Tuesday, October 28, 2025

It is the 28th of October 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I love it when the calendar and our content here at 1517 and on the Almanac come together. As you might remember, two weeks ago on the Weekend Edition, I spoke about theological rivalries, and this was in conjunction with this year’s Here We Still Stand, which was centered on the famous rivalry in the 1520s between Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus. Those talks are starting to make their way to the 1517 YouTube site- so, go there if you’d like.

And you might hear me dance gently around the rivalry- no one went there wondering “whose side to take”- and theologically I would be with those more on team Luther than team Erasmus. But Erasmus is no dime novel villain. In fact, he’s one of the most interesting and important characters in the Early Modern World. And guess what, this Erasmus was born on this, the 28th of October in 1469 (most likely), and so let’s take a minute to tell his story and perhaps appreciate his VERy important role in the Renaissance and Reformation.

He is called “Erasmus of Rotterdam”- this is interesting because he may not have been from Rotterdam at all. We know very, very little about his youth. Erasmus means beloved or desired- so he latinized his name as well to Desiderius Erasmus. We know little about his early years for good reason- he was the son of a priest and thus illegitimate . Priests weren’t supposed to have sons, and so Erasmus was tucked away at an Augustinian monastery for church work.

He hated it. He may have had an illicit love affair. He did, however, come across Latin texts and became fascinated with the ancient world that these texts reflected. He would forever devote himself to the texts of the ancient world- Christian and otherwise. He would be at the forefront of the movement called “Humanism”, which was the key for the coming Protestant Reformation- a desire to “go back to the sources”.

Erasmus’ influence cannot be overstated- as neither fish nor fowl- he was a theologian and academic but neither a priest nor professor. He was viscerally opposed to the worldliness of the Papacy- one of his popular works was called “Julius, Excluded From Heaven”. That would be Pope Julius, a pope who lived in Erasmus’ time, called “the Warrior Pope” for his world-warring ways.

But he was something of a pacifist as well and saw the Reformation for what it, in some ways, was: a revolution. His debate with Luther over the freedom of the will interests me less than his condemnation of the fracturing of Christendom. His debate with Luther began in 1525, the same year the Peasants' War broke out, and despite his affinities for the work of some of the Reformers, he could never join a movement that he believed spawned that revolt.

And so he would be pilloried by Protestants, but also became a persona non grata amongst the Catholics. His works would be placed on the Index of Banned Books. He would be sneered at by Catholics with the famous adage that he “laid the egg from which Luther hatched”.

And this “egg” might be the most important work of the Early Modern Era: his Greek New Testament. It was on one of his many trips across the continent- this time to the British Isles that he met John Colet, an English Humanist who convinced the Dutchman to put his textual, editing, and translating skills to the ultimate test: the New Testament. For a thousand years, in the West, there was one Bible- the Vulgate of St. Jerome. A very serviceable Latin text- but one that had the imprimatur of the Catholic Church and thus was not questioned.

Erasmus was able to collect a handful of manuscripts in Greek and to cross-reference and check, and then to print his version of the most reliable text in a column next to Jerome’s Latin. He suggested that Jerome’s translation “do penance” was inferior to the more direct “repent” and thus a change of heart, more than a church induced set of actions. This was Luther’s first thesis, of the 95 Theses, in 1517. When did Erasmus publish his New Testament? 1516.

Perhaps he was too cautious, too committed to the old ways, or a quixotic peace, and thus fell between two stools. His debate on the Freedom of the Will and its theological implications is being analyzed all over 1517 by the theologians. But let the historian remind you of the great significance of this- the patron saint of Christian Humanists- the man who laid the egg that Luther hatched on the 556th anniversary of his birth on this day in 1469- Desiderius Erasmus, perhaps of Rotterdam.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and the benediction from 1 Peter 5:

6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 28th of October 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who surely defends my use of the word “quixotic”- it’s derived from “Don Quixote” and means overly idealistic- he is my Sancho Panza: Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man known to sometimes tilt at windmills and dream the impossible dream- I’m  Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.