Reading Scripture with the Reformers - · PDF fileHCC Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church 8 vols New York: ... lCC J Baillie et al , ... which effected a communications revolution

Timothy George
Reading Scripture with the Reformers
Reading Scripture.indb 3 7/22/11 9:50:42 AM
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2011 by Timothy George
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Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The hymn Thanks to God Whose Word Was Spoken on pages 14-15 was written by R. T. Brooks, 1954, Ren. 1982 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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ISBN 978-0-8308-2949-1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
George, Timothy. Reading scripture with the reformers/Timothy George. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISB 978-0-8308-2949-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. BibleCriticism, interpretation, etc.History16th century. 2. Reformation. 3. Church history16th century. I. Title. BS511.3.G46 2011 220.609409031dc22
2011013673
P 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Y 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11

For The Honorable Albert P. Brewer
andThe Reverend Charles T. Carter
,
Ga l at i a NS 6 :2

Contents
abbreviations 9
Preface 11
1 Why Read the Reformers? 17
2 Ad Fontes! 44
3 the Erasmian Moment 74
4 Whose Bible? Which tradition? 102
5 Doctor Martinus 137
6 lutheran Ways 171
7 along the Rhine 199
8 Preach the Word 228
Conclusion 254
image Credits 259
author index 260
Subject index 262
Scripture index 269

abbreviations
aNF a Roberts and J Donaldson, eds ante-Nicene Fathers 10 vols Buffalo: Christian literature, 1885-1896 Reprint, Grand Rap-ids: Eerdmans, 1951-1956 Reprint, Peabody, Mass : Hendrick-son, 1994
ARG Archiv fr Reformationsgeschichte archive for Reformation His-tory, Gtersloh, Westf; G Mohn, 1904-
CC Calvins Commentaries 22 vols Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003
CNtC Calvins New testament Commentaries 12 vols Edited by D W and t F torrance Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959-1972
CO Ioannis Calvini Opera Quae Supersunt Ommia. 59 vols Corpus Reformatorum 29-88 Edited by G Baum, E Cunitz and E Reuss Brunswich and Berlin, 1863-1900
CR Corpus Reformatorum Edited by C G Bretsjchneider Halle, 1834-1860
CWE Collected Works of Erasmus 86 vols planned toronto: Univer-sity of toronto Press, 1969-
EE P S allen, ed Opus espistolarum Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami. 12 vols Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1906-1947
HCC Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church 8 vols New York: Charles Scribner, 1882-1910
JETS Journal of Evangelical Theological Society. Published by the Evan-gelical theological Society, louisville, Ky 1958-
lB J leclerc, ed Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami Opera Omnia. 10 vols leiden [lugduni Batavorum], 1703-1706
lCC J Baillie et al , eds the library of Christian Classics 26 vols Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953-1966

lCl loeb Classical library Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press; london: Heinenmann, 1912-
LW Luthers Works [american Edition] 55 vols St louis: Concor-dia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1955-1986
MBW Melancthons Briefwechsel: Kritische und Kommentierte Gesam-tausgabe. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1977-
OER Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation 4 vols Edited by Hans J Hillerbrand New York: Oxford University Press, 1996
PG J P Migne, ed Patrologia cursus completus Series Graeca 166 vols Paris: Migne, 1857-1886
Pl J P Migne, ed Patrologia cursus completus Series latina 221 vols Paris: Migne, 1844-1864
WA D Martin luther Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe 66 vols Weimar: Hermann Bhlaus Nachfolger, 1883-1987
WA, Br D. Martin Luther Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Briefwechsel. 18 vols Weimar: Hermann Bhlaus Nachfolger, 1930-1985
WA, DB D. Martin Luther Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Deutsche Bibel. 12 vols Weimar: Hermann Bhlaus Nachfolger, 1906-1961
WA, TR D. Martin Luther Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Tischreden. 6 vols Weimar: Hermann Bhlaus Nachfolger, 1912-1921
WLS What Luther Says: A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian 3 vols St louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006
WMl Works of Martin luther with introductions and Notes 6 vols Philadelphia: a J Holman & Castle, 1915-1932
Z Emil Egli, George Finsler, et al , eds Huldreich Zwinglis Smt liche Werke. Corpus Reformatorum Vols 88-101 Berlin-leipzig-Zrich, 1905-1956

Preface
G R Elton, an esteemed historian of an earlier generation, once wrote that if there is a single thread running through the whole story of the Reformation, it is the explosive and renovating and often disintegrating effect of the Bible 1 this book is the story, or at least part of the story, of how the Bible came to have a central role in the sixteenth-century movement for religious reform that we call the Protestant Reformation there had been many Bible-based reform movements throughout the history of the church, beginning with monasticism, in which the Scriptures had a prominent place in the daily liturgy of the hours Closer to the Reformation, the Bible had also been championed by late medieval movements of dissentthe lollards in England, the Hussites in Bohemia and the Waldensians spreading from the italian alps to every corner of Europe there were the Brothers and Sisters of the Common life who copied, read and taught the Bible in their many communities throughout Ger-many and the low Countries the old myth that there was complete ignorance of the Bible between the death of augustine and the birth of luther has long been exploded
and yet there was something unique in the way the Bible took center stage at the time of the Reformation Nearly a century after King Henry Viii allowed the first royally sanctioned Bible to be
1G R Elton, Reformation Europe, 1517-1559 (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), p 52

12 Reading Scripture with the Reformers
published in English, William Chillingworth, a Catholic who be-came a Protestant only to return later to the Church of Rome, de-clared in 1638: the Bible, the Bible only i say, is the religion of Prot-estants While much controversy would surround that little word only, it was manifestly true that the translation and dissemination of the Scriptures had profoundly shaped the spiritual lives of many peo-ple John Foxe tells of a farmer who gave a wagonload of hay for a copy of the epistle of James and John Knox relates the story of a believer in Scotland who was so exc

Reading Scripture with the Reformers - · PDF fileHCC Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church 8 vols New York: ... lCC J Baillie et al , ... which effected a communications revolution

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