Luther, vol. 5 of 6

by Hartmann Grisar

Already at the Wartburg Luther had begun the great work of substituting for the existing vernacular translations of Holy Scripture one written in good German and based on the original languages of the books of the Bible.

The idea seems to have dawned on him during his enforced rest at the Wartburg, when, as he tells a friend, he passed his time reading the Bible in Greek and Hebrew and in studying these two languages.[1943] Just then he was entirely under the sway of those new views of his which prompted him to set up the Bible in the stead of all ecclesiastical authority. Melanchthon, too, so it would appear, had also some share in his resolution.

The Work of Translation and its Conclusion

In his solitude Luther first broached the New Testament, first because its contents more nearly touched the controversy in which he was engaged, and, secondly, because the New Testament could be translated more easily without learned assistance. When first announcing his plan, on Dec. 18, 1521, he mentions, that, “our people are asking for it.”[1944] “I shall put the Bible into German,” so he tells his Wittenberg colleague, Canon Nicholas Amsdorf, on Jan. 13, 1522, “though in so doing I am taking upon myself a burden beyond my strength. Now I see what translating means, and, why, so far, no one who undertook it ever put his name to it. As for the Old Testament I cannot touch it unless you are here and give me your help. Could I find a hiding-place with one of you, I would come at once so as to start the work of translation from the outset with your assistance. The result ought to be a translation worthy of being read by all Christians. I hope we shall give our German folk a better one than that which the Latins have. It is a great and glorious work at which we all should toil, for it is a public matter and is meant to serve the common weal. Tell me what hopes you have of it.”[1945]

In barely three months, with the aid of the few helpers he was able to secure in his Patmos, he had finished the first rough draft of the New Testament, which he took with him on leaving the Wartburg for revision among his friends at Wittenberg. “Philip and I,” so he wrote from Wittenberg, on March 30, 1522, to Spalatin, who was then Court preacher, “have now begun to furbish the translation of the New Testament; it will, please God, turn out a fine work. We shall need your help too, here and there, for the choice of words; hence get ready. But send us simple words, not the language of the men-at-arms or of the Court; the translation must, above all, be a homely one. May I ask you to send me straightaway the [German] names and the colours of the precious stones mentioned in Apocalypse xxi., or better still the stones themselves, if you can get hold of them at Court or elsewhere.”[1946] Luther finally received specimens of the stones through the good offices of Cranach. In order the better to understand certain texts, he also wrote to Spalatin, Mutian and Dr. George Sturz on the subject of ancient coinage.[1947] He also incidentally consulted the Court preacher as to the exact German translation of the names of various wild animals with which the latter would probably be acquainted owing to the hunts indulged in by the Court in that neighbourhood.[1948]

The printing of the New Testament was begun at Wittenberg by Melchior Lotther in the first days of May. Proofsheets were sent to Spalatin and Duke Johann of Saxony. From the beginning of July three printing presses are said to have run off daily 10,000 “chartæ,” i.e. 5000 folio sheets, so as to produce an edition of 3000 copies. On Sep. 21, 1522, the New Testament appeared with a frontispiece and a number of woodcuts by Lucas Cranach; the title-page bore the words: “Das Newe Testament Deutzsch. Vuittemberg.” Neither year nor printer’s name were given, nor even the name of the translator, probably in order not to prejudice the sale of the book in those regions where Luther stood in bad odour. Luther received no fee for the work any more than for his other writings. As the first edition was at once sold out a new and amended one was published in Dec.; the two editions afterwards became known as the September and December Bibles. Editions still further amended were published at Wittenberg in 1526 and 1530. Altogether some sixteen editions of the New Testament were printed in this town before 1557, while at the same time more than fifty reprints saw the light in Germany, for instance, fourteen at Augsburg, thirteen at Strasburg and twelve at Basle.

While still busy on the New Testament Luther set to work on the Old, this time with the regular and expert assistance of Melanchthon and Matthæus Aurogallus, the Wittenberg Professor of Hebrew. Owing to the difficulty of the work and the constant hindrances encountered by the author, the work did not appear all at once, but only piecemeal. As early as 1523 the Books of the Pentateuch were published at Augsburg and Basle in two successive editions, four times reprinted in the same year. The historical books from Josue to Esther followed in 1524. The remainder, comprehensively described as the “Prophets,” followed in separate parts, Job, the Psalms and the “Books of Solomon” in 1524, and the Prophets, properly so-called, only at longer intervals.[1949]

The difficulties of the work and the unwearied pains taken by the compiler are frequently apparent in Luther’s letters to his friends.

He writes, for instance, to Spalatin: “Job gives us much trouble owing to the exceptional grandeur of his style; he seems as reluctant to submit to our translation as to the consolations of his friends; he refuses to march and wants to remain for ever seated on his dunghill; it almost seems as though the writer of the book had wished to make a translation impossible. For this reason the printing of the third part of the Bible [i.e. of the Old Testament] proceeds but slowly.”[1950]—Later, in the preface to the Book of Job, he said: “In our work on ‘Hiob,’ we, Master Philip, Aurogallus and I, were sometimes barely able to get through three lines in four days. But now, my friend, that it is translated into German everyone can read it and master it and run his eyes over three or four pages without meeting a single obstacle, nor does he perceive what hindrances and stumbling-blocks lay in the path he now glides along as easily as down a greasy pole; to us, however, it cost much toil and sweat to remove all the hindrances and stumbling-blocks.”[1951]