How did Erasmus's translation of metanoete undermine the sacrament of penance?

The panel uses John the Baptist's Greek cry metanoete as the clearest example. Jerome's Vulgate rendered it as 'do penance', and the medieval Church built a sacrament of penance on that phrase. Erasmus read the Greek as a call to turn around and translated it as 'repent'. He later softened the point in revised editions, but Martin Luther took it up. The guests note that Erasmus found the example in the notes of the Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla, which he had published himself.

• The panel frames this as part of the saying that Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-10-19). Read the whole episode summary →

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