Novum Instrumentum Omne

In 1516, in the first edition of his new translation of the New Testament, Erasmus chose the programmatic title Novum Instrumentum Omne* because he intended it to serve the entire scholarly world as a scientific tool.
*Novum Instrumentum omne, Diligenter ab Erasmo Roterdamo recognitum & emendatum, non solum ad graecam veritatem, verumetiam ad multorum utrisque linguae codicum... emendationem & interpretationem, praecipue, Origines, Chrysostomie, Cyrilli...

Erasmus's masterpiece, celebrated by humanists* of the time as an outstanding achievement, earned him the accusation of heresy from the Old Church. 

*Such as Johann Reuchlin and Willibald Pirkheimer

Erasmus received dozens of reprimands for alleged errors regarding the infallibility of the Holy Spirit, the infallibility of the Vulgata, and the infallibility of Augustine. He had to defend himself against accusations that he had gone astray in his faith, although he explicitly placed all his literary work under the Church's authority.

The reformers, on the other hand, accused him of not taking their side. Erasmus became stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Many scholars of both faiths took issue less with the new text than with Erasmus's explanations of his translation. The Novum Instrumentum reconstructs the original ideas of simple apostles like Paul, documented just twenty years after Christ's death: "The evangelists and apostles make it clear in every sentence that they are human beings who can succeed in word creations and make language mistakes. That, however, is not a problem because the essence of the Bible is not in the words but in the message. Words and letters did not come down from heaven, but are pillars made of clay by human beings to support the heavenly vault of the good news".


Holy Spirit

With this argumentation, Erasmus challenged the learned Dominican theologian and vice-chancellor of the University of Ingolstadt, Johann Eck, who had already taken up a position against Luther.

The following passage about Eck from Sandra Langereis's Erasmus biography Bärbel Jänicke translated from Dutch into German while Red Baron translated it from German into English. This means that the text is subject to double fuzziness. I only hope that very little of the lively style of the original is lost in translation:

"Why did Erasmus note in Novum Instrumentum that the evangelists sometimes made mistakes when they quoted the Old Testament prophets by heart? This is not possible, "A Christian could not think that." Because evangelists cannot err.

The evangelists do not draw from memory; they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. They do not look up the Bible, either; the Spirit ensured they did not have to. They did not think at all; the Spirit thought for them. As if the evangelists had pored and labored over the Scripture like ordinary people! When the evangelists are wrong, the Holy Spirit is wrong. If one followed Erasmus, the authority of the entire Holy Scripture would be undermined.

And why did Erasmus ironize that the Evangelists did not learn their clumsy Greek from Demosthenes? The Evangelists spoke in all tongues. The Evangelists did not need to learn their Greek from Demosthenes or anyone else; the Holy Spirit breathed the Greek language into them. As if the Evangelists had spoken and written like ordinary people! When the evangelists made linguistic mistakes in Greek, then the Holy Spirit is wrong."

Interestingly, both Eck and Luther, fierce opponents, invoke the Holy Spirit to defend their cause in their theological arguments.

Erasmus's answer was clear: "There are no infallible texts. There are no infallible gospels, no infallible church fathers. Perhaps it is not for you or me, or even for Augustine, to claim human knowledge about the exact workings of the Holy Spirit."

Here, I present three translations from the Greek Originals that provoked theological discussions and still do today. The first one concerns the original sin.


Original Sin

In the Latin Vulgata, Luther read like every other Bible reader that according to the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:12, "Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned."

Froben's magnificent edition of Paul's letter to the Romans in Greek and Latin

But Erasmus realized that the simply educated apostle had clumsily expressed his train of thought. So, in his explanatory notes of his Novum Instrumentum, Erasmus suggested that Paul, using a crooked subordinate clause introduced by two difficult-to-translate Greek words, probably meant "inasmuch as all people have sinned," i.e., the apostle had not said a word about original sin inherent in all people.

However, Erasmus did not adopt his hypothesis in the Novum Instrumentum of 1516; instead, he translated Paul's words as literally as possible so that his Bible readers would not fail to notice that the apostle had tinkered and chosen wooden wording. As it stood, it did not allude to original sin. Erasmus's Bible readers were left to form their own opinions by critically considering his arguments for and against the proposed translation of "inasmuch" in the notes.

It was only in 1519 that Erasmus replaced the literal translation of Paul's cumbersome choice of words with "inasmuch." Given the many letters from readers, Erasmus had reason to trust that they would read the arguments for and against his translation decision, which implied that Paul could not have alluded to original sin.

Luther was convinced that Paul was indeed alluding to original sin and introduced his truth into the German Bible. Readers of the Luther Bible learn that sin and death came upon all people "while they had all sinned." This was not a translation of the original Greek text but an interpretation of Augustine's doctrine of original sin.

Luther's dogmatically motivated translation is not an isolated case. Each conveys the reformatory's message based on Augustine. Luther filled his copy of the Bible with dogmatic commentaries to emphasize his personal message.

While Erasmus emancipated his Bible readers, Luther made them docile again in his German translation.


Trinity

The second controversy concerns the so-called Johannine Comma (Latin: Comma Johanneum), an interpolated phrase in verses 5:7–8 of the First Epistle of John.

Here is the passage. The Comma in square brackets and italicized is not part of the oldest Greek and Latin manuscripts. The words that introduce the Trinity - a central belief of the Church - are later additions.

7 For there are three that bear record [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.] [8 And there are three that bear witness in earth], the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one.

As Erasmus wrote in his Novum Instrumentum, the original version, "For there are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one," he was accused of Arianism. By banning the only biblical testimony to the Trinity doctrine from Scripture, Erasmus was accused of leading the reader into the heretical doctrine that the Son of God is not divine.


Λογος

The third discussion concerns Erasmus's interpretation of the beginning of the Gospel of John. It is about the translation of the Greek word λογος. In the Novum Instrumentum of 1516, we find the well-known text: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In the Novum Testamentum of 1519, however, Erasmus's readers read, "In the beginning was the message, and the message was with God, and this message was God." There was great enthusiasm but also fierce criticism.

Did Goethe know about this controversy when he tried his hand at translating λογος in his drama Faust:

'Tis written: "In the Beginning was the Word."
Here am I balked: who, now can help afford?
The Word?—impossible so high to rate it;
And otherwise must I translate it.
If by the Spirit I am truly taught.
Then thus: "In the Beginning was the Thought"
This first line let me weigh completely,
Lest my impatient pen proceed too fleetly.
Is it the Thought which works, creates, indeed?
"In the Beginning was the Power," I read.
Yet, as I write, a warning is suggested,
That I the sense may not have fairly tested.
The Spirit aids me: now I see the light!
"In the Beginning was the Act," I write.

The criticism of Erasmus's new translation of the New Testament did not stop. He complained, "In Rome, they call me Errasmus. As if Italians were never wrong!"

Erasmus sent letters to his supporters that the Cologne Dominican theologians, in particular, posed a real danger to humanities and were not worth a shot of powder as inquisitors. He wrote to Reuchlin, "Let us turn our thoughts to Christ, my dear Reuchlin, and devote ourselves to honorable scholarship while ignoring that rabble in Cologne."

Volume I: Novum Testamentum

Almost out of defiance, Erasmus threw himself zealously into a radically revised edition of the Novum Instrumentum, which he unhesitatingly called the Novum Testamentum. "A thankless task," he wrote to his friends. "while rejuvenating the Bible, I am aging twice as fast, with all the brooding and staring in the dark winter months."

Volume II: The Annotations

In March 1522, the Novum Testamentum was available hot off the press at the Frankfurt Spring Fair in two expensive volumes in folio format and – without the annotations – in a cheaper volume in a portable pocket format: an attempt by Froben to attract a broader readership.
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Sarcopenia

Age begins with immobility.

Red Baron's equilibrium is greatly disturbed. So, I had to give up cycling and sold my e-bike one year ago. Instead, I walk intensely for at least 30 minutes a day.

According to experts, this is not sufficient to fight sarcopenia. In fact, my weight has decreased over the years, and I have developed a slight belly. My doctor told me, "You can't get rid of that belly." Since the density of muscle at 1060 kg/m³ is higher than that of belly fat at 920 kg/m³, this is a typical sign of muscle loss.

Sports science knows muscle training is highly effective as a therapy against sarcopenia. Regular visits to the gym combined with balance training and a protein-rich diet have the most significant effect on quality of life for people with age-related muscle loss.

For years, Red Baron has been trying to counteract sarcopenia with Kieser Training. I work my muscles twice a week for 90 minutes, doing 14 exercises, many specifically to strengthen the legs. Mind you, the pre-printed training plan only allows for a maximum of 10 exercises per session.

Yet, over the last few months, I've become increasingly wobbly. When I read an expert's statement, "The older you are, the more strength training you need," I decided to train three times a week.

And I was surprised. My scales, which "measure" total weight as well as various components such as fat, water, and muscle mass, have been showing a decrease in fat percentage and a simultaneous increase in muscle mass for a month now.

Still, Red Baron doesn't expect miracles.

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Ablöse

is translated into replacement, e.g., in the military, changing a guard. In this blog, Ablöse means the full repayment of a debt. The term was recently frequently used in the German press when discussing the repayment of obligations that go back to Napoleon's time. Once again, Napoleon is to blame for everything*.

*Famous German film comedy of 1938 by Curt Goetz: Napoleon ist an allem schuld.

Even though the state tax offices collect the church tax - in 2021, around 6 billion euros for the Protestant Church and 6.7 billion euros for the Catholic Church - State and Church are separated in Germany.

©ZDF

Still, the German state and states also pay more than 600 million euros annually to the two Churches as state benefits. Why?

Let's go back in history.

During the Napoleonic Wars, France took over the territories on the left bank of the Rhine. Prussia, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg, in particular, suffered territorial losses. The affected princes demanded compensation.

This was when the Imperial Estates turned their attention to the gigantic assets of the Churches. The idea of expropriating Church lands and awarding them to the princes who had suffered territorial losses was obvious.

At its last session on February 25, 1803, the Permanent Diet passed one of the last laws of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Red Baron visited the modest meeting room in Regensburg in 2020.

The negotiated treaty known as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss stipulates, among other things: All goods of the founded monasteries, abbeys, and convents ... whose use has not been formally determined in the previous decrees, are left to the free and full disposition of the respective sovereigns, both for the purpose of expenditure for worship, teaching and other charitable institutions, as well as to facilitate their finances.

The papal nuncio in Vienna was surprised, "Even Jews stand up for their rights*; only the bishops remain silent. "
*in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Shylock is standing for his bond

This secularization deprived the Churches of substantial assets and income. In Germany, state benefits have compensated these for over 200 years. Since the foundation of our Federal Republic in 1949, a sum totaling 19.6 billion euros has been paid up to 2021.

These payments are rightly criticized because all taxpayers pay to the Churches, "The state benefits are an absurdity for those distanced from the Church," says a church law expert, "State and Church are clearly not separated here."

Constitutional law expert Bodo Pieroth demands: "Bundestag (parliament) and the government should remember that they must represent the interests of all citizens, including the non-denominational majority. They and numerous Church members no longer sympathize with continuing the anachronistic state benefits."

As a declared constitutional demand, the goal of abolishing state benefits has been around for a long time.

In fact, already the Weimar Constitution of 1919 stipulated the replacement of state benefits in Article 138: "State legislation shall replace state benefits to religious societies based on law, treaty or special legal titles. The principles for this shall be laid down by the Reich."

Nothing happened except that the constitutional article was adopted when Germany's Basic Law was passed in 1949. State benefits continued to be paid.

Experts largely agree that the two Churches have now been amply overcompensated, but all initiatives in the Bundestag to replace them have failed so far.

The Christian Democrats' religious policy spokesperson said, "You can get the impression that neither the Churches nor the federal states are in any particular hurry to replace the state benefits."

©DW

State benefits have increased since the founding of the Federal Republic. This is due to the development of pay scales in the public sector. When salaries rise, so do the so-called endowments to the clergy financed by the federal states via state benefits.

Our government wants to end the annual payments and has enshrined this plan in its coalition agreement. Still, the federal states have opposed its current proposal to replace them, saying it is far too expensive.

Indeed, more than ten billion euros are in the offing as an Ablöse sum, which corresponds to 18.6 times the previous annual payments.

Replacing state payments has been a constitutional mandate for more than 100 years! In the spirit of the strict separation of Church and State, there is no way around an Ablöse as compensation for the Churches.
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Erasmus in Freiburg

In her book Erasmus, The Biography of a Free Thinker, Sandra Langereis writes little about Erasmus's stay in Freiburg. Let me fill in the missing information.

In April 1529, as the riots against followers of the Old Faith intensified in Basel, Erasmus fled to the Catholic city of Freiburg. The 62-year-old Erasmus, reverently known as the Prince of Scholars, initially stayed in the Haus zum Walfisch (House of the Whale), built by King Maximilian's treasurer Jakob Villinger. The building is now home to the Municipal Savings Bank.

Haus zum Walfisch on Franziskanerstraße

Shortly after he arrived in Freiburg at the beginning of May 1529, Erasmus wrote enthusiastically to his long-time pen pal Willibald Pirckheimer in Augsburg, "At last, I have changed the clod, the Rauraker* has become a Breisgauer ... The little journey went better than I had expected. The city council showed me all their kindness of their own accord, even before King Ferdinand recommended me by letter. I was given a princely house built for Emperor Maximilian but remained unfinished... and then a letter later: Ubi bene ubi patria, as the saying goes. So, I can enjoy the friendly climate here for a year if Mars doesn't drive me away." 

*Augusta Rauraca, the Roman, i.e.. the Latin name for Basel

However, he was mistaken in assuming that he would only stay in Freiburg for a year and that Emperor Maximilian once chose the Haus zum Walfisch as his retirement home.

Erasmus believed that the town would let him live in the Haus zum Walfisch free of charge. He was furious when the mayor sent him a bill of 30 guilders for the rent at the end of the year. 

The memorial plaque for Erasmus at the Haus zum Walfisch contains a correction.
He lived here from 1529 to 1531, not until 1535, as initially stated.

So it was not Mars, the god of war, who drove Erasmus out of his domicile on Franziskanerstraße but trouble with the city. In 1531, he bought the house Zum Kind Jesu (To the Child Jesus) on Schiffstraße 7 as his new residence for 600 Rhenish guilders, which he paid in cash with coins he had saved in Basel.

Haus zum Kind Jesu on Schiffstraße 7 before the bombing of Freiburg.
There is a picture of Erasmus on the façade (©Peter Kalchthaler)

The house purchase contradicted the city charter, according to which only Freiburg citizens were allowed to acquire property. Four years after arriving in Freiburg, Erasmus finally entered his name in the university register as a professor theologiae to legalize the purchase. From then on, he lived as an academic citizen in a privileged house exempted from taxes.

When Rector Paulus Getzonis joyfully announced to the members of the Senate in 1533 that Erasmus had been accepted onto the university's register, he had no idea that Erasmus would neither lecture at the Albertina nor attend the Senate meetings. From the outset, he accepted and possessed the dignities but rejected the burdens.

Yet the city and university continued to court the great humanist, who spread his wings and found, "Theology is pursued here more weakly than I would like, and the study of languages flourishes mediocrely. Although the university is well equipped, it is poorly attended and has more honorable students than numerous ones."

Instead of being seen at the university, Erasmus had been working since 1533 on his Liber de sarcienda ecclesiae concordia, deque sedandis opinionum dissidis, cum aliis nonnullis lectu dignis*, in which he describes Europe as a unified populus Christianus (Christian people) which also inhabits an eadem domus (shared house), in ecclesia (the Church). He considered the differences between Catholics and Lutherans to be bridgeable and, like many of his contemporaries, hoped for a general, unifying council that would create a concordia fidei in a concordia caritas. This would require reforms in the education of the clergy, reforms in morals, and reforms in the church.
*Book on the restoration of ecclesiastical harmony and the elimination of differences of opinion

As the schism progressed, Erasmus felt that the religious cohesion of Europe by the Roman Church was waning. Instead, he foresaw the emergence of pro-national structures, "One tribe is driven to battle with another tribe, city against city, faction against faction, ruler against ruler ... The Englishman is the enemy of the Frenchman for no other reason than that he is French. The Scot is the enemy of the Briton for no other reason than that he is a Scot. The German is the enemy of the Frenchman, and the Spaniard is the enemy of both. The various faiths wear themselves out in a narcissism of slight differences. They practice reinforcing their contrasts."

With all his efforts, Erasmus could not heal the disease of schism.

In Erasmus's new domicile on Schiffstraße, renovation work was pending, so he had to deal with blacksmiths, stonemasons, carpenters, plumbers, and glaziers. He wrote in a letter in 1531, "You know this sort of people; it is so disgusting that I would instead occupy myself for a full three years with scientific work, however unpleasant, than be plagued with this kind of worry for a single month." Craftsmen yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

He continued to grumble about Freiburg, "The city is pretty, but not populated enough, "and furthermore, "the town is small, and the inhabitants are superstitious."

He only found the 68-year-old Huldrichus Zasius worthy of praise, "I have never seen anything in Germany that I have admired as much as the character of Ulrich Zasius. He is sincerity itself, not just sincerity towards his friends. Physically, he is aging, but it is hard to believe how mentally he is still quite fresh; his sharpness of judgment and memory have not suffered in any way. I have never noticed such quick-witted, witty, apt, and well-extemporized speech, even from an Italian. The speech flows sweeter than honey over his lips. I expected to find a lawyer, an excellent one, to be sure, but only a lawyer. But what is there in the mysteries of theology that he has not examined and thought through? In what part of philosophy is he not fully versed? Is there any book of the Old and New Testament that he has not opened, perused, absorbed?"

Erasmus's high regard for Zasius can probably be traced back to the Freiburg Lenten controversy of 1523. You may read the story here.

Erasmus's rejection of Freiburg culminated in the remark, "I would rather live among the Turks."

Ultimately, he secretly left Freiburg for Basel in 1535, where he died a year later.
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