Hi Steve,
How does Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible hold up today? I read where he took almost two years to do it, and eventually sold 100,000 of them. This would have been in the early 1500’s.
Did he make any huge mistakes? I am assuming that the Catholic church eventually authorized a German edition- did it vary much from Luther’s?
Luther’s ‘problems’ with several books of the NT came completely to the surface when he ‘translated’ the NT into German in early 1522. Luther’s translating the Bible into German is often portrayed as his finest achievement. I would agree, but not for the reasons that his supporters normally suggest. The “Legend” of Luther would have us believe that he was an incredibly brilliant Scholar and that he was gifted in Greek, Hebrew, the Classics, the writings of the Early Church Fathers, etc., etc. His “most excellent” translation of the Scriptures into German is often hailed as being an astonishing accomplishment. However, often when this is mentioned, the fact that there were at least 26 German translations printed on the printing press BEFORE Luther’s is not. This begs the question:
If there were already 26 Bibles in German available in 1522, then what was it, specifically and exactly (of course) that made it ‘necessary’ for Luther to do his own translation? What was it that compelled Luther to produce the 27th (or whatever) translation into German?
What would be truly astonishing about the story of Luther’s translation would be if it were actually true, meaning true as in it being an effort independent of any other German translation. That is not at all likely and in fact, it is virtually impossible as suggested by Henry Clay Vedder, a Protestant Scholar:
“In a letter to his friend Lange, dated December 18th, (1521) he announces his intention to translate the New Testament into German, in terms necessitating the inference that the work had not yet begun. On March 30, 1522, he writes Spalatin that he has translated the entire New Testament…
This leaves little more than ten weeks for the completion of the work…….
**
It would be difficult in any case to believe that a complete translation of the entire New Testament could have been made by a man of Luther’s limited attainments in Greek, and with the imperfect apparatus that he possessed, in the short space of ten weeks. **And, as we shall see, another task occupied a part of his attention and time during these very weeks. **A minister today, who has had the Greek course of a college and seminary, is a far better scholar than Luther. Let such a man, if he thinks Luther’s achievement possible, attempt the accurate translation of a single chapter of the New Testament – such a translation as he would be willing to print under his own name – and multiply the time consumed by two hundred and sixty chapters. He will speedily be convinced that the feat attributed to Luther is an impossible one. **What then? Is the whole story false? That, too, is impossible – the main facts are too well attested.
The solution of an apparently insoluble contradiction is a very simple one: Luther did not make an independent translation; he never claimed he did; none of his contemporaries made that claim for him. It is only later admirers who have made this statement to enhance his glory, just as they have unduly exaggerated the paucity of the Scriptures and the popular ignorance of them before Luther’s day, for the same purpose. We now know that both these assertions are untrue to historic fact, and have misled many unwary persons into inferences far indeed from the truth. The two assertions are so intimately connected, that in showing either to be unfounded the other is also and necessarily controverted.” Henry Clay Vedder, “The Reformation in Germany”, pg. 169-170
Here we have Vedder, a reputable Protestant Scholar (actually a Professor of Church history at Crozer Theological Seminary, Upland, Pennsylvania), pointing to Luther’s “limited attainments” in Greek. If Luther was “qualified” to translate from Greek, then hundreds of thousands of modern day “not so great” Scholars would be much more qualified.
What actually IS astonishing is that Luther completed his translation of the entire New Testament in only 10 or 11 weeks, and only part time at that. It took Jerome decades to produce his translation to Latin in the Vulgate. By comparison, Luther’s ‘translation’ was a slap dash effort by an average Scholar. How could he have believed that such a rushed effort was worthy of being considered a valid respectful actual translation of the Holy Scriptures?
