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his imps were able to do. As it is, only his disagreement with Luther's doctrine of predestination ever prompted him
to criticize the Reformer with pen and ink. Erasmus's greatest point of dissension with the Roman Church was over
its doctrine of salvation through works and the tenets of the church. He taught that salvation was a personal matter
between the individual and God and was by faith alone. Of the Roman system of salvation he complained,
"Aristotle is so in vogue that there is scarcely time in the churches to interpret the gospel." And what was "the
gospel" to which Erasmus referred? We will let him speak for himself. "Our hope is in the mercy of God and the
merits of Christ." Of Jesus Christ he stated, "He ... nailed our sins to the cross, sealed our redemption with his
blood." He boldly stated that no rites of the Church were necessary for an individual's salvation. "The way to enter
paradise," he said, "is the way of the penitent thief, say simply, Thy will be done. The world to me is crucified and I
to the world." Concerning the most biblical sect of his time, the Anabaptists, he reserved a great deal of respect. He
mentioned them as early as 1523 even though he himself was often called the "only Anabaptist of the 16th century."
He stated that the Anabaptists that he was familiar with called themselves "Baptists." (Ironically, Erasmus was also
the FIRST person to use the term "fundamental.") So we see that when Erasmus died on July 11, 1536, he had led a
life that could hardly be construed to be an example of what could be considered a "good Catholic." But perhaps
the greatest compliment, though veiled, that Erasmus's independent nature ever received came in 1559, twenty-three
years after his death. That is when Pope Paul IV put Erasmus's writings on the "Index" of books, forbidden to be
read by Roman Catholics.
Wikipedia: Codex Alexandrinus (an Egyptian manuscript) - The Codex
(a book with pages vs. a parchment or a scroll) Alexandrinus is a
[*corrupted] 5th century manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the
majority of the Septuagint and the New Testament - {All of the
Egyptian manuscripts above are of poor quality with scribal errors of
all sorts. They are poor copies with more than 5,000 changes
compared to the Byzantine [Textus Receptus] manuscripts. Most of
these changes are deletions, with verses and entire books missing.
Many verses are modified and the reading does not make a complete
thought or (use) simple logic. The only writing from the Apostle Paul is
the book of Romans. There are more than 3,000 variants in the Gospels
between the Codex Alexandrinus (A) and the Codex Vaticanus (B).
Their lack of agreement reduces their reliability even further. One
Bible text researcher has called this difference the 3,000 lies.
(biblelife.org/word.htm)}
It derives its name from Alexandria where it resided for a number of years before it brought by the Eastern
Orthodox Patriarch Cyril Lucaris from Alexandria to Constantinople. Then it was given to Charles I of England in
the 17th century. Until the later purchase of the Codex Sinaiticus, it was the best manuscript of the Greek Bible
deposited in Britain. Today, it rests along with Codex Sinaiticus in one of the showcases in the Ritblat Gallery of
the British Library. As the text came from several different traditions, different parts of the codex are not of equal
textual value. The text has been edited several times since the 18th century.
The History of the New Testament Scriptures - Which Version of the
Bible is Best? -- History proves that the Greek Textus Receptus or
Received Text as edited by Desiderius Erasmus from the Holy Greek
Byzantine Manuscripts is the inspired word of God - Only the King
http://www.basicchristian.org/blog_History_Study_Complete.rss[1/16/2012 7:38:03 AM]