Martin Luther’s German Translation of the Bible – a Popular or Populist Approach? (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Impact of Martin Luther's German Bible Translation
The Impact of Martin Luther's German Bible Translation, 2018
This seminar paper was written in partial fulfillment of the requirements for CH 9551-2 - The Protestant Reformation. The paper describes the contribution of Martin Luther for Bible translation.
Martin Luther's New Testament Translation: Influence on German Society
2018
Martin Luther, the father of the Christian Reformation Movement, translated the New Testament from Greek into the German language in 1522 CE. Luther's primary goal in doing the translation work was to educate German people and make the Bible more easily accessible to the lower echelons of society. He was not happy with the Roman Catholic tradition of keeping the understanding and interpretation of the Bible to a select few within the vehicle of a language that was not widely understood.
The King James Version and Luther’s Bible Translation
2011
Graham Tomlin here examines perhaps two of the most influential Reformation texts: Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible (1534) and the King James Version (1611). He shows how their different emphases reflect different strands in tension within the Reformation as well as their different historical contexts. For Luther, translation should be idiomatic and so accessible, theological and the work of a faith-ful translator who has been humbled by God’s grace. His is a translation of immanence and incarnation into his culture. In contrast, the KJV is not concerned to propound a particular theological standpoint but seeks simplicity and the integrity of precise translation of the original languages. It thus preserves the Scripture’s strangeness and trusts the reader with the text’s uncertainties.
David Whitford (ed.), Martin Luther in Context, Cambridge: CUP, 2018
The Role of Biblical Languages to Preserve and Perpetuate the Reformation
Journal of AIIAS African Theological Association, 2019
Biblical languages are essential to interpret Scripture. A working knowledge of biblical languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic) helps the student of Scripture understand the biblical text. This paper examines the role of Biblical languages during the Reformation period, notably how the Renaissance’s discovery of ancient sources led to the concept of ad fontes which in a religious context led to a return to studying biblical languages. Martin Luther and other magisterial Reformers consistently emphasized the importance of learning biblical languages. This paper examines how each of these Reformers, namely Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin became active students of Scripture through the use of, and emphasis on the importance of understanding biblical languages as a vital part of Biblical studies. This study shows that the Sola Scriptura that reformers upheld strongly could not be possible without going back to the original languages of the Bible. When the church today disregards this, as shown in the weakening of emphasis in seminaries and negative attitude of the ministerial students toward biblical languages, they ignore the significant role of biblical languages in the reformation. It seems that there could have been no reformation without the reformers taking hold of the Word of God in its original languages. Keywords: Reformation, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, biblical languages, Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, ad fontes, Erasmus, Reuchlin, Wittenberg, 95 Theses
Journal for the History of Modern Theology / Zeitschrift für neuere Theologiegeschichte, 2021
This article examines the creation and impact of Luther for Our Time (1817), Karl Gottlieb Bretschneider’s much-read book of excerpts, as a case study of how modern scientific theologians and editors read, annotated, and introduced Luther to other readers: in this instance as a rationalist. The book was controversial. The article also looks at two competing selections of Luther’s texts prepared in response by the more conservative Protestants Friedrich Perthes and Hans Lorenz Andreas Vent and the ultramontane Catholics Nikolaus Weis and Andreas Räß. It suggests that greater consideration of such compilations and the working methods of the compilers themselves – part of the critical history of scholarship – will both enrich our understanding of the actual use of reformers and their broad reception by various readers, as well as shed new light on the polemics of the early nineteenth century. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Entstehung und die Wirkung von Luther an unsere Zeit (1817), Karl Gottlieb Bretschneiders vielgelesenes Buch der Auszüge, als Fallstudie darüber, wie moderne wissenschaftliche Theologen und Herausgeber Luther gelesen, kommentiert und anderen Lesern vorgestellt haben: in diesem Beispiel als Rationalist. Das Buch war umstritten. Der Beitrag befasst sich auch mit zwei konkurrierenden Auswahlen von Luthers Schriften, die von den konservativeren Protestanten Friedrich Perthes und Hans Lorenz Andreas Vent sowie den ultramontanen Katholiken Nikolaus Weis und Andreas Räß als Antwort verfasst wurden. Es deutet darauf hin, dass eine stärkere Berück- sichtigung solcher Zusammenstellungen und der Arbeitsmethoden der Compiler selbst – als Teil der kritischen Geschichte der Wissenschaft – sowohl unser Verständnis des tatsächlichen Einsatzes der Reformer und ihrer breiten Rezeption durch verschiedene Leser bereichern als auch neues Licht werfen wird über die Polemik des frühen neunzehnten Jahrhunderts.