Creating a Reformed Book of Knowledge: Immanuel Tremellius, Franciscus Junius, and Their Latin Bible, 1580 – 1590 (original) (raw)
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The Bible in the Time of the Reformation
In the first part of the article, the use of the Latin Bible and the Bibles translated in vernacular languages at the time of the Reformation is discussed. In the second part, questions regarding the literal application of the Reformation's rule, sola Scriptura, are considered, among which questions are included about the canon, authority, sufficiency, perspicuity and understanding of the Bi-ble. In the paper, deliberations of the leading theologians of the Reformation are considered, including each individual question and adopted teachings of particular traditions of the Reformation, as well as the counter-Reformation as recorded in their foundational documents. In the conclusion, it is highlighted that the main message of the Bible is perspicuous even for the illiterate layman; therefore, every person can come to the Bible directly to search for and find truth. The Reformation has reaffirmed that the Bible is the only authority for preaching, theology and daily living, to or from which people should not add or subtract.
Hermeneutics of 16th-Century Latin Bible Translations
Hermeneutik oder Versionen der biblischen Interpretation von Texten/1, 2023
The 16th was the century of the Latin Bible translations” (John M. Lenhart). We know of 438 different Latin Bible editions between 1501 and 1600. The translation into vernacular languages was the culmination of a process that began with the need for a better understanding of the Bible and continued in the creation of new Latin Bible translations other than the Vulgate. According to Josef Eskhult, denominational characteristics can be discerned: revisions of the Vulgate according to Latin manuscripts were mostly done by Roman Catholics, revising the Vulgate according to Hebrew and Greek manuscripts was a Lutheran enterprise, while completely new Latin translations were typically a Calvinist approach. For the theologians of the Reformed tradition, it was important to translate the Bible into Latin anew because they had abandoned three of the four meanings of medieval literary hermeneutics (literary, allegorical, moral, and anagogic) and had only focused on the first one, thus trying to emphasize the prophetic and Christological meaning of the Bible. To do this, they needed translations that reflected the meaning of the Hebrew text as accurately as possible, allowing scholars to compare their exegetical observations and translation solutions.
Bibles in the Hands of Readers: Dutch, English, French, and Italian Perspectives
Journal of Early Modern Christianity
Vernacular Bibles and biblical texts were among the most circulated and most read books in late medieval and early modern Europe, both in manuscript and print. Vernacular scripture circulated throughout Europe in different ways and to different extents before and after the Reformation. In spite of the differences in language, centers of publication, and confessional orientation, there was nonetheless considerable collaboration and common ground. This collection of essays explores the readership of Dutch, English, French, and Italian biblical and devotional texts, focusing in particular on the relationships between the texts and paratexts of biblical texts, the records of ownership, and the marks and annotations of biblical readers. Evidence from early modern biblical texts and their users of all sorts – scholars, clerics, priests, laborers, artisans, and anonymous men and women, Protestant and Catholic – sheds light on how owners and readers used the biblical text.
Editions and Translations of the Bible in the Renaissance
Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, 2021
The invention of printing in the mid-fifteenth century greatly encouraged the dissemination and study of the bible in the original Hebrew and Greek, in ancient translations (most importantly the Latin Vulgate), and, from the 1520s onward, a bewildering variety of translations into the European vernaculars. Increased access to the bible encouraged philological improvement of the text and new ways of reading and interpreting it, with profound implications for philosophy and theology of all kinds.
The Role of Biblical Languages to Preserve and Perpetuate the Reformation
Journal of AIIAS African Theological Association, 2019
Biblical languages are essential to interpret Scripture. A working knowledge of biblical languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic) helps the student of Scripture understand the biblical text. This paper examines the role of Biblical languages during the Reformation period, notably how the Renaissance’s discovery of ancient sources led to the concept of ad fontes which in a religious context led to a return to studying biblical languages. Martin Luther and other magisterial Reformers consistently emphasized the importance of learning biblical languages. This paper examines how each of these Reformers, namely Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin became active students of Scripture through the use of, and emphasis on the importance of understanding biblical languages as a vital part of Biblical studies. This study shows that the Sola Scriptura that reformers upheld strongly could not be possible without going back to the original languages of the Bible. When the church today disregards this, as shown in the weakening of emphasis in seminaries and negative attitude of the ministerial students toward biblical languages, they ignore the significant role of biblical languages in the reformation. It seems that there could have been no reformation without the reformers taking hold of the Word of God in its original languages. Keywords: Reformation, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, biblical languages, Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, ad fontes, Erasmus, Reuchlin, Wittenberg, 95 Theses
David Whitford (ed.), Martin Luther in Context, Cambridge: CUP, 2018
The Reformation Canon and the Development of Biblical Scholarship
The Bible Translator, 2016
This paper argues that the well-intended attention of humanist and Reformation scholars to the original languages of the Bible also had its downside, especially for study of the New Testament. Although the revival of Greek and Hebrew studies in itself was a positive development, together with the promotion of a Hebrew canon and the notion of sola scriptura, the hermeneutical horizon of the New Testament was limited to a Hebrew canon and a Semitic context. The New Testament was separated from its original Hellenistic-Jewish Greek environment, and was explained from a background to which it never really belonged.