Erasmus
Scholar from Rotterdam who in 1516 published the New Testament in Greek with a Latin version he had revised and notes, and who wished Scripture translated into every language.
The title page of the New Testament printed at Basel in 1516 names Erasmus of Rotterdam as the scholar who revised and corrected it (Erasmus, Novum Instrumentum (1516) title page). In the dedication to Pope Leo X he calls himself the least of theologians (Erasmus, Novum Instrumentum (1516) dedication to Leo X). He told the pope later that year that he meant to emend the common Latin text from old manuscripts and the fathers, not to tear it up (Erasmus, Letters to Leo X, 9 August 1516 (Nichols no. 434, vol. 2, p. 316, where the translation prints 8 August)).
In the preface called the Paraclesis he wished the Gospels and the letters of Paul translated into all languages and known to the ploughman and the weaver (Erasmus, Paraclesis English version of 1529). See Erasmus Publishes the Greek New Testament.
In the timeline
- 1516, firm dateErasmus Publishes the Greek New Testament
In 1516 the Basel printer Johann Froben issues Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum, the New Testament in Greek with a revised Latin version and notes, dedicated to Pope Leo X. Its preface wishes Scripture translated into every language.