Luther in Rom (German Edition)

He found for the first time a complete copy of the Latin Bible in the University Library at Erfurt, to his great delight, and made it his chief study. He derived from it his theology and spiritual nourishment; he lectured and preached on it as professor at Wittenberg day after day. He acquired the knowledge of the original languages for the purpose of its better understanding.

He liked to call himself a "Doctor of the Sacred Scriptures. He made his first attempt as translator with the seven Penitential Psalms, which he published in March, , six months before the outbreak of the Reformation. He was urged by his friends, especially by Melanchthon, as well as by his own sense of duty, to translate the whole Bible. He began with the New Testament in November or December, , and completed it in the following March, before he left the Wartburg. He thoroughly revised it on his return to Wittenberg, with the effectual help of Melanchthon, who was a much better Greek scholar.

Sturz at Erfurt was consulted about coins and measures; Spalatin furnished from the Electoral treasury names for the precious stones of the New Jerusalem Rev. The translation was then hurried through three presses, and appeared already Sept. In December a second edition was required, which contained many corrections and improvements.

He at once proceeded to the more difficult task of translating the Old Testament, and published it in parts as they were ready. The Pentateuch appeared in ; the Psalter, They met once a week in his house, several hours before supper. Each member of the company contributed to the work from his special knowledge and preparation. Melanchthon brought with him the Greek Bible, Cruciger the Hebrew and Chaldee, Bugenhagen the Vulgate, others the old commentators; Luther had always with him the Latin and the German versions besides the Hebrew.

Sometimes they scarcely mastered three lines of the Book of Job in four days, and hunted two, three, and four weeks for a single word. No record exists of the discussions of this remarkable company, but Mathesius says that "wonderfully beautiful and instructive speeches were made. At last the whole Bible, including the Apocrypha as "books not equal to the Holy Scriptures, yet useful and good to read," was completed in , and printed with numerous woodcuts.

In the mean time the New Testament had appeared in sixteen or seventeen editions, and in over fifty reprints. He never ceased to amend his translation. Besides correcting errors, he improved the uncouth and confused orthography, fixed the inflections, purged the vocabulary of obscure and ignoble words, and made the whole more symmetrical and melodious. He prepared five original editions, or recensions, of his whole Bible, the last in , a year before his death. Some of them are real improvements, e. The charge that he made the changes in the interest of Philippism Melanchthonianism , seems to be unfounded.

The printed Bible text of Luther had the same fate as the written text of the old Itala and Jerome's Vulgate. It passed through innumerable improvements and mis-improvements. The orthography and inflections were modernized, obsolete words removed, the versicular division introduced first in a Heidelberg reprint, , the spurious clause of the three witnesses inserted in 1 John 5: Elector August of Saxony tried to control the text in the interest of strict Lutheran orthodoxy, and ordered the preparation of a standard edition But it was disregarded outside of Saxony.

Gradually no less than eleven or twelve recensions came into use, some based on the edition of , others on that of The most careful recension was that of the Canstein Bible Institute, founded by a pious nobleman, Carl Hildebrand von Canstein in connection with Francke's Orphan House at Halle. It acquired the largest circulation and became the textus receptus of the German Bible.

With the immense progress of biblical learning in the present century, the desire for a timely revision of Luther's version was more and more felt. Revised versions with many improvements were prepared by Joh. Rudolf Stier , but did not obtain public authority. At last a conservative official revision of the Luther Bible was inaugurated by the combined German church governments in , with a view and fair prospect of superseding all former editions in public use. The German Bible of Luther was saluted with the greatest enthusiasm, and became the most powerful help to the Reformation.

Duke George of Saxony, Duke William of Bavaria, and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria strictly prohibited the sale in their dominions, but could not stay the current. Hans Lufft at Wittenberg printed and sold in forty years between and about a hundred thousand copies,--an enormous number for that age,--and these were read by millions. The number of copies from reprints is beyond estimate.

Cochlaeus, the champion of Romanism, paid the translation the greatest compliment when he 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. The Romanists were forced in self-defense to issue rival translations. Such were made by Emser , Dietenberger , and Eck , and accompanied with annotations. They are more correct in a number of passages, but slavishly conformed to the Vulgate, stiff and heavy, and they frequently copy the very language of Luther, so that he could say with truth, "The Papists steal my German of which they knew little before, and they do not thank me for it, but rather use it against me.

According to the latest investigations, fourteen printed editions of the whole Bible in the Middle High German dialect, and three in the Low German, have been identified. Panzer already knew fourteen; see his Gesch. The first four, in large folio, appeared without date and place of publication, but were probably printed: The others are located, and from the seventh on also dated, viz.: The Low Dutch Bibles were printed: The unknown editor speaks of previous editions and his own improvements.

Stevens gives the full titles with descriptions, pp. Several of these Bibles, including the Koburger and those of Cologne and Halberstadt, are in the possession of the Union Theol. They are ornamented by woodcuts, beginning with a picture of God creating the world, and forming Eve from the rib of Adam in Paradise. Several of them have Jerome's preface De omnibus divinae historiae libris, Ep. Krafft illustrates the dependence of Luther on the earlier version by several examples pp. The following is from the Sermon on the Mount, Matt.

Der aber spricht zu seinem bruder. Und der do spricht. Darum ob du opfferst dein gab zu dem attar. Bis gehellig deim widerwertigen schyer. Ihr habt gehortt, das zu den alten gesagt ist, du sollt nit todten, wer aber todtet, der soll des gerichts schuldig seyn. Ich aber sage euch, wer mit seynem bruder zurnit, der ist des gerichts schuldig, wer aber zu seynem bruder sagt, Racha, der ist des rads schuldig, wer aber sagt, du narr, der ist des hellischen fewers schuldig. To this I add two specimens in which the superiority of Luther's version is more apparent. In dem anfang hat got beschaffen hymel und erden.

Es werde dz liecht. Un das liecht ist worden. Im anfang schuff Gott himel und erden. Und es ward liecht. Ob ich rede inn der zungen der engel vnd der menschen; aber habe ich der lieb nit, ich bin gemacht alls ein glockenspeyss lautend oder alls ein schell klingend. The precise origin of the mediaeval German Bible is still unknown.

On the other hand, Dr. Franz Jostes, a Roman Catholic scholar, denied the Waldensian and defended the Catholic origin of that translation, in two pamphlets: The same author promises a complete history of German Catholic Bible versions. The question has been discussed in periodicals and reviews, e. Literaturblatt," Leipzig, and Nos.

The arguments for the Waldensian origin are derived from certain additions to the Codex Teplensis, and alleged departures from the text of the Vulgate. But the additions are not anti-Catholic, and are not found in the cognate Freiberger MS. The text of the Vulgate was in greater confusion in the middle ages than the text of the Itala at the time of Jerome, nor was there any authorized text of it before the Clementine recension of The only plausible argument which Dr.

Keller brings out in his second publication pp. The hostility of several Popes and Councils to the circulation of vernacular translations of the Bible implies the existence of such translations, and could not prevent their publication, as the numerous German editions prove. Dutch, French, and Italian versions also appeared among the earliest prints.

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The Italian edition exhibited in at London is entitled: La Biblia en lingua Volgare per Nicolo di Mallermi. Rosso Vercellese, , fol. A Spanish Bible by Bonif. Ferrer was printed at Valencia, see Reuss, Gesch. The Bible is the common property and most sacred treasure of all Christian churches. The art of printing was invented in Catholic times, and its history goes hand in hand with the history of the Bible.

The Bible was the first book printed, and the Bible is the last book printed. Between and , an interval of four centuries and a quarter, the Bible shows the progress and comparative development of the art of printing in a manner that no other single book can; and Biblical bibliography proves that during the first forty years, at least, the Bible exceeded in amount of printing all other books put together; nor were its quality, style, and variety a whit behind its quantity.

Luther's version of the Bible is a wonderful monument of genius, learning, and piety, and may be regarded in a secondary sense as inspired. It was, from beginning to end, a labor of love and enthusiasm. While publishers and printers made fortunes, Luther never received or asked a copper for this greatest work of his life. We must judge it from the times.

A German translation from the original languages was a work of colossal magnitude if we consider the absence of good grammars, dictionaries, and concordances, the crude state of Greek and Hebrew scholarship, and of the German language, in the sixteenth century. Luther wrote to Amsdorf, Jan. As regards the text, it was in an unsettled condition. If he had done so by the fall of , then the Ninety-five Theses must be viewed as the first—albeit hesitant—manifesto of a new theology.

Indeed, his conversion to a new understanding of the gospel was heavily influenced by the controversy, according to this view. By the end of , according to most scholars, Luther had reached a new understanding of the pivotal Christian notion of salvation , or reconciliation with God. Over the centuries, the church had conceived the means of salvation in a variety of ways, but common to all of them was the idea that salvation is jointly effected by humans and by God—by humans through marshalling their will to do good works and thereby to please God and by God through his offer of forgiving grace.

Luther broke dramatically with this tradition by asserting that humans can contribute nothing to their salvation: While meditating on The Letter of Paul to the Romans 1: After his territorial ruler, the elector Frederick III of Saxony , intervened on his behalf, Luther was summoned instead to the southern German city of Augsburg , where an imperial Diet was in session. The papacy had a vital interest in the outcome of this election. Against these larger political issues, the case of the Wittenberg professor paled in importance. Thomas Aquinas , and one of the most learned men in the Roman Curia.

Cajetan had taken his assignment seriously and was thus well prepared for his interrogation of Luther.

Once the two men met, their fundamental differences quickly became apparent. After three days of discussion October 12—14 , Cajetan advised Luther that further conversations were useless unless he was willing to recant.

Luther's Translation of the Bible

Luther immediately fled Augsburg and returned to Wittenberg, where he issued an appeal for a general council of the church to hear his case. Luther had reason to be nervous. Papal instructions from August had empowered Cajetan to have Luther apprehended and brought to Rome for further examination. Well aware that he was the cause of the controversy and that in Cum postquam his doctrines had been condemned by the pope himself, Luther agreed to refrain from participating in the public debate. Others, however, promptly took his place, sounding the knell of reform in both church and society.

The controversy was drawing participants from wider circles and addressing broader and weightier theological issues, the most important of which was the question of the authority of the church and the pope. Eventually, a bitter dispute between Andreas Bodenstein von Carlstadt , a colleague of Luther at Wittenberg, and Johann Eck , a theologian from Ingolstadt and an able defender of the church, drew Luther back into the fray. Because the entire controversy was still considered an academic matter, Eck, Carlstadt, and Luther agreed to a public debate, which took place in Leipzig in June The setting was hardly a friendly one for Luther and Carlstadt, because Duke George of Saxony had already established himself as a staunch defender of the church.

Upon hearing the sermon of the opening ceremony, which exhorted the participants to adhere to the truth in their debating, George remarked that he had not realized that theologians were so godless as to need such preaching. The initial debate between Eck and Carlstadt covered extensive theological ground but was listless. This was a conclusion calculated to shock the audience at Leipzig, whose university had been founded in the previous century by refugees from the Hussite-dominated University of Prague. Meanwhile, after a delay caused by the election of the new German emperor, the formal ecclesiastical proceedings against Luther were revived in the fall of Luther was given 60 days upon receiving the bull to recant and another 60 days to report his recantation to Rome.

At first Luther believed that the story of the bull was a malicious rumour spread by Eck. When the reality of his condemnation became clear, however, he responded belligerently in a tract titled Against the Execrable Bull of the Antichrist. Upon the expiration of the day period stipulated in the bull, on December 10, , Luther cancelled his classes, marched to a bonfire started by his students outside one of the city gates, and threw a copy of the bull into the fire.

Martin Luther was formally declared a heretic. Ordinarily, those condemned as heretics were apprehended by an authority of the secular government and put to death by burning. The new German king and Holy Roman emperor , Charles V , had agreed as a condition of his election that no German would be convicted without a proper hearing; many, including Luther himself, were convinced that Luther had not been granted this right. Others noted various formal deficiencies in Exsurge Domine , including the fact that it did not correctly quote Luther and that one of the sentences it condemned was actually written by another author.

A proposal was therefore circulated that Luther should be given a formal hearing when the imperial Diet convened in Worms later in the spring. Understandably, the papal nuncio Girolamo Aleandro , who represented the Curia in the Holy Roman Empire , vehemently rejected this idea. His position was clear: The Diet could do nothing other than endorse the ecclesiastical verdict and bring the heretic to his deserved judgment.

If Luther recanted, the problem of his heresy would be removed; if he did not, the estates could no longer refuse to endorse formal action against him. Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms on April 17, He was informed that he had been called to the meeting to acknowledge as his own the books that had been published in his name and to repudiate them. He briefly acknowledged the books but requested time to ponder his second answer, which was granted. The following day Luther admitted that he had used inappropriate language but declared that he could not and would not recant the substance of his writings.

He refused to repudiate his works unless convinced of error by Scripture or by reason. Otherwise, he stated, his conscience was bound by the Word of God. I can do no other. Following his appearance, Luther participated in intense discussions involving representatives of the emperor, Aleandro, and the Saxon elector Frederick. Although every effort was made to induce Luther to recant, in the end the discussions failed over his refusal to repudiate a single sentence from the 41 cited in the papal bull.

But behind that stood the charge that Luther, a single individual, presumed to challenge 1, years of Christian theological consensus. The Diet then officially adjourned. On May 25, after the elector Joachim Brandenburg assured the emperor of the support of the few rulers who remained in Worms, Charles signed the edict against Luther. Thus, the causa Lutheri was considered closed. It was enormously important, however, that doubts about the propriety of the edict were voiced at once. During his stay in the Wartburg, Luther began work on what proved to be one of his foremost achievements—the translation of the New Testament into the German vernacular.

This task was an obvious ramification of his insistence that the Bible alone is the source of Christian truth and his related belief that everyone is capable of understanding the biblical message. The precedent he set was followed by other scholars, whose work made the Bible widely available in the vernacular and contributed significantly to the emergence of national languages.

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Attempts to carry out the Edict of Worms were largely unsuccessful. Although Roman Catholic rulers sought determinedly to suppress Luther and his followers, within two years it had become obvious that the movement for reform was too strong. By March , when Luther returned to Wittenberg, the effort to put reform into practice had generated riots and popular protests that threatened to undermine law and order. He did not believe that change should occur hurriedly. This is not to say that he did not play a crucial role in the continuing course of events—for he did.

Nor is this to say that his influence may not be discerned after —for it can. After the Edict of Worms, however, the cause of reform, of whatever sort, became a legal and political struggle rather than a theological one. The crucial decisions were now made in the halls of government and not in the studies of the theologians. Luther wrote two responses— Admonition to Peace Concerning the Twelve Articles of the Peasants , which expressed sympathy for the peasants, and Against the Murderous and Robbing Hordes of the Peasants , which vehemently denounced them. Both works represented a shift away from his earlier vision of reform as encompassing societal as well as religious issues.

Luther faced other challenges in the mids. His literary feud with the great Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus came to an unfortunate conclusion when the two failed to find common ground. Their theological dispute concerned the issue of whether humans were free to contribute to and participate in their own salvation.

Accordingly, Zwingli held that Jesus was spiritually but not physically present in the communion host, whereas Luther taught that Jesus was really and bodily present. The theological disagreement was initially pursued by several southern German reformers, such as Johannes Brenz , but after Luther and Zwingli confronted each other directly, with increasing rancour and vehemence, particularly from Luther.

Thus, the reform movement became a house that was publicly divided. In the view of some, notably Landgrave Philip of Hesse , this division had serious political implications. See Notes below, p. It can therefore not be used as an argument for or against the Waldensian hypothesis of Keller. See Fritzsche in Herzog ii, vol. The Gospels for the year were printed about 25 times before ; the Psalter about 13 times before He adds, however, very justly l.

Denn soll einer von einem Dinge reden, so muss er die Sache [Sprache? Das Newe Testament Deutzsch. With wood-cuts by Lucas Cranach, one at the beginning of each book and twenty-one in the Apocalypse. The chapter division of the Latin Bible, dating from Hugo a St. Caro, was retained with some paragraph divisions; the versicular division was as yet unknown Robert Stephanus first introduced it in his Latin edition, , and in his Greek Testament of The order of the Epistles is changed, and the change remained in all subsequent editions.

Some parallel passages and glosses are added on the margin. It contained many typographical errors, a very curious one in Gal. It has the famous preface with the fling at the "rechte stroern Epistel" of St. James, which was afterwards omitted or modified. The triple papal crown of the Babylonian woman in Rev. Biblia, das ist die gantze Heilige Schrift, Deutsch. Durch Hans Lufft, M. A copy in the Canstein Bibelanstalt at Halle. Seminary in New York has a copy of the edition of which bears this title: The margin is ornamented.

Eck's Bible appeared in , at Ingolstadt, Bavaria. Video nunc, quid sit interpretari, et cur hactenus a nullo sit attentatum, qui proficeretur nomen suum. The editio princeps of the whole Hebrew Bible appeared Soncino: Abraham ben Chayin de' Tintori. A copy in possession of Dr.

Portions had been printed before. His influence on Luther is expressed in the well-known lines: At the end is a Latin letter of Frobenius, the publisher, dated "Nonis Fehr. Reuss of Strassburg, who has the largest collection and best knowledge of Greek Testaments, denies this.

Tyndale's English version was likewise made from Erasmus. Graece et Germanice, Preface, p. The revised Luther- Bible of strangely retains the passage, but in small type and in brackets, with the note that it was wanting in Luther's editions. The Probebibel departs only in a few places from the Erasmian text as followed by Luther: In this respect the German revision is far behind the Anglo- American revision of , which corrects the Textus Receptus In about five thousand places.

Louis the Bavarian introduced the German in See Wilibald Grimm, Gesch. The German Probebibel retains it in this and other passages, as Gen. He judges that Luther's version of Ecclesiasticus Jesus Sirach is by no means a faithful translation, but a model of a free and happy reproduction from a combination of the Greek and Latin texts. Opitz, Ueber die Sprache Luthers, Halle, Lehmann, Luthers Sprache in seiner Uebersetzung des N. I have before me an edition of Freiburg-i. Emser charges Luther with a thousand grammatical and fourteen hundred heretical errors.

In our days, one of the chief objections against the English Revision is the omission of the doxology. So durch den Hochgelerten L. The first edition appeared before Emser's death, which occurred Nov. I find in the Union Seminary four octavo copies of his N. On the concluding page, it is stated that errors of Luther's are noted and corrected. Most editions contain a Preface of Duke George of Saxony, in which he charges Luther with rebellion against all ecclesiastical and secular authority, and identifies him with the beast of the Apocalypse, Rev.

In his Luther, eine Skizze Freiburg-i. Trench considers the main objections in his book on the Authorized Version and Revision, pp. The chief passages objected to by Romanists are Heb. See Meyer on Rom. It was published in September, , with special reference to Emser, whom he does not name, but calls "the scribbler from Dresden" "der dresdener Sudler". Grimm, the lexicographer l. I have an old copy of Luther's Testament, without titlepage, before me, where the word allein is printed in larger type with a marginal finger pointing to it. The most important is his preface to the Epistle to the Romans, and his most objectionable that to the Epistle of James.

Johan Dietenberger, new verdeutscht. Gott zu ewiger ehre unnd wolfarth seiner heil. From a copy in the Union Seminary Van Ess library. Well printed and illustrated. Bibel Alt und New Testament, nach dem Text in der heiligen Kirchen gebraucht, durch Doctor Johan Ecken, mit fleiss, auf hochteutsch verdolmetscht, etc.

They were printed at Ingolstadt, and agree in the number of pages , and vary only in the date of publication. Jerome speaks of versiones which are eversiones. As Trench says, there are in every translation "unavoidable losses inherent in the nature of the task, in the relations of one language to the other, in the lack of accurate correlations between them, in the different schemes of their construction.

Some of them have been silently removed in modern editions. The notes of the older editions abound in fulminations against heretics. Halle, , in 7 vols. A critical reprint of the last edition of Luther Niemeyer died after the publication of the first volume. Not in De Wette's collection, because of its polemical character. A defense of his version against the attacks of the Romanists. Mathesius, in his thirteenth sermon on the Life of Luther. On the merits and history of Luther's version. The best works are by Palm Schott , and the introduction to the Probebibel On the pre-Lutheran German Bible, and Luther's relation to it.

Fritzsche in Herzog, 2d ed. Bonn, 25 pages. Ich will Ehre einlegen unter den Heiden; ich will Ehre einlegen auf Erden. He came to symbolize everything the Protestant Reformation stood for. No other work has had as strong an impact on a nation's development and heritage as has this Book. In Luther's time, the German language consisted of several regional dialects all similar to the tongue spoken in the courts of the Hapsburg and Luxemburg emperors. How were these scattered dialects united into one modern language?

The rise of the middle class, the growth of trade, and the invention of the printing press all played a part. But the key factor was Luther's Bible. Luther settled down and translated Erasmus's Greek New Testament in only eleven weeks. This is a phenomenal feat under any circumstances, but Luther contended with darkened days, poor lighting, and his own generally poor health. Das Newe Testament Deutzsch was published in September A typographical masterpiece, containing woodcuts from Lucas Cranach's workshop and selections from Albrecht Durer's famous Apocalypse series, the September Bibel sold an estimated five thousand copies in the first two months alone.

Though well taught in both Greek and Hebrew, he would not attempt it alone. Never before, and not for many years after, was the scholarship of this body equaled. Forcing Prophets to Speak German Luther remained the principal translator, however. His spirit motivated and guided the Sanhedrin in producing a translation that was not literal in the truest sense of the word.

He wanted this Bible to be in spoken rather than bookish or written German. Before any word or phrase could be put on paper, it had to pass the test of Luther's ear, not his eye. It had to sound right. This was the German Bible's greatest asset, but it meant Luther had to straddle the fence between the free and the literal. To translate properly is to render the spirit of a foreign language into our own idiom. I try to speak as men do in the market place.

In rendering Moses, I make him so German that no one would suspect he was a Jew. Luther, a relentless perfectionist who might spend a month searching out a single word, talked at length with old Germans in the different regions. To better understand the sacrificial rituals in the Mosaic law, he had the town butcher cut up sheep so he could study their entrails. When he ran into the precious stones in the "new Jerusalem" that were unfamiliar to him, he had similar gems from the elector's collection brought for him to study.

Luther longed to express the original Hebrew in the best possible German, but the task was not without its difficulties. They have no desire to give up their native Hebrew in order to imitate our barbaric German. It is as though one were to force a nightingale to imitate a cuckoo, to give up his own glorious melody for a monotonous song he must certainly hate. The result was a German Bible of such literary quality that those competent to say so consider it superior even to the King James Version that followed it.

And because it sounded natural when spoken as well as read, its cadence and readability have made it a popular Bible in Germany to this day. The Book Must Be in German Homes Germans everywhere bought Luther's Bible, not only for the salvation of their souls if such was their concern , but also for the new middleclass prestige it conferred. It was the must book to have in their homes, and many Germans had no choice but to read it: It was the first time a mass medium had ever penetrated everyday life. Everyone read Luther's new Bible or listened to it being read.

Its phrasing became the people's phrasing, its speech patterns their speech patterns. So universal was its appeal, and so thoroughly did it embrace the entire range of the German tongue, that it formed a linguistic rallying point for the formation of the modern German language. It helped formally restructure German literature and the German performing arts. Its impact, and Luther's in general, were so awesome that Frederick the Great later called Luther the personification of the German national spirit. Many scholars still consider him the most influential German who ever lived.

Uncle of the English Bible As might be expected, the German Bible's impact reached well beyond the borders of the empire. It was the direct source for Bibles in Holland, Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark, and its influence was felt in many other countries as well. Most important, the Bible left a permanent impression on a great translator of the English Bible. William Tyndale, one of the Reformation's champions, had fled from England to the Continent about the time Luther was publishing his German New Testament. He, too, was translating from the original manuscripts, and possibly he and Luther met in Wittenberg.

In previous Bibles, there had been no uniform arrangement; translators placed them in whatever order suited them. Luther, however, ranked them by the yardstick of was treibt Christus—how Christ was taught: Tyndale followed Luther's lead, as have virtually all Bible translators since. Many phrases we know today came from Luther, through Tyndale.

Luther's auf dem gebirge became was a voice heard in Matthew 2: Tyndale translated from Luther the place of dead men's skulls in John Like Luther, Tyndale eschewed the Latinized ecclesiastical terms in favor of those applicable to his readers: Both translations flowed freely in a rhythm and happy fluency of narration; and, wherever he could, Tyndale upheld Luther's doctrine of justification by faith. While in many instances the two translators must have reached the same conclusions independently, Luther's strong influence on the father of the English Bible is unmistakable.

Since Tyndale's English translation makes up more than 90 percent of the King James New Testament and more than 75 percent of the Revised Standard Version, Luther's legacy is still plain to see. Luther was exceptionally gifted in many areas. But the aspect of his genius perhaps most responsible for his impact is the one least heralded: Had it not been for that, the Protestant Reformation and the growth of a united German nation might have taken an entirely different course.

Henry Zecher is a personnel specialist at the U. Formerly, he wrote for the Delaware State News. The Bible was not a book the general public was familiar with. It was not a book most individuals or families could own. There were pulpit Bibles usually chained to the pulpit; there were manuscripts of Bibles in monasteries; there were Bibles owned by kings and the socially elite. But the Bible was not a book possessed by many. Furthermore, it was rare to find a Bible in the language of the people. There were a number of German translations in existence by the time of Luther, and one French version published already in But it was still the case that the Latin Bible was by far and away the principal Bible available.

And indeed, often enough they garbled the snippets they knew. The Latin Vulgate was the Bible that Luther first studied, but he soon became aware of its deficiencies as he delved into the Greek text to discover his revolutionary insights. That led Luther to another realization: The Bible needed to be made available in the vernacular in this case German and needed to be widely available.

In my view, the most dangerous thing Luther ever did was not nail the 95 Theses to a door. It was translating the Bible into ordinary German and encouraging its widespread dissemination. Luther kept revising this into his waning years, for he realized what a major change agent this translated Bible was. Luther did not translate directly from the Latin Vulgate, and for some, this amounted to heresy.

Luther had learned Greek the usual way, at Latin school at Magdeburg, so he could translate Greek works into Latin. There are tales, probably true, that Luther made forays into nearby towns and villages just to listen to people speak so that his translation, particularly of the New Testament, would be as close to ordinary contemporary usage as possible. This was not to be a Bible of and for the elite. Philip Schaff, the great church historian, opined: Wycliffe himself was not solely responsible for the translation; others, such as Nicholas of Hereford, are known to have done some of the translating.

The difference between the work of the Wycliffe team and Luther is that no textual criticism was involved; the Wycliffe team worked directly from the Latin Vulgate. And the fallout was severe. Henry IV and his archbishop Thomas Arundel worked hard to suppress the work, and the Oxford Convocation of voted that no new translation of the Bible should be made by anyone without official approval.

Wycliffe, however, had struck a match, and there was no putting out the fire. Perhaps the most poignant tale of this era is that of William Tyndale. Tyndale lived from — and was martyred for translating the Bible into English. Tyndale, like Luther, translated directly from the Hebrew and the Greek, except presumably for cross-referencing and checking. He actually only finished the New Testament, completing about half of his Old Testament translation before his death.

His was the first mass-produced Bible in English. Tyndale originally sought permission from Bishop Tunstall of London to produce this work but was told that it was forbidden, indeed heretical, and so Tyndale went to the Continent to get the job done. A partial edition was printed in just three years after Luther in Cologne, but spies betrayed Tyndale to the authorities and, ironically, he fled to Worms, the very city where Luther was brought before a diet and tried.

He had a remarkable gift for turning biblical phrases into memorable English. But even the Authorized Version was not the first authorized English translation of the Bible. Henry wanted this Bible read in all the Anglican churches, and Miles Coverdale produced the translation. For this and various reasons, many of the budding Protestant movements on the Continent and in Great Britain were not happy with the Great Bible.

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• Early life and education.

The Geneva Bible had more vivid and vigorous language and became quickly more popular than the Great Bible. The Geneva Bible was popular not only because it was mass produced for the general public but also because it had annotations, study guides, cross-references with relevant verses elsewhere in the Bible, and introductions to each book summarizing content, maps, tables, illustrations, and even indices.

In short, it was the first study Bible in English, and again note, it preceded the KJV by a half-century. Notably, the Geneva Bible was the first to produce an English Old Testament translation entirely from the Hebrew text. Like its predecessors, it included the Apocrypha. In short, none of the major Bible translations that emerged during the German, Swiss, or English reformations produced a Bible of simply 66 books. It is true that beyond the 66 books the other 7 or more were viewed as deuterocanonical, hence the term apocrypha, but nonetheless, they were still seen as having some authority.

So when and where does the Protestant Bible of 66 books show up? Protestants had long treated the extra books as, at best, deuterocanonical. Some had even called them non-canonical, and there were some precedents for printing a Bible without these books. The and printings of the Geneva Bible left them out as well. But in any event, these books had not been treated as canonical by many Protestants.

No, the biggest rock he threw into the ecclesiastical pond, which produced not only the most ripples but real waves, was his production of the Luther Bible. But he was not a lone pioneer. He and William Tyndale deserve equal billing as the real pioneers of producing translations of the Bible from the original languages into the language of ordinary people, so they might read it, study it, learn it, and be moved and shaped by it.

The Bible of the people, by the people, and especially for the people did not really exist before Luther and Tyndale. None of the original Reformers could have envisioned this nor for that matter could they have imagined many people having Bibles not just in the pulpits and pews but having their own Bibles in their own homes. The genie let out of the bottle at the beginning of the German Reformation turned out to be the Holy Spirit, who makes all things new. This includes ever-new translations of the Bible as we draw closer and closer to the original inspired text of the Old and New Testaments by finding more manuscripts, doing the hard work of text criticism, and producing translations based on our earliest and best witnesses to the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible.

Today, we have over 5, manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, most of which have been unearthed in the last years and some of which go back to the second and third centuries A. We have the discoveries at the Dead Sea and elsewhere providing us with manuscripts more than 1, years closer to the original Old Testament source texts than the Masoretic text the traditional basis for the Old Testament text , and closer than we were in God in his providence is drawing us closer to himself by drawing us closer to the original inspired text in the modern era.

The cry sola Scriptura can echo today with a less hollow ring than in the past because we know today the decisions taken by church leaders in the fourth century to recognize the 27 books of the New Testament and the 39 books of the Old plus a few , were the right decisions. The canon was closed when it was recognized that what we needed in our Bibles were the books written by the original eyewitnesses, or their co-workers and colleagues in the case of the New Testament, and those written within the context of the passing on of the sacred Jewish traditions of Law, Prophets, and Writings that went back to Moses, the Chroniclers, and the great Prophets of old.

While we owe our source texts to the ancient worthies who wrote things down between the time of Moses and John of Patmos, we owe our Bibles Bibles are illegal or where no translation in the local language is available. But thanks be to God, the work can continue because the cry semper reformanda still rings true today. He thus stood in sharp contrast to other reformers of his era. Ulrich Zwingli, leader of the new church in Zurich, was a trained musician. Though Zwingli later permitted some vocal music, he rejected instrumental music. John Calvin, though he considered music a gift of God, saw it as a gift only in the worldly domain.

Thus, its role in the church was severely limited. Only unison singing of the Psalms was permitted. Not so for Martin Luther. Modern Lutheran hymnals may contain twenty or more of his hymns, and many non-Lutheran hymnals include several. What role did it play in worship? And what did Luther himself contribute musically to the church?

He possessed a fine voice, played the lute, and even tried his hand at advanced composition. Luther loved to cite examples like Moses, who praised God in song following the crossing of the Red Sea, and David, who composed many of the psalms. We must teach music in schools; a schoolmaster ought to have skill in music, or I would not regard him; neither should we ordain young men as preachers, unless they have been well exercised in music.

Still, Luther sought reform. One of his concerns was the predominant use of Latin in the service. The common people needed to hear and sing the Word of God in their own tongue—German— so they might be edified. Luther rejected the implicit teaching that the Mass was a sacrifice the priest offered to God.

And all communicants would receive not only the body but also the blood of Christ in the sacrament. Still, though the singing of German hymns was encouraged, Latin remained the principal language. The shift from Latin to German was also delayed because not many hymns or portions of the liturgy had been translated into German. Near the end of , Luther wrote to Georg Spalatin, pastor to the prince of Saxony, urging him to write German hymns based on the Psalms. By , enough materials had been produced to enable Luther to prepare a service entirely in German.

This German Mass followed the historic structure of the liturgy. Though Luther inserted German hymns to replace Latin, he insisted that Latin services continue to be offered on occasion. In fact, his ideal would have been to conduct services not only in German and Latin, but also in the biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew!

Though he had expressed doubts about his ability, he was not one to wait around indefinitely. Besides, Thomas Munzer, the radical German reformer, was already producing German services and hymns. During the final months of and the beginning of , Luther produced more than twenty hymns—more than half his total output. By the summer of , two other hymnals appeared in the neighboring town of Erfurt; each contained about two dozen hymns, eighteen of them by Luther. Unlike modern hymnals, it was actually a choir book with multivoice settings.

Of its thirty-eight hymns, twenty-four were by Luther. Hymnals proliferated so rapidly that many of them published hymns by Luther without permission. Luther wrote a variety of hymns. His first, more of a ballad, came following the deaths of the first two Lutheran martyrs in Brussels on July 1, Luther used this hymn to counter rumors that the two men had recanted before they died. In , Luther wrote six of his seven hymns based on psalms.

This hymn exhibits a much freer style and is only loosely connected to the text of Psalm Through these hymns, Luther demonstrated his ongoing desire to teach the faith, especially to children. Martin Luther forged a new hymnody and church music that continues to express the message he proclaimed. Grime is pastor of St. Current Issue On April 22, a dizzy spell forced Luther to stop preaching in the middle of his sermon.

For ten years, since publishing his 95 Theses against the abuse of indulgences, Luther had been buffeted by political and theological storms; at times his life had been in danger. To Luther, their errors were as great as those of Rome—the very gospel was at stake—and Luther was deeply disturbed and angry. He suffered severe depression. Then, on July 6, as friends arrived for dinner, Luther felt an intense buzzing in his left ear.

But this depression and illness overcame him again in August, September and late December. My entire body was in pain, and I still tremble. But through the prayers of the saints [his friends], God began to have mercy on me and pulled my soul from the inferno below. As fear spread, so did many of the townspeople.

Luther's Translation of the Bible

But Luther considered it his duty to remain and care for the sick. Then his son became ill. Not until late November did the epidemic abate and the ill begin to recover. During that horrific year, Luther took time to remember the tenth anniversary of his publication against indulgences, noting the deeper meaning of his trials: And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim? We tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo! One little Word shall fell him. Mark Galli is associate editor of Christian History.

He also lectured and wrote commentaries on numerous books of the Bible. Though he preached often—once he gave sermons in just days—for him, preaching never ceased to be an awesome endeavor before a holy God. Not only would he lose his son, but God appeared to be a liar. How Abraham longed to talk it over with someone! Could he not tell Sarah?

But he well knew that if he mentioned it to anyone, he would be dissuaded and prevented from carrying out the behest. He himself laid on the beast the wood for the burnt offering. He was thinking all the time that these logs would consume his son, his hope of seed. With these very sticks that he was picking up the boy would be burned.

In such a terrible case should he not take time to think it over? With what inner tears he suffered! He girt the ass and was so absorbed he scarcely knew what he was doing. He took two servants and Isaac his son. In that moment everything died in him; Sarah, his family, his home, Isaac. This is what it is to sit in sackcloth and ashes.

If he had known that this was only a trial, he would not have been tried. Such is the nature of our trials that while they last we cannot see to the end. There Abraham left the servants and the ass, and he laid the wood upon Isaac and himself took the torch and sacrificial knife. They two walked together. The boy was stupefied. I am the son of Sarah by a miracle in her old age, that I was promised and that through me you are to be the father of a great nation? Then Abraham bound him and laid him upon the wood.

The father raised the knife. The boy bared his throat. If God had slept an instant, the lad would have been dead. I could not have watched. I am not able in my thoughts to follow. The lad was as a sheep for the slaughter. Never in history was there such obedience, save only in Christ.

But God was watching, and all the angels. The father raised his knife; the boy did not wince. God would not have treated his son like that. His chorales gave churchgoers a voice and helped spread the ideas of the Reformation. A Catholic congregation would like to join the Reformation, but the priest opposes the move.

In the following days, young people roam the town's streets belting out the song, recounts theologian and journalist Burkhard Weitz: But he is far less known as a songwriter and musician, although he not only played a key role as a reformer of the Christian faith, but also initiated a new chapter of spiritual music. Music from a young age Dieter Falk, a successful musician and music producer, said, "In my view, Luther was the first pop musician of the church.

And pop means nothing but popular. He sang in a church choir and a student choir. Later on, he studied theology, music, voice and composition at the Erfurt University. He played the lute and the German flute, wrote four- part compositions and joined a musical circle — a kind of band. After all, it was his expertise in theology that enabled Luther to take on the Catholic Church in and transform social and political thought at the threshold of the modern era.

Luther's breakthrough as a songwriter Things soon got busy — and stressful for Luther.

Besides developing his reformatory thoughts and putting them in writing, he had to deal with tough disputes with the pope and the clergy, as well as the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and a Church ban against him. Luther didn't have much time for music. That changed in , when he composed his first song. It was full of defiance, says Burkhard Weitz: He commented on the events in a song.

The song appealed to many people and contributed to the spreading of reformist principles. It was sung all over the text was even printed on flyers. Its composer came to understand just how powerful a song can be. Portraying the renewal of the church and the battle of wills among religious scholars as secular rulers watch on in the foreground, the painting signifies the interwoven nature of religion and politics at the time. Poetic serial production Highly motivated, Luther started to translate Latin hymns into German.

He also wrote songs to the psalms of the Old Testament, and incorporated basic reformist principles in new songs. Over the next 12 months, he composed 24 new such songs. Among them is one song that has encouraged many Christians over the past centuries. Recipe for a church hit But that wasn't always the case. When a melody fit a particular text, Luther was also willing to borrow popular songs that were sung in pubs or on the streets. These songs are hits.

The structure of Luther's verses was quite simple, differing from the structure of modern pop songs with a verse, a refrain, and a bridge. Luther's verses were pure verses. Once in a while, there was also a refrain, like in folk songs. From memory to the printing press But memorizing alone wasn't enough. The first collection of reformist songs was published in late , namely the "Achtlieder Buch," a collection of eight songs of which four were composed by Luther.

One year later, all 24 of his songs were published in a choir songbook for schools. In , he wrote to his companion and friend Georg Spalatin: That's why we are looking for poets everywhere. German songs during worship Luther's next objective was to establish singing in religious services that had been held in Latin up until that point. As Burkhard Weitz explained, "In his writing 'Formula missae' from , Luther lamented that 'only a choir of clergymen and pupils sing and respond when the bishop blesses the bread and performs his service.

The church congregation suddenly took on a whole new role. Instead of sitting quietly and listening, they were now playing an active role in the mass. Organ at the Freiberg Cathedral Saxony: Music has been a central part of church life in Germany since Luther For Luther, a feeling for language and music were both important when writing new songs, though he also felt the music was meant to serve the text. And songs in general, he thought, were there to spread the word of God.