848 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
good to read,” was completed in 1534, and printed with numerous woodcuts.
In the mean time the New Testament had appeared in sixteen or seventeen editions, and in over fifty reprints.}
Luther complained of the many errors in these irresponsible editions.
He never ceased to amend his translation. Besides correcting errors, he improved the uncouth and confused orthography, fixed the inflections, purged the vocabulary of obscure and ignoble words, and made the whole more symmetrical | and melodious.
He prepared five original editions, or recensions, of his whole Bible, the last in 1545, a year before his death.2_ This is the proper basis of all critical editions.®
The edition of 1546 was prepared by his friend Rérer, and contains a large number of alterations, which he traced to Luther himself. Some of them are real improvements, e.g., “ Die Liebe héret nimmer auf,” for “ Die Lnebe wird nicht miide (1 Cor. 18:8). The charge that he made the changes in the interest of Philippism (Melanchthonianism), seems to be unfounded.
1 Fritzsche (l.c., p. 549): ‘* Vom N. T. sind von 1522-1533 ziemlich sicher 16 original Ausgaben nachgewiesen. . . . Die Nachdrucke belaufen sich auf ungefihr 54, wobei Augsburg mit 14, Strassburg mit 13, und Basel mit 12 vertreten ist.”’
2 Under the title: Biblia, das ist die gantze Heilige Schrift, Deutsch. Auffs neu zugericht. D. Mart. Luther. Wittemberg. Durch Hans Lufft, M.D.XLYV. fol. with numerous woodcuts. A copy in the Canstein Bibelanstalt at Halle. The Union Theol. Seminary in New York has a copy of the edition of 1535 which bears this title: Biblia das ist die | gantze Heilige | Schrifft Deutsch. | Mart. Luth. | Wittemberg. | Begnadet mit Kiir- | furstlicher zu Sachsen | freiheit. | Gedruckt durch Hans Lufft. | M.D.- AXXV. The margin is ornamented. Then follows the imprimatur of the Elector John Frederick of Saxony, a preface of Luther to the O. T., anda rude picture of God, the globe and paradise with Adam and Eve among trees and animals.
8 Republished with the greatest care by Bindseil & Niemeyer. See Lit., p. 840,
§ 62. LUTHER’S TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 349
Editions and Revisions.
The printed Bible text of Luther had the same fate as the written text of the old Itala and Jerome’s Vulgate. It passed through innumerable improvements and mis-improvements. The orthography and inflections were modernized, obsolete words removed, the versicular division introduced (first in a Heidelberg reprint, 1568), the spurious clause of the three witnesses inserted in 1 John 5:7 (first by a Frank- ᾿ furt publisher, 1574), the third and fourth books of Ezra and the third book of the Maccabees added to the Apocrypha, and various other changes effected, necessary and unnecessary, good and bad. Elector August of Saxony tried to control the text in the interest of strict Lutheran orthodoxy, and ordered the preparation of a standard edition (1581). But it was disregarded outside of Saxony.
Gradually no less than eleven or twelve recensions came into use, some based on the edition of 1545, others on that of 1546. The most careful recension was that of the Canstein Bible Institute, founded by a pious nobleman, Carl Hildebrand von Canstein (1667-1719) in connection with Francke’s Orphan House at Halle. It acquired the largest circulation and became the teatus receptus of the German Bible.
With the immense progress of biblical learning in the present century, the desire for a timely revision of Luther’s version was more and more felt. Revised versions with many improvements were prepared by Joh. Friedrich von Meyer, a Frankfurt patrician (1772-1849), and Dr. Rudolf Stier (1800- 1862), but did not obtain public authority.
At last a conservative official revision of the Luther Bible was inaugurated by the combined German church governments in 1863, with a view and fair prospect of superseding all former editions in public use.}
1 See Note at the end of the next section.