenical Movement, Fornication, prolific writers of all time, his collected works filling
Gospel, Lord’s Supper, Modernism, Nakedness, New ten large volumes in the Leclerc edition of 1705
Evangelicalism, Sacrament, Separation, Sodomy, (phototyped by Olms in 1962). As an editor also his
Women Preachers, World Council of Churches.] productivity was tremendous. Ten columns of the
catalogue of the library in the British Museum are
EPISTLE. A letter of correspondence. The word taken up with the bare enumeration of the works
epistle usually refers to the letters of the Apostles translated, edited, or annotated by Erasmus, and their
contained in the N.T. (He. 13:22). subsequent reprints. ...
EPISTLE OF BARNABAS. [See Pseudepigrapha.] “To conclude, there was no man in all Europe better
EQUAL. (1) Comparative value; equated with (Job prepared than Erasmus for the work of editing the first
28:17, 19; Ps. 55:13; Ph. 2:6). (2) Just; right (Ps. 17:2; printed Greek N.T. text., and this is why, we may well
Eze. 18:25; Col. 4:1). (3) The same proportion (Re. believe, God chose him and directed him providentially
in the accomplishment of this task” (Hills, The King
21:16). James Version Defended).
ER (watcher). Ge. 38:3. Erasmus Guided by the Common Faith—Factors which
ERAN (watcher). Nu. 26:36. Influenced Him
ERASMUS. Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) “In order to understand how God guided Erasmus
produced the first printed Greek New Testament in the providentially let us consider the three alternative
year 1516. His N.T. was an edition of the Received Text. views which were held in Erasmus’ days concerning
The following overview of Erasmus’ life is from Edward the preservation of the N.T. text, namely, the
F. Hills, The King James Version Defended, pp. 194-203. humanistic view, the scholastic view, and the common
Hills (1912-1981) was a respected Presbyterian scholar view, which we have called the common faith.
who held degrees from Yale University, Westminster “The humanistic view was well represented by the
Theological Seminary, Harvard, and Columbia Seminary, writings of Laurentius Valla (1405-57), a famous
and who pursued graduate studies at Chicago University scholar of the Italian renaissance. Valla emphasized the
importance of language. According to him, the decline
and Calvin Seminary. of civilization in the dark ages was due to the decay of
An Overview of Erasmus’ Life and Work the Greek and Latin languages. Hence it was only
“Erasmus was born at Rotterdam in 1466, the through the study of classical literature that the glories
illegitimate son of a priest but well cared for by his of ancient Greece and Rome could be recaptured. Valla
parents. After their early death he was given the best also wrote a treatise on the Latin Vulgate [the Roman
education available to a young man of his day at first Catholic Bible], comparing it with certain Greek N.T.
at Deventer and then at the Augustinian monastery at manuscripts which he had in his possession. Erasmus,
Steyn. In 1492 he was ordained a priest, but there is who from his youth had been an admirer of Valla,
no record that he ever functioned as such. By 1495 he found a manuscript of Valla’s treatise in 1504 and had
was studying in Paris. In 1499 he went to England, it printed in the following year. In this work Valla
where he made the helpful friendship of John Colet, favored the Greek N.T. text over the Vulgate. The Latin
later dean of St. Paul’s, who quickened his interest in text often differed from the Greek, he reported. Also

234 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity