Erasmus’s Translation of the New Testament: Aim and Method

Abstract

Erasmus's main aim in making his new translation of the New Testament was to present the writings of the apostles and evangelists in better, more classical Latin than that of the Vulgate. He believed that the new age of renaissance and humanism demanded a new translation of the Bible in Latin and that its language must be adapted to the criteria of classical Latin. His translation was neither meant to replace the Vulgate, nor to be used by everybody; its target readership was primarily theologians, who could use it as a study Bible. In his translation, Erasmus wanted to correct textual corruption and translation errors that had crept into the Vulgate. He also wanted to render the Greek in a clearer, purer, and more expressive language, but most of all in a grammatically and syntactically more correct Latin. He rejected the idea that each word in the original text must be matched by a word in the translation: the idiom of the target language is the first requirement of a good translation. Not words, but meanings must be rendered. More generally, Erasmus wanted his translation to serve the spreading of the "wisdom of Christ": it was to serve the reform of church and society and the spiritual and moral renewal of Europe.