1516

"Back to the Sources": Erasmus's Greek New Testament and Humanist Textual Criticism

Northern Christian humanism called for a return to the Hebrew and Greek Bible and to the early fathers of the Church. In 1516 Erasmus published the first printed Greek text of the New Testament (Novum Instrumentum omne) with a new Latin translation correcting inaccuracies of the Vulgate, and annotations; four years later the Complutensian Polyglot appeared at Alcalá under the direction of Ximénez. Lorenzo Valla applied textual criticism to the Donation of Constantine and proved it a forgery, while complete editions of the fathers made it possible to check whether their views were being represented correctly. González sees in this the beginning of modern biblical scholarship.