Baillet, Vies des Saints, May 28 ; Ceillier, A uteurs Sa- cres (Paris, 186-2), xi, 306.
German Versions of the Holy Scriptdres. 1. E(U-lij Versions. — There is no certain trace of any at- tempt to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular dialects of the German people previous to the latter half of the 9th centurj'. Though Charlemagne en- joined upon his clergj' the study of the Bible and the delivering of expositions of it to the people in the vul- gar tongue, there is no evidence for the assertion haz- arded by Usher (Z>e Script. Vernacj). lOLi) and others that German versions of the Bible were made by his order ; nor is the statement that a Saxon poet had, by order of his son Lewis, versified the whole Bible (Flacius HI. Catal. Test. p. 93) better supported. It is to the poetical narratives of the life of our Saviour which appeared after the middle of the 9th centurj', that the beginnings of Biblical translation among the Germans are to be traced. The Krist of Otfried of Weissenburg (in A.D. 860); the IIeliand,hy an un- known author, and perhaps about the same time, are the earliest documents of which anything certain can be said. Of both of these editions have been printed; the best are, of the Krist, that b}' E. G. Graff (Kcinigsb. 1831); and of the Ileliand, those of J. A. Schmeller, with a glossary (Mlinch. 1840), and J. R. Kone, with a translation (Miinst. 1855). Some fragments of a very ancient translation of Matthew have been published by St. Endlicher and H. Hoffmann, 1834, and by J. F. Massmann, 1841, from a codex in the library at Vi- enna; the dialect in this version is \e,v\ rude, and, if not provincial, would seem to point to an earlier date than the 9th century. Versions of the Psalter seem to have been executed in considerable numbers in the 10th century ; one of these, by Notker Labeo, abbot of St. Gall, is given by Schilter (Thes. vol. i), and others anonj'mous are to be found in Graffs Deutsche Inter- linear versionen der Psalnien (Quad. 1839). A para- phrase of the Song of Songs, in Latin verse and Ger- man prose, hy William of Ebersberg in Bavaria (cir. 1080), has been edited in Schilter's Thes. i, and sepa- rately by IMerula (Leyd. 1598), Freher (Worms, 1631), and recenth', with additional fragments of other parts ofScripture, by Hoffmann (Berl. 1827). This scholar has also edited, in the 2d vol. of his Fundgruben, a met- rical translation of Genesis and part of Exodus, be- longing to the same period or a little later. To the loth century belongs the chronicle of Rudolf von Ho- henems, which is a sort of poetical version of the his- torical parts of the O. T. ; of this many MSS. exist, and an edition has been published, but from a bad text, by Schiitze (Hamb. 1779). Several works of a similar kind, in which the Biblical narratives are set forth, sometimes with apocryphal additions, -were produced about this time; of these, one, which exists in various dialects and in numerous codices, is a version of the historical parts of Scripture in prose, composed partly from the jjoetical versions already extant, partly trans- lated from the Vulgate (JNIassmann, Die Kaiserchronik, iii, 54). Formal translations from the A^ulgate began now to be multiplied ; of these IMSS. exist, though the names of the authors have for the most part perished (Reiske, De Verss. Germ, ante Luthenim, 1697 ; Schiiber, Bericht von alien Dentschen geschriebenen Biheln, 1763; Rosenmiiller, Hist. Interpr. v, 174, etc.). Out of these, though by what process we are unalde to describe, came the complete version of the Bible in German, which was in the possession of the people before the invention of printing, and of which copies were multi- plied to a great extent as soon as that art came into operation. Before 1477 five undated editions, the four earlier at Mayencc and Strasburg, as is believed, the fifth at Augsburg, as the book itself attests, had been printed ; and between 1477 and 1522, nine editions, seven at Augsburg, one at Nuremberg, and one at Strasburg, were issued. Several editions of the Psal- ter also appeared, and one of the Gospels, Avith the
GERMAN VERSIONS
833
GERMAN VERSIONS
Pericopae from the Epistles. Collectors tell also of a translation of Ruth by Boschenstayn, 1525; of Malachi hv Hetzer, 152G ; of Hosea by Cajjito, 1527, and other similar attempts (Kiederer, Nackrichten II., 8vo, sq.). xVn important place must be also assigned t6 the trans- lation of the N. T. into Danish by Hans Milvkelsen (Leips. 1524) ; which, tliough avowedly "ret effter la- tinen vdsatthe," bears numerous traces of indepen- dence of the Vulgate, and of being made directlj^ from the Greek (Henderson, Dissertation on Hans 3Iilckelsen's N. T., Copenh. 1813). Of translations into Low Ger- man, one was printed at Cologne, 1480 ; another at Lii- beck, 1498 ; and a third at Halberstadt, 1522.
2. Luther's Ve7-sion. — The appearance of this consti- tutes an epoch, not only in the history of the Church, but also in that of German literature and of the Ger- man people. Luther's version is a permanent monu- ment of the author's ability and indomitable perse- verance. Luther had few helps in his arduous work. His exegetical aids were limited to the Septuagint, the Vulgate, a few Latin fathers, the N. T. of Erasmus, and such Hebrew as could be learned from the imperfect elementary books then extant. He had, however, val- uable coadjutors in llelancthon, Bugenhagen. Jonas, Aurogallus, and Creuziger, whom he constantly con- sulted, especially when any difficulty occurred. He had access also to the Rabbinical expositions through some learned Jews. But the main burden of the work rested with himself, and it was to his own resources he had cliieti}' to trust for success. Of the patient toil he bestowed upon it some idea may be formed from what he himself says of his labors on the book of Job : " On Job, M. Philip, Aurogallus, and I, worked so that some- times in four days we had hardly succeeded in accom- plishing three lines." With what anxious care he sought to perfect his work may be seen from the ISLS. of the tliird part of his translation, containing Job, Psalms, and tlie writings of Solomon, still preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin, written in his own hand, and exhibiting the corrections which he made in the style and expression before sending it to press. Not unfrequentl}' as many as three forms of expression, and sometimes more, occur, between which he hesi- tated before linally fixing on the one which he would print. He spent on the work in all twelve years. The N. T., completed b3- him in the "Wartburg, appear- ed in 1522; the live books of Moses {Das Alte Testa- ment, Deutsch^th. i) in 1523; the other historical books as far as Esther {Das A. T. Deutscli, th. ii) in the close of the same year ; Job, Psalms, and the Solomonic writings {Das A. T., th. iii) in 1524; between 1526 and 1531 several of the prophetic writings were issued, and in 1532 appeared the collective bod}'^ of the Proph- ets as th. iv of Deis A . T. Dentsch. The Book of Wis- dom was issued in 1529, and the rest of the apocr3'phal books in 1533 and 1534. The whole Bible was thus completed, and appeared under the title "Biulia: d. i. die ganze heilir/e Schvift. Deutsch, IMartin Luther, Wittenlierg. Gedruckt durch Hans Luff't, 1534," fol. (Pischon, Die hohe Wichtirjl-eit der Uehersetz. der H. S. durch Dr. M. Luther, Berl". 1834). Of this work thirtj'- eight editions were printed in Germany before 1580, besides seventj'-two of the N. T., and innumerable re- prints of other smaller portions (Panzer, p. 336).