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Book review: Martin Luther’s Bible: Perspectives on a rich legacy, edited by W. Gordon Campbell

11 October 2024

Natalie K. Watson looks at the historic legacy of Luther’s German Bible

ALEC RYRIE, Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University, describes Martin Luther’s 1522 translation of the New Testament into the German vernacular as having “a fair claim to be the most consequential book ever printed”. Much has been written about the significance of the impact of Luther’s publication of the New Testament in 1522 and the complete Bible in 1534, not least as a linguistic event, the creation of a text that reflected the language spoken by the people, the importance of Gutenberg’s printing press, and much besides. Some of it has become the stuff of urban legends, and thus this collection of papers presented at a conference to mark this epoch-making event is indeed helpful and breaks new ground.

Those to whom being the first in history is attributed rarely are. Christine Ganslmayer of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, sets Luther’s work in the context of other German Bible translations and evaluates the impact of Erasmus, Luther’s opponent better known for their disagreement on free will, on the texts available to Luther.

Besides being a linguistic event, Luther’s work was also a milestone in the history of publishing, the creation of something that would have an impact well beyond the German-speaking world, a Bible that sought to be readable and accessible to all.

AlamyThe beginning of St Matthew’s Gospel in Luther’s Bible (1522)

The chapters by Fearghus Ó Fearghail (Dublin City University) and Éric Kayayan (Foi et Vie Réformées), as well as W. Gordon Campbell’s (Union Theological College, Belfast) second essay, demonstrate this with regard to Tyndale, the 1602 Irish New Testament, and the Geneva Bible (a precursor of modern study Bibles, perhaps) respectively. It is these chapters that make this book a resource of interest to scholars — theological, historical, and literary — in the English-speaking context.

The impact of Luther, Tyndale, and the Geneva Bible on English Bible translations was largely eclipsed by the decision that the 1611 King James Bible would lean on the Douai-Rheims translation; yet the chapters in this book are an interesting reminder of a legacy that cannot be ignored. The chapters are complemented by a substantial bibliography that in itself is a resource.

This is a book by scholars for scholars, and an epilogue offering conclusions drawn from the contributions as a whole would have made this a more rounded study and, perhaps, one more accessible to non-specialist readers. But it is, indeed, a valuable contribution to the history of the Bible in the modern world — and a reminder of a vision that went far beyond the original intentions of one man.

Dr Natalie K. Watson is a theologian, editor, and writer based in Peterborough.

Martin Luther’s Bible: Perspectives on a rich legacy
W. Gordon Campbell, editor
James Clarke & Co £62.50 hbk, £26 pbk
(978-0-22717-915-4 hbk)
(978-0-22717-918-5 pbk)

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