German translation from original text

[GRod]

Was luther the first person to translate the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into German? I understand there were German translations prior to luther but were any of them translated from the original text …( Hebrew and Greek)

 

[Gorgias]

No, he wasn’t the first. The Ulfilas translation was from the Greek.

It’s also important to note that there was no single standard German language in Luther’s time. Rather, there were a variety of variants and dialects. So, the common practice of German scholars and theologians was to use Latin. Therefore, to denigrate the use of the Latin Vulgate is to fail to recognize the state of the German language and the role of Latin in those days.

 

[BrunoMaria]

No, you can’t say that Ulfilas - see

Gothic Bible - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

and

Ulfilas - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

was the first to translate the Bible. He did attempt to translate parts of the Bible in a new “alphabeth” he invented for it, as the Goths had no written language, but runes for the most common facts. Mind, it was the 4th Century in a martial world of tribes in the Northern hemisphere Wulfila (so his common name) soon had to flee back into the civilization of the South.

It was definitely Luther who first translated the Bible complete. He at the same time “united” the German language into fine first upper class German, which such was led and formed by the Bible. It was the Brothers Grimm then, who in their fairy-tales put the last finishing touch onto “German”.

Brothers Grimm - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Though Luther named the St. James epistle a “Straw-Epistle” - the completely translated the Bible from Latin into the people’s language - valid up to this day. Supported and spread was this Luther-Bible very swiftly and in wide scale, through Gutenberg’s invention of the printed word.

Johannes Gutenberg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Luther’s personal interpretation of the New Covenant, though he translated it correctly, differed and differs up to this day in some fundamental points from the original universal (Catholic) understanding.

Yours
Bruno

 

[adamhovey1988]

There is still a huge variety of dialects in German, closer to different languages. German has a dialect continuum, adjacent Villages can understand each other pretty well, but sometimes the ones that are kind of far apart, they have to resort to a standard German. And keep in mind, the Alemannic German spoken in Liechtenstein is not as far as I know that similar to standard German spoken in Germany. Although, I’ve suffered a bit from language attrition, German is my second language.

 

[BrunoMaria]

I’d love to have mail-exchange with you (or anyone) then about German in German
My second language is English - though spiked and larded with mistakes

Fact is, that yes, there are “huge variety of dialects in German”. Though pupils across the country in Germany as in Austria, all speak upper class German. In the German speaking part of Switzerland, all speak a strog dialect, but still write top German. I for one speak Karlsruhe dialect with friends. My two sons never heard my wife or me speak a single word in dialect. They themselfes so never spoke it - though their friends mostly did.

Yours
Bruno