Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  Amongst the older writings that most nearly approach the ideal of the Catholic Catechism, deserve to be mentioned two books then widely known which are constantly making their appearance in the thirty years before Luther’s day, viz. the “Fundamentum æternæ felicitatis” and the “Discipulus de eruditione Christi — fidelium compendiosus,” the second of which also contains questions and objections. Both go beyond the three main points given above and include a popular summary, intended for the use of the clergy, of the seven sacraments, the nine sins, the works of mercy and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. It was also the usual thing for books on the Decalogue to include other points of importance, and thus to deal with almost the whole of the matter treated of in the Catechism. In fact, as Zezschwitz says, there was rather an “over-abundance of material in the domain of catechetics” than any dearth.

  Finally, the use of the so-called tables, i.e. sheets printed only on one side and each giving a different point of the Catechism, which, as we saw, was the form under which Luther’s Shorter Catechism first appeared (above, ), was nothing new either. “Luther followed in this respect a custom then widespread,” as is shown by the studies of Geffcken, Cohrs and Falk (1908); Falk, in particular, carefully sought out the Catholic tablets of the kind still in existence. So far only one example of Luther’s printed tablets, and that in Low German, has been brought to light.

  Hence the statement that Luther’s Catechism was his own “creation” calls for considerable revision.

  The directness and concision of his style must, however, always commend themselves to the reader, even to those who regret that in this work he tampered with the doctrines of the olden Church. But, as regards the division, the work rests on a foundation hallowed by centuries of ecclesiastical usage. This even Protestants have now begun to see.

  According to F. Cohrs, even in Luther’s “Kurcz Form,” we see “Evangelical catechetics springing up on the soil of the popular religious literature of the Middle Ages.”

  Otto Albrecht, like others, admits, that, in his appreciation of the three chief points of instruction, and more particularly of the Decalogue, Luther “is in agreement with the similar efforts made in the 14th and 15th century.” It was according to him “only natural” that Luther, in his “Kurcz Form” of 1520 and again in his “Deudsche Messe” of 1526, should protest, that, “in these three points, he was safeguarding the heirloom of the Church.” In this instance his critical attitude towards the past comes out only in his exclusion of the Hail Mary, in his rearrangement of the three parts, and, of course, above all, in the new meaning he gives to them. Moreover, according to Albrecht, Luther’s gradual enlargement of his “Betbüchlin” shows that the latter was but an “Evangelical version of the mediæval prayer and confession handbooks, which themselves, in turn, had led up to the Catechisms of the 16th century.”

  Such a view also fits in with Luther’s own words far better than did the exaggerations formerly current. He says, for instance, in 1532, in his “Brieff an die zu Franckfort am Meyn”: “This we have received even from the first beginnings of Christianity. For there we see that the Creed, the Our Father and the Ten Commandments were summarised as a short form of doctrine for the young and the simple, and were, even from the very first, termed the Catechism.” Even in the original preface to the Larger Catechism he had declared that, “for the sake of the common people he was keeping to the three points which have ever been the rule in Christendom in ages past.”

  3. The German Bible

  Already at the Wartburg Luther had begun the great work of substituting for the existing vernacular translations of Holy Scripture one written in good German and based on the original languages of the books of the Bible.

  The idea seems to have dawned on him during his enforced rest at the Wartburg, when, as he tells a friend, he passed his time reading the Bible in Greek and Hebrew and in studying these two languages. Just then he was entirely under the sway of those new views of his which prompted him to set up the Bible in the stead of all ecclesiastical authority. Melanchthon, too, so it would appear, had also some share in his resolution.

  The Work of Translation and its Conclusion

  In his solitude Luther first broached the New Testament, first because its contents more nearly touched the controversy in which he was engaged, and, secondly, because the New Testament could be translated more easily without learned assistance. When first announcing his plan, on Dec. 18, 1521, he mentions, that, “our people are asking for it.” “I shall put the Bible into German,” so he tells his Wittenberg colleague, Canon Nicholas Amsdorf, on Jan. 13, 1522, “though in so doing I am taking upon myself a burden beyond my strength. Now I see what translating means, and, why, so far, no one who undertook it ever put his name to it. As for the Old Testament I cannot touch it unless you are here and give me your help. Could I find a hiding-place with one of you, I would come at once so as to start the work of translation from the outset with your assistance. The result ought to be a translation worthy of being read by all Christians. I hope we shall give our German folk a better one than that which the Latins have. It is a great and glorious work at which we all should toil, for it is a public matter and is meant to serve the common weal. Tell me what hopes you have of it.”

  In barely three months, with the aid of the few helpers he was able to secure in his Patmos, he had finished the first rough draft of the New Testament, which he took with him on leaving the Wartburg for revision among his friends at Wittenberg. “Philip and I,” so he wrote from Wittenberg, on March 30, 1522, to Spalatin, who was then Court preacher, “have now begun to furbish the translation of the New Testament; it will, please God, turn out a fine work. We shall need your help too, here and there, for the choice of words; hence get ready. But send us simple words, not the language of the men-at-arms or of the Court; the translation must, above all, be a homely one. May I ask you to send me straightaway the [German] names and the colours of the precious stones mentioned in Apocalypse xxi., or better still the stones themselves, if you can get hold of them at Court or elsewhere.” Luther finally received specimens of the stones through the good offices of Cranach. In order the better to understand certain texts, he also wrote to Spalatin, Mutian and Dr. George Sturz on the subject of ancient coinage. He also incidentally consulted the Court preacher as to the exact German translation of the names of various wild animals with which the latter would probably be acquainted owing to the hunts indulged in by the Court in that neighbourhood.

  The printing of the New Testament was begun at Wittenberg by Melchior Lotther in the first days of May. Proofsheets were sent to Spalatin and Duke Johann of Saxony. From the beginning of July three printing presses are said to have run off daily 10,000 “chartæ,” i.e. 5000 folio sheets, so as to produce an edition of 3000 copies. On Se, 1522, the New Testament appeared with a frontispiece and a number of woodcuts by Lucas Cranach; the title-page bore the words: “Das Newe Testament Deutzsch. Vuittemberg.” Neither year nor printer’s name were given, nor even the name of the translator, probably in order not to prejudice the sale of the book in those regions where Luther stood in bad odour. Luther received no fee for the work any more than for his other writings. As the first edition was at once sold out a new and amended one was published in Dec.; the two editions afterwards became known as the September and December Bibles. Editions still further amended were published at Wittenberg in 1526 and 1530. Altogether some sixteen editions of the New Testament were printed in this town before 1557, while at the same time more than fifty reprints saw the light in Germany, for instance, fourteen at Augsburg, thirteen at Strasburg and twelve at Basle.

  While still busy on the New Testament Luther set to work on the Old, this time with the regular and expert assistance of Melanchthon and Matthæus Aurogallus, the Wittenberg Professor of Hebrew. Owing to the difficulty of the work and the constant hindrances encountered by the author, the work did not appear all at once, but only piecemeal. As early as 1523 the Books of the Pentateuch we
re published at Augsburg and Basle in two successive editions, four times reprinted in the same year. The historical books from Josue to Esther followed in 1524. The remainder, comprehensively described as the “Prophets,” followed in separate parts, Job, the Psalms and the “Books of Solomon” in 1524, and the Prophets, properly so-called, only at longer intervals.

  The difficulties of the work and the unwearied pains taken by the compiler are frequently apparent in Luther’s letters to his friends.

  He writes, for instance, to Spalatin: “Job gives us much trouble owing to the exceptional grandeur of his style; he seems as reluctant to submit to our translation as to the consolations of his friends; he refuses to march and wants to remain for ever seated on his dunghill; it almost seems as though the writer of the book had wished to make a translation impossible. For this reason the printing of the third part of the Bible [i.e. of the Old Testament] proceeds but slowly.” — Later, in the preface to the Book of Job, he said: “In our work on ‘Hiob,’ we, Master Philip, Aurogallus and I, were sometimes barely able to get through three lines in four days. But now, my friend, that it is translated into German everyone can read it and master it and run his eyes over three or four pages without meeting a single obstacle, nor does he perceive what hindrances and stumbling-blocks lay in the path he now glides along as easily as down a greasy pole; to us, however, it cost much toil and sweat to remove all the hindrances and stumbling-blocks.”

  He writes to his friend Wenceslaus Link of his difficulties with the prophet Isaias on which, with Melanchthon, he was hard at work in June, 1528: “We are now sweating at the translation of the prophets. Good God, what a great and arduous task it is to cram the Hebrew writers into a German mould! They absolutely refuse to submit to the barbarism of the German tongue. It is as though a nightingale were being forced to exchange its sweet melodies for the call of the cuckoo.”

  With particular care did Luther devote himself to polishing up each new edition of the Psalms; it is easy to see his efforts, not merely to render the words accurately, but also to breathe into his translation some of the fervour and poetic feeling of the sacred text.

  As to the prophets; with the exception of Isaias, he set to work on them only in 1530, beginning with Ezechiel during his stay at the Coburg. In Feb., 1532, he had finished the prophets, which appeared in a volume apart. He was now at last able to set to work on what he called the “Apocrypha”; regarding them as popular tales his translation of them was very free. Among these he included Judith, the Book of Wisdom, Tobias, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, the first and second Book of the Machabees, portions of Esther, etc. They found a place at the end of his Old Testament.

  At the commencement of 1534 his Bible, which was now finished, was published for the first time as a complete work under the title: “Biblia, das ist die gantze Heilige Schrift Deudsch,” with his name and that of the printer, Hans Luft (Lufft). The Old, like the New Testament, was illustrated by Lucas Cranach, the subjects having been selected and distributed by Luther himself. The Old Testament was also furnished by Luther with marginal glosses in the form of short notes explanatory of the text, or giving his own commentary on it. Prefaces were prefixed to each division. A new edition of the Old Testament was ready as early as 1535.

  New reprints of the whole Bible or of portions of it were constantly making their appearance, those appearing at Wittenberg always embodying the author’s latest emendations. From 1530-40 the latest bibliographer of Luther’s Bible enumerates thirty-four Wittenberg editions and seventy-two reprints in other parts of Germany; from 1541-46 there were eighteen Wittenberg editions and twenty-six similar reprints. According to a fairly reliable authority no less than 100,000 complete Bibles left Lotther’s press at Wittenberg between 1534 and 1584. The same bibliographer describes in the Weimar edition eighty-four original editions and 253 reprints as having appeared during Luther’s lifetime. Since each edition may be reckoned to have comprised from one to five thousand copies, one is almost justified in saying that Germany was flooded with the new work or portions of it. Half the South-German printers found a living in printing Bibles. In this respect the history of Luther’s works supplies the best data for the history of the printing and bookselling trade in that age.

  It is true, no doubt, that many bought Bibles, because, among Protestants, it was considered the right thing for every man of means to have his Family-Bible. In the case of many alienated from the practices of the Church, the possession and the reading of the Bible constituted, as a Protestant recently put it, a sort of “opus operatum,” yet, according to the same writer, “the contradiction between the Bible and the moral behaviour” of some of its most zealous readers “cannot in many instances be questioned.” Others, however, no doubt provided themselves with the new Bible from really religious motives and interests, and refreshed and fortified themselves with its sublime and edifying eloquence. We may assume this to have been the effect of Luther’s Bible in the case of the simple folk who had been led unconsciously into Lutheranism, or had grown up in it, and who owed their acquaintance with the work to its use in public worship, though they themselves may have been unable to read, or, maybe, not rich enough to purchase a Bible of their own.

  His success encouraged Luther, diligently to revise his work. So far, not a single edition had appeared without some alterations, and, as we see from certain recently discovered data, he again went through the Psalter in 1531, “with great pains and labour,” and also set about revising the whole of his Bible subsequent to Jan. 24, 1534 — being assisted in both these undertakings by Melanchthon and Cruciger. Nevertheless another revision of the Bible on a large scale was begun in 1539, as we have fully learnt only in our own day from two witnesses and from the notes in Luther’s own private copy.

  One of the witnesses is George Rörer, the Wittenberg deacon who corrected the Bible proofs, and who declares: “In 1539 they went through the Bible once more, from the beginning even to the Apocrypha [i.e. the Old Testament], and gave a clearer German rendering to certain words and phrases, as may be seen from the book with the sermons [i.e. the notes] delivered by this same man in 1541-2.”

  The other witness is Mathesius, who had been a guest at Luther’s table in the spring of 1540 and whose detailed account was already generally known, though, owing to the fresh data discovered, it now appears in a stronger light. “When first the whole German Bible had appeared and temptations had improved it day by day, the Doctor once more gathered the Holy Books, and, with great earnestness, diligence and prayer, went through them again; and ... D. Luther formed a sort of Sanhedrin of his own, composed of the best men then to be had, who met for several hours once a week before supper in the Doctor’s monastery, namely, D. Johann Bugenhagen, D. Justus Jonas, D. Cruciger, Master Philip, Matthæus Aurogallus and also M. George Rörer, the proof-reader. Doctors and learned men from outside frequently took part in this sublime work, for instance, Dr. Bernard Ziegler [Professor of Hebrew at Leipzig], D. Forstemius [Professor at Tübingen, who in 1540 became Provost of Nuremberg].... The Doctor, having first gone through the Bible already published, ... came into the consistory with his old Latin and new German Bibles, always bringing also the Hebrew text along with him. Mr. Philip brought with him the Greek text, and Dr. Cruciger both the Chaldean and the Hebrew Bible. The professors had also their Rabbinic books with them. D. Pommer had also a Latin copy before him with which he was very well acquainted. Each one had prepared beforehand the text to be discussed and had consulted the commentators, Greek, Latin and Jewish. Then the President propounded a text and listened to what each one in turn had to say on the peculiarity of the language or on the commentaries of the ancient doctors. Beautiful and instructive things are said to have been said during this work, some of which M. George [Rörer] noted down, which were afterwards printed as short glosses and notes in the margin of the text.”

  At the meetings the minutes were taken by Rörer, a capable amanuensis. What has been preserved of them gives us a glimpse into th
e workshop, where, from 1539 to 1541, the revision of the Bible undertaken by Luther was carried out. Of Rörer’s minutes those are still extant which record the conferences on the revision of the translation of the Psalms, and also a considerable portion of those on the work of 1539 on the Old Testament of which Mathesius speaks.

  The account, as is so often the case with the Table-Talk, is written in a mixture of Latin and German; it is also distinguished by the same spontaneity and absence of constraint. It records discussions on all the books of the Old Testament saving Chronicles, Esdras and the “Apocrypha.” We have, in all, notes of meetings held on thirty-two various dates. Very often the sessions were broken owing to the members being otherwise engaged, or absent on journeys. The speakers mentioned by name, Luther in particular, often give their views on the sense of the original or on its German rendering. As a rule Luther first submits his proposals or difficulties and then listens to the views of the rest. At times interesting side-lights are thrown on contemporary history, and we also meet some noteworthy obiter dicta.

  On Genesis xii. 11 ff. Melanchthon, alluding to Abraham’s lie in Egypt when he declared his wife to be his sister, says: “I think he did this rather out of greatness than out of weakness of faith.” Luther, who elsewhere does not blame Abraham for this and also sees its reason in the greatness of his faith, here nevertheless disagrees with Melanchthon and says, “I prefer to regard it as weakness, for, we are all of us in the same hospital.”