Then, one hundred and twenty-four years after the birth of Christ, his death and passion, the Old Testament was translated out of Hebrew into Greek by a Jew, named Aquila (being converted to the Christian faith), in the time of Hadrian the Emperor.
Fifty and three years after this Aquila, the Bible was also translated by Theodosius.
In the three-and-thirtieth year after Theodosius, it was translated by Symmachus, under the Emperor Severus.
Eight years after Symmachus, the Bible was also translated by one whose name is unknown, and the same is called the Fifth Translation.
Afterwards the Bible was translated by Hieronymus (who first amended and corrected the Seventy Interpreters) out of Hebrew into the Latin tongue, which translation we use to this day in the Church. And truly, said Luther, he did enough for one man. Nulla enim privata persona tantum efficere potuisset. But he had not done amiss if he had taken one or two learned men to his translation besides himself, for then the Holy Ghost would more powerfully have been discerned, according to Christ’s saying, “Where two or three be gathered together in my name, there will I be in the midst of them.” And, indeed, said Luther, translators or interpreters ought not to be alone, for good and apt words do not always fall to one single man. And so long as the Bible was in the Church of the Gentiles, it was never yet in such perfection, that it could have been read so exactly and significantly without stop, as we have prepared the same here at Wittemberg, and, God be praised, have translated it out of Hebrew into the High German tongue.
Of the Differences between the Bible and other Books.
The Holy Scripture, or the Bible, said Luther, is full of divine gifts and virtues. The books of the Heathen taught nothing of Faith, Hope, and Love; nay, they knew nothing at all of the same; their books aimed only at that which was present, at that which, with natural wit and understanding, a human creature was able to comprehend and take hold of; but to trust in God and hope in the Lord, nothing was written thereof in their books. In the Psalms and in Job we may see and find how those two books do treat and handle of Faith, of Hope, of Patience, and Prayer.
To be short, the Holy Scripture, said Luther, is the best and highest book of God, full of comfort in all manner of trials and temptations; for it teacheth of Faith, Hope, and Love far otherwise than by human reason and understanding can be comprehended. And in times of troubles and vexations, it teacheth how these virtues should light and shine; it teacheth, also, that after this poor and miserable life there is another which is eternal and everlasting.
What we ought chiefly to seek for in the Bible, and how we ought to study and learn the Holy Scriptures.
The chief lesson and study in Divinity, said Luther, is well and rightly to learn to know Christ, for he is therein very friendly and familiarly pictured unto us. From hence St. Peter saith, “Grow up in the knowledge of Christ;” and Christ himself also teacheth that we should learn to know him only out of the Scriptures, where he saith, “Search the Scriptures, for they do testify of me.”