Grotius’s Annotationes on the Bible (1619–1645)

Chapter 5 shows that Scaliger’s heritage could be used to different ends. Grotius used the tool of biblical philology to back up his somewhat naïve ideal of religious ecumenism between Protestantisms and Catholicism. As a reincarnation of Erasmus, he miserably failed to convince either party, but left an impressive set of annotations on the Old Testament and particularly on the New Testament, which trumped Heinsius’s annotations both in clarity and in sharpness. More than Heinsius, Grotius employed linguistic and political contextualization from pagan history, in the train of Scaliger, and also inspired by John Selden. There was competition between the one-time youthful friends Heinsius and Grotius. Contrary to Heinsius’s more neutral approach, Grotius’s philological study of the Bible ran parallel to a sustained polemic over religious politics.