Luther Bible

Luther Bible
Martin Luther's 1534 Bible
Full nameBiblia / das ist / die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch
AbbreviationLUT
OT published1534
NT published1522
Complete Bible
published		1534[1]
Apocrypha
Authorship
Textual basis
Version revision1984 (last official revision)
PublisherHans Lufft
CopyrightPublic domain due to age
Religious affiliation
Genesis 1:1–3
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]
John 3:16
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]

The Luther Bible (German: Lutherbibel) is a German language Bible translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. A New Testament translation by Luther was first published in September 1522; the completed Bible contained 75 books, including the Old Testament, Apocrypha and New Testament, which was printed 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.[5]

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]

  1. ^ a b c Lobenstein-Reichmann, Anja (29 March 2017). "Martin Luther, Bible Translation, and the German Language". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.382. ISBN 9780199340378.
  2. ^ a b c 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] (2nd ed.). Prague: J.G. Calvesche k.u.k. Hof- u. Universitäts-Buchhandlung (Joseph Koch). p. 316. OCLC 12595454. 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.]
  3. ^ Luther, Martin (1545). "Genesis 1:1–3". Die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch [The German Holy Scriptures]. (in Early New High German) (5th ed.). Wittenberg: Hans Lufft. ISBN 978-3-933070-56-2. Archived from the original on 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
  4. ^ Luther, Martin (1545). "John 3:16". Die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch [The German Holy Scriptures]. (in Early New High German) (5th ed.). Wittenberg: Hans Lufft. ISBN 978-3-933070-56-2. Archived from the original on 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
  5. ^ 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).
  6. ^ Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation, 1521–1532, Minneapolis: Fortress, p. 46.
  7. ^ Birgit Stolt, "Luther's Translation of the Bible." Lutheran Quarterly 28.4 (2014): 373–400.
  8. ^ Mark U. Edwards, Jr., Printing, Propaganda, and Martin Luther (1994).[page needed]