New Testament Scholarship: Paraphrase on Acts

417 Pages·1995·24.92 MB·English

by  Desiderius Erasmus

COLLECTED WORKS OF ERASMUS
VOLUME 50
Claudii Ptolemei Geographiae
opus nouissima traductione
Strasbourg: Johann Schott, 12 March 1513
Rare Book Collection
University of Illinois Library, Urbana
COLLECTED WORKS OF
ERASMUS
NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLARSHIP
General Editor Robert D. Sider
PARAPHRASE ON
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
edited by John J. Bateman
translated and annotated by
Robert D. Sider
University of Toronto Press
Toronto / Buffalo / London
The research and publication costs of the
Collected Works of Erasmus are supported by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The publication costs are also assisted by
University of Toronto Press.
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press 1995
Toronto / Buffalo / London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-0664-7
Printed on acid-free paper
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536
[Works]
Collected works of Erasmus
Includes bibliographical references.
Partial contents: v. 50. New testament scholarship:
paraphrase on the Acts of the Apostles /
edited by John J. Bateman;
translated and annotated by Robert D. Sider.
ISBN 0-8020-0664-7 (v. 50)
1. Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536. 1. Title.
PA85001974 876'.04 C74-006326-x
Collected Works of Erasmus
The aim of the Collected Works of Erasmus
is to make available an accurate, readable English text
of Erasmus' correspondence and his
other principal writings. The edition is planned
and directed by an Editorial Board, an Executive Committee,
and an Advisory Committee.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto
James M. Estes, University of Toronto
Charles Fantazzi, University of Windsor
James K. Farge, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
John N. Grant, University of Toronto
Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto
James K. McConica, All Souls College, Oxford, Chairman
John O'Malley, Weston School of Theology
Mechtilde O'Mara, University of Toronto
Jane E. Phillips, University of Kentucky
Erika Rummel, Wilfrid Laurier University
R.J. Schoeck, Lawrence, Kansas
Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College
J.K. Sowards, Wichita State University
James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto
James M. Estes, University of Toronto
Charles Fantazzi, University of Windsor
Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto
Bill Harnum, University of Toronto Press
James K. McConica, All Souls College, Oxford
George Meadows, University of Toronto Press
Mechtilde O'Mara, University of Toronto
Jane E. Phillips, University of Kentucky
Erika Rummel, Wilfrid Laurier University
R.J. Schoeck, Lawrence, Kansas
R.M. Schoeffel, University of Toronto Press, Chairman
Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College
J.K. Sowards, Wichita State University
James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Danilo Aguzzi-Barbagli, University of British Columbia
Maria Cytowska, University of Warsaw
Anthony Graf ton, Princeton University
Otto Herding, Universität Freiburg
Jozef IJsewijn, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Robert M. Kingdon, University of Wisconsin
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Columbia University
Maurice Lebel, Université Laval
Jean-Claude Margolin, Centre d'études supérieures de la
Renaissance de Tours
Bruce M. Metzger, Princeton Theological Seminary
Clarence H. Miller, Saint Louis University
Heiko A. Oberman, University of Arizona
John Rowlands, The British Museum
J.S.G. Simmons, Oxford University
John Tedeschi, University of Wisconsin
Craig R. Thompson, University of Pennsylvania
J. Trapman, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie
van Wetenschappen
J.B. Trapp, Warburg Institute
NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE
John J. Bateman, University of Illinois
H.J. de Jonge, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden
J.K. McConica, All Souls College, Oxford
Bruce M. Metzger, Princeton Theological Seminary
Jaroslav Pelikan, Yale University
Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College, Chairman
Contents
Preface
by John J. Bateman
ix
Translator's Note
by Robert D. Sider
xiii
Paraphrase on Acts / In Acta apostolorum paraphrasis
translated and annotated by Robert D. Sider
1
Notes
153
The Sequence and Dates of the Publication
of the Paraphrases
334
Works Frequently Cited
335
Short-Title Forms for Erasmus' Works
340
Index of Biblical and Apocryphal References
345
Index of Classical References
356
Index of Patristic and Medieval References
358
Index of Greek and Latin Words Cited
360
Index of Place-Names
367
General Index
370
Preface
The nature and scope of the series of volumes to be published as the New
Testament scholarship of Erasmus have been described in the preface to
volume 42. That volume also provided introductory studies on the origin
and nature of the Paraphrases, their publication history, and sixteenth-century
translations in English. Those essays should prove useful to readers of this
volume.
At a later date, a volume (CWE 41) will appear with a full introduction
to the New Testament scholarship of Erasmus, together with translations
of shorter works pertaining to that scholarship. Nevertheless, since the
Paraphrase on Acts stands at the end of the nine volumes to be devoted to the
Paraphrases, it may not be out of place to say a few words here about Erasmus'
achievement. In a letter (Ep 1672) written in 1526 to an admirer who had
apparently inquired about the Paraphrases on the Gospels, Erasmus explained
that he had sought to return scholastic theology, which in his opinion was
too much concerned with quibbles, to the true sources of theology and
for that purpose had made his revision and new Latin translation of the
biblical text, his Annotations on it, and his Paraphrases. The audience for these
publications was, as he said, anyone literate in Latin, but his eye was primarily
on students of theology, both clerical and lay. The Paraphrases in particular
were designed to provide their readers with a summary of evangelical
philosophy before they went on to more abstruse studies. Erasmus seems
to have envisioned these readers as any of those who were too slow, too
busy with other activities, or too fastidious in their literary taste to spend
time on the close study of the New Testament and the many problems of
interpretation posed by it. The Paraphrases thus offered an easy route, as he
called it, to the knowledge of apostolic doctrine, which was the necessary
foundation of all theological study and indeed of the Christian life itself.
Written in an essentially homiletical style, they constitute simultaneously an
elucidation 'in terms both plain and clear' of the gospel and an exhortation
to live according to its rule. Few if any commentators on the Bible down to