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Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information BIBLICAL CRITICISM IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE Mediaeval western theologians considered the Johannine comma (1 John 5:7–8) the clearest biblical evidence for the Trinity. When Erasmus failed to fi nd the comma in the Greek manuscripts he used for his New Testament edition, he omitted it. Accused of promot- ing Antitrinitarian heresy, Erasmus included the comma in his third edition (1522) after seeing it in a Greek codex from England, even though he doubted the manuscript’s authenticity. Th e resulting disputes, involving leading theologians, philologists and controver- sialists, such as Luther, Calvin, Sozzini, Milton, Newton, Bentley, Gibbon and Porson, touched not simply on philological questions but also on matters of doctrine, morality, social order and toleration. While the spuriousness of the Johannine comma was established by 1900, it has again assumed iconic status in recent attempts to defend biblical inerrancy among the Christian Right. A social history of the Johannine comma thus provides signifi cant insights into the recent Culture Wars. Grantley McDonald is a postdoctoral fellow at the Universität Wien, and leader of the research project ‘Th e court chapel of Maximilian I: between art and politics’. His research has been distinguished with prizes from the Australian Academy of the Humanities (Canberra) and the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation (Amsterdam). His recent work has focused on print, religious radi- calism and censorship. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information BIBLICAL CRITICISM IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate GRANTLEY MCDONALD Universität Wien © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107125360 © Grantley McDonald 2016 Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2016 Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: McDonald, Grantley, author. Title: Biblical criticism in early modern Europe : Erasmus, the Johannine comma and Trinitarian debate / Grantley McDonald. Description: New York : Cambridge University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifi ers: LCCN 2015042174 | ISBN 9781107125360 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Bible – Criticism, interpretation, etc. – Europe – History. | Erasmus, Desiderius, –1536. | Bible. John, 1st, V, 7–8 – Criticism, Textual. | Trinity – History of doctrines. Classifi cation: LCC BS 500. M 345 2016 | DDC 224/.940486–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042174 ISBN 978-1-107-12536-0 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URL s for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information F o r Henk Jan de Jonge sine quo non © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information I know not a Passage in all the New Testament so contested as this. Edmund Calamy, 1719 It is rather a danger to religion than an advantage to make it now lean upon a bruised reed. Th ere cannot be better service done to the truth than to purge it of things spurious. Isaac Newton, 1690 To use a weak argument in behalf of a good cause, can only tend to infuse a suspicion of the cause itself into the minds of all who see the weakness of the argument. Such a procedure is scarcely a remove short of pious fraud. Richard Porson, 1790 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information Contents List of Figures page ix Foreword xi Acknowledgements xiii List of Abbreviations xv Introduction: Th e birth of the Trinity 1 1. Erasmus 13 1 . Th e Complutensian bible and the politics of sacred philology 13 2. English opposition to Erasmus: Edward Lee 16 3. Spanish opposition to Erasmus: Jacobus Stunica 22 4. Erasmus’ reading of the comma 29 5. John Clement and Codex Montfortianus 35 6. Frater Froyke 37 7. Running with the hares, hunting with the hounds: Erasmus’ contradictory attitude towards the comma 41 Summary 54 2 . Th e Johannine comma in sixteenth-century bibles after Erasmus 5 6 1 . Th e comma in sixteenth-century Greek editions 56 2 . Th e comma in sixteenth-century Latin editions 58 3. Syriac and Arabic editions 60 4. Lutheran reactions to the dispute over the comma 62 5. Zwinglian reactions to the dispute over the comma 68 6. English translations 69 Summary 70 3. Raising the ghost of Arius: the Johannine comma and Trinitarian debate in the sixteenth century 71 1. Miguel Servet 73 2. Philipp Melanchthon and the Lutheran turn towards the comma 75 3. Jean Calvin and the non-essential comma 78 4 . Th e Johannine comma in post-Tridentine Catholicism 81 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information viii Contents 5. Anabaptists, Erasmus and the comma 86 6. East-central European Antitrinitarians of the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 94 7 . Th e comma in the Eastern Orthodox churches 111 Summary 115 4. From Civil War to Enlightenment 117 1 . Th e beginnings of the Socinian controversy in England 130 2. John Milton 134 3 . Th omas Hobbes 136 4. Critique of the textus receptus and the shadow of heresy: Etienne de Courcelles and Jeremias Felbinger 138 5. Richard Simon and the development of the historical-critical method 144 6 . Th omas Smith 156 7. Isaac Newton, ‘a Bigot, a Fanatique, a Heretique’ 159 8. John Mill 181 9. William Whiston 186 10. Samuel Clarke 194 11. Th omas Emlyn 209 12. Jonathan Swift: satire in the service of orthodoxy 214 13. Richard Bentley: between confi dence and despair 218 14. David Martin and the rediscovery of Codex Montfortianus 228 15. New editions of the New Testament: Wells, Mace, Bengel, Wettstein, Bowyer, Harwood 241 16. Johann Salomo Semler 255 17. Johann Jacob Griesbach 258 18. John Wesley: the appeal to pietism 260 19. Edward Gibbon, George Travis, Georg Gottlieb Pappelbaum, Richard Porson and Herbert Marsh 266 Summary 276 5 . Th e Johannine comma in the long nineteenth century 279 1 . Th e scientifi c study of Codex Montfortianus 283 2. Erasmus and English Unitarianism 287 3. Erasmus and the Johannine comma in the struggle for Catholic emancipation 291 4. Critical advances: Lachmann and Tischendorf 292 5. Renewed defence of the textus receptus 294 6. Westcott, Hort and the Revised Version 296 7 . Th e Johannine comma and the Catholic modernist crisis 300 Summary 311 Conclusion 312 Appendix: translation of Erasmus’ annotations on the Johannine comma (1516–1535) 315 Bibliography 323 Index 375 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-12536-0 - Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Trinitarian Debate Grantley Mcdonald Frontmatter More information Figures 1.1. Dublin, Trinity College ms 30 (Codex Montfortianus), 439r page 28 1.2. Dublin, Trinity College ms 30 (Codex Montfortianus), 12v 36 1.3. Th eodore of Gaza, In hoc volumine haec insunt. Introductivae grammatices libri quatuor (Venice: Aldus, 1495), α2r 38 2.1. Title woodcut from Johannes Cochlaeus, Septiceps Lutherus (Leipzig: Schumann, 1529). Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, 4º Polem. 676 65 2.2. Abraham worships the Trinity. Cambridge, St John’s College ms K26, 9r 66 3.1. ‘Tres sunt qui testimonium dant’, Antiphonarium Romanum (Venice: Giunta, 1596), 41v. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Liturg. 22 87 3.2. ‘Ligaeus’. From Ferenc Dávid and Giorgio Biandrata, Refutatio scripti Georgii Maioris ([Cluj-Napoca]: [n. p.], 1569), H5r. Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Syst. Th eol. 1956/1 100 3.3. ‘Lycisca’. From Ferenc Dávid and Giorgio Biandrata, Refutatio scripti Georgii Maioris ([Cluj-Napoca]: [n. p.], 1569), H5v. Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Syst. Th eol. 1956/1 101 3.4. ‘Est, et non est’. From Ferenc Dávid and Giorgio Biandrata, Refutatio scripti Georgii Maioris ([Cluj-Napoca]: [n.
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