Austrian Bible translator

The author of a Middle High German Bible translation from the early 14th century, which is divided into the Klosterneuburg Gospels and the Schlierbach Old Testament, is known under the emergency name Austrian Bible Translators ( ÖBü ) . Because of its volume and linguistic finesse, his annotated translation of the Bible is given an important role in the history of the medieval and early modern vernacular lay Bibles, which culminated in the Luther Bible . In programmatic writings, 200 years before Luther, he demanded that “the holy writings of the blessed krissten host be opened” and that “ze deutsch splendor” be opened.

Work overview and author's question

Today the Austrian Anonymus is credited with translations and adaptations of the biblical material as well as a number of apologetic treatises and a prince's mirror . According to the current state of research, his work includes the so-called Klosterneuburger Evangelienwerk (KEW), the Schlierbach Old Testament (SAT), and a commentary on the psalms; on the other hand, writings that are vigorously directed against the heretical activities of the time, presumably the Waldensians , at the same time against orthodoxy and superstition, but also against Jews: "On the Antichrist", "On Judgment Day and God's judgment", "On the error of the Jews and the unbelief of the Philosophers and Heretics ”and other contra-Judaeos and anti-misbelief tracts. According to more recent findings, however, these are excerpts from the Latin work of Passau's Anonymous, who worked in the mid-12th century . The first group of works also includes the independently handed down transcriptions of the Old Testament books Proverbia and Ecclesiastes . As part of the biblical translations, the prefaces, which are to be seen as the author's writings of justification for his vernacular translations, have their own tradition. In the commentary on the Psalms, the author's knowledge of the exegetical Postilla litteralis of Nikolaus von Lyra is evident.

The anonymous author counts himself among the “vngelernt layn” (unskilled lay people) and describes himself as not ordained : “When you are not consecrated and preach gots word in an orderly manner” - it is questionable, however, to what extent this only corresponds to the modesty topos. Because of his elegant style and his knowledge of Latin, the author must have had a comprehensive education. For a long time, the important poet Heinrich von Mügeln was also considered a possible author . The authorship of Mügelns, which was already proclaimed in an old copy, was suspected especially for the Psalm commentary. However, findings that are critical of the text suggest a false assumption.

The locations of most of the manuscripts and linguistic peculiarities suggest that they come from the Duchy of Austria ; Krems is mentioned in the text. In the prefaces to individual chapters, the author, himself not a proven theologian, defends his motivation to make the Bible accessible to laypeople in the vernacular German, probably as a reaction to concrete attacks. The author probably intended to create a greater closeness to the people of the Catholic Church, which should counteract the heretical currents of the time. The anonymous man seems to have had powerful secular and spiritual supporters, and it is assumed that he was close to the Franciscans . The author's question is still unresolved. A Wolfhart is mentioned in early editions, but it remains unclear whether it is the author or just one of the survivors.

Klosterneuburg Gospels

The Klosterneuburg Evangelienwerk (KEW) is dated to around 1330 in mediaeval research. The earliest surviving manuscript from the Schaffhausen City Library (around 1340) is not considered the first version.

The Klosterneuburg Gospels are a harmonized presentation of the Gospels, the content of which is structured chronologically following the life of Jesus. In contrast to Luther, the translator did not rely on the Hebrew and Greek original sources, but on Latin translations such as the Vulgate , but also did away with non-canonical legends of saints ( Legenda aurea ) and e.g. B. the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus a relatively high value. The gospel work also includes the first five chapters of the Acts of the Apostles . The manuscripts are categorized , the pericopes are preceded by a rubric with a short German description of the contents of the following section and the Latin beginning of the pericope, followed by a commentary gloss.

Schlierbach Old Testament

The Schlierbach Old Testament (SAT) is available in two manuscripts: an earlier one from the Schlierbach Abbey Library , and a later discovered but more complete one from the Melk Abbey Library . The Schlierbacher version contains the books Genesis , Exodus , Tobias and Daniel , the Melker manuscript adds the book of Job to the content image . It is assumed that the separately preserved books Proverbia and Ecclesiastes also belonged to the corpus. The glossing is less extensive than in the KEW.

Research history

Alfred Bergeler assigned the individual works to an author for the first time, whom he identified as Heinrich von Mügeln, which is unsustainable according to the current state of research. Kurt Gärtner made a name for himself in further manuscript finds and overview presentations, he also attributed its important role to the Klosterneuburg Gospels for the first time: "He could even be called the creator of a 'first German Bible' with some reservations." are among others to be awarded to Gisela Kornrumpf .

The works of the Austrian Bible translator are currently the subject of research projects. From 2005 to 2012 a research project on the tracts and the SAT took place at the University of Augsburg under the direction of Freimut Löser; Starting in 2016, a project funded by the GWK with a budget of 4.5 million euros will start to research and edit the KEW, supervised by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and led by Freimut Löser (Augsburg) , Martin Schubert (Essen-Duisburg) and Jens Haustein (Jena), should last until 2027.

literature

• Gisela Kornrumpf : Austrian Bible translator . In: Wilhelm Kühlmann (Ed.): Killy Literature Lexicon . De Gruyter, Berlin 2010, p. 682 f.

Web links

• KEW manuscript index
• Manuscript index of the SAT

Commons : Images of the Schaffhausen manuscript of the KEW  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bible translation - Bible for the people - 200 years before Luther. In: deutschlandfunk.de. Retrieved April 21, 2016 . 
2. ↑ after Freimut Löser, Christine Stöllinger-Löser: Defense of the lay Bible. Two programmatic prefaces by the Austrian Bible translator of the first half of the 14th century. In: Konrad Kunze , Johannes G. Mayer, Bernhard Schnell (eds.): Editions of tradition and studies on German literature in the Middle Ages. De Gruyter, Berlin 1989, pp. 245 ff. ( Online at Google Books , accessed on March 25, 2016)
3. ^ ^{A b} Kurt Gärtner: Klosterneuburger Evangelienwerk . In: Author's Lexicon , Volume 4, De Gruyter, Berlin 1983 ( online at Google Books , accessed March 25, 2016)
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Freimut Löser: Augsburg DFG project proposal (excerpt) , accessed on March 25, 2016
5. ↑ after Georg Steer: The German 'legal sum' of the Dominican Berthold - a document of late medieval lay Christianity. In: Klaus Schreiner , Elisabeth Müller-Luckner (Ed.): Lay piety in the late Middle Ages. Forms, functions, political-social relationships. , P. 236 ( online at Google Books , accessed March 25, 2016)
6. ↑ Freimut Löser: News from the Austrian Bible translator. In: Ralf Plate, Martin Schubert (Ed.): Middle High German. Contributions to tradition, language and literature. De Gruyter, Berlin 2011 ( online as PDF , accessed on March 25, 2016)
7. ↑ Kathrin Zinkant: Bible translation from the Middle Ages was ahead of Luther . Süddeutsche Zeitung of March 25, 2016, accessed on March 25, 2016
8. ↑ Kurt Gärtner: The first German Bible? On the biblical work of the Austrian Bible translator from the first half of the 14th century. In: Horst Brunner, Norbert Richard Wolf (ed.): Knowledge literature in the Middle Ages and in the early modern times. From: Knowledge literature in the Middle Ages. Writings of the Collaborative Research Center 226, 13 . Wiesbaden, 1993, p. 289;
   quoted from Freimut Löser: News from the Austrian Bible translator. In: Ralf Plate, Martin Schubert (Ed.): Middle High German. Contributions to tradition, language and literature. De Gruyter, Berlin 2011 ( online as PDF , accessed on March 25, 2016)
9. ^ DFG project: "Austrian Bible translator" on the website of the University of Augsburg, accessed on March 25, 2016
10. ↑ God's Word German . Press release of the University of Augsburg, November 2015, accessed on March 25, 2016