Paraphrase on Acts.

Between 1517 and 1524 Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote paraphrases on every book of the New Testament except Revelations. This project began with the Paraphrase on Romans and concluded with the Paraphrase on Acts, which Erasmus dedicated to Pope Clement VII in 1524. The Paraphrases on the New Testament, composed in an homiletic style, shows Erasmus at work as an expositor of the Christian Scriptures intent on shaping the piety of his readers.

As John J. Bateman notes in the preface to Volume 50 of the Collected Works of Erasmus (CWE), in recounting the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman world Erasmus "applies to biblical studies the concern with geography that was one of the major interests of humanist historiography and scholarship" (xi). The Paraphrase on Acts reveals Erasmus's attention to geographical and historical detail. For example, he goes beyond the original biblical text to point out that Caesarea, "a very prosperous city of Palestine" was "formerly called Strato's Tower" (69); that Saint Paul made his famous speech to the Athenians in "the quarter known as Mars," which was "the most celebrated place in Athens wherein cases of life and death were investigated in trials held at night" (108); and that Ephesus was "a maritime city in that part of Asia Minor which is properly and without qualification called Asia" (114). Quite appropriately, CWE 50 includes maps of the Roman world and of Palestine in New Testament times. Two of the five maps are reproductions from early sixteenth-century sources.

In the Paraphrase on Acts one discovers themes common to the other Paraphrases. One such theme is the important spiritual quality of peace or concord. Erasmus portrays the early church as a harmonious fellowship of believers (10) and Paul as a leader "taking thought for the tranquillity of all who had embraced Christ the peacemaker" (101). In his exposition of the heated dispute between Paul and Barnabas at the end of Acts 15, Erasmus emphasizes that the controversy was devoid of bitterness and did not endanger Christian concord (100).

In his translator's note, Robert D. Sider rightly observes that "the leading figures, above all Peter and Paul, are exemplars for the prelates of the church in Erasmus' day" (xiii). Throughout the Paraphrase on Acts Erasmus offers pastoral advice to his clerical and lay readers and presents them with aspects of the ideal pastor. His hostility towards Jews would also have been obvious to his readers. He denounces them as a "murderous nation" (66) and invites his readers to "observe in passing the Jewish art of inciting insurrection against those who sincerely preach Jesus" (90-91). The tension between Christianity and Judaism, a theme in Acts, becomes exacerbated in Erasmus's exposition.

In CWE 50, Sider has produced more than a fine English translation. The volume is also a monument to his own scholarship. As with Erasmus's editions of the New Testament, the scholarship is all in the notes. Sider's abundant and valuable notes (153-332) direct readers to the relevant literature in Erasmus studies and biblical scholarship, to the authors of classical antiquity (many of the references are to historical and geographical works), to commentaries of patristic and medieval exegetes, and to Erasmus's own works. Above all, Sider allows us to see Erasmus's scriptural exposition within its historical context, especially the context of medieval interpretation. With Sider as the general editor of the volumes that encompass Erasmus's New Testament scholarship, we can expect from the University of Toronto Press other excellent translations of and annotations on the Paraphrases.

HILMAR M. PABEL Simon Fraser University