I’m sorry, but my response was too long, so this is the second part. Thanks.
Furthermore, even if the lies were truth, and Luther were guilty of the manifold moral and psychological failings attributed to him by certain writers, even that would not in itself disprove his theology, his arguments, his concerns, his attacks on the blatant abuses of his day.
Regarding the initial question about Luther and the Bible, I must urge first this general point: Luther cannot be blamed for modern Protestantism. It would be most unfair to interpret Luther as a Protestant. His German translation of the Bible contains everything that your Bible contains. Only, the arrangement, and names, of some of the writings are different. In fact, Gary Michuta in his book, Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger, (generally a very good and informative book) is guilty of gross understatement when he says that it is “not entirely true” that “Martin Luther removed the Deuterocanonical books from Scripture” (pp245-246), and he is right when he says that “it is incorrect that Luther removed the Deuterocanon” (246). In fact, the funny thing about Michuta’s title is that Catholic Bibles are not bigger, at least when compared to the Luther Bible, or to the Anglican Bible (ie., the KJV). For the Luther Bible actually includes The Prayer of Manasses, at the end of the OT, which is not in most modern Catholic Bibles, though it is at the end of the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate. And the Anglicans go further with the King James, by including 1 & 2 Esdras, which neither Luther nor Rome includes, though these also are appendicized to the Sixto-Clementine. (And to clarify, when I say 1 & 2 Esdras, in this case I mean what in the Latin tradition is called 3 & 4 Esdras.)
And what I say here is not mere ancient academic curiosity, which soon evolved into full blown Protestant dismissal of the Deuterocanonicals. For the Luther Bible was printed, and read, even in America, eg., in the Missouri Synod, well into the 20th century, until they started doing things in English. And the KJV is still sold and read in its full form, though not by most American Protestant publishers. I own one; got it from Cambridge University Press, and use it every day. Furthermore, you must consider also a church’s liturgical usage. In my church, for example, there are many feasts on which you will hear lessons from the Deutero-Canonicals. I know because I am the one who, as Deacon, often reads them. We read them in the KJV, and occasionally in Latin. One final point for now: Luther quotes, out of context, can easily be pitted against each other. In many places he actually refers to deuterocanonical writings as “scripture,” as do Lutheran theologians after him, such as Martin Chemnitz.
