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March 17, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIA
CALVIN AS A SCHOLAR.
By Prof. Henry E. Dosker, D. D.
VII.
The educational advantages enjoyed by Calvin were
exceptionally fine. From first to last lie had the advantage
of the best schools and the best teachers. As
we have seen, his mind was precociously developed and
extremely keen. At a time of life when most men are
only shedding their mental nest-feathers, .lie had attained
full maturity and ripe scholarship. Latin was
to him, as to most scholars of his day, even more
familiar than his mother-tongue. None of the other
Reformers approached him in the classic use of the
Latin language, with the exception of Melanchthon,
who perhaps excelled him. But the latter's training
had been entirely along humanistic lines. Calvin "moves
in Latin with elegance and grace and breathes forth
his thoughts in harmony with the language." He evidently
thinks in it and everywhere proves his perfect
familiarity with the classics; although there is no evidence
of the fact that he read Cicero through once per
year, as some of his admirers said. His language is less
ornate, crisper, terser than that of Cicero. If he modelled
after any one, it was after Seneca.
His own native French is greatly indebted to him.
The French introduction to the first edition of the
"Institutes" is called "an epistle worthy of a! great king."
French critics have freely admitted the great formative
influence which Calvin exerted over their language.
Shortly after his death, Pasquier wrote: "Our French
tongue owes mm endlessly much. A number of the
most beautiful terms and of the finest expression?,
which are now used, descend to us from Calvin." Bossuet
acknowledges that he?"wrote French as well as
any of his age." Sayous admits that: "The extent-and
the swift development of his influence on our tongue
is quite inestimable, the modern syntax of French
largely dates from him."
As an indication of his precociousness, we may men'
tion that he wrote his commentary on Genera's?""n*
Clementia"?when he was a boy, not yet twenty-three
years old, and his "Psychopannychia," a discussion of
the sleep of the soul after death, a year later. Of both
of these the words are true, which Herzog wrote about
the first edition of the "Institutes," when Calvin was
twenty-six years old: "it betrays a rare ripeness of
mind in so tender a youth."
The two things, to which we point, as indicating the
high degree of scholarship of Calvin and his mental
resourcefulness are his translation of the Bible and his
exegetical work. As regards the first. In the year
1540 two mutually antagonistic forces appeared, which
were destined vitallv to affert th<? Frpncii
J .vovii iWlUI II1U11U11.
The one was the establishment of the order of the
Jesuits, the other the complete translation of the Scriptures,
published under Calvin's name. It was, however,
not Calvin's original work. Lefevre had made the start
and Robert Olevetan had, in 1534, compared this text
of Lefevre with the original Hebrew; especially for the
benefit of the Waldensians. Olevetan sent the manuscript
to Calvin for correction. The edition of 1540
was Calvin's own revision. Eleven years later a new
* V?
N OF THE SOUTH. n
effort was made, in which Calvin associated with himself
all the learned men about him, notably Beza. This
translation was printed by Robert Stephanus, of Geneva,
and saw several editions during Calvin's life.
It is, however, not" to be compared with the unique
work of Luther, and it bears the imprint of too many
hands. With Henry and Stahelin we may well mourn
the fact that Calvin alone did not undertake the work,
to which his rare linguistic talent so peculiarly adapted
him. He might have left some other things undone
and, by devoting himself, with all his strength, to this
work of Bible translation, might have left an enduring .
monument, overtopping all his other literary labors.
He was fully equipped, both for translating the Scriptures
and for exegetical work, by his knowledge of- the
original languages of the Bible and by his keen dogmatic
insight into the contents of th#? ^rintm-oc
? ? ? tw/vi ijyi-ui vo, 1 V. 1 1 J
calls him "the king of the exegetes" of his time, and who
will question the title? And yet the very beginning
of this exegetical activity proves his modesty. Read
his introduction to his exposition of the epistle to the
Romans and see how he places himself and his labors
far below Melanchthon and Bullinger and Buccr. Posterity
judged differently. These first fruits of his exegetical
labor appeared in 1539 or 1540, followed by expositions
of all the books of the Bible, except Judges,
Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Esther, Nehemiah. Ezra. Prov
erbs, Song of Solomon and Revelation. On the* latter
book he did not write because, in his own words?"he
was wholly unable to comprehend the meaning of the
very obscure writer of that book, and that it was a
question among learned men to whom the authorship
should be ascribed."
With all his deep dogmatic convictions, Calvin always
approached the Scriptures with the utmost objectivity.
He tried to find out and to explain, not what
he wanted the Scriptures to say, but what they actually
did say. Of course, all his work is not equalfy good.
Thus, for instance, his commentary on the Gospels
can not be compared to his work on the Psalms
ana tne .Pauline epistles. Here he reaches his full
height and sweeps on, in grand sympathy with the deep
sayings of the Psalmist and of the Apostle; here he is
at his best. His mind was of the Paulinic type and his
religious experience found its mirror in the Psalms.
The secret of the great success of Calvin as a commentator
is his deep love for and unswerving loyalty to
the Word of God.
Nearly all his later expository work was cast into the
mould of exegetical lectures to the students of the
Academy, after this was founded in 1559. The num
bers of students attending these lectures were very
large, reaching frequently to a thousand or more men.
As these students became the preachers of France and
of Europe, it is well-nigh inconceivable how great an
influence Calvin thus exerted on the Reformation.
This side of his intellectual activity alone would have
abundantly entitled him to the name?scholar. To a
marvelous industry and painstaking care he added the
weight of an erudition which, in itself, made him a
marked man among all his contemporaries.
Pres. Seminary of Ky., Louisville, Ky.