Do you know what ERASMUS did for you?IN THE 15TH CENTURY.?

Question

1516 of our common era

Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus produced the first complete printed edition of the Greek text in 1516. Erasmus wished that the Scriptures “were translated into all languages of all people.”

this was the master text of the king james version with quite a few errors compared with the newer translations in comparing all of the oldest manuscripts.

Answer 1

He definitely tried to produce an authoritative Greek New Testament, but what he had to work with was a half dozen partial copies of 12th Century Greek texts. (He never did find the last page of Revelation. He ended up having to back-translate that from the Vulgate.) These Greek manuscripts had over a thousand years to accumulate copyist errors (typos, "clarifications", skips, incorporated marginal notes, etc.).

On the one hand, he gave Westerners a New Testament source that was not under the control of Rome. One the other hand, the choice was between a 5th Century Latin translation and a 12th Century Greek "original". It was debatable which was more accurate.

It would be another 300 years before 5th and 4th Century Greek manuscripts were discovered. These agreed more often with the Vulgate but opinions tended to congeal along sectarian lines.

So, Erasmus Desiderius gave us a defective Greek New Testament, and in so doing, set off a chain of events that led to the search for a better, more faithful manuscript. Without his efforts, we might still be using the Vulgate for our source.

Answer 2

Gerrit Gerritszoon published the first greek edition of the New Testament.

Answer 3

I'm Catholic, but if I remember my Reformation history correctly, isn't that when he published the Greek New Testament? I believe it was a multilingual effort and also came out in Latin.

Answer 4

My lawns?