Библия Мартина Лютера: История перевода на немецкий язык.

German language translation of the Bible by Martin Luther

| textual basis = ublist |

The Luther Bible (Lutherbibel) is a German language Bible translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. A New Testament translation by Luther was first published in September 1522, and the completed Bible, containing a translation of the Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha, in 1534. Luther continued to make improvements to the text until 1545. It was the one of first full translation of the Bible into German that used not only the Latin Vulgate but also the Greek. Luther did not translate the entire Bible by himself; he relied on a team of translators and helpers that included Philip Melanchthon, a scholar of Koine Greek who motivated and assisted Luther's New Testament translation from Greek, and Matthäus Aurogallus, a linguist and scholar of Hebrew. One of the textual bases of the New Testament translation was the Latin and Greek versions, and its philological annotations, recently published by the Dutch Catholic humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam and called the Novum Testamentum omne (1519). The project absorbed Luther's later years. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany, Thanks to the then recently invented printing press, the result was widely disseminated and contributed significantly to the development of today's modern High German language.

A number of Bible translations into German, both manuscript and printed, were produced prior to Luther's birth. Starting around the year 1460 at least eighteen complete German Bible editions, ninety editions in the vernacular of the Gospels and the readings of the Sundays and Holy Days, and some fourteen German Psalters were printed, sometimes in multiple editions. These were all translations from the Latin Vulgate not influenced by the emerging Hebrew and Greek scholarship. The Zürich Bible was released in stages from 1525 to 1530, made by Zwingli and Leo Jud. It was a High Alemannic (Swiss German) revision of Luther's New Testament altered in word order and vocabulary, with a new Old Testament: the books of the prophets were derived from the 1527 translation of the Anabaptists Ludwig Haetzer and Hans Denck. The publication of the complete Zwinglibibel pre dates the complete Lutherbibel by four years.

The Old Testament was translated using a Masoretic text of Soncino, the Vulgate of Jerome, the Septuagint, and, later, Latin versions by Santes Pagnino and by Sebastian Münster. Luther's Bible was a bestseller in its time. About 200,000 copies in hundreds of reprinted editions appeared before Luther died in 1546. However, the book remained too expensive for most people; an unbound copy of the complete 1534 Bible cost the equivalent of a month's wages for the average laborer. Instead, the Bible was bought by churches, pastors, and schools. Johannes Bugenhagen published a Middle Low German version in 1534.

Revisions were made during and after Luther's lifetime, sometimes with multiple editions in a single year. The 1530 edition is regarded as his most thoroughgoing revision of the New Testament. The successive revisions were less constrained by Latin and Greek. In 2017, a revised version was published for the 500th anniversary of the posting of the Ninety five Theses.

Initially Luther had a low view of the Old Testament book of Esther and of the New Testament books of Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Revelation of John. He called the Letter of James "an epistle of straw", finding little in it that pointed to Christ and his saving work. He also had harsh words for the Revelation of John, saying that he could "in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it". In his translation of the New Testament, Luther moved Hebrews and James out of the usual order, to join Jude and the Revelation at the end, and differentiated these from the other books which he considered "the true and certain chief books of the New Testament. The four which follow have from ancient times had a different reputation." His views on some of these books changed in later years, and became more positive. Luther chose to place the books he considered Biblical apocrypha between the Old and New Testaments. These books and addenda to Biblical canon of the Old Testament are found in the ancient Greek Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Masoretic text. Luther left the translating of them largely to Philipp Melanchthon and Justus Jonas. Though included, they were not numbered in the table of contents of his 1532 Old Testament, and in the 1534 Bible they were given the well known title: "Apocrypha: These Books Are Not Held Equal to the Scriptures, but Are Useful and Good to Read".

Luther's German Bible and its widespread circulation facilitated the emergence of a standard, modern German language for the German speaking people throughout the Holy Roman Empire, an empire extending through and beyond present day Germany. It is also considered a landmark in German literature, with Luther's vernacular style often praised by modern German sources for the forceful vigor ("kraftvolles Deutsch") with which he translated the Holy Scripture. The spread of Luther's Bible translation had implications for the German language. The German language had developed into so many dialects that German speakers from different regions could barely understand each other. This led Luther to conclude that "I have so far read no book or letter in which the German language is properly handled. Nobody seems to care sufficiently for it; and every preacher thinks he has a right to change it at pleasure and to invent new terms." Scholars preferred to write in the Latin which they all understood. Luther's Bible translation, based primarily on Saxon Chancery language used in royal courts and his native Upper Saxon dialect and enriched with the vocabulary of German poets and chroniclers, was a step on the path to a standardized German language, Luther adapted words to the capacity of the German public and through the pervasiveness of his German Bible, created and spread the modern German language. Luther's program of exposure to the words of the Bible was extended into every sphere of daily life and work, illuminating moral considerations for Germans. It gradually became infused into the culture of the whole nation and has occupied a permanent space in German history. It made it possible for him to be a prophet of a new German national identity and helped form the spirit of a new epoch in German history. The existence of the vernacular Bible was a public affirmation of empowerment and reform, such as might deprive any elite or priestly class of exclusive control over words, as well as over the word of God. So the translation of the Bible would allow the common people to become aware of the issues at hand and develop an informed opinion. Luther's vernacular Bible broke the domination and unity of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe. He had claimed Holy Scripture to be the sole authority, and through his translation every individual would be able to abide by its authority, and might nullify his or her need for a monarchical pope. As Bishop John Fisher put it, Luther's Bible had "stirred a mighty storm and tempest in the church".

Although not as significantly as on German linguistics, Luther's Bible also made a large impression on educational reform throughout Germany. Luther's goal of a readable, accurate translation of the Bible became a stimulus towards universal education, since everyone should be able to read in order to understand the Bible. though estimates vary from 1% to 17%. Luther followed Erasmus, who followed Thomas More, on the benefits of educating girls. Luther believed that mankind had fallen from grace and was ruled by selfishness, but had not lost moral consciousness: all were sinners and needed to be educated. Thus his vernacular Bible could become a means of establishing a form of law, order, and morality which everyone could abide by, if all could read and understand it. The possibility of understanding the vernacular Bible allowed Luther to found a State Church and educate his followers into a law abiding community. The Protestant states of Germany became educational states, which encouraged the spirit of teaching which was ultimately fueled by Luther's vernacular Bible.

Finally, Luther's translated Bible also had international significance in the spread of Christianity. Luther's translation influenced the English translations by William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale, who in turn inspired many other translations of the Bible such as the Bishops' Bible of 1568, the Douay–Rheims Bible of 1582–1609, and the King James Version of 1611.

Verse Luther Bible Translation English versions Notes Gen 2:23 "[ ] Man wird sie Männin heißen, darum daß sie vom Manne genommen ist." "One will call her she man, based on this[:] that she was taken out of the man." "[ ] She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Here Luther tried to preserve the resemblance of Hebrew ish (man) and ishah (woman) by adding the female German suffix in to the masculine word Mann, because the correct word (at that time), Weib, does not resemble it (as neither does the modern Frau). As with adding she to man in English, adding in to Mann in German is considered grammatically awkward. Matthew 12:34 "[ ] Wes das Herz voll ist, des geht der Mund über." "What the heart is full of, of that the mouth overflows." "[ ] For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Emphasis on conveyance of meaning. John 11:35 "Und Jesus gingen die Augen über." "And Jesus' eyes overflowed." "Jesus wept." Poetic emphasis. John 19:5 "[ ] Sehet, welch ein Mensch!" "Behold what a man (this is)!" "[ ] Behold the man!" Emphasis on Jesus' glory in spite of an ignoble situation; now considered an incorrect translation. See also: Ecce Homo. Matthew 23:5"[ ] Sie machen ihre Denkzettel breit und die Säume an ihren Kleidern groß. ""They make their slips wide and the hems of their garments large. ""[ ] "They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long"Luther used the German legal term Denkzettel in Matthew 23:5 for the translation of the Greek word φυλακτήριον. This Legalistic language does not exist in the Vulgate or any ancient text.