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COLLECTED WORKS OF ERASMUS VOLUME 50 Claudii Ptolemei Geographiae opus nouissima traductione Strasbourg: Johann Schott, 12 March 1513 Rare Book Collection University of Illinois Library, Urbana COLLECTED WORKS OF ERASMUS NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLARSHIP General Editor Robert D. Sider PARAPHRASE ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES edited by John J. Bateman translated and annotated by Robert D. Sider University of Toronto Press Toronto / Buffalo / London The research and publication costs of the Collected Works of Erasmus are supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The publication costs are also assisted by University of Toronto Press. www.utppublishing.com © University of Toronto Press 1995 Toronto / Buffalo / London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-0664-7 Printed on acid-free paper Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536 [Works] Collected works of Erasmus Includes bibliographical references. Partial contents: v. 50. New testament scholarship: paraphrase on the Acts of the Apostles / edited by John J. Bateman; translated and annotated by Robert D. Sider. ISBN 0-8020-0664-7 (v. 50) 1. Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536. 1. Title. PA85001974 876'.04 C74-006326-x Collected Works of Erasmus The aim of the Collected Works of Erasmus is to make available an accurate, readable English text of Erasmus' correspondence and his other principal writings. The edition is planned and directed by an Editorial Board, an Executive Committee, and an Advisory Committee. EDITORIAL BOARD Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto James M. Estes, University of Toronto Charles Fantazzi, University of Windsor James K. Farge, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies John N. Grant, University of Toronto Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto James K. McConica, All Souls College, Oxford, Chairman John O'Malley, Weston School of Theology Mechtilde O'Mara, University of Toronto Jane E. Phillips, University of Kentucky Erika Rummel, Wilfrid Laurier University R.J. Schoeck, Lawrence, Kansas Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College J.K. Sowards, Wichita State University James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto James M. Estes, University of Toronto Charles Fantazzi, University of Windsor Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto Bill Harnum, University of Toronto Press James K. McConica, All Souls College, Oxford George Meadows, University of Toronto Press Mechtilde O'Mara, University of Toronto Jane E. Phillips, University of Kentucky Erika Rummel, Wilfrid Laurier University R.J. Schoeck, Lawrence, Kansas R.M. Schoeffel, University of Toronto Press, Chairman Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College J.K. Sowards, Wichita State University James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota ADVISORY COMMITTEE Danilo Aguzzi-Barbagli, University of British Columbia Maria Cytowska, University of Warsaw Anthony Graf ton, Princeton University Otto Herding, Universität Freiburg Jozef IJsewijn, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Robert M. Kingdon, University of Wisconsin Paul Oskar Kristeller, Columbia University Maurice Lebel, Université Laval Jean-Claude Margolin, Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance de Tours Bruce M. Metzger, Princeton Theological Seminary Clarence H. Miller, Saint Louis University Heiko A. Oberman, University of Arizona John Rowlands, The British Museum J.S.G. Simmons, Oxford University John Tedeschi, University of Wisconsin Craig R. Thompson, University of Pennsylvania J. Trapman, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen J.B. Trapp, Warburg Institute NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE John J. Bateman, University of Illinois H.J. de Jonge, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden J.K. McConica, All Souls College, Oxford Bruce M. Metzger, Princeton Theological Seminary Jaroslav Pelikan, Yale University Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College, Chairman Contents Preface by John J. Bateman ix Translator's Note by Robert D. Sider xiii Paraphrase on Acts / In Acta apostolorum paraphrasis translated and annotated by Robert D. Sider 1 Notes 153 The Sequence and Dates of the Publication of the Paraphrases 334 Works Frequently Cited 335 Short-Title Forms for Erasmus' Works 340 Index of Biblical and Apocryphal References 345 Index of Classical References 356 Index of Patristic and Medieval References 358 Index of Greek and Latin Words Cited 360 Index of Place-Names 367 General Index 370 Preface The nature and scope of the series of volumes to be published as the New Testament scholarship of Erasmus have been described in the preface to volume 42. That volume also provided introductory studies on the origin and nature of the Paraphrases, their publication history, and sixteenth-century translations in English. Those essays should prove useful to readers of this volume. At a later date, a volume (CWE 41) will appear with a full introduction to the New Testament scholarship of Erasmus, together with translations of shorter works pertaining to that scholarship. Nevertheless, since the Paraphrase on Acts stands at the end of the nine volumes to be devoted to the Paraphrases, it may not be out of place to say a few words here about Erasmus' achievement. In a letter (Ep 1672) written in 1526 to an admirer who had apparently inquired about the Paraphrases on the Gospels, Erasmus explained that he had sought to return scholastic theology, which in his opinion was too much concerned with quibbles, to the true sources of theology and for that purpose had made his revision and new Latin translation of the biblical text, his Annotations on it, and his Paraphrases. The audience for these publications was, as he said, anyone literate in Latin, but his eye was primarily on students of theology, both clerical and lay. The Paraphrases in particular were designed to provide their readers with a summary of evangelical philosophy before they went on to more abstruse studies. Erasmus seems to have envisioned these readers as any of those who were too slow, too busy with other activities, or too fastidious in their literary taste to spend time on the close study of the New Testament and the many problems of interpretation posed by it. The Paraphrases thus offered an easy route, as he called it, to the knowledge of apostolic doctrine, which was the necessary foundation of all theological study and indeed of the Christian life itself. Written in an essentially homiletical style, they constitute simultaneously an elucidation 'in terms both plain and clear' of the gospel and an exhortation to live according to its rule. Few if any commentators on the Bible down to