§ 63. A Critical Estimate of Luther’s Version.
Luther’s version of the Bible is a wonderful monument of genius, learning, and piety, and may
be regarded in a secondary sense as inspired. It was, from beginning to end, a labor of love and
enthusiasm. While publishers and printers made fortunes, Luther never received or asked a copper
for this greatest work of his life.^439
We must judge it from the times. A German translation from the original languages was a
work of colossal magnitude if we consider the absence of good grammars, dictionaries, and
concordances, the crude state of Greek and Hebrew scholarship, and of the German language, in
the sixteenth century. Luther wrote to Amsdorf, Jan. 13, 1522, that he had undertaken a task beyond
his power, that he now understood why no one had attempted it before in his own name, and that
he would not venture on the Old Testament without the aid of his friends.^440 He felt especially how
difficult it was to make Job and the Hebrew prophets speak in barbarous German.^441 He jocosely
remarked that Job would have become more impatient at the blunders of his translators than at the
long speeches of his "miserable comforters."
As regards the text, it was in an unsettled condition. The science of textual criticism was
not yet born, and the materials for it were not yet collected from the manuscripts, ancient versions,
and patristic quotations. Luther had to use the first printed editions. He had no access to manuscripts,
the most important of which were not even discovered or made available before the middle of the
nineteenth century. Biblical geography and archaeology were in their infancy, and many names
and phrases could not be understood at the time.
In view of these difficulties we need not be surprised at the large number of mistakes,
inaccuracies, and inconsistencies in Luther’s version. They are most numerous in Job and the
Prophets, who present, even to the advanced Hebrew scholars of our day, many unsolved problems
of text and rendering. The English Version of 1611 had the great advantage of the labors of three
generations of translators and revisers, and is therefore more accurate, and yet equally idiomatic.
The Original Text.
The basis for Luther’s version of the Old Testament was the Massoretic text as published
by Gerson Ben Mosheh at Brescia in 1494.^442 He used also the Septuagint, the Vulgate of Jerome^443
(although he disliked him exceedingly on account of his monkery), the Latin translations of the
Dominican Sanctes Pagnini of Lucca (1527), and of the Franciscan Sebastian Münster (1534), the
"Glossa ordinaria" (a favorite exegetical vade-mecum of Walafried Strabo from the ninth century),
(^439) He could say with perfect truth: "Ich habe meine Ehre nicht gemeint, auch keinen Heller dafür genomen, sondern habe es zu Ehren
gethan den lieben Christen und zu Ehren einem, der droben sitzt."
(^440) "Interim Biblia transferam, quanquam onus susceperim supra vires. Video nunc, quid sit interpretari, et cur hactenus a nullo sit
attentatum, qui proficeretur nomen suum. [This implies his knowledge of older German translations which are anonymous.] Vetus
Testamentum non potero attingere, nisi vobis praesentibus et cooperantibus."
(^441) "Ach Gott! wie ein gross und verdriesslich Werk ist es, die hebräischen Schreiber zu zwingen deutsch zu reden; wie sträuben sie
sich und wollen ihre hebräische Art gar nicht verlassen und dem groben Deutschen nachfolgen, gleich als wenn eine Nachtigall ... sollte
ihre liebliche Melodei verlassen und dem Kukuk nachsingen." Walch, XVI. 508. Comp. his letter to Spalatin about the difficulties in Job,
Feb. 23, 1524, in De Wette, II. 486.
(^442) Luther’s copy of the Hebrew Bible is preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin. The editio princeps of the whole Hebrew Bible
appeared 1488 (Soncino: Abraham ben Chayin de’ Tintori). A copy in possession of Dr. Ginsburg in England. See Stevens, l.c. p. 60.
Portions had been printed before.
(^443) A copy of the Lyons ed. of 1519, and one of the Basel ed. of 1509, now in possession of the Brandenburg Provincial Museum at
Berlin. Grimm, Gesch. d. luther. Bibelübers., p. 8, note.