Erasmus’ Commentary on Psalm 2

Abstract

Erasmus' failure to master Hebrew raises the question of how his ad fontes approach to biblical interpretation applied to the Old Testament. His 76-page 'commentary' on Psalm 2 shows that he does make use of Hebrew, though his insights are derivative, mostly from Jerome or Augustine. In some places, however, he bases his exposition on the LXX and, where this differs from the Hebrew, on both. Erasmus reads the psalm as applying to Christ rather than David, and his philological scholarship is used to serve his interpretative aim of contemporary application in accordance with his 'philosophy of Christ'.