Luther Bible
The Luther Bible (abbreviated LB ) is a translation of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible from the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek language in the German language ( Frühneuhochdeutsch ). The translation was (especially Philipp Melanchthon ) made by Martin Luther in collaboration with other theologians. In September 1522 first edition of the New Testament finished ( hence the term September Testament) was, in 1534 a complete Bible.
In the Evangelical Church (EKD ), as well as in the New Apostolic Church, the Luther translation in the revised version of 1984 is the Bible text used for liturgical use and is also used in the liturgical books.
Under Luther Bible therefore means on the one hand
- Provided in a printed document of the 16th century with introductions, marginal notes and illustrations, and certainly to be regarded as work of art, and on the other hand
- A key for the German Protestantism book, which has evolved from Luther's " Biblia Deudsch " up to the present, with the pietism and the modern biblical scholarship altering and preserving contributed their concerns.
- 2.1 people close to the language and style of art
- 2.2 pioneer of modern German
- 2.3 enrichment of vocabulary
- 2.4 Influence on other Bible translations
- 3.1 First unified revisions of the King James
- 3.2 1975 version
- 3.3 Way to the 1984 revision 3.3.1 letters of biblical names
The way to Biblia German of 1545
Translation of the New Testament
On the way back from the Diet of Worms ( 1521) to Wittenberg Martin Luther was allegedly abducted. In fact, his Elector Frederick had brought him the Wise of Saxony on the Wartburg in safety. Immersed as " Junker Jörg", Luther began translating the Bible. In September 1522 the translated New Testament ( " September Testament ") was printed in high circulation of 3,000 copies of Melchior Lotter in Wittenberg and published by Lucas Cranach and Christian Döring. Despite the high price of one and a half guilders edition was sold out within three months, and as already the second edition was printed with improved text and corrected images in December 1522 ( " December Testament ").
It is strongly emphasized in the gospel tradition that Luther had turned off and the original Greek radically from the traditional Latin Vulgate in these weeks. Nevertheless, the influence of the Vulgate is strongly felt in Luther's New Testament. The Luther Bible as representing the legacy of the medieval Latin tradition in German speaking countries until today.
Thus we read in Philippians 4:7 LUT: " Vnd the quietude of God / which is higher / because all vernunfft / beware ewre Hertzen VND meaning of Jesus in Christ. " This so-called pulpit blessing is particularly important for the Protestant liturgy. Even the current revision of the Luther Bible of 1984 preserves the form of the text of the old Latin Vulgate " Et pax Dei ... custodiat corda vestra " ( guard your hearts ), while the Nova Vulgata corrected after the original Greek text: " ... custodiet corda vestra " (will guard your hearts ).
Translation of the Old Testament
Although this translated in a short time and in a personally highly stressful situation of Luther " September Testament" is the own performance of the Reformer. But if one looks at the Wittenberg then went into attack Old Testament, so there is the Luther Bible represents as a collective work; Luther's language skills was higher than in Hebrew in the Greek.
The witness Johannes Mathesius designed around 1564 in a sermon the following picture of the translation project: Melanchthon prepared the Septuagint, Cruciger the rabbis of the Bible Jacob Ben Chaim. Bugenhagen had prepared the Vulgatatext. " Then this president proponieret ( Luther ) a text and let the voices go around and hear what everyone had to talk to ... " In many years of work, a book of the Old Testament was translated by one. It certainly had more professionals with Mathesius describes as, for example, Caspar Aquila and Jacobus Lobelich senior, whose son Jacob Lobelich of Emperor Maximilian II on April 14, 1576 in Vienna a Wappenrolle with the upright lion, as quoted on the portal Wartburg Castle is seen, but with an open book ( Bible ) was in the paws - the Lobelich crest.
In October 1524 were Pentateuch, historical and poetic books completed, probably in March 1526 the book of Jonah, in June 1526 the book of Habakkuk, in January 1528, the book of Zechariah and in October 1528, the book of Isaiah. 1529 the New Testament was thoroughly revised in 1530 and finally edited. Work on the books went on, now also with commentaries: In June 1529 the wisdom of Solomon was completed, in April 1530, the book of Daniel with broad, commentary, preface, and in June it was commented 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel ( Gog ). 1531 Psalter was designed from scratch and final. In March 1532 the Wittenberg Hans Lufft printed the books of the prophets. In January of the following year Ecclesiasticus was completed and shortly after the 1st Maccabees, in its second edition, supplemented by the story of Susanna and Daniel and Bel and the Dragon of Babylon.
The first complete edition
In 1533 there were direct preparations for the complete edition, which included, among other revisions of the Pentateuch and historical and poetical books of the Old Testament, especially Genesis 1. From 4 October to 11 October 1534 Michaelmas fair was held, at which the complete version was present unbound in 900 folio leaves, in six parts, each with its own title page and separate foliation: Pentateuch, historical and poetic books, prophets, Apocrypha, New Testament.
In 1545 there was the last corrections of the Biblia Deudsch of Luther's own hand.
Principles and problems in translating
The Reformer was in his " summaries on the Psalms and Ursach of interpretation " ( 1533) account of his translation principles: he wanted the one hand, a liquid ( for that time reader ) translation; on the other hand should wherever the biblical text seemed to offer a deeper sense, be translated literally.
Luther and his staff purchased encyclopaedic knowledge in the translation of the Old Testament. In the " preface VBER Daniel the prophet, " the reader is presented the story of the Maccabees in detail, as the historical seat is properly recognized in life. ( But then overwhelmed the translator of contemporary history: " HJE is klerlich the Bapst abgemalet / the vnuerschampt in his Drecketen roars ...")
Mathesius claims that Luther " stab some simpletons left " and of the Wittenberg butcher then the names of each offal inquired - to be able to properly translate to places such as Lev 3.6 to 11 LUT. As an example of the many small property clarifications, which offered the Luther Bible to the contemporary reader, here is a marginal note to Hi LUT 9.10 " ( Orion ) Jst the bright heavenly bodies around noon / that mean the peasants the Jacob staff. The hen or hen / are the seven little stars. "
In all this, however, not give a true picture of the ancient Near East or the ancient world from the eye of the reader, but it is always Luther's own environment, which was populated by male and female servants, not slaves and female slaves, grew up in the familiar plants and the pigs how does common in Wittenberg brewing residues were eating instead of pods of the carob tree, " Vnd went away / and henget himself to a citizen of that country / the schicket jn auff to guard his farmland of Sew. And he begerte to fill his belly with the husks / who ate the Sew / and no one gave jm. " (Luke 15.15-16 LUT)
Luther spoke creative achievement
People close to the language and style of art
Luther's translation work has qualities that earlier works had not to this extent. He managed to bring the ponderous style of the Vulgate in a form of language that came closer to the spoken language on the one hand, on the other hand still had elegance.
A typical train of the Luther translation, probably from the vernacular, is the position of the verb, as in the following example ( from 7.9 to 11 Mt LUT):
"Which one is among you people / so jn his Son asks VMBS Bread / jm of a stone? or so he asks jn vmb a Fish / The jm a serpent? So then jr / jr but the arg have / cancellable yet ewren children give good input / How much more will your Father in heaven give / ask where the jn good? "
A more direct translation would have asked about the following much more difficult to understand sentence structure:
" Which of you people that his son because that asks him for bread, a stone? Or so that it asks for a fish, a serpent? So you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, yet, how much more will your Father in heaven to those who ask him to give good? "
On the other hand, Luther served extensively from the treasure of ancient stylistics and rhetoric. Famous example of Luther's language arts is the game with the vowel "i" in the Christmas story: " Jr will find a baby wrapped in diapers / and in a crib time " ( Lk 2:12 in the Biblia Deudsch ).
Pioneer of modern German
The Bible translation by Martin Luther was not the first translation of the Bible into German, but contributed to their importance in substantial that simultaneously stood by the art to provide prints at affordable prices in large numbers.
The language of Luther was the Ostmitteldeutsche. He was based in the choice of words, however, always on the go Franconia; Nuremberg was a central hub of Reformation ideas. Every time he realized that a ostmitteldeutsches word was unintelligible there, he dropped it in favor of the Upper German. So Luther said privately Although " Mägdichen " in his translation but is " maiden ". His Upper German - ostmitteldeutsche compromise form closed so will mainly serve the North of Germany.
This trend has already started long before Luther, he stood in the power of a long development, such as Werner Besch has expressed it. Jacob Grimm ruled: "You may call the Modern High German Protestant dialect, in fact. " This is now classified as overconfidence. But his translation of the Bible helped the NHG in enforcing the north. Luther's companion Johannes Bugenhagen, the (hence Pomeranus ) as a native Pommer was competent for Low German, translated Luther's work of 1545 his North German compatriots; but the North German then equal to the preferred high German original.
Enrichment of vocabulary
Luther's Bible provided the New High German vocabulary several handy formulations, however, have partially detached completely from the Bible verse in question and are therefore often not to be found in the current review of the Luther Bible. A proverbial contribution from Luther that have become closer home is the phrase " contribute his mite " ( cf. Lk 21.2 LUT). The Scherf was a small coin and Erfurt, for example, in the Erfurt City Museum to visit in numerous imprints.
"They ( = the Pharisees ) do their Denckzedel wide " (Mt 23,5 LUT): " Denckzedel " Luther's coinage for the Jewish phylacteries ( tefillin ). This site resulted in our vocabulary the phrase " teach him a lesson "; although this word development but understanding the Mt made 23.5 is meant to impossible, offered up today reprinted Bible review of 1912, the reading " lesson ," and yet the "Stuttgarter anniversary Bible " ( Luther Bible with commentary), as amended by seen Edition 1951 noted to Ex LUT 13.9: "Like the later Jews have misunderstood this word, see Matthew 23.5 ". The history of the King James Version is in part the history of anti-Jewish stereotypes; the understanding of Jewish religious practice is not being facilitated by the Luther translation, as Luther himself just for Jewish religious practice had not much understanding.
Influence on other Bible translations
The popularity of the Luther translation meant that Catholic theologians turn bibles brought to the market, which were based on the Luther Bible, but of course under the proposed name of Luther on the title page. Also, the unit translation as partially resulting ecumenical modern Catholic church official translation is influenced by Luther's work, eg Ps 124.8 LUT: "Our help is in the name of the Lord ... " The word " is " is Luther's language and can be in Hebrew not find text.
From the German Bible for " Luther Bible 84" 1984
First unified revisions of the King James
For centuries the Bible has been modernized by the printers and Bible societies as they see fit, so it was the end of the 19th century necessary to disseminate a uniform, text revised in the future.
It was also about the spelling: Since the Bible was used as a textbook by Luther's translation, the student should not read anything into her what the teacher would paint him in the dictation as an error. In the years 1861 and 1863 were therefore agreed principles for the determination of a single biblical text and commissioned ten theologians with the revision of the New Testament. 1867, test the New Testament was published; the New Testament was finally completed in 1870. However, there was until 1883 a "trial Bible" of total output. 1892, the first " official church " revision (Review) was declared closed in 1912 the second.
In the revisions of the 20th century came obvious mistranslations Luther in his eyes, which were attributed to his lack of expertise of antique and ancient Near Eastern world (examples: rabbit, unicorn, boxwood and other animals and plants of the Orient ).
Most of all, changed the text base. Luther translated the so-called Textus Receptus, the unified since the Byzantine period and widespread, finally given by Erasmus of Rotterdam in the form of printed text of the New Testament (especially the second edition of the Novum Instrumentum omne ). The so-called textual criticism collect and assess the other hand, the many papyrus fragments from an earlier period, which offer another text part. The authoritative scientific text edition of the New Testament, the Nestle -Aland contains content created taking into account these papyrus fragments mixed text that is witnessed by no single ancient manuscript, but most likely reflects the original text. This scientific text output is the basis of the major modern translations of the Bible, both the NASB and the Good News Bible, and is also all revision levels of Luther translations after 1912 is based.
1956, the revision of the New Testament was completed in 1964 in the Old Testament. In 1970, the Apocrypha were completed and five years later adopted some changes in the Old Testament for use, with two member churches and Austria opposed the introduction.
1975 version
In the revision of 1975 was mainly about an approximation of the Luther translation to the modern usage; for example (Matthew 5:15) was the proverbial phrase " not put his light under a bushel " repaid, because the bushel as measure of grain was no longer known today. Instead, it was now called "bucket ", which the 1975 translation of the name "bucket Testament" earned. The text of 1975 but failed, not least because he intervened too deep for example in the Christmas story in the text, which many readers could memorize and appreciated.
Way to the 1984 revision
Already in 1977 the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany decided to return text of radical changes in the latest revision level of the New Testament ( affected were about 120 passages ). The traditional form of the text was adopted in 1984 for use, was extremely successful and ended the longstanding crisis over the Luther revision.
The inconsistency of the 1984 revision was also their strength: An unknown places she has rigorously adopted by Luther text, overloaded sentence structures (eg in Luke 1.1 ff) resolved, the text of the Christmas story and other favorite texts but not touched. The staff of the 1984 audit discovered especially the syntax of Luther as a constitutive element of his translation. Luther often memorable, rhetorically polished sentences should not be unnecessarily broken up into two or three shorter sentences: it had been shown that the dissolution of longer sentences not necessarily had a greater intelligibility result.
Letters of biblical names
Among other things, the writing of biblical names were revised on the occasion of the 1984 revision. The failed the 1975 revision had taken over the case ecumenical biblical proper names ( Loccumer policies ) consistently; the 1984 Luther Bible offered by many names again the old habit Luther letters: Nazareth instead of Nazareth, Capernaum Capernaum instead, instead of Ezekiel Ezekiel, Job, Job held. Other examples are Absalom, Asher, Ephraim, Jephthah ( old spelling ) and corrected version of Ruth ( Ruth instead ), Jonathan (Jonathan ), esters ( Esther ).
Development after 1984
Although the revision of 1984 is regarded today as the church officially " recommended for use ' Bible text in the space of the EKD; there were but made minor modifications to the text again in 1999. The most important is the extensive replacement of " woman " with " woman " on the model of evangelical agendas. "Woman " was only available in the following texts: Jos 6.21 LUT; Ri 21,10 LUT; Hi 14.1 LUT; Hi LUT 15.14; Hi LUT 25.14; Proverbs 9:13 LUT; Proverbs 30:19 LUT; Isaiah 19:16 LUT; Jer 50.37 LUT; Jer 51,30 LUT; Nah 3:13 LUT; and Lk 2.5 LUT. The reasons for this can be the linguistic familiarity (eg Lk 2:5), the input of the biblical expression in the literature (eg Hi 14.1 ) and the retention of the negative or disparaging connotation of " woman," at the statement intended to reproduce (eg, Prov 9:13; Nah 3:13), shall apply.
Until the Reformation anniversary in 2017 there will be a review of the Luther Bible of 1984, however it greater linguistic changes should be made without that.
The Luther Bible is not protected in the older form of the text by copyright; it circulate for example, the following non- marketed by the German Bible Society editions:
Special features of the Luther translation
Remembrance
September 20 in the Protestant calendar name (for the September Testament)