A MS. note of a former possessor remarks:—
"The 7th verse is not found here, nor is it in the Bibles of Magdeburg, 1544, of Wittemberg, 1541, ditto 1584, Frankfort, 1560 and 1580."
In the edition of this same version, printed by Hans Lufft, Wittemberg, 1541, the passage is exactly similar; but in one printed by Hans Walther, Magdeburg, 1545, the words up erdeu are inserted.
These Saxon versions are interesting from the very great similarity that idiom has to our early language; and they, doubtless, influenced much our own early versions.
In a translation of the N.T. from the Latin of Erasmus (the first printed in Latin with a translation on the same page, and which is very similar in appearance to Udal's), printed at Zurich in 1535, 4to., with a Preface by Johansen Zwikk of Constance, the 7th verse is given (as it was in the Latin); but is distinguished by being printed in brackets, and in both verses we have—
"Unnd die drey dienend in eins."
Erasmus having admitted the verse into his third edition, gave occasion perhaps to the liberty which has been taken in later times to print both verses, with this distinction, in editions of the Lutheran version. The earliest edition, I believe, in which it thus appears, is one at Wittemberg in 1596, which was repeated in 1597, 1604, 1605[2], and 1625. It also appears, but printed in smaller type, in the Hamburgh Bible by Wolder in 1597, in that of Jena 1598, and in Hutter's Nuremburg, 1599.
In a curious edition of the N.T. printed at Wandesbeck in 1710, in 4to., in which four German versions, the Catholic, the Lutheran, the Reformed, a new version by Reitz, and the received Dutch version, are printed in parallel columns, both verses are given in every instance; but a note points out that Luther uniformly omitted the 7th verse, and the words auf erde.
There cannot be a doubt, therefore, that the insertion is entirely unwarranted in any edition of the New Testament professing to be Luther's translation.
S.W. SINGER.