Martin Luther translated the bible. How did the bible come about

Martin Luther und seine Bibelübersetzung

Es ist üblich zu denken, dass die erste Bibelübersetzung in die deutsche Sprache von Martin Luther geschaffen wurde. In Wirklichkeit gab es lange vorher Versuche, einige alttestamentarische Bücher ins Deutsche zu übersetzen. Aber nur der Begründer der Reformation schaffte die ganze Übersetzung, die eine große Rolle für die Entwicklung der deutschen Sprache hatte.

Nach der Abwendung von der catholischen Kirche wollte Martin Luther die Heilige Schrift übersetzen, um die Bibel für alle Leute verständlich zu machen. Früher benutze man in der Kirche nur Texte auf Latein, die nur gebildete Leute verstehen konnten. Deshalb war es notwendig, eine gute Übersetzung zu schaffen. Das größte Problem bestand darin, dass es im Mittelalter keine einheitliche deutsche Sprache gab. Auf dem Territorium des heutigen Deutschlands gab es zahlreiche Kurfürstentümer, in denen verschiedene Dialekte gesprochen wurden. In seiner Bibelübersetzung benutzte Luther mitteldeutsche Dialekte, vor allem Sächsisch. Es war für ihn auch wichtig, die biblischen Texte der Alltagssprache näherzubringen. Später erzählte der Theologe, dass er die Sprache verwendete, die er bei einfachen Menschen hörte. Er behauptete: "Man muss dem Volk aufs Maul schauen".

Während der Arbeit hatte Luther noch ein großes Problem: In der Sprache gab es häufig keine Analogien für einige biblische Wörter, deshalb musste er neue Begriffe schaffen, was die deutsche Sprache bereicherte.

Die katholische Kirche verfolgte Martin Luther, deshalb verbrachte er heimlich einige Monate auf der Wartburg, wo er das Neue Testament übersetze. Diese kolossale Arbeit wurde ziemlich schnell erledigt: von Dezember 1521 bis März 1522. Die erste Ausgabe wurde sofort verkauft, weil alle Leute die Heilige Schrift in ihrer Muttersprache lesen wollten. So wurde die Basis für die einheitliche deutsche Sprache gelegt.

Martin Luther and his translation of the Bible

It is generally accepted that the first translation of the Bible into German was made by Martin Luther. In fact, long before him, attempts were made to translate some of the Old Testament books into German. But the founder of the Reformation created a complete translation, which played a big role in the development of the German language.

After breaking with the Catholic Church, Martin Luther wanted to translate the Holy Scriptures in order to make the Bible understandable to all people. Previously, only Latin texts were used in the church, which were understood only by educated people. Therefore, it was necessary to create a good translation. The biggest problem was that in the Middle Ages there was no single German language. On the territory of today's Germany, there were many electors in which various dialects were spoken. In his translation of the Bible, Luther used Middle German dialects, primarily Saxon. It was important for him to bring biblical texts closer to everyday language. Later, the theologian said that he used the language that he overheard from ordinary people. He argued: "We need to listen to the common people."

While working, Luther had another problem: the language often did not have analogies for some biblical words, so he had to create new concepts that also enriched the German language.

The Catholic Church persecuted Martin Luther, and therefore he spent several months secretly in the Wartburg castle, where he translated the New Testament. This colossal work was carried out quite quickly: from December 1521 to March 1522. The first edition was immediately sold out, because all people wanted to read the Holy Scriptures in their native language. Thus was laid the basis for a unified German language.

All that I am and can give, by His mercy and grace...

M. Luther "Message of the translation"

The famous ninety-five theses, nailed in 1517 by Luther, then an Augustinian monk, to the doors of the cathedral in Wittenberg, sowing discord among theologians, raised the most important question for that time about the mediation of the church in relations between man and God. A direct consequence of its interpretation by Luther was the need for religious enlightenment of the people and the availability of Holy Scripture to both the clergy and the laity. However, it cannot be argued that the idea of creating a German Bible belonged to Luther alone. The Bible was translated into German before him. From the creation of the first complete German Bible by Johann Mentel in 1461 in Strasbourg until 1520, 14 High German and 4 Low German translations of the Bible were printed. Along with this, there were many translations into German of individual biblical texts and a huge number of predominantly untitled gospel harmonies (Perikopenbücher), as well as works of a didactic nature. However, it was thanks to Luther that the German language “filled up a number of “sacred” languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin), in the form of which the Holy Scriptures were clothed”, because only after Luther could one speak of the beginning of the formation of not only a new Christian denomination, but also a single German language. By Luther's time, Mentel's first German Bible had more faults than virtues. Luther's contemporary Johannes Mathesius wrote that he had read this Bible in his youth, but found it to be only Germanized Vulgate Latin, and also dark and gloomy.

Features of the medieval translation, which, obviously, other translations that preceded Luther's Bible possessed to one degree or another, deserve special mention. With the development of Christianity, the text began to be perceived as a shrine and, consequently, the attitude towards translation changed (compared to antiquity). The word was perceived as an image of a thing, the word was iconic, and the translator's task was to find this image, this icon in the target language, the only indissoluble link between the word and the thing, and then everything would be translatable. The sign is one, but different nations see it from different angles. Therefore, the logical translation for the Middle Ages was a literal translation, or, as the medievalist Bulanin called it, "the word-for-word principle of translation." Thus, the following main features of medieval translation were formed:

The iconic perception of the word explains the translator's desire to keep everything possible in the original and the linearity of the translation. However, since the “icon” was not always found in the native language, there were tracing papers, translation transcription (i.e., the juxtaposition of the phonemes of two languages).
Literal translators were not naive blind. They created a special type of text, the main criterion for evaluating which was the completeness of compliance with the doctrine. The presence of the inexpressible in the text was important. The incomprehensibility of the text corresponded to the transcendental worldview. A fully understandable text would not be recognized, there was no national specificity of the original.
Paradoxically, along with the iconicity of the word, there was the possibility of replacing the realities of the original with local realities (for example, in the poetic translation of the Bible into Old Saxon in the ninth century “Heliand” (“Savior”), the desert where Christ retired was replaced by a forest).
The translated text could be reworked; this is due to the fundamental anonymity of the translator.
The share of translated texts in the Middle Ages was up to 99 percent (one percent was created by the representatives of this people themselves), which suggested a common textual culture.

To make the Bible understandable and accessible to Christians meant for Luther first of all to make it understandable to the Germans: the language for him was "the scabbard in which the blade of the spirit is." The task he set for himself was not an easy one - despite the development of printing, the German people to whom Luther addressed were mostly illiterate. Another circumstance - the abundance of dialects and the conditional division of the country into vast linguistic areas - at one time became the reason for the appearance of several versions of the translation of the Bible and, as a result, an obstacle to the formation of a single language. For Luther, the need to create a fundamentally new translation of the Bible was obvious, which would allow in a simple, clear and inspired, and most importantly, single, German language to convey to the people the Truth, which, if previously, was revealed only to the Catholic clergy - in the Vulgate.

In the business of translating the Bible, Luther acted as a reformer, refusing to take the Vulgate as a basis. An excellent education and his own talent allowed him to dare to translate from Hebrew and Greek. Taking the spelling and grammar of the Saxon imperial office as a basis, Luther began with the New Testament (the inviolability of the law of the Old Testament was, in his understanding, too closely connected with the immutability of the dogmas of the Catholic Church, so the renewal of the church should have begun with the study of the New Testament). During his forced stay in the Wartburg, hiding from persecution, in mid-December 1521 he began to translate and finished his work in just eleven weeks. In May 1522, he took the finished manuscript to Wittenberg and worked through the text with his friends versed in languages and theology. In September 1522, the translation was already printed and went down in history as the "September Testament" (Septembertestament). The popularity of the New Testament in Luther's translation was so great that he immediately set about translating the Old Testament. Already in 1523-24. the first translated parts were published: the Book of Job, the Psalter and the Book of Proverbs of Solomon. The books of the Prophets have been translated since 1526 for several years. By 1534 the Bible had been completely translated and published in Wittenberg. The translation was so successful that even five years before Luther completed it, printers from other cities independently supplemented his Bible with parts translated by others. At least five of these combined translations were already on sale in Germany before Luther finished translating the Books of the Prophets. Protecting his creation from the distortions of the printers (the only thing in which Luther, who fought for almost every word, was ready to yield to them, was spelling, since at that time there was no single spelling norm), he began to put his sign on the cover of the Bible - "Rose of Luther" (Lutherrose).

In addition to printers and publishers, who urged Luther to be even more careful about the language and accuracy of translation, competition from Catholics played an important role. While Luther was developing his own tradition of translation, the Catholic "literalists" ("Buchstabilisten") either continued to "Germanize" the Vulgate, or, as Johann Dietenberger tried to do in 1534, to Latinize the already Lutheran translation, i.e. bring its original vocabulary and syntax closer to the syntactic structure of the Vulgate that has been memorized for centuries. The criticism of his translation from Catholics Luther experienced more than painfully and poured out all his rage against idle critics, and there were many of them, in the “Message about the translation” (“Sendbrief von Dolmetschen”) of 1530: “I learned what an art and labor - translation - on their own experience ... They did not try to do this. If someone does not like my translation, he can ignore it, and may the devil repay those who do not like my translation and who criticize it without my knowledge and permission. If he [translation] needs criticism, I will do it myself. If I don't, let them leave my translation alone. Each of them can make a translation that suits him - what do I care about that? Scribes and papists may insult me, but faithful Christians, together with Christ their Lord, bless me.

The attempts of critics failed, Luther's supporters became more and more, including because, working on the syntax and construction of the phrase, he first of all sought to ensure that entire passages were easily memorized by heart, which became possible only if the text sounded quite German. One of the most striking examples is the change in the order of the words in the Lord's Prayer: Pater noster qui es in caelis in Luther's translation became Unser Vater im Himmel (Our father is in heaven), which gave this address simplicity and even some commonness. During the Reformation, largely thanks to Luther, even peasants and artisans began to learn to read and write. This was the essence of Luther's translation method - to express the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek text in German, since, according to Luther, "words existed for the meaning, and not the meaning for the words."

The translation of the Old Testament presented considerable difficulty. Around the end of the 15th century, thanks to the humanists, the importance of knowing Hebrew for interpreting the text of the Bible was rediscovered, and here Luther followed them. He placed Hebrew above all other languages: in 1524, in the preface to the Psalter, it was written: "The Hebrew language is so rich that no other could adequately replace it." The book of Job, for example, was very difficult to translate due to the special loftiness of style, since “its language is so powerful and magnificent as no other book in all Scripture” . In his “Message of the Translation” (“Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen”) of 1530, Luther testifies that, while working on the Book of Job, he, his closest associate Philip Melanchthon and Matthew Aurogallus could fight over three lines for four days. In terms of complexity, the Psalter could be compared with the Book of Job. The work on the Psalter was all the more strenuous because Luther recommended that everyone use the Psalter as a prayer book at home and read it daily.

The Psalter, like the Book of Job, is replete with stylistic figures that could not be translated literally for fear of losing meaning for the sake of imagery. The translation of the Psalter lasted several years, it was constantly amended; work on the 23rd psalm (22nd in the Russian synodal translation) shows how Luther gradually came closer and closer to the visual imagery of the Hebrew original and at the same time made the German text sound better and better. So, in the first edition of 1524, the initial verses of the psalm literally sounded like “The Lord is my shepherd, I will not need anything. He sends me to graze where there is a lot of grass, and leads me to water that refreshes me” (“Der HERR ist meyn hirt, myr wird nichts mangeln. Er lesst mich weyden da viel grass steht, und furet mich zum wasser das mich erkulet "). After two more corrections in the last edition (1545), a variant arose, the stately simplicity of which gives the text such naturalness that these verses are preserved in the modern German Bible without changes (“Der HERR ist mein Hirte. Mir wird nichts mangeln. Er weidet mich auff einer grunen Awen Vnd furet mich zum frisschen Wasser" - "Der Herr ist mein Hirte, mir wird nichts mangeln. Er weidet mich auf einer grunen Aue, und fuhret mich zum frischen Wasser"). It is interesting that the versions of the German and Russian synodal translations of the second verse of this psalm are not quite equivalent: in Russian it sounds like “He rests me in green pastures and leads me to still waters”, in German - “He feeds me on green pastures and leads to fresh waters."

It is also interesting to compare some verses of the 50th (51st in the German Bible) psalm. For example, the beginning of the psalm: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy, and according to the multitude of Thy mercies blot out my iniquities,” in the modern Lutheran Bible it sounds like: “Gott, sei mir gnädig nach deiner Güte und tilge meine Sünden nach deiner großen Barmherzigkeit", which literally translates as: "God, be merciful to me according to your kindness and blot out my sins according to your great mercy." It is likely that the imperative "sei mir gnädig" is used here to avoid the appearance of its synonym "erbarme dich meiner" ("have mercy on me"), i.e. words with the same root as (die) Barmherzigkeit (mercy), but further inconsistencies (great mercy (kindness), iniquity (sins), many bounties (great mercy)), obviously, should be explained based on the Hebrew text. Probably for the same reason there is a discrepancy at the beginning of the next verse: “Wash me many times from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” - “Wasche mich rein von meiner Missetat, und reinige mich von meiner Sünde” (“Wash me from my crime (crime) and cleanse me from my sin"). The following verses give more food for thought; thus, the seventh verse: “Behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and my mother bore me in sin” (“Siehe, ich bin als Sünder geboren, und meine Mutter hat mich in Sünden empfangen”) translates as: “Behold, I am born as sinner, and my mother conceived me in sins. The twelfth verse is of particular interest: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" ("Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein reines Herz, und gib mir einen neuen, beständigen Geist") - "Create in me , God, pure heart, and give me a new, steady [steadfast, unshakable] spirit.

The desire to get closer to the Hebrew original and, at the same time, the lack of equivalents in the German language that could fully reflect the differentiated semantics of the Hebrew vocabulary prompted Luther to develop a peculiar tradition of word formation in German (German mystics had actively used it to denote abstractions) - to create complex words, most of which are included unchanged in the modern version of Luther's Bible. So, in the Book of Proverbs of Solomon (4:24) the word (das) Lastermaul was preserved (“Tu von dir die Falschheit des Mundes und sei kein Lastermaul” - “Reject from yourself the deceitfulness of the mouth and the deceitfulness of the tongue away from yourself”); here again, the craftiness of the language cannot be called equivalent to the Russian phrase in terms of both structure and meaning: "sei kein Lastermaul" means "do not be a slanderer", although if you break down (das) Lastermaul into components and translate them literally, you get approximately the same "deceit (perversity) of the tongue (mouth)".

Luther also used the same method of word formation in translating the New Testament; for example, it was thanks to Luther that the expression "Wolf im Schafskleid" ("a wolf in sheep's clothing (clothes)"), the Gospel of Matthew, 7:15, became the property of the German language. This example illustrates the development of word-formation trends before Luther and in his own work: even in the East Middle German translation of Beheim (Beheim) in 1343, the expression schefinin cleidern took place, in the variant of 1522 Luther retained the preposition of the definition in the genitive case! “…die zu euch komen s chaffskleydern" (literally - "who come to you in the clothes of sheep"), which allowed him in the version of 1546 to move on to a compound word: "Sehet euch für, für den falschen P ropheten, die in Schafskleidern zu euch kommen, inwendig aber sind sie reißende Wölffe" ("Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside they are ravenous wolves").

One of the most interesting Luther's example of such word-formation is das Hohelied (Song of Songs). In this case, Luther abandoned the literal translation from the Vulgate ("canticum canticorum"), which, in turn, was a literal translation of the Hebrew "sir hassirim". To convey sublimity, expressed according to the Hebrew tradition by repeating the original word (as, for example, “Praise Him, heavens of heaven ...”, Ps. 149: 4) and, obviously, according to Luther, which was not entirely clear to the common people, he used the original German roots and created a word that can be translated as "high song" or "song of heights (s)" (from "hoch" - "high" and "(das) Lied" - "song, song"). The fact that this word in modern German can be used as a common noun in the sense of “a hymn to something”, “the best work of an artist, creator”, testifies to the integrity of the perception of its meaning to this day.

Biblical compound words such as (der) Sundenbock ("scapegoat"), (das) Kainszeichen ("Cain's seal"), (die) Feuertaufe ("baptism of fire"), (der) Adamsapfel ( "Adam's apple"), (das) Feigeblatt ("fig leaf"), (der) Judaskuss ("kiss of Judas"), (der) Eckstein ("cornerstone"), which are translated into Russian phraseological units and are equivalent to the latter in The word (der) Uriahsbrief (literally - “the message of Uriah”) is interesting, which does not have an equivalent phraseological turn in Russian and is used to denote bad news that brings misfortune or even death to the one who conveys it.

Many compound words of this kind were formed by Luther or soon after him, but it is not always possible to establish their authorship; the existence of neologisms attributed to him in the oral folk tradition of that time is not excluded (it is known that Luther urged his assistants to carefully listen to folk speech in search of understandable, simple and capacious words and expressions). Not all of Luther's neologisms have survived to the present - for linguistic reasons, however, the images and concepts expressed by them, as the main biblical symbols common to all peoples, have remained unchanged. So, for example, in the modern German Bible, Psalm 119(118):19, the compound word (der) Erdengast (literally - "earthly wanderer") turned out to be decomposed into its original components: "Ich bin ein Gast auf Erden;) verbirg deine Gebote nicht von mir" ("I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commandments from me"). The image of a man living on earth as a wanderer in a vale of tears was widespread in medieval texts, and then in Protestant church hymns.

The creation of neologisms is only one side of Luther's contribution to enriching the vocabulary of the German Bible. Thanks to him, many old words received a new meaning, if not in the Bible itself, then through its interpretation by Luther and his ideas as a theologian. For example, the word (der) Pfaffe, which meant a (Catholic) priest in the world, acquired a disparaging connotation (pop) in contrast to the word (der) Pfarrer - a pastor, a (Protestant) priest. The word fromm, so common among Protestants, before Luther meant honest, truthful, diligent, and then acquired the meaning of God-fearing, pious. Such words with a rethought meaning can presumably include (der) Beruf (profession), which in Middle High German meant “call, vocation” and received the familiar meaning of modern German “service, rank, activity”. According to the teachings of Luther, everyone is called to his work (activity) by God, therefore, it is pleasing to God and should be perceived by those who work as a service. In this regard, the word (die) Arbeit (work) itself received a new meaning, which in medieval German as a whole meant “torment, need”. What was "torment" to the medieval Catholic became a blessing to the Protestant.

It is known that Luther accompanied his translation with comments of this kind, which were supposed to explain the essence of his doctrine, in the margins, which at the same time made it easier for him to work on the catechism (1529), which was intended for the education of children, a new generation of Protestants, and therefore needed special clarity. and accessibility of presentation.

He also used comments when translating biblical proverbs and sayings - it was these comments that in a number of cases made it possible to establish Luther's authorship, or rather, to prove the existence of equivalent variants in the folk tradition. So, the verse “Wo aber ein Aas ist, da sammeln sich die Adler” (Matt. 24:28) - “For where there is a corpse, eagles will gather there,” he marked it as an already existing proverb; in a slightly modified form, it has survived to this day: “Wo ein Aas ist, da sammeln sich die Geier” (“Where carrion is, there are vultures”). The proverb “Wes das Herz voll ist, des geht der Mund über” (Luther’s “Wes das Herz vol ist, des gehet der Mund über”) - “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt and. 12:34) was recorded even in the 15th century, so Luther preferred this option to the possibility of translating word for word from the Vulgate, which he wrote about in detail in the Epistle of Translation.

It is natural to assume that it was with the advent of Luther's translation that many biblical proverbs and sayings that did not need to be replaced by German folk equivalents became no less widespread (often undergoing minor structural changes). These include famous phrases such as: Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall - Pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16:18), (Und) es geschieht nichts neues unter der Sonne - (And) there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9) , Suchet, so werdet ihr finden - Seek and you will find (Matt. 7:7), Der Prophet gilt nichts in seinem Land - There is no prophet in his own country (Matt. 13:57), etc.

Phraseological units of the German Bible or phraseological units created on biblical motives and having no equivalents in the Russian tradition deserve special attention. These include, for example, the expression "Benjamin der Familie" (translated as "minion, favorite of the family"), while in English there is the expression "Benjamin's mess" ("fair share"); the semantics of these expressions is explained by the meaning of the Hebrew name Binjamin - letters. son of the right hand, i.e. beloved son.

The expression langer Laban (lit. long Laban), having no equivalents in either Russian or English, can, however, be attributed to specific German phraseological units with biblical themes only with some stretch in view of its controversial etymology. Firstly, in the Bible (Gen. 29) there is no evidence of Laban's growth, and secondly, it is likely that this expression, used primarily in the north of Germany in the sense of a clumsy, clumsy, slow person, contains a relic of the Celtic llabi or lleban , which corresponds in English to the verb to lob (hard, clumsy walk, run) and the noun lubber (big clumsy person, bumpkin).

Specific German phraseological units with biblical themes also include expressions based on word play, for example, nach Beth lehem gehen (to go to Bethlehem) = zu Bett gehen = go to bed, go to bed, i.e. the consonance of Beth- and Bett leads to a rethinking of the meaning of the first expression, which can be used in a completely prosaic context.

As can be seen from the above example, the very situation of using the expression can be rethought. For example, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:29), Abraham says: “Sie haben Mose und die Propheten; die sollen sie hören" ("They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them"). The expression Mose(s) und Propheten haben (to have Moses and prophets) is now used as Geld haben (to have money); rethinking is based, apparently, on the consonance of Mose(s) (Moses) and Moos (money) from the synonymous construction Moos haben, because the German word Moos presumably goes back to the Hebrew maoth (cf. Yiddish maos), which means Pfennige, Kleingeld (pfennig, trifle).

The phrase "O Herr, er will mich fressen!" (lit. “Lord, he wants to devour me!”), Tobit 6:3 of the German Bible, now used jokingly if someone yawns with their mouth wide open, or simply says “Tobias sechs, Vers drei” (“Tobit six verse three).

A large crowd of guests may be greeted with the words "Dass mein Haus voll werde!" ("... that my house be filled" or "That my house be full!"), Luke 14:23.

As you can see, the examples given are not without interest and, due to their uniqueness, testify to the special attitude of the Germans to the Bible - here you can feel the Protestant simplicity and excellent knowledge of the text, which, of course, contributed to the conscientious study of the Bible, which Luther called for and which became possible precisely thanks to him.

Luther's Bible had an incomparable influence on the formation of the national norm of the German language, the development of printing and, as a result, the spread of education in Germany. In the short period from September 1522 until Luther's death in February 1546, more than 400 editions of the Bible were produced. Of these, 101 are in Wittenberg alone. Printers in Augsburg printed 61 editions, Strasbourg - 46, Nuremberg - 39, Erfurt - 32, Basel - 27, Leipzig - 25 editions, huge for those times, during Luther's lifetime. On Luther's Bible of 1984 edition (it is called so - die Lutherbibel), revised and published by the Evangelical Church in Germany, conscientiously supplied with all sorts of glosses, explanations, color maps and even the alleged chronology of writing each individual book, Luther's rose flaunts.

T.V. Yartseva, M.P. Klochkovsky

Journal "Beginning" No. 6, 1998

There are also interesting inconsistencies in the New Testament, for example, in Luke 1:28-29: “An angel came in to her and said: Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you; Blessed are You among women” (“Und der Engel kam zu ihr hinein und sprach: Sei gegrut, du Begnadete! Der Herr ist mit dir!” - “And the angel entered and said: I salute you, Blessed One! The Lord is with you!”;“ When she saw him, she was embarrassed by his words and wondered what kind of greeting it was” (“Sie aber erschrak uber die Rede und dachte: welch ein Gru ist das?”) - “She was frightened of [this] speech and thought: What kind of greeting is this?

Bach, Arnold. There. S. 126

There are examples of even earlier use of this expression, incl. in the didactic poem “Renner” (1296-1309) by Hugo von Trimberg and in “The Prodigal Son” by Burkhard Waldis: “Wan der wulf wil roven gan/ so tuet he shaps kleder an” (“When the wolf is going to hunt, he puts on the clothes of sheep ”), see Bottcher, Kurt, Berger K.H., Krolop, Zimmermann. Geflugelte Worte: Zitate, Sentenzen u. Begriffe, in ihrem geschichtlichen Zusammenhang. Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1981.

This phrase, with the exception of minor spelling corrections, has been preserved unchanged in the modern German Bible and is quite equivalent to the Russian translation.

Or das Hohe Lied

Luther's vocabulary was the least understood by his readers in western and southern Germany, so the first editions of Luther's Bible in Strasbourg, Augsburg, and Basel were accompanied by dictionaries that translated Luther into High German (South German). The Bible dictionary published by Adam Petri in Basel (1523) enjoyed particular success. Dictionaries of this kind make it possible to trace the beginning of the process of lexical unification of a language. So, for example, in contrast to the South German dialectal words bidmen, gesprackelt/gescheckt, (der) Buhel, (die) Leftze, the Lutheran beben (tremble), bunt (variegated), (der) Hugel (hill), (der) Hugel (hill), ( die) Lippe (lip). See Zhirmunsky V.M. History of the German language. M. 1965 S.82

Arndt, Erwin. Brandt, Gisela. Ebenda. S 210

Arndt, Erwin. Brandt, Gisela. Ebenda. S 216

In the German (at least Protestant) Bible, the Book of Tobit is considered apocryphal; not all of her poems match the Russian translation. The phrase given in the example is not in the Russian text.

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Luther- m English (esp. U.S.): from the German surname, which is derived from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements liut people + heri army, warrior. It is most commonly bestowed among evangelical Protestants, in honor of the ecclesiastical… … First names dictionary

Luther, I.A.- U.S. city in Iowa Population (2000): 158 Housing Units (2000): 59 Land area (2000): 0.774053 sq. miles (2.004788 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. km. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.774053 sq. km. miles (2.004788 sq. km) FIPS code:… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

Luther, M.I.- U.S. village in Michigan Population (2000): 339 Housing Units (2000): 186 Land area (2000): 0.929222 sq. miles (2.406673 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.019130 sq. km. miles (0.049546 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.948352 sq. km. miles (2.456219 sq. km) FIPS… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

Luther OK- U.S. town in Oklahoma Population (2000): 612 Housing Units (2000): 266 Land area (2000): 4.484113 sq. miles (11.613800 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. km. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 4.484113 sq. km. miles (11.613800 sq. km) FIPS… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

Luther- Luther, 1) Martin, geb. 10 Nov. 1483 w Eisleben, wo sein Vater, Hans L., aus einem thüringischen Bauerngeschlecht aus Möhra stammend, ein Bergmann (später wohlhabender Hüttenherr u. Rathsmann zu Mansfeld) u. mit Margarethe Lindemann… … Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

Luther- Luther, 1) Eduard, Astronomer, geb. Feb. 24 1816 in Hamburg, gest. 17. Oct. 1887, studierte in Kiel und Königsberg, habilitierte sich 1847 als Privatdozent an der Universität Königsberg, wurde 1854 Professor der Astronomie und 1859 Direktor der… … Meyers Grosses Konversations-Lexikon

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Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, Volume 1, Luther Martin. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. The book is a reprint edition. Despite the fact that serious work has been done on ...

A German humanist, one of the "fathers" of the Reformation - Martin Luther (1483-1546) - can rightly be considered the father of the modern German language. Historians of the German language believe that the role of Luther for the formation and development of the German language is as great as the role of Cicero for Latin. The main brainchild of Luther the philologist was the translation of the Bible into German.

In 1522, the New Testament is published in Wittenberg - a translation into German made by Luther (Das Neue Testament Teutsch). The work on the translation took only three months. But the subsequent translation of the Old Testament dragged on for many years. A complete translation of the Bible was not published until 1534. Naturally, Luther did not work on the translation alone. In Wittenberg, something like a "translation workshop" was formed, the main master of which was Luther. He was assisted by his friend and follower Melanchthon and other scholars, experts in Greek, Hebrew and Latin and in the interpretation of biblical texts.

Luther's merit is not that he made the first complete translation of the Bible into German. By the time he began this work, there were already quite a few High German and Low German translations of the Bible made after Johann Mentel's first complete German Bible had been published in Strasbourg. Therefore, the main thing in assessing Luther's translation work is not that he was able to make a new translation of the Bible, but the language in which he translated it.

The purpose of this new translation was to give contemporaries the text of the Bible in a language they understood, in which they communicated with each other every day. This goal may well be elevated to the basic principle of translation activity, perfectly formulated by M. Lederer: to translate does not mean to understand the meaning of a foreign language text yourself, it means to make it accessible to others.

Cm.: Bah A. History of the German language. M., 1956. S. 169.

understood in his work, and those who were not worthy even to clean his shoes (ihm nicht genug gewesen wären, daß sie ihm die Schuhe hätten sollen wischen) judged the work of a good man (des guten Mannes)” 1 . Luther and Jerome are also united by the fact that both translators of the Bible presented their views on translation in the form of epistles, trying to explain their translation strategy to their contemporaries. Both Jerome's Letter to Pammachius, subtitled "On the Best Method of Translation," and Luther's "Epistle on Translation" have become part of the golden pool of theoretical treatises on translation and allow today's translators to judge what problems their colleagues had to solve in the past.

At the same time, Luther was critical of the text of the Vulgate, finding inaccuracies and distortions in it. D.Z. Gotsiridze and G.T. Hu-huni cite the statement of I.N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov that Luther hated Jerome, although he used the translation of the author of the Vulgate. Researchers see the basis for such a sharp assessment in the fact that the Latin version allegedly did not satisfy Luther, since it could not be read easily, without interference 2 . In my opinion, the reason for the criticism of the Vulgate and its author was different.

First, Luther was forced to constantly contrast his translation with the official Latin version accepted by the entire Catholic Church, i.e. his philological activity proceeded in the struggle against the Vulgate. This forced struggle with the "donkeys" could not but affect Luther's attitude towards the author of the work, which was considered for these "donkeys" as true as the text of the original Bible itself. Secondly, it is appropriate to recall the already cited figurative statement by E. Kari that the reformation was primarily a discussion between translators. The main opponent of Luther the translator was Jerome, the author of a translation officially recognized by the church, just as the main opponent of Luther the reformer was the Catholic Church, which officially recognized the Latin Vulgate as the only authority. But it can hardly be assumed that the heaviness of Jerome's style was at the center of Luther's hypothetical discussion with a medieval master. After all, Luther, a subtle and attentive philologist, could not but appreciate what is so highly valued by virtually all students of Jerome's translation: the Vulgate is the best Latin translation of the Bible, a masterpiece of biblical translation. The object of Luther's criticism was the inaccuracies and distortions that he identified in the text.

1 Cited. on: Gotsiridze D.Z., Khukhuni G.T. Decree. op. S. 89.

Vulgate. Let us recall what was the reason for Luther's break with the Roman Church. Pope Leo X, having decided to finance the reconstruction of St. Peter's, greatly expanded the sale of indulgences. Luther considered these actions outrageous, equating them with ordinary trading. On October 31, 1517, at the University of Wittenberg, he announces 95 theses condemning indulgences.

Now let us recall the inaccuracy that Jerome made in his translation, literally introducing the concept of “expiation of sin by works” into the biblical text, because it was this concept that led to the introduction of the institution of indulgences.

Thus, Luther's dissatisfaction with the Latin version of the Bible lay more in its lack of accuracy than in the heaviness of its style.

The translation of the Bible reflects the concept of Luther the Reformer. One of the main provisions of his spiritual concept was that the only source of faith is the Holy Scripture, and that every believer should be able to freely interpret it. Luther follows this Hebrew truth recorded in the Talmud: “At the Torah (Old Testament. - N.G.) 600,000 persons”, i.e. as many readers as it has.

The translation strategy is based on this concept: firstly, to make the translation text meaningfully correct and accurate, as much as possible corresponding to the original text, and secondly, to make it understandable and accessible to everyone.

In search of forms of expression, Luther turns to the everyday language of ordinary people. A phrase from his “Message” has already become a textbook, illustrating this search method: “You should not ask the letters of the Latin language, how to speak German, you should ask about the mother of the family, children on the street, a simple person in the market and look into their mouth as they speak, and translate accordingly, then they will understand and notice that they are being spoken to in German.

Kopanev gives an interesting example of one of the ways in which Luther searched for the forms of expression of the German language he needed. In order to choose the most appropriate forms of expression in German when translating the fragment about the sacrifice of a ram by the Levites, Luther asked the butcher to slaughter the ram, skin it, while commenting in German on the whole process 2 . This approach, which consists in direct contact

1 Luther. M. Sendbrief von Dolmetschen // Das Problem des Übersetzens, hrsg.
V Hans Joachim Störig. Stuttgart, 1963. S. 21. Op. on: Kopanev P.I. Decree. op. S. 150.
See also: Gotsiridze D.Z., Khukhuni T.G. Decree. op. S. 92; Van Hoof H. Op. cit. P. 214.

2 Kopanev P.I. Decree. op. S. 150.

translator to reality, modern translation theory can be correlated with the so-called "denotative model".

The translation of the Bible, made under the leadership of Luther, became one of the world's masterpieces of biblical translation, which influenced the development of translation practice not only in Germany, but throughout Europe. All subsequent translations of the Bible into German are based on Luther's version, correcting and supplementing his text in accordance with the current state of the German language, with modern scientific knowledge.

The experience of translating the Bible into the vernacular inspired the English reformer Tyndale, who undertook a new translation of the Holy Scriptures into vernacular English and checked his text with Luther's translation. Luther's concept of translation formed the basis of the so-called Kralicka Bible, a translation into Czech made under the direction of Bishop Jan Blagosław. This translation largely influenced the further development of the Czech literary language.

Luther's translation of the Bible laid the foundation for a common German national literary language and became a literary monument of paramount importance. In an effort to create a common German language for the whole nation, Luther did a great linguistic job, developing the norms of spelling, phonetic transcription, and ordering grammatical forms. After the publication of Luther's Bible, the German language began to more and more confidently win back positions from Latin as the language of scientific communication and literature.

§ 5. English translations of the Bible

a) Translation by John Wycliffe

It is expedient to start considering translations of the Bible into English from the 14th century, namely, from the translations made by the theologian John Wycliff (John Wycliff, 1324-1384). Almost to the end of his life, Wycliffe wrote in Latin. But in 1380 he takes on the translation of the Bible into English, more precisely, he takes on the translation of the New Testament and, possibly, parts of the Old. Much of the Old Testament will be translated by Wycliffe's associates Nicholas Hereford and John Purvey. There are two versions of the Wycliffe Bible, both based on the Vulgate. The first is strict and follows the Latin text in almost everything, the second is freer, more English. One of the manuscripts says that the first version of the translation was made by Hereford, and the second, revised and in many ways superior to the first, by Purvey.

Despite the obvious collective creativity, John Wycliffe is considered to be the ideological inspirer of this translation.

Wycliffe's translation of the Bible into English, despite all its imperfections, marks a milestone in the history of translation: it was the first complete translation of Holy Scripture into the vernacular. This translation not only laid the foundation for the English Biblical language, but also served to develop English prose as a whole.

b) Versions by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale

In the XVI century. the ideas of the Reformation spread in England. Welsh reformer William Tyndale 1494- 1536) plans to re-translate the Bible into English and is accepted in London in 1523 for the translation of the New Testament. He substantiates his project with the usual argument in such cases - the search for truth. But, in addition, his goal is to destroy the delusion that the vernacular is supposedly not able to properly convey the original. Tyndale begins its work at a time when England was still closely associated with the Pope. Therefore, in order to avoid possible complications caused by his reforming spirit, Tyndale moves to Germany, to Hamburg, meets Luther in Wittenberg and begins to partially print his translation in Cologne. In 1525 he publishes the Gospel of Matthew and Mark as separate books. However, fleeing repression, he was forced to flee to Worms, where in the same year he published a complete translation of the New Testament. Then he went to Marburg, where he published in 1530 the Pentateuch, and in 1531 - the Book of the Prophet Jonah.

His translations, characterizing the author as a subtle erudite, not indifferent to the harmony of words, were completely independent. The extensive knowledge of the translator allowed him to rely not only on the Vulgate, from which the translation was made. Tyndale also consulted the German version of Luther and the Greek-Latin annotated edition of Erasmus. His introductory articles and notes are partly literally translated from Luther's version. By the time of his death, Tyndale had already made significant progress in the translation of the Old Testament.

Modern researchers believe that it was Tyndale who established the principle of biblical translation into English.

However, Tyndale's contemporaries found many inaccuracies and errors in his translations. Thomas More wrote seven volumes of damning articles against Tyndale. They noted the controversial nature of his comments in the margins, criticized some lexical substitutions. In particular, it was said that

that Tyndale unreasonably replaced certain established ecclesiastical terms, for example, church (church) on the congregation (religious brotherhood), priest (priest) on the senior (senior), charyty (mercy) on the love (love for neighbor).

In 1533, when Henry VIII's hostility to heretics seemed to be waning, Tyndale decided to return to Anver, where he continued to edit the translation. However, due to betrayal, he falls into the hands of the police. In 1536 he was hanged and burned. Most copies of his translations were destroyed.

The translation made by Tyndale still attracts the interest of readers. In 2000, the British Museum Library prepared the first since the 16th century. reprint of the Tyndale Bible translation from one of the few copies.

Ironically, Tyndale's Bible translation work, completed in 1535 by the Augustinian monk Miles Coverdale (1488-1568), was in fact officially adopted in England after Henry VIII severed relations with the papacy and introduced the Reformation into England.

Coverdale, perhaps less scholarly than Tyndale, was an inspired translator. His translation of the Bible, according to some accounts, relied more on the Swedish-German version than on the Latin-German version of Tyndale. The first edition of the Coverdale Bible was published in Zurich.

Against the background of Protestant Bibles, already later, in 1582, the first Catholic Bible appeared in English.

In 1611, the so-called "Authorized Version" was published, otherwise called the "King James Bible". Its creation, according to some researchers, is random. Van Oth, in particular, writes that in 1603 King James (1566-1625) held a council to examine the claims of the more fanatical Puritans. A study of the requirements of the Puritans showed the urgent need for a single translation of the Bible, approved and approved by the monarch. The king creates a commission to prepare a new, completely revised translation. For seven years, from 1604 to 1611, forty-seven scholars, led by Lancelot Andrew, Bishop of Winchester, have been working on a new version of the translation. The bishop himself makes a new translation of the Pentateuch. Starting from the biblical English, formed by the translations of Wycliffe and Tyndale, the translators eliminated archaisms from the previous texts, but left in them everything that was understandable and clear. As a result, an artistic

a text that, it is true, had neither meter, nor rhyme, nor prosody, but possessed simplicity and vitality. "The greatest of all Bible translations, this version," notes Van Oph, "is also the greatest of the books in the English language, the first work of the English classics that had the strongest influence on the English language" 1 .

2.3 Martin Luther's German Bible

The German humanist, one of the "fathers" of the Reformation - Martin Luther (1483-1546) - can rightfully be considered the father of the modern German language. Historians of the German language believe that the role of Luther for the formation and development of the German language is as great as the role of Cicero for Latin. The main brainchild of Luther the philologist was the translation of the Bible into German.

In 1522, the New Testament was published in Wittenberg, a translation into German made by Luther (Das Neue Testament Teutsch). The work on the translation took only three months. But the subsequent translation of the Old Testament dragged on for many years. A complete translation of the Bible was not published until 1534. Naturally, Luther did not work on the translation alone. In Wittenberg, something like a "translation workshop" was formed, the main master of which was Luther. He was assisted by his friend and follower Melanchthon and other scholars, experts in Greek, Hebrew and Latin and in the interpretation of biblical texts.

The main thing in assessing Luther's translation work is not that he was able to make a new translation of the Bible, but in what language he translated it.

The purpose of this new translation was to give contemporaries the text of the Bible in a language they understood, in which they communicated with each other every day.

Luther, to a certain extent, continues the tradition of Jerome in translating the texts of Holy Scripture - to translate not words, but meanings. In his work on the translation of the Bible, he sees much in common with what Jerome had to experience. First of all, it is the constant need to explain to ignorant churchmen the meaning of their translation decisions. In his famous "Epistle on Translation" Luther compares himself with Jerome: "So it was with Saint Jerome: when he was translating the Bible, the whole world was his master, only he did not understand anything in his business, and they judged the work of a good man who was unworthy even to clean his shoes." Luther and Jerome are also united by the fact that both translators of the Bible presented their views on translation in the form of epistles, trying to explain their translation strategy to their contemporaries. Both Jerome's Letter to Pammachius, subtitled "On the Best Method of Translation," and Luther's "Epistle on Translation" have become part of the golden pool of theoretical treatises on translation and allow today's translators to judge what problems their colleagues had to solve in the past.

This translation laid the foundations for a common German national literary language and became a literary monument of paramount importance. In an effort to create a common German language for the whole nation, Luther did a great linguistic job, developing the norms of spelling, phonetic transcription, and ordering grammatical forms. After the publication of Luther's Bible, the German language began to more and more confidently win back positions from Latin as the language of scientific communication and literature.

2.4 Translation by John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe (1324-1384), who is called the "morning star of the Reformation", was the initiator of the reforms of the Christian church, not only for England, but for the whole of Christendom. John received the best education at that time. He had a lively mind and was interested in natural science, philosophy, mathematics, history, and jurisprudence. While still a student, he began to study the Bible and decided to devote himself entirely to the service of Christ and to preach the truths he had discovered. John Wycliffe dreamed of translating the Bible into English so that Holy Scripture would be accessible to the common people. It annoyed him that only priests could decide which parts of the Bible to read and how they should be interpreted. Wycliffe taught at Oxford University until he was expelled for criticizing these and other shortcomings of the church. Wycliffe was later tried as a heretic, and some of his valuable books were publicly burned at the stake.

Almost to the end of his life, Wycliffe wrote in Latin. The greatest work of Wycliffe's life was the translation of the Bible from Latin into English. The reformer was not afraid of either the dungeon or the fire.

There are two versions of the Wycliffe Bible, both based on the Vulgate. The first is strict and follows the Latin text in almost everything, the second is freer, more English.

Jonathan's intonations: "I tasted ... a little honey" (ibid., 43), - Lermontov hears a bitter reproach: "little", "so little" honey. § 2. Apocalypse, its main motifs in the work of Lermontov Of all the New Testament books in the work of Lermontov, the Apocalypse left the most noticeable trace. And to be more precise - two motives that have long nourished the people's imagination. First, the poet has an image ...

Images, themes, motives. 3. Biblical plots and images in the interpretation of Russian writers of the 18th century (on the example of the works of M.V. Lomonosov, V.K. Trediakovsky, A.P. Sumarokov, G.R. Derzhavin) Turning to other biblical plots and themes, we find that almost all major writers and poets of the 18th century in Russia responded in one way or another to these topics. Moreover, creativity in this direction could ...

All this, and much more, is realized by Orthodox-Christian motives in one of the defining meaningful plans, allowing the comedy to really not become obsolete. Bible and literature of the XX century. Many writers of the 20th century touched on biblical motifs in their works. Here we can mention both Hauptmann and Mauriac and the famous work of Thomas Mann "Joseph and his brothers". Generally...

Immortality. Hercules was also among the Hyperboreans (Northern Europe) and in the Riphean mountains (Urals), which is, apparently, a memory of the large-scale movements of the ancient Indo-Europeans and testifies to the Indo-European origin of this myth, in addition, the name Hercules is purely I.-E. , meaning "Glory to the goddess Hera", similar to the Slavic Yaroslav); - the Sumerian myth of traveling with the same ...