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The Enduring Word: Lutherans and Bible Translation
by Mathew Block
That phrase, drawn from Scripture, was the rallying cry of the early Reformation. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8). And again: “The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord remains forever” (1 Peter 22:24-25).
What was true for the Prophet Isaiah, what was true for St. Peter, and what was true for the Reformers remains true today: the Word of the Lord endures forever. Rulers come and go, nations rise and fall, but “God’s Word forever shall abide” (LSB 657).
And this Word isn’t a static thing either. It isn’t isolated to one place or people or time. God’s Word spreads. It expands. It grows, reaching out with the Good News of Jesus Christ, His death and His resurrection, unto the ends of the earth. So it is that Jesus commanded: “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).
Christians continue to bring God’s Word to the ends of the earth, and this year has marked a major milestone in the history of that mission. Wycliffe Bible Translators reports that in these past few months of 2020, we have seen the complete translation of the Bible into its 700 th language.
In addition to the 700 languages which now have a complete Bible, many more languages have a portion of the Scriptures translated. The New Testament is available in a further 1,548 languages. Smaller selections of Scripture have been translated into an additional 1,138 languages.
Still, there is much work left to be done: 3,969 languages do not yet have a complete Bible. What is more, there are an estimated 2,115 languages in the world (representing 171 million people) for whom a Bible translation project has yet to begin.
Lutherans are among those working hard to translate the Word of God into other languages. That’s not surprising, given the history of the Lutheran tradition. In many ways, the emphasis on Bible translation today can be considered one of the greatest gifts of the Lutheran Reformation to the wider Church. It is certainly one which has borne remarkable fruit.
MARTIN LUTHER & THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE
At the Diet of Worms in 1521, Martin Luther was brought before Emperor Charles V to answer charges of heresy. Asked to recant, he answered that he was unable. “I am bound by the Scriptures,” he said. “My conscience is captive to the Word of God”—not Popes, not councils, and not (we may interpolate) the Emperor.
Having made such a confession, Luther shortly took his leave from the city of Worms. His prince, Frederick the Wise, rightly guessed that Luther’s life would soon be in danger, so he arranged to have Luther kidnapped before hostile forces could lay hold of him. So it is that Luther was spirited away to Wartburg Castle, where he would be a (sometimes unwilling) guest for nearly a year.
Here at the Wartburg, Luther’s conscience remained “captive to the Word of God.” So too did his thoughts and his work. Separated from his friends and his teaching, Luther devoted himself to translating the New Testament from Greek to German. It was eventually published in September 1522. A German edition of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) translated from the Hebrew followed in 1523, and the Psalms in 1524. Luther and his friends would eventually publish a complete translation of the entire Bible, including Apocrypha, in 1534.
To be clear, Luther was not the first person to translate the Bible into the vernacular. Even the long-lived Vulgate (St. Jerome’s 4 th century translation of the Bible into Latin) was itself a translation into the common language when it was first completed. Nor was Luther the first reformer in recent centuries to attempt to bring the Bible into a modern language; the 14 th century reformer John Wycliffe had spearheaded a translation of the Bible into Middle English in 1382.
Luther wasn’t even the first to translate the Bible into German. But he was the first to translate his Bible into a modern language and distribute it widely. The printing press had only been invented around 1440, meaning earlier attempts to make the Bible accessible to laypeople had been limited. By contrast, Luther’s Bible could be much more easily shared.
Luther’s translations into German would go on to inspire numerous other translation projects. Hans Mikkelsen based much of his 1524 translation of the New Testament into Danish on Luther’s German. In 1526, Jacob van Liesvelt published a Flemish translation of the Bible, drawing heavily on Luther’s translation of the New Testament and the Pentateuch. In 1530, Antonio Brucioli would prepare the first Italian New Testament, with a complete Bible appearing in 1532.
The first complete English translation of the Bible, meanwhile, was completed in 1535. It incorporated earlier work by the late William Tyndale (especially his 1524 New Testament and 1530 Pentateuch), with additional translations completed by Myles Coverdale. Tyndale and Coverdale were both deeply influenced by Luther’s translation work; Coverdale in particular relied directly on Luther’s German to help complete his translation. Eventually, much of Tyndale’s and Coverdale’s translations would be incorporated into the King James Version, which continues to influence English translations of the Bible to this day.
By 1540, a Lutheran convert named Oddur Gottskálksson published an Icelandic translation of the New Testament in 1540—the first book ever printed in Icelandic. In 1541, the first complete Swedish Bible was printed (building on the earlier 1526 publication of the New Testament), thanks to the long work of the Lutheran Archbishop Laurentius Petri, his brother Olaus, and Laurentius Andreae. In 1548, Mikael Aricola completed the first New Testament in Finnish.
In 1569, the Spanish Lutheran, Casiodoro de Reina, would publish the Reina-Velera edition, which has held a comparable influence on Spanish-speaking Protestantism to that of the Luther Bible in German or the King James Version in English.
And that’s just a sample. The 1500s saw multiple translations of the Bible completed. That emphasis on bringing the Bible into the common language of everyday people continues to be an essential part of Christian missionary work to this day.
SCRIPTURE ALONE— THEN AND NOW
Why was it so important to Luther and those who followed in his footsteps that the Bible be accessible in the language of common people? It’s simple: they believed that Scripture was the means by which God brought people to salvation. We do not need personal revelations, or dreams, or visions; God has given us all we need, and that abundantly, in the words of the Bible. “I am content with this gift which I have, Holy Scripture,” he writes, “which abundantly teaches and supplies all things necessary both for this life and also for the life to come.”
Luther knew and believed the words of St. Paul, who wrote that the Holy Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). The apostle also says: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
In the Scriptures we encounter Christ—for it is in the Word of God (Scripture) that we meet the Word of God (Jesus). At their heart, the Scriptures exist to deliver Christ and His mercy to us. “He who would honour God and have God must have Him in and through His Word,” Luther writes. “Otherwise it is impossible to get Him, have Him, or know Him.” Again: “The Word comes to reveal Christ.” And again: “The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.”
This is in fact what Christ Himself says of the Scriptures: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). In Scripture, then, we find Christ. Or rather, we are found by Him, as He calls us into the true faith through His Word in the mercy of the Holy Spirit. And found by Him, we receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life—gifts won for us through His death and resurrection.
That’s news worth sharing. And it’s the reason why Christians—Lutherans included—continue to prioritize the translation of Scripture in their missionary work. The Lutheran hymnwriter, N.F.S. Grundtvig, puts it this way: “God’s Word is our great heritage and shall be ours forever. To spread it’s light from age to age shall be our chief endeavour.”
That is also the goal of Lutheran Bible Translators– Canada (LBTC). “Our mission is to bring the Word of Christ to people in the language of their hearts—the language they can understand most fully,” explains Rev. Ron Mohr, Executive Director for LBTC. “That’s what Luther had in mind as he translated the Scriptures into German. So we Lutherans, following his lead, proclaim that Word which brings saving faith, that the sweet Gospel can take root deeply in minds and hearts.”
The first translation workers associated with LBTC were two Canadian couples: Horst and Eugenie Schulz of Ontario; and Ted and Gloria Engel of Saskatchewan. Both couples initially served with Wycliffe Bible Translators before helping to found LBTC. The Schulz family served as support workers in Papua New Guinea on various language projects, while the Engels worked among the Pokomchi people in Guatemala.
Martin and Joan Weber were the first missionary team sent by LBTC into the field. They are retiring this year after 38 years of dedicated service in Cameroon, having worked among the Kwanja people since 1982. Their work led to the publication of a Kwanja New Testament in 2006, as well as two threeyear lectionaries in two Kwanja dialects: Sundani in 2016 and Ndung in 2020. Lectionary translations are a priority in translation work, LBTC says, because they allow local congregations to hear all texts during worship services in their heart language. They also serve as a helpful stepstone towards the completion of a full Bible translation.
In 1983, LBTC sent Robert and Jean Schmitt to serve as literacy workers in Sierra Leone, where they assisted with the Limba language project. They served four years there before moving on, but work in Sierra Leone continued, resulting eventually in the publication of the New Testament in three languages: Limba, Loka, and Krio—joint projects of LBTC and its American partner organization, Lutheran Bible Translators (LBT US).
Rob and Eshinee Veith began serving as LBTC translators to Botswa in 2011, working on the Shiyeyi language project. They returned to North America in 2018 and now serve with LBT US. Their work on the Shiyeyi language project will soon result in the publication of a New Testament in that language.
Rev. Mike and Kara Kuhn began serving in Cameroon in 2013, where they work on the Nizaa language. The publication of a completed New Testament is expected in the next few years, with work then continuing towards the translation of a complete Bible.
LBTC has also supported translation work in the Dowayo language since 2011, in cooperation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon. The translation team for this project is made up entirely of Cameroonian pastors and laypeople. They hope to publish a three-year lectionary in the next few years, while continuing to work on a complete translation of the Bible thereafter. It’s important to note that even on those projects where an international missionary is involved, translation work today is generally a cooperative effort between the missionary and local speakers.
LBTC has also sponsored the creation of Cameroon’s Bible House, a centre which will host multiple translation and literacy projects for the country.
And that’s just the Bible translation work that LBTC has been directly involved with. Its American partner, LBT US, has 25 missionary families working with approximately 70 language communities. They have published 40 New Testaments, four whole Bibles, and three lectionaries. Groups like LBTC and their American counterpart also maintain connections with other major Bible translation groups, like Wycliffe, in order to prevent reduplication of effort and to ensure the greatest number of people possible benefit from Scripture translation projects.
You don’t have to be a missionary to be part of that work either; you can support LBTC with your prayers and financial support. Contact LBTC’s office at 1-866-518-7071 or at pastor.r.mohr@lbtc.ca to request a bi-monthly prayer calendar to guide your prayers on behalf of LBTC. You can also donate to LBTC through canadahelps.org or by calling the office to set up monthly giving.
We trust God to work through His Word because He has promised to do so. “So shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth,” declares the Lord. “It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
God promises to bring people to faith through His Word. That’s a promise that will last—and it’s a promise worth sharing. The Word of the Lord endures forever.
Mathew Block is editor of The Canadian Lutheran.
