orthography and inflections were modernized, obsolete words removed, the versicular division
introduced (first in a Heidelberg reprint, 1568), the spurious clause of the three witnesses inserted
in 1 John 5:7 (first by a Frankfurt publisher, 1574), the third and fourth books of Ezra and the third
book of the Maccabees added to the Apocrypha, and various other changes effected, necessary and
unnecessary, good and bad. Elector August of Saxony tried to control the text in the interest of
strict Lutheran orthodoxy, and ordered the preparation of a standard edition (1581). But it was
disregarded outside of Saxony.
Gradually no less than eleven or twelve recensions came into use, some based on the edition
of 1545, others on that of 1546. The most careful recension was that of the Canstein Bible Institute,
founded by a pious nobleman, Carl Hildebrand von Canstein (1667–1719) in connection with
Francke’s Orphan House at Halle. It acquired the largest circulation and became the textus receptus
of the German Bible.
With the immense progress of biblical learning in the present century, the desire for a timely
revision of Luther’s version was more and more felt. Revised versions with many improvements
were prepared by Joh.- Friedrich von Meyer, a Frankfurt patrician (1772–1849), and Dr. Rudolf
Stier (18001862), but did not obtain public authority.
At last a conservative official revision of the Luther Bible was inaugurated by the combined
German church governments in 1863, with a view and fair prospect of superseding all former
editions in public use.^433
The Success.
The German Bible of Luther was saluted with the greatest enthusiasm, and became the most
powerful help to the Reformation. Duke George of Saxony, Duke William of Bavaria, and Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria strictly prohibited the sale in their dominions, but could not stay the current.
Hans Lufft at Wittenberg printed and sold in forty years (between 1534 and 1574) about a hundred
thousand copies,—an enormous number for that age,—and these were read by millions. The number
of copies from reprints is beyond estimate.
Cochlaeus, the champion of Romanism, paid the translation the greatest compliment when
he complained that "Luther’s New Testament was so much multiplied and spread by printers that
even tailors and shoemakers, yea, even women and ignorant persons who had accepted this new
Lutheran gospel, and could read a little German, studied it with the greatest avidity as the fountain
of all truth. Some committed it to memory, and carried it about in their bosom. In a few months
such people deemed themselves so learned that they were not ashamed to dispute about faith and
the gospel not only with Catholic laymen, but even with priests and monks and doctors of divinity."^434
The Romanists were forced in self-defense to issue rival translations. Such were made by
Emser (1527), Dietenberger (1534), and Eck (1537), and accompanied with annotations. They are
more correct in a number of passages, but slavishly conformed to the Vulgate, stiff and heavy, and
they frequently copy the very language of Luther, so that he could say with truth, "The Papists steal
my German of which they knew little before, and they do not thank me for it, but rather use it
against me." These versions have long since gone out of use even in the Roman Church, while
Luther’s still lives.^435
(^433) See Note at the end of the next section.
(^434) De Actis et Scriptis M. Lutheri ad Ann. 1522. Gieseler (IV. 65 sq.) quotes the whole passage in Latin.
(^435) The last edition of Dr. Eck’s Bible appeared in 1558, at Ingolstadt, Bavaria.