1530 Luther Combined Bible Leaf – John 3:16

Description

The German Combined Bible

 

The German Combined Bible is called this because numerous translators assisted Martin Luther in this new Hebrew-to-German translation. It is not completely clear how adept Luther was at Hebrew, but he was more than convinced that his and his peer’s translation was superior to that of Latin.

 Luther edited his translations with Klaus Schirlentz and Hans Lufft in his hometown of Wittenberg. It is also documented that Peter Schoeffer at Worms with help from Ludwig Haetzer and Hans Denck in upper Germany worked tirelessly producing a superior translation than what they had done before and more precise than anything in Latin.

Phillip Melanchthon and Caspar Cruceger assisted Luther in the translation. Justice Jonas was by Melanchthon’s side when Luther was in physical distress and later carried on the torch of Theology in Luther’s hometown of Wittenberg. Melanchthon was Luther’s most trusted associate and would carry on what Luther had started albeit in a more sober tone.

Leo Judas of Zurich was extremely valuable to the translation of the Apocrypha as his translation reads nearly identical to the Ganze Bibel published by Christopher Froschauer in Zurich in 1530.

Numerous German works were done during this time, but the academic firepower assembled to produce the 1530 Combined Bible can be argued to be the greatest of the early 16th century.