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History of the Bible

  1. Lesson One
    Revelation and Canon
    17 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  2. Lesson Two
    Transmission and Translation
    19 Activities
  3. Lesson Three
    Reformation and Publication
    16 Activities
  4. Lesson Four
    Modern Bible Translation
    15 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  5. Lesson Five
    The Bible Movement Today
    14 Activities
    |
    3 Assessments
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Wrap-Up
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

Participants 11

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History of the Bible Modern Bible Translation In Front | The Nazi Bibles
Lesson 4, Activity 10

In Front | The Nazi Bibles

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The most notorious versions of the Bible may be the twentieth-century German Bibles that were developed in response to the stated agenda of the Nazi party: “[The German Church must find] liberation from the Old Testament with its cheap Jewish morality of exchange and stories of cattle dealers and pimps.”

During the 1930s, a number of expurgated National Socialist versions of the Bible surfaced in Germany. These versions targeted Jewish elements of the narrative and all things deemed incompatible with idealized German identity. Not only the idea of the Jewish people as a chosen people, but also the “whole scapegoat and inferiority-type theology of the Rabbi Paul” had to go.  

The story of the Crucifixion, as it portrayed Jesus as a victim, “was derided as a symbol of weakness and passivity,” unworthy of German values. “Jesus’ word from the cross, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ was removed.” The party line on the depiction of Jesus seemed to be guided by a principle laid down by Richard Wagner, German composer and notorious anti-Semite, years earlier:

Redeem the redeemer. Liberate him from everything theologians, Jews and the church leadership have appended, preach him as he is . . . Free him from the Jewish Spirit.

Ultimately, the Nazi party recast Christ as an icon of Aryan self-sacrifice, rather than a Jewish victim. A new German Christian confirmation question, for initiation into the Church, asked, “Who was Jesus Christ and against whom did He fight?”

The required answer was, “A Hero and Warrior who fought against Jews and Pharisees.”

Instead of a symbol of forgiveness, “the cross became a paradigm example of the manly offering of Aryan blood that . . . nourishes the life of the people in their collective struggle.” The Bible has been altered and used dishonestly at other moments in history, but likely never to a more sinister purpose or with more distorted results. 

Quotes from: Doris L. Bergen, Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich, 2007, pp. 145, 159;
S. Mark Heim, Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross, 2008, pp. 273-276.