In Front | Martin Luther

The most magnetic and polarizing personality of the Christian Reformation may have been the German monk-turned-reformer, Martin Luther. His brash insistence on his own depravity, and that of everyone else, made him a lightning rod for controversy and prompted a long career of pamphlets and biblical commentaries. But Luther’s most significant contribution to biblical studies may have been his translation of the Bible into German. His emphasis on personal faith and criticism of popular commentaries made a new German translation, available to common people in their own language, a priority. This emphasis also made such a work the object of popular demand:

Before I translated the New Testament out of the Greek, all longed after it; when it was done, their longing lasted scarce four weeks. Then they desired the Books of Moses . . . (then) the Psalms; of these they were soon weary, and desired other books.

On finishing his translation and satisfying this demand, Luther was glad to be through with the massive project and was pleased with the result:

While the Romish church stood, the Bible was never given to the people in such a shape that they could clearly . . . and easily read it, as they now can in the German translation, which, thank God, we have prepared here at Wittenberg.

Equally clear was Luther’s ability to appreciate the quality and value of his work:

The student of theology has now far greater advantages than students ever before had. [H]e has the Bible, which I have translated from Hebrew into German, so clearly and distinctly, that any one may readily comprehend it.

He wasn’t wrong. His translation proved that he was not only an able polemicist but also a world-course translator. Luther’s Bible remains today a landmark in the history of translation, and the quality and accessibility of its prose have made it a pivotal moment in the history of the German language.  

Reference: Gerhard Ritter, Luther: His Life and Work, 1963. http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Luther%20Table%20Talk.pdf. Accessed Nov 18, 2020.