Erasmus [longer and somewhat out of focus for b-greek]

Edgar M. Krentz (emkrentz@mcs.com)
Thu, 30 Oct 1997 18:20:58 -0600

>How's this:
>
>
><B>Erasmian pronunciation.</B> This is the pronunciation used here, and is
>based on the pronunciation used by a Renaissance scholar named Erasmus, who
>was the main force behind the first printed copies of the Greek New
>Testament. The Erasmian pronunciation is almost certainly quite different
>from the way Greek was pronounced at the time of the New Testament, but it
>is widespread among scholars, and it has the advantage that every letter is
>pronounced, which makes it easy to grasp the spelling of words.
>___________________________________________________________________________Quit
>quite good, Jonathon, especially since it is a footnote in a text to teach
>the language, not a book on the history of NT scholarship.

So, just for additional information. Erasmus published 5 editions of the
GNT in his lifetime. Later the Elzevir brothers printed an edition which
they called the textus receptus--and gave that edition semi-canonical
status down to the work of Johann Bengel and the great 19th century
editors,Konrad Lobegott von Tischendorf and the duo Brooke Foss Westcott
and Fenton John Anthony Hort.

Luther used Erasmus 2nd edition in his 1522 translation of the NT into
German. He and Erasmus fell out in a controversy about "free will." I too
wish that he, Calvin and Luther had had a conference. Calvin might have
gotten along better with Luther than Zwingli did--and western Christendom
might look quite different.

Especially if Luther had allowed Henry VIII to .... But that is quite a
different story.

*********************************************
* Edgar Krentz *
* Professor of New Testament *
* Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago *
* 1100 East 55th Street *
* Chicago, IL 60615 *
* e-mail: office, ekrentz@lstc.edu *
* home: emkrentz@mcs.com *
*Tel: 0ff.: 773-256-0752; home 773-947-8105 *
*********************************************