![]() ![]() The centrality of language to the whole of Erasmus’ thought has long been recognized, not least in his theological hermeneutics. The Novum instrumentum cum Annotationes, with its subsequent editions, provide invaluable insight into the way Erasmus understood emotion terms and emotions themselves, and examining these texts allows us to partially reconstruct what Ute Frevert has called a ‘historical semantics of emotion.’ 9 While fears of rampant anachronism in the discipline are perhaps somewhat overblown 8 (translating old texts into contemporary discourse is always difficult), it is true that much more careful work on the language of emotion in various historical contexts can and should be done in order to better understand how emotions were conceived of and described in the past. ![]() 7 This exercise would fit in well with contemporary scholarship on the emotions, where extensive handwringing over the meaning of emotion terms and the difficulty of their translation is pervasive. While, to my knowledge, Erasmus does not himself describe emotion words as any more difficult to translate than other kinds of words, he very often modifies the Vulgate in such cases and occasionally spends considerable energy explaining his choices. The purpose of this paper, however, is to consider how the biblical discourse of emotion was translated in Erasmus’ New Testament and Annotationes-as well as how it was considered in the apologiae Erasmus penned related to the publication of those works. One could rehearse descriptions of the tides of emotion surrounding Erasmus’ NT scholarship through the 1520s and beyond ad nauseam, even if with some profit. It is no revelation that emotion was involved in the religious controversies of sixteenth-century Europe. 5 In 1519, Martin Luther wrote that “gratitude and Christian love … burn within my heart when I think of you,” even if these feeling would prove to be short-lived. 3 Erasmus himself “grieved” over the fallout between himself and Jacques Lefèvre d’ Etaples over their disagreement on Hebrews 2:7, the latter of whom had, according to Cuthburt Tunstall, fallen into a “fit of jealousy.” 4 In John Colet it aroused mixed emotions, but on the negative side fell only regret at not having learned Greek otherwise, he wrote that he rejoiced in the light of Erasmus’ genius. Go on your way, master Erasmus, undeterred for a moment by the shafts of jealousy and rage.” 2 Wolfgang Capito was forced to “extinguish the rising fire of passion in many men” by convincing them that Erasmus was in fact in agreement with them. Listrius wrote to Erasmus in 1516 that “The New Covenant with your explanations is read eagerly here in Greek even by the aged. ![]() Erasmus’ correspondence is full of such emotional expression surrounding the NT, on all sides of the spectrum. The sadness and ire aroused in the university theologians and in bishops like Standish were matched by joy and hope in Erasmus’ biblical-humanist cohort, and feelings ran high for years. However much exaggeration or irony Erasmus applies to his retelling of this story, there is no doubt that the publication of Erasmus’ Novum Instrumentum in 1516 along with his Annotationes and the subsequent revised editions of both (the change from verbum to sermo in John 1:1 did not come until the 1519 version) created an emotionally charged atmosphere in the realm of theology and biblical studies. Things had become intolerable, he said, since Erasmus had the effrontery to corrupt the Gospel of St John … After much stupid ranting on this subject, which was entirely off the point, our orator began to touch the hearts of his audience and to lament the lot of an old man like himself, a doctor of so many years standing, who hitherto had always read In principio erat verbum and was now reduced under compulsion to read In principio erat sermo, suspecting that such pitiful laments would leave not a dry eye. Having started his sermon on the subject of charity, he suddenly forgot all decency and charity alike and began to rave against my name and reputation, maintaining that the Christian religion faced utter destruction unless all new translations were instantly removed from the scene. He was preaching in St Paul’s churchyard in London. In a letter from 1520 to Hermannus Buschius, Erasmus recounts a story about the English Franciscan bishop Henry Standish: Keywords: New Testament history of emotions lexicography anger anxiety Frans Titelmans ![]()
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