German language translations of the Bible have existed since the Middle Ages. The most influential is Luther's translation, which established High German as the literary language throughout Germany by the middle of the seventeenth century and which still continues to be most widely used in the German-speaking world today.
The earliest known and partly still available Germanic version of the Bible was the fourth century Gothic translation of Wulfila (c. 311–380). This version, translated primarily from the Greek, established much of the Germanic Christian vocabulary that is still in use today. Later Charlemagne promoted Frankish Bible translations in the 9th century.[ citation needed ] There were Bible translations present in manuscript form at a considerable scale already in the thirteenth and the fourteenth century (e.g. the New Testament in the Augsburger Bible of 1350 and the Old Testament in the Wenceslas Bible of 1389). There are still approximately 1,000 manuscripts or manuscript fragments of Medieval German Bible translations extant. [1]
There is ample evidence for the general use of the entire vernacular German Bible in the fifteenth century. [1] [2] In 1466, before Martin Luther was even born, Johannes Mentelin printed the Mentel Bible, a High German vernacular Bible, at Strasbourg. This edition was based on a no-longer-extant fourteenth-century manuscript translation of the Vulgate from the area of Nuremberg. By 1518, it had been reprinted at least 13 times. [3]
The Sensenschmidt Bible was published around 1476‒1478. In 1478–1479, two editions were published in Cologne, one in the Low Rhenish dialect and another in Low Saxon. In 1483, the Koberger was printed . [4] In 1494, another Low German Bible was published in the dialect of Lübeck, and in 1522, the last pre-Lutheran Bible, the Low Saxon Halberstadt Bible was published.
In 1477, in Delft, Holland, an Old Testament (except the Psalms) was printed in Middle Dutch. An accompanying New Testament seems to have been lost.
In total, there were at least eighteen complete German Bible editions, ninety editions in the vernacular of the Gospels and the readings of the Sundays and Holy Days, and some fourteen German Psalters by the time Luther first published his own New Testament translation. [1] An Anabaptist translation of the Prophets by Ludwig Hetzer and Hans Denck was published at Worms in 1529. [5]
Name | Year | Place of printing | Printer/Illustrator | Chronological order |
Mentelin-Bibel | 1466 | Straßburg | Johannes Mentelin | 1. |
Eggestein-Bibel | vor 1470 | Straßburg | Heinrich Eggestein | 2. |
Zainer-Bibel | 1475 | Augsburg | Günther Zainer | 3./4. |
Pflanzmann-Bibel | 1475 | Augsburg | Jodocus Pflanzmann [6] | 4./3. |
Sensenschmidt-Bibel | 1476–78 | Nürnberg | Andreas Frisner, Johann Sensenschmidt | 5. |
Zainer-Bibel | 1477 | Augsburg | Günther Zainer | 6. |
Sorg-Bibel | 1477 | Augsburg | Anton Sorg | 7. |
Kölner Bibeln | 1478/79 | Köln | Heinrich Quentell oder Bartholomäus von Unckell | Low Rhenish |
Kölner Bibeln | 1478/79 | Köln | Heinrich Quentell oder Bartholomäus von Unckell | Low Saxon |
Sorg-Bibel | 1480 | Augsburg | Anton Sorg | 8. |
Koberger-Bibel | 1483 | Nürnberg | Anton Koberger | 9. |
Grüninger-Bibel | 1485 | Straßburg | Johann Grüninger | 10. |
Schönsperger-Bibel | 1487 | Augsburg | Johann Schönsperger d. Ä. | 11. |
Schönsperger-Bibel | 1490 | Augsburg | Johann Schönsperger d. Ä. | 12. |
Lübecker Bibel (1494) | 1494 | Lübeck | Steffen Arndes/Meister der Lübecker Bibel | Low Saxon |
Otmar-Bibel | 1507 | Augsburg | Johann Otmar | 13. |
Otmar-Bibel | 1518 | Augsburg | Silvan Otmar | 14. |
Halberstädter Bibel | 1522 | Halberstadt | Lorenz Stuchs | Low Saxon |
The most important and influential translation of the Bible into German is the Luther Bible: the initial New Testament was released in 1522 (the "September Bible"); this was the first German translation notionally from (Erasmus') Greek and not translated only from the Latin Vulgate. [7] Translations of Old Testament books were released incrementally, completed in 1534, again with reference to the Hebrew.
The influence that Martin Luther's translation had on the development of the German language is often compared to the influence the King James Version had on English.
The Luther Bible was revised in 1984, and this version was adapted to the new German orthography in 1999. Here also some revisions have taken place, e.g. "Weib" > "Frau". Despite the revisions, the language is still somewhat archaic and difficult for non-native speakers who want to learn the German language using a German translation of the Bible.
In 2017, on the 500th anniversary of Reformation Day, a completely revised version of the Luther Bible was published. This is the translation currently in use. In the 2017 Luther Bible some of the text that had been 'toned down' in previous revisions has been reverted to Luther's stronger formulations. [8]
Zwingli's High Alemannic German (Swiss German) translation grew out of the Prophezey , an exegetical workshop taking place on every weekday, with the participation of all clerics of Zürich, working at a German rendition of Bible texts for the benefit of the congregation. The translation of Martin Luther was used as far as it was already completed. This helped Zwingli to complete the entire translation five years before Luther. At the printing shop of Christoph Froschauer, the New Testament appeared from 1525 to 1529, and later parts of the Old Testament, with a complete translation in a single volume first printed in 1531, with an introduction by Zwingli and summaries of each chapter. This Froschauer Bible , containing more than 200 illustrations, became notable as a masterpiece of printing at the time. The translation is mainly due to Zwingli and his friend Leo Jud, pastor at the St. Peter parish. The translation of the Old Testament was revised in 1540, that of the New Testament in 1574. Verse numbering was introduced in 1589.
Catholic translations continued to be produced: in 1526, Beringer's translation of the New Testament was published at Speyer. In 1527, Hieronymus Emser did a translation of the New Testament based on Luther's translation and the Vulgate. In 1534, Johann Dietenberger, OP, used Emser's New Testament and Leo Jud's translation of the deuterocanonical books in a complete Bible published at Mainz; both Emser's and Dietenberger's prose partly followed the style of the pre-Lutheran translations. The Dietenberger Bible was published in various revisions. Kaspar Ulenberg's revision was published at Mainz in 1617, and at Cologne in 1630. Ulenberg's revision was the basis for the "Catholic Bible," the revision by Jesuit theologians published at Mainz in 1661, 1662, and so on. Th. Erhard, OSB, did a revision published at Augsburg in 1722, which was in its sixth edition by 1748. G. Cartier's revision was published at Konstanz in 1751. The revision by Ignatius von Weitenauer, SJ, was published at Augsburg in twelve volumes from 1783 to 1789. [9]
Moses Mendelssohn (a.k.a. Moses ben Menahem-Mendel and Moses Dessau; 1729–86) translated part of the Torah into German, which was published in Amsterdam in 1778. The translation was honored by some Jews and Protestants, while some Jews banned it. The whole Pentateuch and Psalms was published in 1783, and was appreciated even in Christian circles. His version of the Song of Solomon was posthumously published in 1788.
A Reformed translation by Johannes Piscator was published at Herborn from 1602 to 1604. Johannes Crellius (1599–1633) and Joachim Stegmann, Sr., did a German version of the Socinians' Racovian New Testament, published at Raków in 1630. A Jewish translation of the Tanakh by Athias was published in 1666, and reprinted in the Biblia Pentapla at Hamburg in 1711.
Daniel Gotthilf Moldenhawer's translation was published in 1774, Simon Grynaeus' in 1776, and Vögelin's of the new testament in 1781.
Heinrich Braun, OSB, did a new translation of the Vulgate, published at Augsburg from 1788 to 1797. Johann Michael Feder's revision of this was published at Nuremberg in 1803. Feder's revision was the basis of Joseph Franz Allioli's revision, published at Landshut in 1830 and 1832, and often republished. [9] Dominic de Brentano translated the New Testament and the Pentateuch and Anton Dereser translated the rest of the Bible; this was published at Frankfurt in sixteen volumes from 1815 to 1828, and then was revised by Johann Martin Augustin Scholz and published in seventeen volumes from 1828 to 1837. [10]
Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette and Johann Christian Wilhelm Augusti did a translation that was published at Heidelberg from 1809 to 1814, and the revision by Wette was published from 1831 to 1833. Rabbi Michael Sachs worked with Arnheim and Füchs on a new translation of the Tenakh published at Berlin in 1838.
Loch and Reischl did a translation from the Vulgate, compared with the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, published at Regensburg from 1851 to 1866. [9]
A modern German translation is the Catholic Einheitsübersetzung ("unified" or "unity translation"), so called because it was the first common translation used for all Catholic German-speaking dioceses. The text of the New Testament and the Psalms of the Einheitsübersetzung was agreed on by a committee of Catholic and Protestant scholars, and therefore was intended to be used by both Roman Catholics and Protestants especially for ecumenical services, while the remainder of the Old Testament follows a Catholic tradition. However, the Protestant Church of Germany refused to continue the cooperation for the current revision of the Einheitsübersetzung. [11]
Other well known German language Bible versions are: Zürcher Bibel , Elberfelder , Schlachter , Buber-Rosenzweig (OT only), Pattloch, Herder, Hoffnung für Alle (Hope for All), Die Gute Nachricht (The Good News), Gute Nachricht Bibel (Good News Bible, revision of "Gute Nachricht"), Bibel in gerechter Sprache (Bible in equitable language, i.e. non-sexist).
The Vulgate is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later, of his own initiative, Jerome extended this work of revision and translation to include most of the books of the Bible.
The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. As of September 2023 all of the Bible has been translated into 736 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,658 languages, and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,264 other languages according to Wycliffe Global Alliance. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,658 languages.
The Douay–Rheims Bible, also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by members of the English College, Douai, in the service of the Catholic Church. The New Testament portion was published in Reims, France, in 1582, in one volume with extensive commentary and notes. The Old Testament portion was published in two volumes twenty-seven years later in 1609 and 1610 by the University of Douai. The first volume, covering Genesis to Job, was published in 1609; the second, covering the Book of Psalms to 2 Maccabees plus the three apocryphal books of the Vulgate appendix following the Old Testament, was published in 1610. Marginal notes took up the bulk of the volumes and offered insights on issues of translation, and on the Hebrew and Greek source texts of the Vulgate.
Johann Dietenberger, OP was a German Counter Reformation-era Scholastic and theologian. He was canon and inquisitor-general of Mentz and Cologne.
JeromeEmser, was a German theologian and antagonist of Martin Luther, was born of a good family at Ulm.
Kaspar Ulenberg was a Catholic convert, theological writer and translator of the Bible.
The Zurich Bible is a Swiss German Bible translation historically based on the rescensions of Huldrych Zwingli. Recent editions have a stated aim of maximal philological exactitude.
The Luther Bible is a German language Bible translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. A New Testament translation by Luther was first published in September 1522, and the completed Bible, containing a translation of the Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha, in 1534. Luther continued to make improvements to the text until 1545. It was the one of first full translations of the Bible into German that used not only the Latin Vulgate but also the Greek.
The Tyndale Bible (TYN) generally refers to the body of biblical translations by William Tyndale into Early Modern English, made c. 1522–1535. Tyndale's biblical text is credited with being the first Anglophone Biblical translation to work directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, although it relied heavily upon the Latin Vulgate and Luther's German New Testament. Furthermore, it was the first English biblical translation that was mass-produced as a result of new advances in the art of printing.
The term Catholic Bible can be understood in two ways. More generally, it can refer to a Christian Bible that includes the whole 73-book canon recognized by the Catholic Church, including some of the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament which are in the Greek Septuagint collection, but which are not present in the Hebrew Masoretic Text collection. More specifically, the term can refer to a version or translation of the Bible which is published with the Catholic Church's approval, in accordance with Catholic canon law.
Bible translations into French date back to the Medieval era. After a number of French Bible translations in the Middle Ages, the first printed translation of the Bible into French was the work of the French theologian Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples in 1530 in Antwerp. This was substantially revised and improved in 1535 by Pierre Robert Olivétan. This Bible, in turn, became the basis of the first French Catholic Bible, published at Leuven in 1550, the work of Nicholas de Leuze and François de Larben. Finally, the Bible de Port-Royal, prepared by Antoine Lemaistre and his brother Louis Isaac Lemaistre, finished in 1695, achieved broad acceptance among both Catholics and Protestants. Jean-Frédéric Ostervald's version (1744) also enjoyed widespread popularity.
The history of Bible translations into Albanian can be divided into early and modern translations.
Bible translations in the Middle Ages went through several phases, all using the Vulgate. In the Early Middle Ages, written translations tended to be associated with royal or episcopal patronage, or with glosses on Latin texts; in the High Middle Ages with monasteries and universities; in the Late Middle Ages, with popular movements which caused, when the movement were associated with violence, official crackdowns of various kinds on vernacular scripture in Spain, England and France.
A Protestant Bible is a Christian Bible whose translation or revision was produced by Protestant Christians. Typically translated into a vernacular language, such Bibles comprise 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament, for a total of 66 books. Some Protestants use Bibles which also include 14 additional books in a section known as the Apocrypha bringing the total to 80 books. This is in contrast with the 73 books of the Catholic Bible, which includes seven deuterocanonical books as a part of the Old Testament. The division between protocanonical and deuterocanonical books is not accepted by all Protestants who simply view books as being canonical or not and therefore classify books found in the Deuterocanon, along with other books, as part of the Apocrypha. Sometimes the term "Protestant Bible" is simply used as a shorthand for a bible which contains only the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.
Bibleserver.com is a webpage offered by ERF Online which, through the international cooperation with various Bible Societies and publishers, provides 46 modern and historical Bible translations in 21 languages. This webpage also offers user interfaces in these 21 languages.
The history of Bible translations into Icelandic began with the country's conversion to Christianity around 1000 CE but efforts accelerated with the Icelandic Reformation in the mid-16th century. Since then, 11 complete translations of the Bible have been completed into Icelandic. Currently, the Icelandic Bible Society oversees translation and production of Icelandic-language Bibles with the most recent full translation completed in 2007.
Bible translations in Norway date back to the late 13th century. Since the first spread of Christianity in Norway, numerous translations of the Bible have been published. Translations have appeared in several of the official languages that Norway has had throughout its history, including editions in Old Norse, Danish, and both current standard forms Nynorsk and Bokmål.
Einheitsübersetzung (EÜ) is a German translation of the Bible for liturgical use in Roman Catholic worship. It is published by the Katholisches Bibelwerk and was compiled from 1962 to 1980 by Catholic theologians with contributions from Protestant theologians. Collaboration was done on the New Testament and the Psalms. The Protestant side withdrew support from a project revising the Einheitsübersetzung in 2005.
Bible translations into Sorbian have a long history with the oldest translation published in 1547.
The Zurich Bible of 1531, also known as the Froschauer Bible of 1531, is a translation of the Bible from the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek language into German, which was printed in 1531 in the Dispensaryof Christoph Froschauer in Zurich. The entire New Testament and large parts of the Old Testament are an adaptation of Martin Luther's translation. The biblical prophetic books were translated by the circle around Huldrych Zwingli independently of the Luther Bible, but using the Worms Prophets. The new translation of the poetic books, including the Psalms, is an independent work by the Zurich scholars.