The eleven articles collected in this colourfully illustrated volume aim to provide the general reader with the context and history of Luther's translation of the Bible, a new revision of which has been prepared for the Reformation anniversary of 2017. The volume is prefaced by an introduction by Margot Käßmann in which she affirms the importance of Luther's translation for Protestants (it is used by all churches in the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland) and points to the new translation as evidence that ‘Reformation is not a finished process’ (p. 14).

The essays begin with the historical background: Gabriele Schmidt-Lauber presents ‘Germany’ on the eve of the Reformation; Volker Leppin discusses Luther's personal development as a Reformer and the spread of the Reformation movement across Germany, supported by city councils and territorial rulers; and Albrecht Beutel sets Luther's 1521/22 translation of the New Testament in the context both of Luther's theological development, with a focus on his use of the Bible, and of earlier vernacular translations of Scripture. Beutel's observation that Luther saw himself as ‘Dolmetscher’ forms the basis of Christoph Spehr's consideration of how Luther approached the task of translation. Luther described his work as ‘verdeutschen’ or ‘dolmetschen’, and often used the term ‘übersetzen’ in a negative way to mean ‘overestimate’, or even ‘cheat’. Luther outlined – indeed, defended – his approach to translation in the ‘Preface to the Five Books of Moses’ (1523), his ‘Open letter on translation’ (1530), and in his ‘Summaries of the Psalms and the causes of translation’ (1533). Like Birgit Stolt and others before him, Spehr finds that Luther's approach to translation was generally free: he sought to transmit the sense of the biblical text into colloquial German; at times, however, he held to a more literal mode of translation in order to preserve specific forms in Greek or Hebrew. Martin Rösel and Hannelore Jahr consider the aids that Luther used to make clear to the reader the true meaning of Scripture: the prefaces, his use of glosses in the form of marginal notes, his use of capitals to mark key texts and the use of illustrations. It is disappointing that Luther's careful use of typesetting is not identified: in the Old Testament he distinguished between the Hebrew Elohim (translated ‘Gott’), JHWH (translated ‘HERR’) and Adonaj (translated ‘Herr’); pagan gods were referred to as ‘herren’ set in a sans-serif font.

Luther did not translate the Bible alone, and Stefan Michel considers the circle of those who supported him, particularly the philologists Philipp Melanchthon and Matthäus Aurogallus, professors of Greek and Hebrew respectively at the University of Wittenberg, and Georg Rörer, who worked with the printers to improve the font and layout; these and others formed a group which from at least 1539 to 1541 worked with Luther to revise and improve his translation. Martin Rösel explores Luther's attitude towards the Apocrypha, which he described as ‘useful and good to read’. Luther's poetic use of language in his Psalm translations and his hymns is the subject of Corinna Dahlgrün's article. She finds that not only his Bible translation but also his hymns have had a lasting influence on the German language, a conclusion which is reiterated by Franz-Josef Holznagel in his discussion of ‘Luther and the German language’.

Two final essays consider the revisions of Luther's Bible translation since 1545 (Ernst Lippold) – often, although Lippold does not say so, undertaken in relation to significant anniversaries – and the principles which underlie the most recent revision (Christoph Kähler). An interesting point not mentioned by Lippold is the coining of the terminology ‘Lutherbibel’ to describe the 1883 revision to mark the three-hundredth anniversary of Luther's birth. Lippold and Kähler show the on-going need to adapt Luther's translation not only to a changing language but to an evolving social, historical and ecclesiastical context. This is a useful volume: although aimed at the general reader, it offers interesting insights into Luther's translation and its long history.