Corner bible
The Eck Bible is a German translation of the New and Old Testaments by the Ingolstadt theologian Johannes Eck from 1537, which was created as a Catholic answer to the Luther Bible of 1534 and is therefore counted among the Correction Bibles together with the Dietenberger Bible .
Emergence
In 1537 Johann Eck published one of the first translations of the complete Bible based on Martin Luther's Full Bible from 1534, not in East Central German Saxon , but in very Bavarian Upper German, similar to the Maximilian chancellery language . In this way, Eck distinguished himself not only theologically but also linguistically from Martin Luther. This work was commissioned by the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV and is entitled “ Old and New Testament, according to the text used in the hailigen kirchen, by doctor Johan. Ecken, with diligence, interpreted at Hohteutsch ”and was published in Ingolstadt in 1537. Eck's part of the New Testament was based on the translation of the humanist Hieronymus Emser from 1527 and was based entirely on the Latin Vulgate and not on the original Hebrew and Greek texts as in Luther. His Bible is dedicated to the Cardinal and Archbishop of Salzburg, Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg . In a letter to him from 1536, he affirmed the traditional Catholic concerns about translating the holy scriptures into the language of the people:
“It is unconcealed to me, for what good reason and reasonable causes from ancient times have been respected by white high-minded people, not useful, good or hailsam, that the hailig gschrift, the biblical books in ain gmaine popularly spoken (vernaculam linguam) to interpreting, sunder has also been held in a harsh and harmful manner. Then the Gmain Lai easily rises in Hohfart, wondering for himself that he can handle and expound the sharky cloaks and glarings in his vermainter joke, as S. Hieronymus complains in the front of the Bible, the iederman himself underwind to handle the gschrift, the old woman, the old man etc. So, nevertheless, kainer understat to be learned in other arts by the masters in front of him, who paved him the way. (...) "
On the other hand, however, he justifies the project with reference to the spiritual situation of the time: the dissemination of Catholic non-approved ("falsified") translations, as well as the "desire" also present on the Catholic side for the "unspoiled and immaculate" Word of God:
"How much I like to have the dark arbait now, except for the causes at first, that the layman is not very good at reading every book in the Bible, but, as I have seen, the falsified Bible needs and has been read every now and then, and some stupid, steadfast Christians Who from the tearing up ain grewel and yet eager for the unspoiled and immaculate Bible, I have the honorable gracious prince out of dutiful guilt and guilty submissive obedient yr's arguing stat than and with great steadfastness the old testament must faithfully Germanize with diligent viler and collation Well corrected books, also in Mangerlai languages, what the emergency calls for. "
particularities
Like the translation of the Bible itself, this letter shows some typical Bavarian features that were also common in the written language at the time. In his translation work, Eck even used early Old High German Bible texts, so it is known that he used the Freising manuscript F of the Liber evangeliorum of Otfrid von Weißenburg , which was rediscovered by Beatus Rhenanus in 1530 . From his templates, the Luther Bible of 1534, the Dietenberger Bible and the Zurich Bible , he replaced numerous East Central German and Swiss German words with Bavarian ones , such as the word " hügel " with " bühel ", " burst " with " break " and " bag " by " seckel ". Even today's speakers of Bavarian dialects no longer understand many of Eck's Upper German words, as these have been replaced by New High German expressions over the years . This led to the fact that later German research assessed Johannes Eck's Bible very negatively and even wrote the Biographical-Bibliographical Church Lexicon about his work:
“On behalf of his dukes, E. translated the Bible into the Bavarian-Swabian dialect. His linguistically inedible translation of the Bible appeared in 1537. "
But at that time, even the imperial chancelleries wrote a very similar Upper German , which today sounds antiquated and dialect, but at that time was a widely used written language ( Upper German written language ).
In theologically controversial ways of interpreting the original text, Eck adhered strictly to the Latin Vulgate and rejected recourse to the Greek Septuagint and Hebrew Masoretes . The correct translation of the angels' praise of God in the Christmas story of the Gospel of Luke, where Eck translated according to the Latin text and Luther according to the Greek: was particularly controversial between Catholics and Protestants:
- Vulgate: gloria in altissimis Deo / et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis
- Eck: Honor be God in the heights and frid on earth / the people who are good for their sake.
- Textus receptus : δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκία
- Luther 1545: Glory be to God on high / And peace on earth / And please people.
With his translation, Eck emphasized free will in the Catholic tradition . This reading corresponds to one of the possible versions of the Latin Vulgate. Luther's version was less dogmatic on this question, but emphasized the merry Christmas message. The current versions differ from the versions mentioned and can be interpreted in the sense of the Reformed doctrine of predestination .
- Nestle-Aland: δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας.
- Uniform translation: and on earth there is peace with the people of his grace ( Lk 2,14 EÜ )
- Luther revision 1984: Glory to God in the highest and peace among the people of his good pleasure ( Lk 2,14 LUT )
Another special feature of the Eck Bible is the rendering of the tetragram with GOD in capital letters, where Luther differentiates between LORD for the tetragram, LORD for Christ incarnate, and lord for a person, for example the master of a slave. In Exodus 6 : 3, Eck also found the name of God JHWH for the first time in a German-language Bible, albeit only in a marginal note: the name Adonai Jehoua .
distribution
The Bible according to Johannes Eck, which is also referred to as the Catholic Correction Bible in research , was in use for a long time in the Upper German Catholic regions, especially in the Electorate of Bavaria, in the Archdiocese of Salzburg and in Austria, and retained its theological and linguistic effect until the 17th century Century. The first edition was published in June 1537 by the Augsburg publisher Krapff, but by the latter's printers, the Alexander and Samuel Weissenhorn brothers in Ingolstadt . As early as 1550, the now independent Weissenhorns published a second edition and in 1558 a third. In 1602 Tobias Hendschele created a revised version based on the new Sixtina Vulgate, which was published as the fourth edition by the printer Angermayer in Ingolstadt and as the fifth edition in 1611 by Wolter in Cologne . During the Thirty Years War , a sixth edition was published in 1619 and a seventh and final edition in 1630. In the Swiss Lötschental , a copy of the Eck Bible from 1550 was for a long time the only German-language Catholic Bible in the canton of Valais .
Preserved copies can be found today in the following libraries: University of Cologne (1550), Württemberg State Library (1537, 1550, 1558, 1611), Freiburg University Library ( 1611), Basel University Library (1537, 1550), Vienna University Library (1537), ÖNB ( 1537, 1550), UB Graz (1550), Theological University Brixen (1537), in the Lötschentaler Museum in Kippel (1550), as well as in Bavaria in the UB Regensburg (1537), the state and city library Augsburg (1537, 1602), the Bamberg State Library (1602), at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (1537), the BSB Munich (1558, 1602, 1611) and of course in the KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (1537, 1550, 1602), the place where Johannes Eck worked .
Web links
- Bible - Old and New Testament , Weissenhorn, 1558, online in the Google book search (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)
Individual evidence
- ^ University of Münster - Correspondence Eck No. 321: Eck to Matthäus Lang, Ingolstadt 30-11-1536
- ↑ Erika Alma Metzger, Richard E. Schade: Linguistic societies - Galante Poetinnen page 601 u. 602 , Rodopi, 1989, ISBN 9051830459
- ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz: ECK (actually Maier), Johann. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1452-1454.
- ^ Text of the Sixto-Clementina based on: Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem […] recensuit et brevi apparatu critico instruxit Robert Weber. Editionem quintam emendatam retractatam praeparavit Roger Gryson. Stuttgart 2007.
- ↑ Luther commented on and also defined the word well-being in the margin with the words: “ (Wolgefallen) That people will continue to have lust and love / against God and one another. And accept the same with thanks, and let everything be happy and suffer. "
- ↑ Cf. Kurt Scheuerer - Collection of materials on religion: a controversial passage in Luke II (Philipp Wälchli, 1999)
- ↑ The Nestle-Aland version is a critical edition of the New Testament that aims to approach the original text with the help of a scientific method.
- ↑ Nestle-Aland. Novum testamentum graece post Eberhard et Erwin Nestle. 27th edition, 9th corr. Dr. Stuttgart 2006. See also L. Feuchtwanger: Jud Süß. Munich / Berlin 1925, p. 291 f.
- ↑ The most widely used Catholic translation in Germany, with which Protestants helped with the New Testament.
- ↑ Library information system for the Stuttgart region , accessed on April 7, 2018
- ^ University library Freiburg: Eck, Johannes (transl.); Hendschele, Tobias (Ed.): Bible Old and New Testament: used according to the text of the H. Kirchen / First interpreted by D. Johan Ecken with diligence in Hochteutsch. Now, however, with great difficulty, after the most recent Latin copy, SIXTI V., counted and in many cases the lack of wrinkles has been replaced and improved with a very rich INDICE, which has never been used before by all preachers and pastors, and is necessary by Tobiam Hendschelium. - Coelln: Wolter, 1611.
- ^ Lötschentaler Museum: Bible