The Literary Quality of Luther's Septembertestament

Extract

The publication, in September 1522, of the first edition of Luther's New Testament was an event of European significance. This impressive-looking folio volume was not only the most important work of German literature in the sixteenth century, but also the first and most influential translation, from the Greek, of the New Testament in any of the Germanic countries: the sixteenth-century Dutch, English, Scandinavian, and Swiss versions are all more or less heavily indebted to it. Luther's Septembertestament is the editio princeps of the vernacular Bibles of the Protestant world. In Germany its influence was not restricted to Protestants but included Roman Catholics who read the Bible in the vernacular. Emser's edition of the New Testament of 1527, which was largely a “revision” of Luther's text, was used in Catholic Germany well into the eighteenth century. Other Catholic “translations,” such as those bearing the names of Dietenberger and Eck, also retained Luther's version to a surprising extent. Thus practically all of Germany, both Protestant and Catholic, and all of Protestant Europe were, in varying degree to be sure, under the spell of Luther's epoch-making translation.