MARTIN LUTHER’S GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE – A POPULAR OR POPULIST APPROACH?

Abstract

The German Catholic monk Martin Luther (1483−1546),
reformer and rebel, who created a schism in the Roman Catholic
and Protestant/Evangelical churches, is also well known for his
translation of the Bible from Hebrew (original: Old Testament)
and Greek (original: New Testament) into German. In conflict with
the then-head of the Roman Catholic Church, later even causing a
dispute with the Pope and the Vatican because of its reform topics,
he was guided by the premise that the Bible should be understood
predominantly by the people, and not only by the clergy and the
authorities. Luther’s idea results in a German Bible translation that
departs from the sacral Hebrew, Greek, and also Latin (Vulgate)
language dogmas moving toward a linguistic interpretation that
“looks into the people’s mouths” (“Dem Volke aufs Maul schauen”).
This kind of specific rendering leads Luther to break with tradition
twice: firstly by using primarily the original linguistic codes and
registers and secondly by breaking free from the sacramental
function of the original Bible text by not translating literally
(word-for-word), which was the case with previous German Bible
translations. The paper highlights the fact that Luther’s rendering of
the Bible united the Germans linguistically and laid the foundations
for the so-called German unitary language. In addition, the paper
discusses whether the popularization of the German language in
the Bible establishes greater proximity to the believers and may be
viewed as a popular or even populist instrument.