Erasmus, after the dry philological task of editing the Greek text of the New Testament with annotations and a new translation, turned to his paraphrases with a sense of great freedom, bath literary and pastoral. Thomas More’s debt to his friend’s Biblical labors has been demonstrated but never systematically assessed. The faithful translation and annotation provided by Toronto provides an opportunity for examining a number of passages from St. Paul and St. James in the light of bath Erasmus’ exegesis and More’s apologetics.
This article examines translations for the Greek word “agapē” and its synonyms in versions of the New Testament: Thomas More used Latin versions of NT (Vulgate, Erasmus) and made his own English translations. In Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1529) and Confutation of Tyndale (1532-1533), More criticizes Tyndale’s New Testament (1526) for translating “agapē” as “love” not “charity.” Opposing Luther’s “sola fide,” More argues for faith infused with charity. More quotes Paul’s Hymn of Charity (1 Cor 13) in his polemical works or meditates on the Passion of Christ in his prison writings. This study also notes some translations of “agapē” by the Vulgate, Erasmus, and Tyndale.
Current histories of rhetoric neglect the early Christian period (ca. 30–430 CE) in several crucial ways–Augustine is overemphasized and made to serve as a summary of Christian thought rather than an endpoint, the texts of church fathers before 300 CE are neglected or lumped together, and the texts of the New Testament are left unexamined. An alternative outline of early Christian rhetoric is offered, explored through the angles of political self-invention, doctrinal ghostwriting, apologetics, and fractured sermonization. Early Christianity was not a monolithic religion that eventually made peace with classical rhetoric, but as a rhetorical force in its own right, and comprised of more factions early on than just the apostolic church.
