# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1862_S275
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lic. Ströbel on the Revision of Luther's Bible. 275

commentaries, paraphrases, prefaces, and introductions, lies in the deepest interest of the evangelical Church. And it is precisely this interest that has brought it about that in earlier times she put into the hands of her unlearned members not some botch-work of learned "bunglers and botchers," but the masterpiece of the Lutheran Bible, together with the prefaces and glosses of its author — not as a Tridentine Vulgate that supersedes the original text, but as the best among the existing lay Bibles. But should one perhaps say: what was masterly and precious "in earlier times" is no longer sufficient at present, we reply: Very well then! Show us something better! Until then we still hold our German Bible to be unsurpassed, but can only rejoice if, alongside it, other usable versions should arise and be diligently consulted by those who feel a particular need for them. Even some now ill-spoken-of interpreters (de Wette, Gesenius, and the like) can, in my judgment, become useful to the sensible and well-grounded layman; Stier too, as I have already declared on an earlier occasion, possesses fully the scholarly equipment for an independent translation of the Bible. Accordingly, it would remain unclear what was actually meant by those three questions on the part of the friends of revision, had not the most zealous and least cautious of them betrayed indirectly what is actually being aimed at. Why, then, does Stier not produce his own Bible version? If he really understands the work of translation better than Luther, it would surely be his duty to offer Christendom a more successful translation, and not to doubt that it would gradually win general recognition. Instead of expressing himself on this point, he raises the reproach that we are making Luther's translation into a Protestant "Vulgate" — and thereby evidently betrays, through this rash accusation, the secret mainsprings of his own zeal for revision. "What I myself think and do, I credit others with too!" The matter plainly stands thus: the passionate man of revision cares nothing at all for producing an ordinary Bible translation, one that would first have to risk the attempt of whether it could outrun the Lutheran one in the esteem of scholars and laymen; this path is far too slow for him, and the success of his high-flying thoughts far too uncertain. He does indeed try to persuade us that he wants nothing whatsoever but an emendation and purgation of our German Bible, and not a few let themselves be talked into believing this; indeed it is possible that even he himself has not become clearly conscious of the actual goal of his striving. This is, after all, generally the case with many, perhaps most, friends of revision; the mania for improvement lies simply in the spirit of the age and seizes without exception everyone who is unable to examine and see through the spirits at work, their motives and tendencies, their courses and the goals at which they must arrive, whether consciously or unconsciously. Thus we see many a respectable and amiable personality, whom we are truly sorry for, joining in the chorus that clamors for revision, or at least standing about stupefied by the noise; even some guileless, unsuspecting Lutheran-