LUTHER'S TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT:—1 JOHN, v. 7.
In an article of the Quarterly Review (vol. xxxiii. p. 78.) on this controverted passage of St. John's Epistles, generally attributed to the present learned Bishop of Ely, the following statement is made respecting Luther:—
"Let it also be recollected, to the honour of Luther, Bugenhagius, and other leaders of the Reformation, that in this contest they magnanimously stood by the decision of Erasmus. Luther, in his translation of the New Testament, omitted the passage; and, in the preface to the last edition (in 1546) revised by himself, he solemnly requested that his translation should on no account be altered."
Since such was the injunction of Luther, how does it happen that this verse appears in the later editions of his Testament? I have looked into five or six editions, and have not found the verse in the two earliest. These bear the following titles:—
"Biblia dat ys. de gantze hillige Schrifft verdüdeschet dorch Doct. Mart. Luth. Wittemberch. Hans Lufft. 1579." (in folio.) "Dat Neu Testamente verdüdeschet dörch D. Mart. Luth. mit den korten Summarien L. Leonharti Hutteri. Gosslar. In Iahre 1619."
The verse appears in an edition of his Bible printed at Halle in 1719; in his New Testament, Tubingen, 1793; in one printed at Basel in 1821; and is also to be found in that printed by the Christian Knowledge Society. In the Basel edition the verse is thus given;—
"Denn Drey sind, die de zeugen im Himmel; der Vater, das Wort, und der beilige Geist; und diese Drey sind Eins."
Perhaps some of your learned readers can explain when, and by whose authority, the verse was inserted in Luther's Testament.
E.M.B.
[We may add, that the verse also appears in the stereotype edition of Luther's Bible, published by Tauchnitz, at Leipsig, in 1819.—ED.]