farfel_n08_014_504

of Matthew + Acts remain anonymous. Matthew is
addressed to Charles V, Mark to Francis I, Luke to
Henry VIII + John to Ferdinand. The Paraphrase on the
Gospels + Acts were translated late in the reign of Henry VIII
under the patronage of Queen Catherine Parr and the
editorship of Nicholas Udall (more famous for his play
"Ralph Roister Doister"); they were then made official documents
of the Church of England by action of the crown in the
Injunctions of 1547.

Besides translating + editing the N.T., Erasmus paraphrased
all but the Apocalypse between 1517 + 24. Erasmus was not
content c the simple, more or less factual annotations of the
N.T. that he 1st published in 1516, so he moved on to paraphrase,
a comparatively new approach that he used c great effect to
heighten + deepen understanding of the Evangelists. His
Paraphrases achieved great popularity; many editions of
them were printed (1st ed. of the Paraphrases of Matthew,
Basel, Froben, 1522) and Edward VI of England decreed that
a copy of Erasmus should be placed beside the Bible in all churches.

Erasmus greatest single contribution to scholarship was his
edition of the Greek N.T. c parallel Latin translation.
Erasmus' version of the N.T. was included in many later editions
of the Latin Bible as a substitutde for the Vulgate. Luther
used the text of Erasmus as the basis for his German version.

The Edwardian reign did not produce a Bible translation of its
own, but in its short 6 1/2 yrs. some 40 ed. of all the previous
versions were published. It did, however, print one innovation
of Bible publishing--a translation of Erasmus' long
popular Latin Paraphrase on commentary.