This week in Christian history: Martin Luther New Testament printed, ‘Left Behind’ author born

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, September 19, 2021

Martin Luther’s German New Testament is released – Sept. 21, 1522

A statue of 16th-century theologian Martin Luther holds a Bible in the hand on the marketplace during the celebrations to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Luther's nailing of his 95 theses on the doors of the nearby Schlosskirche church on October 31, 2017 in Wittenberg, Germany. | Carsten Koall/Getty Images

This week marks the anniversary of when Protestant Reformation founder and leader Martin Luther released a German language translation of the New Testament.

The completed German translation was controversial due to it being in a vernacular language rather than in the Latin version mandated by the Roman Catholic Church.

“It is estimated that three thousand copies of Das Newe Testament Deutzsch were printed in Wittenberg,” explained the website Christian Study Library.

“The sales were so strong that by December a second, new edition was printed. Evidently people ignored the pope's ban of Luther's writings. And the order that Duke George of Saxony gave in 1522 to surrender the translation with its ‘heretical’ notes and glosses fell upon deaf ears.”