An Open Letter on Translating
Luther’s defence, written in 1530, of how he translated the Bible into German, and above all of the word ‘alone’ that he added at Romans 3:28.
The letter, Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, answers a friend who had asked two questions: why Martin Luther had written “by faith alone” in Romans 3, when the word “alone” is not in Paul’s text, and whether the departed saints intercede for the living. Luther dated it from “the Wilderness” on 8 September 1530, and it was published with a preface by Wenceslas Link.
Most of it concerns translation. Luther grants that the word is in neither the Greek nor the Latin, argues that German idiom and Paul’s meaning require it, and describes how he and his helpers worked. It is his own account of his method, written with open contempt for his critics, whom he calls papists and asses throughout.
Cited in
- 1522 to 1534, firm date