. Erasmus, the early Reformation era, the rcc, the Complutensian Polyglot and the Council of Trent . The period in the early 1500s when the refinement of the pure Bible went into high gear is not well understood and explained by writers on any side of the Bible issue. (The reasons why would be a short essay.) In anticipation of a future article on the PureBIbleForum here is a small section placed last night on the FFO forum. Here I was responding to the problematic Thomas Cassidy, who writes with some insight on this particularly question. . =============================== . FFO Forum . Roman Catholics hold KJV in high regard, claim major part in authorship Steven Avery - December, 2014 fundamentalforums.org/bible-versions/roman-catholics-hold-kjv-in-high-regard-claim-major-part-in-authorship/ . =============================== . > Thomas Cassidy (slightly modified, awkward section omitted) .... Catholic Byzantines (Eastern) were most responsible for the preservation of the Greek text, as the Roman Catholic (Western) Church had been using the Old Latin since the late 2nd century AD, and the Latin text of Jerome since 384 AD. Even though it was the most commonly used version, it did not earn the name versio vulgata (the version commonly-used) or vulgate until the Council of Trent (1545–63). As 5 of the 7 Greek Manuscripts used by Erasmus dated to the 1300s, prior to the Council of Trent, it would, in my opinion, be an error to ascribe to those Greek texts any Roman Catholic imprimatur. Even the competing Greek text of Cardinal Francisco Jiménez, the Complutensian Polyglot, proved unpopular with Roman Catholics to the point where only about 800 copies were ever made. The Western Church had used the revised Latin since the late 4th century to the virtual exclusion of the Greek text which remained the purview of the Eastern Church both before and after the Great Schism of 1054. And 6 or the 7 Greek texts used by Erasmus were Byzantine in nature. =============================== Steven Avery. The whole Spanish scholastic operation at Alcala, which was rather skilled, was closed up, and the scholars dispersed. Around 1530, maybe a bit later. See the superb article by Basil Hall in the 1990 book Humanists and Protestants, 1500-1900 - Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros and the Complutensian Bible. (I think my copy might have gone to Singapore, so I should consider a replacement.) The hardening of the counter-Reformation opposition to the Greek text, the opposition to the Reformation Bible, came at Trent c. 1545-1550. And the Erasmus New Testament (Received Text) and other writings were put in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (forbidden books.) Where they stayed at least till the 20th century. Also, only at Trent was the Latin Vulgate lifted up as special and the approved text by the rcc. (Which led to the humorous foibles of the editions of the late 1500s.) And it is helpful to understand that before the Trent counter-Reformation decrees there were scholarly elements among the catholics who understood that the Latin Bible needed Greek fountainhead correction. The rcc support of the Complutensian and Erasmus efforts around 1510-1530 can be seen as quite commendable, The support of Erasmus quickly hit speedbumps, leading to the Valladolid inquiry of 1527. There were many elements to opposition, including the biting satire of The Praise of Folly from the early days of Erasmus. And his straddling on issues like transubstantiation. There were a number of Bible textual issues involved, including the heavenly witnesses. Although that verse was included by Erasmus in 1522, and had been utilized in the Ratio and in the Paraphrase edition as well. It does seem that Thomas Cassidy is one of the few writers, on any side of the Bible writing, who has the basics of the time expressed properly. Although it should be emphasized that Erasmus had much more familiarity through travels and correspondence to NT manuscripts than just those on hand in the early 1500s when he worked on the Novum Instrumentum (later, Novum Testamentum.) He even had correspondence on Vaticanus with Bombasius and Sepulveda. And then additional mss were available to Stephanus and Beza, include Codex Bezae, widening the available texts. Also he had a very solid familiarity with the early church writers, understanding that they give a very important picture of the Bible text of antiquity. Later this was emphasized by John William Burgon. The homogeneity of the Greek mss line will show the historic accepted Greek text with a relatively small number of mss on the great mass of variants. Probability and Statistics 101 :). =============================== Steven Avery
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 11:42:35 +0000
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