Am anfang schuff Gott Himel vnd Erden. Vnd die Erde war wüst und leer/und es war finster auff der Tieffe/Vnd der Geist Gottes schwebet auff dem Wasser. Und Gott sprach/Es werde Liecht/Und es ward Liecht. (1545 revised 5th edition)[3]
Also hat Gott die Welt geliebet/das er seinen eingeboren Son gab/Auff das alle die an jn gleuben/nicht verloren werden/sondern das ewige Leben haben. (1545 revised 5th edition)[4]
Luther did not translate the entire Bible by himself; he relied on a team of translators and helpers that included Philip Melanchthon, a scholar of Koine Greek who motivated and assisted Luther's New Testament translation from Greek, and Matthäus Aurogallus, a linguist and scholar of Hebrew. One of the textual bases of the New Testament translation was the Latin and Greek versions, and its philological annotations, recently published by the Dutch Catholic humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam and called the Novum Testamentum omne (1519).
The project absorbed Luther's later years.[6] The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany,[1] promoting the development of non-local forms of language and exposing all speakers to forms of German from outside their own areas.[7] Thanks to the then recently invented printing press,[8] the result was widely disseminated and contributed significantly to the development of today's modern High German language.[1]
Previous German translations
A number of Bible translations into German, both manuscript and printed, were produced prior to Luther's birth. Starting around the year 1460 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 were printed, sometimes in multiple editions. These were all translations from the Latin Vulgate not influenced by the emerging Hebrew and Greek scholarship.[9]
Luther used Erasmus' second edition (1519) of the Latin New Testament with Greek (later developed into the Textus Receptus) and annotations. After leaving the castle, he revised passages obscure to him with the assistance of Greek specialist Phillip Melanchthon.[13]:56 Like Erasmus, Luther had learned some Greek at the Latin schools led by the Brethren of the Common Life (Erasmus in Deventer, the Netherlands; and Luther in Magdeburg, Germany). These lay brothers had added Greek as a new subject to their curriculum in the late 15th century.[14] At that time Greek was seldom taught even at universities.
Known as the "September Bible", this translation included only the New Testament and was printed in September 1522. Luther also published the Bible in the small octavo format.
To help him in translating into contemporary German, Luther made forays into nearby towns and markets to listen to people speaking.[citation needed] He wanted to ensure their comprehension by translating as closely as possible to their contemporary language usage. This translation, known as the "September Bible", was published in September 1522, six months after he had returned to Wittenberg.[citation needed] In the opinion of the 19th-century theologian and church historian Philip Schaff,
The richest fruit of Luther's leisure in the Wartburg, and the most important and useful work of his whole life, is the translation of the New Testament, by which he brought the teaching and example of Christ and the Apostles to the mind and heart of the Germans in life-like reproduction. It was a republication of the gospel. He made the Bible the people's book in church, school, and house.[15]
For example, he translated δίκαιος -forms with gerecht -words to refer to divine righteousness, but with frum -words in contexts which refer to human goodness, with billig for what is fitting or appropriate, and with recht -words when referring to lawful conduct, to create distinctions that reflected his theological view.[16]
The translation of the entire Bible into German was published in a six-part edition in 1534, a collaborative effort of Luther and many others such as Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Caspar Creuziger, Philipp Melanchthon, Matthäus Aurogallus, and Georg Rörer. Luther worked on refining the translation up to his death in 1546; he had worked on the edition that was printed that year.
The 1534 edition issued by the Hans Lufft press in Wittenberg included 117 original woodcuts. This reflected the recent trend (since 1522) of including artwork to reinforce the textual message.[17]
Luther's Bible was a bestseller in its time. About 200,000 copies in hundreds of reprinted editions appeared before Luther died in 1546. However, the book remained too expensive for most people; an unbound copy of the complete 1534 Bible cost the equivalent of a month's wages for the average laborer. Instead, the Bible was bought by churches, pastors, and schools.[18]
Revisions were made during and after Luther's lifetime, sometimes with multiple editions in a single year. The 1530 edition is regarded as his most thoroughgoing revision of the New Testament. The successive revisions were less constrained by Latin and Greek.[19]
In 2017, a revised version was published for the 500th anniversary of the posting of the Ninety-five Theses.[20]
Books of the Luther Bible
The complete 1534 edition of the Luther Bible contains a total of 75 books, including 39 books of the Old Testament, 9 books of the Apocrypha, and 27 books of the New Testament:[21]
Luther controversially added the word "alone" (allein in German) to Romans 3:28 so that it read: "So now we hold, that man is justified without the help of the works of the law, alone through faith".[24] The word "alone" does not appear in the Greektexts,[25] but Luther defended his translation by maintaining that the adverb "alone" was required both by idiomatic German and the apostle Paul's intended meaning according to his interpretation,[26] and that sola had been used in Western theological tradition before him.
Many Protestant scholars have noted the bias in Luther's translation, including Anglican apologist Alister McGrath:[27]
Luther insisted that Paul's doctrine of "justification by faith" was definitive for Christianity. And to make sure that there was no understandings about this, he added the word "alone" lest anyone see faith as one among a number of causes of justification-including works. This addition caused a furor. Catholics pointed out that the NT nowhere taught "justification by faith alone"; indeed, the Letter of James explicitly condemned the idea. Luther responded by making the point that his slogan encapsulated neatly the substance of the NT even if it did not use precisely its original words. And as for the letter of James, was it not "an epistle of straw" that ought not to be in the NT anyway? This second argument caused considerable unease within Protestant circles and was not maintained by Luther's successors.
—Alister Mcgrath
The 2017 version has added footnotes on Romans 1:17, Romans 2:13, Romans 3:21, and Romans 3:28 that warn about the deliberate mistranslations Luther committed. For example, while the text of the 2017 version retains the disputed word "alone" (So halten wir nun dafür, dass der Mensch gerecht wird ohne des Gesetzes Werke, allein durch den Glauben), the footnote gives a "literal" translation (Wörtlich: »dass der Mensch aus Glauben gerechtfertigt wird, ohne Werke des Gesetzes«) for the second half of the verse.[28]
Another controversial translation in the 1522 New Testament is 1 Timothy 2:4, which translates that God wills that all men "be helped" (German: geholfen werden) rather than the expected "be saved" for Greek: σωθῆναι.[29]:484
Karl-Heinz Göttert, a professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Cologne, in reference to his book Luther's Bible - History of a Hostile Takeover noted:[30]
Luther developed a certain theology and now he wants to prove this theology. He wants to show it... You can call that awesome and you can call it wrong. In any case, it does not offer a philologically clean translation of the Bible.
—Karl-Heinz Gottert
Luther did not know ancient Greek well, and when he referenced the Greek New Testament, he relied on his friend Melanchthon and a number of other philologists. Significant changes correcting Luther's translations were made in the 2017 version of the Luther Bible.[citation needed]
Luther also added German legal terminology which is not found in the original text, for example Denkzettel in Matthew 23:5.[31] There were also many understandable mistranslations due to a lack of knowledge, such as in Psalms 104 where he mistranslated chamois as "rabbit" because he did not know what a chamois was.[citation needed]
View of canonicity
Luther's first study of the Bible
Initially Luther had a low view of the Old Testament book of Esther and of the New Testament books of Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Revelation of John. He called the Letter of James "an epistle of straw", finding little in it that pointed to Christ and his saving work. He also had harsh words for the Revelation of John, saying that he could "in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it".[32] In his translation of the New Testament, Luther moved Hebrews and James out of the usual order, to join Jude and the Revelation at the end, and differentiated these from the other books which he considered "the true and certain chief books of the New Testament. The four which follow have from ancient times had a different reputation."[33] His views on some of these books changed in later years, and became more positive.[34]
Luther chose to place the books he considered Biblical apocrypha between the Old and New Testaments. These books and addenda to Biblical canon of the Old Testament are found in the ancient Greek Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Masoretic text. Luther left the translating of them largely to Philipp Melanchthon and Justus Jonas.[35] Though included, they were not numbered in the table of contents of his 1532 Old Testament, and in the 1534 Bible they were given the well-known title: "Apocrypha: These Books Are Not Held Equal to the Scriptures, but Are Useful and Good to Read".[35] See also Development of the Christian Biblical canon.
Influence
A large part of Luther's significance was in his influence on the emergence of the German language and national identity. This stemmed predominantly from his translation of the Bible into the vernacular, which was potentially as revolutionary as canon law and the burning of the papal bull.[36]
Publishing success
The Luther Bible was not the first translation or printing of the Bible into German.[37] There are still approximately 1,000 manuscripts or manuscript fragments of Medieval German Bible translations extant, mainly from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[38]:116 In total, there were at least eighteen complete printed 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.[38]:116 However, a previous word-for-word German translation from 1350 translated exclusively from the Vulgate, printed by Johann Mentelin in 1466, has been called linguistically clumsy and partially incomprehensible.[37]
Luther's goal was to equip every German-speaking Christian with the ability to hear the Word of God, and his completing his translation of the Old and New Testaments from Hebrew and Greek into the vernacular by 1534 was one of the most significant acts of the Reformation.[39]
Although Luther was not the first to attempt such a translation, his has been called superior to all its predecessors, as a thought-by-thought translation. Previous translations had contained poor German, and had been from the Latin Vulgate versions only without reference to any Greek versions.[36] However, at least some passages can be explained as translations from the Vulgate.[12]:230,231
Luther sought to translate as closely to the original text as possible, and adopted the officially-promoted bureaucratic dialect Saxon Chancery.[40] Some writers claim his translation was guided by how people spoke (presumably in the Upper Saxon dialect),[36] and that Luther's faithfulness to the language spoken by the common people was to produce a work which they could relate to.[41] This led later German writers such as Goethe and Nietzsche to praise Luther's Bible.[42]
Moreover, because Luther's Bible was printed, it could spread rapidly and could be read by or to all. Hans Lufft, the Bible printer in Wittenberg, printed over 100,000 copies between 1534 and 1574, and these were read by or to millions.[43] Luther's vernacular Bible came to be present in virtually every German-speaking Protestant's home, and increased the Biblical knowledge of the German common masses.[44] Luther even had large-print Bibles made for those who had failing eyesight.[42] Catholic German humanist Johann Cochlaeus complained that
Luther's New Testament was so much multiplied and spread by printers that even tailors and shoemakers, yea, even women and ignorant persons who had accepted this new Lutheran gospel, and could read a little German, studied it with the greatest avidity as the fountain of all truth. Some committed it to memory, and carried it about in their bosom. In a few months such people deemed themselves so learned that they were not ashamed to dispute about faith and the gospel not only with Catholic laymen, but even with priests and monks and doctors of divinity."[45]
Luther's German Bible and its widespread circulation facilitated the emergence of a standard, modern German language for the German-speaking people throughout the Holy Roman Empire, an empire extending through and beyond present-day Germany. It is also considered a landmark in German literature, with Luther's vernacular style often praised by modern German sources for the forceful vigor ("kraftvolles Deutsch")[46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] with which he translated the Holy Scripture.
The spread of Luther's Bible translation had implications for the German language. The German language had developed into so many dialects that German speakers from different regions could barely understand each other. This led Luther to conclude that "I have so far read no book or letter in which the German language is properly handled. Nobody seems to care sufficiently for it; and every preacher thinks he has a right to change it at pleasure and to invent new terms."[55] Scholars preferred to write in the Latin which they all understood.
Luther's Bible translation, based primarily on Saxon Chancery language used in royal courts and his native Upper Saxon dialect[56] and enriched with the vocabulary of German poets and chroniclers, was a step on the path to a standardized German language,[55] as Early New High German developed into modern "neuhochdeutsch." A contemporary of Luther's, Erasmus Alberus, labeled him the German Cicero, as he reformed not only religion but the German language also.
Luther's Bible has been hailed as the first German "classic", comparable to the English King James Version of the Bible. German-speaking Protestant writers and poets such as Klopstock, Herder, and Lessing owe stylistic qualities to Luther's vernacular Bible.[57] Luther adapted words to the capacity of the German public and through the pervasiveness of his German Bible, created and spread the modern German language.[57]
National identity
Luther's vernacular Bible also had a role in the creation of a German national identity. Because it penetrated every German-speaking Protestant home, the language of his translation became part of a German national heritage.[58] Luther's program of exposure to the words of the Bible was extended into every sphere of daily life and work, illuminating moral considerations for Germans. It gradually became infused into the culture of the whole nation and occupied a permanent space in a German history.[58]
According to some hagiographers, the popularity and influence of his translation gave Luther confidence to act as a spokesperson of a nation and as the leader of an anti-Roman movement throughout Germany.[59] It made it possible for him to be a prophet of a new German national identity[60] and helped form the spirit of a new epoch in German history.[61] The existence of the vernacular Bible was a public affirmation of empowerment and reform, such as might deprive any elite or priestly class of exclusive control over words, as well as over the word of God.[36]
Through the translation, Luther was intending to make it easier for "simple people" to understand what he was teaching. In some major controversies of the time, even some evangelicals, let alone the commoners, did not understand the reasons for disagreement; and Luther wanted to help those who were confused to see that the disagreement between himself and the Roman Catholic Church was real and had significance. So the translation of the Bible would allow the common people to become aware of the issues at hand and develop an informed opinion.[62] The common individual would thus be given the right to have a mind, spirit, and opinion, to exist not as an economic functionary but as subject to complex and conflicting aspirations and motives. In this sense, Luther's vernacular Bible acted as a force towards the liberation of the German people.
Luther's vernacular Bible broke the domination and unity of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe. He had claimed Holy Scripture to be the sole authority, and through his translation every individual would be able to abide by its authority, and might nullify his or her need for a monarchical pope. As Bishop John Fisher put it, Luther's Bible had "stirred a mighty storm and tempest in the church".[63]
Literacy and order
New Testament titlepage from a Luther Bible printed in 1769
Although not as significantly as on German linguistics, Luther's Bible also made a large impression on educational reform throughout Germany. Luther's goal of a readable, accurate translation of the Bible became a stimulus towards universal education, since everyone should be able to read in order to understand the Bible.[36] At the time, only 5% of Germans had good literacy, 30% in the cities,[64] though estimates vary from 1% to 17%.[65] Luther followed Erasmus, who followed Thomas More, on the benefits of educating girls.[66]
Luther believed that mankind had fallen from grace and was ruled by selfishness, but had not lost moral consciousness: all were sinners and needed to be educated. Thus his vernacular Bible could become a means of establishing a form of law, order, and morality which everyone could abide by, if all could read and understand it. The possibility of understanding the vernacular Bible allowed Luther to found a State Church and educate his followers into a law-abiding community.[67] The Protestant states of Germany became educational states, which encouraged the spirit of teaching which was ultimately fueled by Luther's vernacular Bible.
Used as basis of other translations
Finally, Luther's translated Bible also had international significance in the spread of Christianity. Luther's translation influenced the English translations by William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale, who in turn inspired many other translations of the Bible such as the Bishops' Bible of 1568, the Douay–Rheims Bible of 1582–1609, and the King James Version of 1611.[42] It also inspired translations in Scandinavia and the Netherlands.[citation needed] In a metaphor, it was Luther who 'broke the walls' of translation in western Europe and once such walls had fallen, the way was open to all, including some who were quite opposed to Luther's beliefs.[68] Luther's Bible spread its influence for the remolding of Western European culture in the ferment of the sixteenth century. The worldwide implications of the translation far surpassed the expectations of even Luther himself.[69]
Excerpted examples
Verse
Luther Bible
Translation
English versions
Notes
Gen 2:23
"[...] Man wird sie Männin heißen, darum daß sie vom Manne genommen ist."
"One will call her she-man, based on this[:] that she was taken out of the man."
"[...] She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
Here Luther tried to preserve the resemblance of Hebrew ish (man) and ishah (woman) by adding the female German suffix -in to the masculine word Mann, because the correct word (at that time), Weib, does not resemble it (as neither does the modern Frau). As with adding she- to man in English, adding -in to Mann in German is considered grammatically awkward.
Matthew 12:34
"[...] Wes das Herz voll ist, des geht der Mund über."
"What the heart is full of, of that the mouth overflows."
"[...] For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
Emphasis on Jesus' glory in spite of an ignoble situation; now considered an incorrect translation. See also: Ecce Homo.
Matthew 23:5
"[...] Sie machen ihre Denkzettel breit und die Säume an ihren Kleidern groß."
"They make their slips wide and the hems of their garments large."
"[...] "They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long"
Luther used the German legal term Denkzettel in Matthew 23:5 for the translation of the Greek word φυλακτήριον. This Legalistic language does not exist in the Vulgate or any ancient text.
The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent, now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation.
Philip Melanchthon was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, an intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and influential designer of educational systems.
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.
Johannes Bugenhagen, also called Doctor Pomeranus by Martin Luther, was a German theologian and Lutheran priest who introduced the Protestant Reformation in the Duchy of Pomerania and Denmark in the 16th century. Among his major accomplishments was organization of Lutheran churches in Northern Germany and Scandinavia. He has also been called the "Second Apostle of the North".
Justus Jonas, the Elder, or simply Justus Jonas, was a German Lutheran theologian and reformer. He was a Jurist, Professor and Hymn writer. He is best known for his translations of the writings of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. He accompanied Martin Luther in his final moments.
Konrad Pellikan was a German Protestant theologian, humanist, Protestant reformer and Christian Hebraist who worked chiefly in Switzerland.
Matthäus Aurogallus, German: Matthäus Goldhahn was a Bohemian linguist. Born in Chomutov, Bohemia, as Matthäus Goldhahn, Aurogallus served as professor of Hebrew at the University of Wittenberg and was a colleague of Philip Melanchthon and Martin Luther. He assisted Luther in the revision of the reformer's translation of the Old Testament and made valuable contributions to the academic study of Hebrew.
Georg Rörer was a German Lutheran theologian, clergyman, Protestant reformer and stenographer of Martin Luther's sermons and lectures.
Martin Luther was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and Augustinian friar. He was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, and his theological beliefs form the basis of Lutheranism.
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 Tyndale Bible (TYN) generally refers to the body of biblical translations by William Tyndale into Early Modern English, made c. 1522–1535. Tyndale's Bible is credited with being the first Bible translation in the English language 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.
Kurt Aland was a German theologian and biblical scholar who specialized in New Testament textual criticism. He founded the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster and served as its first director from 1959 to 1983. He was one of the principal editors of Nestle–Aland – Novum Testamentum Graece for the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft and The Greek New Testament for the United Bible Societies.
Propaganda during the Reformation, helped by the spread of the printing press throughout Europe and in particular within Germany, caused new ideas, thoughts, and doctrines to be made available to the public in ways that had never been seen before the sixteenth century. The printing press was invented in approximately 1450 by Johan Gutenberg, and quickly spread to other major cities around Europe; by the time the Reformation was underway in 1517 there were printing centers in over 200 of the major European cities.
Novum Instrumentum Omne, later called Novum Testamentum Omne, was a bilingual Latin-Greek New Testament with substantial scholarly annotations, and the first printed New Testament of the Greek to be published. It was prepared by Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) and printed by Johann Froben (1460–1527) of Basel.
The Augsburg Confession, also known as the Augustan Confession or the Augustana from its Latin name, Confessio Augustana, is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Reformation. The Augsburg Confession was written in both German and Latin and was presented by a number of German rulers and free-cities at the Diet of Augsburg on 25 June 1530.
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.
Johannes Aepinus (1499–1553) was a German Lutheran theologian, the first Superintendent of Hamburg from 1532 to 1553, presiding as spiritual leader over the Lutheran state church of Hamburg.
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.
Lutherhaus Eisenach is one of the oldest surviving half-timbered houses in Thuringia. Tradition holds that Martin Luther lived there with the Cotta family during his schooldays in Eisenach from 1498 to 1501. The Lutherhaus has been one of the most important historic Reformation sites since the 19th century and, as such, was designated a "European cultural heritage site" in 2011. The Lutherhaus has been run as a cultural history museum since 1956.
Censorship of the Bible includes restrictions and prohibition of possessing, reading, or using the Bible in general or any particular editions or translations of it.
1 2 3 Mathesius, Johannes (1906). "Die dreyzehnde predig, vom viertzigsten jare in Doctor Luthers historien. [Thirteenth Sermon: About the Fortieth Year of Doctor Luthers Biography]". In Georg Loesche (ed.). Ausgewählte Werke[Selected Works]. (in Early New High German). Vol.Dritter Band: Luthers Leben in Predigten [Third Volume: Luthers Life in Sermons] (2nded.). Prague: J.G. Calvesche k.u.k. Hof- u. Universitäts-Buchhandlung (Joseph Koch). p.316. OCLC12595454. Wenn nun Doctor [Luther] zuvor die außgangen Bibel vbersehen und darneben bey Juden vnnd frembden sprachkündigen sich erlernet vnd sich bey alten Deutschen von guten worten erfragt hatte, Wie er ihm etlich Schöps abstechen ließ, damit jn ein Deutscher Fleischer berichtet, wie man ein jedes am Schaf nennete, kam Doctor in das Consistorium mit seiner alten Lateinischen und newen Deutschen Biblien, darbey er auch stettigs den Hebreischen text hatte. Herr Philippus bracht mit sich den Greckischen text, Doctor Creuziger neben dem Hebreischen die Chaldeische Bibel. Die Professores hatten bey sich jre Rabinen, D. Pommer het auch ein Lateinischen text für sich, darinn er sehr wol bekant war. Zuvor hat sich ein jeder auff den text gerüst, davon man rathschlagen solte, Greckische unnd Lateinische neben den Jüdischen außlegern vbersehen. Darauff proponirt diser President [Luther] ein text und ließ die stimm herumb gehen und höret was ein jeder darzu zu reden hette, nach eygenschaft der sprache oder nach der alten Doctorn außlegung. [Rough translation: After Doctor Luther had translated the original Bible, learning from Jews, from foreign language scholars, and from old Germans in the process (for example, he asked a German butcher to slaughter some wethers for him so he could tell him how the different entrails are called), he came to the consistory with his old Latin Bible and with his new German Bible. He also always carried the Hebrew text with him. Herr Philippus contributed the Greek text, Doctor Creuziger contributed the Hebrew text and the Chaldaic Bible. The Professors also brought their Rabbinic Bibles, and Doctor Pommer had a Latin text which he knew very well. Before the meetings, everyone of them studied the text that was to be translated, to discuss the translation of the Greek and Latin version along with the Hebrew exegesis. Luther then proposed a text and asked and listened to what everyone had to say concerning the language or the interpretation.]
↑ C. Burger, "Luther's Thought Took Shape in Translation of Scripture and Hymns", in The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology (Oxford University Press, 2014).
↑ Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation, 1521–1532, Minneapolis: Fortress, p.46.
↑ Birgit Stolt, "Luther's Translation of the Bible." Lutheran Quarterly 28.4 (2014): 373–400.
↑ Mark U. Edwards, Jr., Printing, Propaganda, and Martin Luther (1994).[pageneeded]
↑ C. Burger, "Luther's Thought Took Shape in Translation of Scripture and Hymns", in The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology (Oxford University Press, 2014).
↑ Vedder, Henry Clay (1914). The Reformation in Germany. Macmillan.. Vedder also notes (p170) the implausibility of Luther completing the initial New Testament draft in only "10 weeks" without reference to existing vernacular translations.
↑ Jones, Howard (2 October 2018). "The Vocabulary of Righteousness in Martin Luther's New Testament Translations". Oxford German Studies. 47 (4): 381–416. doi:10.1080/00787191.2019.1548122.
↑ Carl C. Christensen, "Luther and the Woodcuts to the 1534 Bible," Lutheran Quarterly, Winter 2005, Vol. 19 Issue 4, pp 392–413
↑ Lyons, Martyn (2011). Books: A Living History (1ed.). Getty Publications. p.69. ISBN9781606060834.
↑ "Romans 3:28", Testament, 1522, So halten wyrs nu, das der mensch gerechtfertiget werde, on zu thun der werck des gesetzs, alleyn durch den glawben (emphasis added to the German word for 'alone.').
↑ New testament (in Greek), York, archived from the original on 2008-07-02, retrieved 2008-05-21, λογιζόμεθα γάρ δικαιоῦσθαι πίστει ἄνθρωπον χωρὶς ἔργων νόμου ("for we reckon a man to be justified by faith without deeds of law").
↑ Martin Luther, On Translating: An Open Letter (1530), Luther's Works, 55 vols. (St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia Publishing House and Fortress Press), 35:187–189, 195; cf. also Heinz Bluhm, Martin Luther Creative Translator (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1965), 125–137.
1 2 Volz, H.; Greenslide, S.L., eds. (1963). The Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol.3. Cambridge University Press. pp.94, 102, 104, 106. ISBN9781139055512.
↑ A.G. Dickens, The German Nation and Martin Luther (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1974), 206
↑ "My language is based on that of the Saxon Chancery, which is followed by all the princes and kings in Germany." (Ich rede nach der sächsischen Canzley, welcher nachfolgen alle Fürsten und Könige in Deutschland.)" Luther, Martin (1566). Tischreden 1040
↑ Mark Antliff, The Legacy of Martin Luther (Ottawa, McGill University Press, 1983), 11
1 2 3 Carter Lindberg, The European Reformations (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1996), 92
↑ Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910), 5
↑ A.G. Dickens, The German Nation and Martin Luther (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1974), 134
↑ Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910), 6
↑ Schreiber, Mathias (2006). Deutsch for sale, Der Spiegel, no. 40, October 2, 2006 ("So schuf er eine Hochsprache aus Volkssprache, sächsischem Kanzleideutsch (aus der Gegend von Meißen), Predigt und Alltagsrede, eine in sich widersprüchliche, aber bildhafte und kraftvolle Mischung, an der die deutschsprachige Literatur im Grunde bis heute Maß nimmt.")
↑ Werth, Jürgen. Die Lutherbibel ("The Luther Bible"), in Michaelsbote: Gemeindebrief der Evangelischen MichaeliskirchengemeindeArchived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine ("St. Michael's Messenger: Parish newsletter of the Protestant Community of St. Michael's Church"), no. 2, May/June/July, 2007, p. 4. ("Gottes Worte für die Welt. Kaum einer hat diese Worte so kraftvoll in die deutsche Sprache übersetzt wie Martin Luther.")
↑ Lehmann, Klaus-Dieter (2009). Rede von Klaus-Dieter Lehmann zur Ausstellungseröffnung von "die Sprache Deutsch" ("Speech held by Klaus-Dieter Lehmann upon the opening of the exposition 'The German language'"), Goethe-Institut ("Und so schuf der Reformator eine Sprache, indem er, wie er selbst sagt, 'dem Volk auf's Maul schaut', kraftvoll, bildhaft und Stil prägend wie kein anderes Dokument der deutschen Literatur.")
↑ Weigelt, Silvia (2009). Das Griechlein und der Wagenlenker - Das kommende Jahr steht ganz im Zeichen Philip Melanchtons ("The Greek writer and the charioteer: 2010 to be the official Philipp Melanchthon year"), mitteldeutsche-kirchenzeitungen.de, online portal of the two print church magazines Der Sonntag and Glaube und Heimat ("Wenn auch die kraftvolle und bilderreiche Sprache des Bibeltextes zu Recht als Luthers Verdienst gilt, so kommt Melanchthon ein gewichtiger Anteil am richtigen sprachlichen Verständnis des griechischen Urtextes und an der sachlichen Genauigkeit der Übersetzung zu.")
↑ Hulme, David (2004). Die Bibel - ein multilinguales MeisterwerkArchived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine ("The Bible: A multi-lingual masterpiece"), visionjournal.de, no. 2, 2006, the German version of the spiritual magazine Vision: Insights and New Horizons published by Church of God, an International Community available in English at www.vision.org ("Luthers Bibelübersetzung mit ihrer kraftvollen, aus ostmitteldeutschen und ostoberdeutschen Elementen gebildeten Ausgleichssprache hatte auf die Entwicklung der neuhochdeutschen Sprache großen Einfluss.")
↑ Salzmann, Betram; Schäfer, Rolf (2009). Bibelübersetzungen, christliche deutsche ("Bible translations, Christian and German"), www.wibilex.de: Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikom im Internet ("die Orientierung an der mündlichen Volkssprache, die zu besonders kräftigen und bildhaften Formulierungen führt")
↑ Schmitsdorf, Joachim (2007). Deutsche Bibelübersetzungen: Ein Überblick ("German Bible translations: An overview") ("Kraftvolle, melodische Sprache, die gut zum Auswendiglernen geeignet, aber auch oft schwer verständlich und altertümelnd ist")
↑ Lutherdeutsch ("Luther's German") ("Luthers Sprache ist saft- und kraftvoll.")
1 2 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910), 12
↑ Gerhard Ritter, Luther: His life and Work ( New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1963), 212
Further reading
Antliff, Mark. The Legacy of Martin Luther. Ottawa, McGill University Press, 1983
Atkinson, James. Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1968
Bindseil, H.E. and Niemeyer, H.A. Dr. Martin Luther's Bibelübersetzung nach der letzten Original-Ausgabe, kritisch bearbeitet. 7 vols. Halle, 1845–55. [The N. T. in vols. 6 and 7. A critical reprint of the last edition of Luther (1545). Niemeyer died after the publication of the first volume. Comp. the Probebibel (the revised Luther-Version), Halle, 1883. Luther's Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen und Fürbitte der Heiligen (with a letter to Wenceslaus Link, Sept. 12, 1530), in Walch, XXI. 310 sqq., and the Erl. Frkf. ed., vol. LXV. 102–123.] Free open access edition with new English translation by Howard Jones for the Taylor InstitutionReformation Pamphlet Series with an introduction by Henrike Lähnemann.
Bluhm, Heinz. Martin Luther: Creative Translator. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1965.
Dickens, AG (1974), The German Nation and Martin Luther, New York: Harper & Row.
Edwards, Mark (1975), Luther and the False Brethren, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Gerrish, B.A. Reformers in Profile. Philadelphia: Fortpress Press, 1967
Green, V.H.H. Luther and the Reformation. London: B.T. Batsford, 1964
Grisar, Hartmann. Luther: Volume I. London: Luigi Cappadelta, 1914
Lindberg, Carter. The European Reformations. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996
Lyons, Martin. Books: A Living History. Thames and Hudson: 2011.
Reu, [John] M[ichael]. Luther and the Scriptures. Columbus, OH: The Wartburg Press, 1944. [Reprint: St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1980].
——— (1984) [Columbus, OH: The Lutheran Book Concern, 1934], Luther's German Bible: An Historical Presentation Together with a Collection of Sources, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
Ritter, Gerhard. Luther: His life and Work. New York: Harper & Row, 1963
External links
German Wikisource has original text related to this article:
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
