In view of the major revisions to the New International Version, a translation evaluation committee has been appointed. Their work will lead to a broad discussion of translations. Here's a starting point.

Session 2:

Luther gives us something to think about as we evaluate translations. Is his approach helpful in our discussion about gender inclusive language?


In order to keep Luther safe, Elector Frederick had him abducted after the Diet at Worms in 1521. Luther was kept in hiding at the Wartburg Castle. He was not idle there. In less than three months he translated the New Testament from Greek into German. He left the castle and returned to Wittenberg in March 1522. During the next years, he and his colleagues translated the Old Testament. The complete Wittenberg Bible was available in 1534. Their translation was a stunning success. His approach and that of the others was a combination of principles, at times "retaining the words quite literally, and at times rendering only the meaning" (Luther's Works 35:222). Over the years, Luther and his colleagues constantly revised the translation.

The work of translating did not come easily. Luther wrote, "I have learned by experience what an art and what a task translating is" (LW 35:193). Luther understood that translating was not simply taking the meaning of a word in one language and then putting it in another language, but it was expressing the thought of the original in the way the new language would express that thought. Luther explained, "Whoever would speak German must not use Hebrew style. Rather he must see to it—once he understands the Hebrew author—that he concentrates on the sense of the text." After asking how to say the sense in German, Luther says, "Let him drop the Hebrew words and express the meaning freely in the best German he knows" (LW 35:213,214).

How can one make the Greek and Hebrew understandable to Germans? "We must inquire about this of the mother in the home, the children on the street, the common man in the marketplace. We must be guided by their language, the way they speak, and do our translating accordingly" (LW 35:189). Critics of Luther's translation charged him with modifying or even falsifying the original languages. But he was simply trying to make the authors of the Scriptures speak German. Luther had to defend his translation of Romans 3:28 because he added the word alone, which is not in the original text. He maintained that adding alone was simply the way Germans—the mother, children, and common man—would express the idea of the apostle Paul in their own language.