Johannes Dietenberger and his Counter-Reformation German Bible

Abstract

Abstract Johannes Dietenberger (ca. 1475–1537), native of Frankfurt am Main, university-trained Doctor of Theology, and Dominican friar, served as prior in Frankfurt and Koblenz during the 1525 Urban Revolt of the German Peasants’ War and the early Protestant Reformation, respectively. Like Martin Luther, Dietenberger translated the Bible into the vernacular German after consulting recently published Greek and Hebrew biblical texts; however, unlike Luther he produced a translation that remained true to the Latin Vulgate and the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church. Dietenberger aimed to counter those parts of Luther’s translation which contradicted Catholic tradition, and at the same time to provide a translation whose language was less coarse and offensive. Still, there were more commonalities between the translations of Luther and Dietenberger than earlier research in controversial theology assumed. Overshadowed by the famous Wittenberg reformer and slandered by polemical Protestant scholarship of previous centuries, Dietenberger and his Bible translation have never received the scholarly attention they deserve. This article represents an attempt to correct the oversight.