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"II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.
The German language branches off into two grand divisions,
the High German, or Hoch Deutsch,
distinguished by its rough, guttural sounds, and the Low German, or Nieder
Deutsch, characterised
by a softer enunciation. The former prevails in Southern, and the
latter in Northern, Germany, and
both are subdivided into several minor dialects.
One language, however, pervades all Germany as the
medium of intercourse between the educated classes, and as the language of
religion, legislation, and
literature: this language, called by way of pre-eminence the German, was
originally merely a dialect of
Hoch Deutsch, and was spoken in the circle of Misnia in Saxony.
It was the native dialect of Luther,
and to the influence of that great man is to be ascribed its present
predominance.
The primitive elements of Modern German are to be found in the
Gothic, the Francic, and more
especially the Alemannic dialects. Somewhere about the twelfth century
the language termed the
Old High German gradually displaced the more ancient dialects, and in this
language the lays of the
Minnesingers, the troubadours of Germany, were composed. The writings of Luther gave stability to
his own provincial dialect of this language, and in point of copiousness,
vigour and flexibility, though
in itself a harsh language, it now ranks among the most cultivated tongues of
Europe. The character
in which it is in general written is an ancient form of the Latin, or Roman
alphabet; it is called the
Gothic, and is very similar to
Old English.
III.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.
Montfaucon, in his Diarium Italicum, says that there
are several ancient Bibles in German pre-
served in the Vatican Library. But the
earliest German version of which anything is known with
certainty appears to have been executed about A.D. 1405,
at the expense of Wenceslaus, emperor of
Germany; it is in the Vienna Library, and consists of three folio volumes:
it contains only the Old
Testament as far as the end of Ezekiel. Struvius, however, in the
introduction to his Historia Literaria
(sect. 9), speaks of a German Bible of earlier date in the Library of Gotha
in Upper Saxony: and a
triglot version of the Gospels, in German,
Bohemian, and
Latin, is said to have been in the
possession
of "the good Queen Anne," wife of Richard II. of
England. Several early German versions of the
Psalms are mentioned by Le Long, and also a translation of the Old Testament
as far as Amos,
executed A.D. 1458. The other principal MSS.
enumerated by him are, a version of the Bible in two
volumes folio, written on vellum in the year 1464, and preserved in the Vienna
Library; a Bible in
the Zurich Library, translated by Nicholas Bruchmal, and bearing date 1472;
and a version of the
Bible from the Vulgate, translated by
Melehior Brunus, of Cologne, in 1590. Other translations of
the
Bible, but of a very inferior kind, appeared at Nuremberg in 1477, 1483, 1490,
and at Augsburg in
1518. The first German edition ever issued from the
press was that of 1466, translated by an unknown
writer from the Vulgate: a copy of
this scarce work is in the collection of Earl Spencer.
But the most important version that has ever appeared in Germany,
is unquestionably that of
Luther, [a] reformer. Although the New Testament was published as
early as the year 1522,
yet this version still continues to be the standard, not only of the German
Scriptures, but of the
German language. Luther’s first biblical publication consisted of the
seven penitential Psalms, from
the Latin of John Reuchlin, which appeared in
1517. His version of the entire Scriptures, which was
executed immediately from the original text, was issued in successive
portions. The Pentateuch was
published in 1523; the Book of Joshua and the other historical books, the
Book of Job, the Psalms,
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticles, followed in 1524; the prophecies
of Jonah and Habakkuk
were published in 1526, and it was not till 1530 that the remaining portions
had all issued from the
press. Melanchthon, and some of the most
eminent scholars of Germany, aided in the revision of this
version. "A select party of learned men at
Wittemberg assembled every day with Luther to revise
every sentence; and they have been known to return fourteen successive days
to the reconsideration of
a single line, and even of a word." Each individual in this
little assembly had a separate task assigned
him, according to his peculiar qualifications. Luther collated the
ancient Latin versions, and the
Hebrew text; Melanchthon examined the
Greek original, Cruciger the
Chaldee, and other professors
referred to the rabbinical writings. Besides Melanchthon and Cruciger, the principal coadjutors in
this most important undertaking were Justus Jonas, John Bugenhagius or
Pomeranus, and Matthew
Aurogallus [OT]. George Rorarius
was the corrector of the press. The revised edition of the entire
Bible
was published in 1530, and again in 1534, 1541, and 1545. Luther is
said to have devoted the
greatest care to the revision of the edition of 1541; he had it printed in
two folio volumes, ornamented
with woodcuts; and a copy of this edition, which was constantly used by him,
and which was in fact
his own copy, after having passed through several hands, is now
deposited in the British Museum.
Immediately on the publication of Luther’s version, other
translations were undertaken on its
basis by friends of the Reformation. A version in the
Low German, or Saxon dialect, executed at
the suggestion of Luther, was published almost simultaneously with his own:
Bugenhagius superin-
tended the work, and the first edition was printed in 1533-4, at Lubeck.
A version in the Pomeranian
dialect was made from Luther’s Bible, by command of Bogislaus XIII., duke of
Pomerania, and printed
in 1545. In 1525-1529, a translation was published at Zurich, for
which Luther’s version, so far as it
was then printed, was also used. A revision of this German version was
published at Zurich in 1667,
by Hottinger, Müller, Zeller, and others; and so many were the
alterations and corrections introduced,
that it was regarded as a new translation; and it is still generally called
the New Zurich Bible, to
distinguish it from the first edition. The original texts, Luther’s
German, and Diodati’s
Italian,
versions, the
Septuagint, the
Latin, and the
Belgian
Bible, were consulted during the progress of this
revision. Another version in the German dialect was
published in 1602-1604, by John Piscator, from
the Latin version of Junius
and Tremellius.
The publication of Luther’s version was, likewise, the proximate
cause of the production of other
German translations, even by the enemies of the Reformation. Emser, one of the counsellors of George,
duke of Saxony, was the first who undertook a new translation with the view
of disparaging that of
Luther. He did not, however, succeed in his design, his version when
completed proving, says Milner,
to be little more than a transcript of Luther’s, some
alterations in favour of the peculiar tenets of the
Church of Rome alone
excepted. Yet several editions of Emser’s New
Testament were speedily printed;
and, in 1530, the monks of Rostock published a version of it in the dialect
of Lower Saxony. In
these later editions, various alterations were made, causing them to differ
exceedingly from those of an
earlier date.
A German version of the whole Bible was next
undertaken, at the request of Albert II., by John
Dietenburg, a Dominican monk, with the same design of counteracting the
labours of Luther. It was
printed in folio at Mentz, in 1534. In this version Dietenburg
had no recourse to the Hebrew and
Greek originals, with which he confessed himself unacquainted, and, like
Emser, he only succeeded in
producing a bad transcript of Luther; so that the truth triumphed in
consequence of the very efforts
made to subvert it, and the version of Luther was read and studied in the
pages of his enemies.
Dietenburg’s version has gone through many editions.
Eighteen editions were published at Cologne
from 1550 to 1702, and others at Mentz and at Nuremberg.
Another of Luther’s opponents, John Eckius, of Ingoldstadt, in Bavaria, published a German
translation of the Old Testament in 1537, to which he subjoined a corrected
edition of Emser’s version
of the New Testament. It is without the name of the place or printer,
and is dedicated to the Arch-
bishop of Saltzburg. Several editions were afterwards published, and
in 1602 the version was corrected
according to the Sixtine edition of the
Vulgate. A version of the Old and New Testaments was made
immediately from this edition of the Vulgate
in 1630 by Casper Ulenberg, under the patronage of
Ferdinand, archbishop and elector of Cologne: this version has gone
through numerous editions.
Another version of the
Vulgate was published by Kistemaker at
Munster, in 1825.
In 1806, in consequence of the impulse given to the circulation
of the Scriptures by the rise
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a Roman
Catholic [b]ible Society was formed at Ratisbon, and,
under the direction of Regens Wittman and other Catholic clergymen, an
edition of the New Testament
from the Vulgate was published in 1808.
In 1813, this version had reached the eighth edition, and
the copies had found a ready sale among the Catholics of Bavaria,
Suabia, Franconia, and Switzerland.
About the year 1812, another translation of the New
Testament was executed by two Catholic clergy-
men, Charles and Leander Van Ess, from the Greek text. The
British and Foreign Bible Society
assisted liberally in the publication and circulation of the numerous
editions through which this version
has passed. Another Roman Catholic clergyman,
named Gosner, printed a German version at Munich
in 1815. An edition, in 32mo., of
Kistemaker’s New Testament was recently printed by the British
and Foreign Bible Society, for the benefit of Roman Catholics, and a
translation of the Psalms into
German, by the late Dr. Van Ess, for the use of Roman Catholics, has also
been adopted by the
Society.
Up to the beginning of 1860, the total number of copies of the
German Scriptures printed directly
for the British and Foreign Bible Society embraced 1,036,097 Bibles, and
1,357,453 Testaments;
besides 1,131,779 copies of the Testament and Psalms, together with 148,998
portions of the Old
Testament; and 1600 New Testaments, with 5000 Old Testaments, in Hebrew
characters."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)
Samuel Bagster [Info only:
BFBS unequal yoke w/ RCC dominated country.]
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