least; for his version was made from the original Hebrew and Greek, and was so far superior in
every respect that the older version entirely disappeared. It is to all intents a new work.
Luther’s Qualifications.
Luther had a rare combination of gifts for a Bible translator: familiarity with the original
languages, perfect mastery over the vernacular, faith in the revealed word of God, enthusiasm for
the gospel, unction of the Holy Spirit. A good translation must be both true and free, faithful and
idiomatic, so as to read like an original work. This is the case with Luther’s version. Besides, he
had already acquired such fame and authority that his version at once commanded universal attention.
His knowledge of Greek and Hebrew was only moderate, but sufficient to enable him to
form an independent judgment.^427 What he lacked in scholarship was supplied by his intuitive
genius and the help of Melanchthon. In the German tongue he had no rival. He created, as it were,
or gave shape and form to the modern High German. He combined the official language of the
government with that of the common people. He listened, as he says, to the speech of the mother
at home, the children in the street, the men and women in the market, the butcher and various
tradesmen in their shops, and, "looked them on the mouth," in pursuit of the most intelligible terms.
His genius for poetry and music enabled him to reproduce the rhythm and melody, the parallelism
and symmetry, of Hebrew poetry and prose. His crowning qualification was his intuitive insight
and spiritual sympathy with the contents of the Bible.
A good translation, he says, requires "a truly devout, faithful, diligent, Christian, learned,
experienced, and practiced heart."
Progress of his Version.
Luther was gradually prepared for this work. He found for the first time a complete copy
of the Latin Bible in the University Library at Erfurt, to his great delight, and made it his chief
study. He derived from it his theology and spiritual nourishment; he lectured and preached on it as
professor at Wittenberg day after day. He acquired the knowledge of the original languages for the
purpose of its better understanding. He liked to call himself a "Doctor of the Sacred Scriptures."
He made his first attempt as translator with the seven Penitential Psalms, which he published
in March, 1517, six months before the outbreak of the Reformation. Then followed several other
sections of the Old and New Testaments,—the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Prayer
of King Manasseh, the Magnificat of the Virgin Mary, etc., with popular comments. He was urged
by his friends, especially by Melanchthon, as well as by his own sense of duty, to translate the
whole Bible.
He began with the New Testament in November or December, 1521, and completed it in
the following March, before he left the Wartburg. He thoroughly revised it on his return to
Wittenberg, with the effectual help of Melanchthon, who was a much better Greek scholar. Sturz
at Erfurt was consulted about coins and measures; Spalatin furnished from the Electoral treasury
names for the precious stones of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21). The translation was then hurried
through three presses, and appeared already Sept. 21, 1522, but without his name.^428
(^427) "Ich kann," he says in his Tischreden, "weder griechisch noch ebraeisch, ich will aber dennoch einem Ebraeer und Griechen ziemlich
begegnen. Aber die Sprachen machen für sich selbst keinen Theologen, sondern sind nur eine Hülfe. Denn soll einer von einem Dinge
reden, so muss er die Sache [Sprache?] zuvor wissen und verstehen." Erl.-Frkf. ed., vol. LXII. 313.
(^428) Under the title: Das Newe Testament Deutzsch. Wittemberg. With wood-cuts by Lucas Cranach, one at the beginning of each book
and twenty-one in the Apocalypse. The chapter division of the Latin Bible, dating from Hugo a St. Caro, was retained with some paragraph
divisions; the versicular division was as yet unknown (Robert Stephanus first introduced it in his Latin edition, 1548, and in his Greek
Testament of 1551). The order of the Epistles is changed, and the change remained in all subsequent editions. Some parallel passages and