The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 76

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76 The Lutheran Pioneer.

Translating the Bible.

In our picture we see Luther and his colaborers
at work translating the Bible. Before the time of
the Reformation the Bible was not only hidden from
the people, but the Bible was said to be a dangerous
book, a dark book which the people could not under-
stand. When speaking of the Romish church and
the Bible, Luther says: ‘‘Observe what the devil has
done through the papists. It was not enough for
them to throw this
book under the table,
and to makeitso rare
that few doctors of
the Holy Scriptures
possess it, much less
read it; but, lest some
one should bring it
to notice, they have
branded it with in-
famy, blaspheming
God and saying that
it is dark, and that
we must follow the
glosses of men, and
not the pure Scrip-
ture. The calamity
is so great that it can-
not be reached by
words or thoughts.
The evil spirit has
done his will and sup-
pressed this book and
has brought in its
stead so many books
of human doctrine,
‘that it may well be
said that there is a
deluge of books; and

yet they contain
nothing but errors;
falsehoods, darkness,
poison, death, destruction, hell, and the-devil.”’
— Luther pitied the poor people who were thus
kept in darkness, and his desire was to place the
Bible in their hands, so that they might sée the
‘false doctrines of the pope by which they were led
astray and might learn to know the pure doctrines
of God’s Word. He therefore devoted much time
-and care to the translation of the Bible. With the
help of his colaborers the work was completed in
the year 1534, and in the summer of that year the
whole Bible, as translated into German by Dr. Lu-
‘ther, was printed and published. Of this work,

Luther and his colaborers translating the Bible.

Melanchthon, Luther’s friend and colaborer, well
said: ‘“‘The German Bible is one of the greatest
wonders that God has wrought, by the hand of
Dr. Martin Luther, before the end of the world.’
By his translation of the Bible Luther brought the
Word of God into the homes of the rich and the
poor. The people rejoiced and gladly read and
studied the precious Book. Cochlaeus, a bitter
enemy of the Reformation, in speaking of Luther’s
translation of the New Testament, says: ‘‘Copies
‘ of this New Testa-
ment have been mul-
tiplied to an astonish-
ing number, so that
shoemakers, women,
and laymen of all
classes read it, carry
it about with them,
and commit its con-
tentstomemory. As
a result of this they
have
months become so
bold that they have
dared to dispute
about faith, not only
with Catholic lay-
men, but with priests
and monks; yes,even
with Masters and
Doctors of Theology.
At times it has even
happened that Lu-
theran laymen have

hand more passages
of Scripture than the
monks and priests
themselves; and Lu-

vinced his adherents
that they should not
believe any doctrine which is not taken from the
Holy Scriptures, and here and there laymen have
been heard to contradict the theologians in the
presence of the people, and to charge them with
preaching falsehoods and things of man’s deyvising.’’

Thank God that we still have an open Bible.
Let us make good use of that precious Book.

“Study it carefully,
Think of it prayerfully, .
Till in thy heart its precepts dwell.
Slight not its history;
Ponder its mystery;
None can e’er prize it too fondly or well.

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