Martin Luther And The Bible

Before the Protestant Reformation the Bible had been obscured and was not readily available to the people.  It's authority, sufficiency, and clarity had all been diminished.  But as the Reformation started in 1517 this all began to change.  The Reformers, especially Martin Luther, did much to recover the supreme authority of the Bible.  

The Roman Catholic Church viewed the Bible as authoritative but not as the ultimate authority.  The tradition of the Catholic Church was also seen as authoritative.  It was Scripture as interpreted by the pope and the bishops.  In effect this made the Roman Catholic Church the supreme authority.  

It was Martin Luther, a German monk who took his stand against papal authority.  Luther pointed out that popes and councils had often erred and contradicted each other.  He insisted that Scripture alone is the ultimate authority because it alone is the word of God.  For his courageous stand Martin Luther was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.  Luther would become the father of Protestantism.  

At the time the Bible was not readily available to the people in their own language.  It was primarily in Latin.  Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, the language of the people.  Before translating Luther listened to the German people intently to get the sense of the language of the common people.  He sought to make his German translation of the Bible readable as well as accurate.  Martin Luther began his translation of the New Testament in 1522 and finished the entire Bible in 1534.  Luther and his colleagues, including Phillip Melanchthon went back to the original languages of Hebrew and Greek for the German translation.  Previously scholars had primarily relied on the Latin Vulgate.  With this German translation the people could now read God's word for themselves.  

As the Bible was recovered in it's original languages some significant errors were found in the Latin.  Genesis 3:15 was said to be a prophecy about Mary but Luther correctly interpreted it as being about Jesus.  Another was Matthew 4:17 where the Latin translated it as "do penance", but Luther rightly discovered that it should be "repent" instead.  Also Luther rediscovered the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  He saw that we are declared righteous and not made righteous.  Martin Luther used the literal method to interpret Scripture instead of the allegorical method employed by the Roman Catholic Church.  

Modern evangelicals should be grateful to Martin Luther for many things.  He recovered the gospel of by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone.  He recovered the truth that Scripture alone is the ultimate authority.  It is authoritative, sufficient, and clear.  We should thank God that he used a man like Martin Luther to bring about such great change.  Modern Christians would do well to learn from and about Martin Luther and the other Reformers.