# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 03 15_S92
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

92

but that they cannot return and come back to the earth. Yet this also is clear from the following passages of the holy Scripture:

2 Sam. 12, 23. David says of his deceased son: "Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

In these words there would lie a poor comfort if they were to say nothing more than: "I shall be buried beside my son." Then David would be uttering very vain words. All the power of comfort lies in the hope that David will be united again with his son, as to the soul. — If now "to go to him" must be understood of David's soul at least as much as of the union of the corpses in the royal sepulchre, then the word also: "he shall not return to me," must be understood of the soul so much the more, since indeed the body of the child was still with David. But if that is so, then the passage proves that the souls of the deceased do not come back to the earth.

To this one adds the passage Job 7, 9. 10. "As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more." Of a bodily going down into hell Job does not speak; the souls go down alone and without body. The body might well come again into its house, yea, remain in its house; only of the soul does the passage retain its full truth — and proves powerfully that the souls do not come again.

These two passages, 2 Sam. 12, 23. and Job 7, 9. 10., testify plainly and clearly that the souls of the departed do not return, be they now good or evil. Besides good and evil, however, the holy Scripture knows none. From the first to the last leaf of the Bible there is no word of God to be found that there is a third class of men here or there. Everywhere there is mention only of two, of the good and the evil. If therefore evil and good souls in death go to their eternal place, and neither evil nor good return; then none at all return — and the apparitions which show themselves cannot proceed from departed souls.

(Conclusion to follow.)

What we are glad to have, no peril must hinder us in; but where one is to be obedient to God, there a fly beyond the Rhine hinders us. (Luther XIX, 1712.)

Philosophy.

To wish to know divine things from philosophy is to take hold of the glowing iron not with the tongs, but with the fingers. (Chrysostom.)

(For the "Lutheraner.")

New Leipzig Bible, together with the Apocrypha.
Revised by Dr. Hopf.

This Bible remedies a defect in the Lutheran Church which, though little or not at all noticed by most, threatens to become ever more dangerous. For the various editions of the Bibles printed in Germany, England and America differ from one another at countless places so widely that, unless a stop is put to it, in ten years one will no longer know which is properly the genuine unfalsified translation of Dr. Luther.

As the last original edition one takes, as is well known, that of the year 1545, which he himself for the most part still looked through. Yet already the edition which appeared in the following year after Luther's death departed from the former in many places (in the Epistle to the Romans alone in 35 places). For this reason, and on account of still more alterations that had come into other editions, as well as on account of the division into verses which had come up since the year 1568, the Wittenberg edition of the year 1581 was prepared, which was now to hold as a pattern beside that of the year 1545. Nevertheless there are still found in the Bibles of this and the following century many and important differences, until the appearance of the so-called Halle Bible, which was prepared by Baron von Canstein from the year 1711 on, and indeed for the most part after the text of the Stade Bible, and printed in the Orphan House at Halle.

Unexampled was the circulation of this edition; for in the course of a century 2,171,986 whole Bibles and over 1 million New Testaments were sold. In addition, most of the Bible societies which have arisen since the year 1804 took this Halle edition as their pattern, and in this way the various Bible impressions also gained a certain uniformity in wider circles.

Although now this edition still has some advantages over most other editions of later time, yet even it still contains many arbitrary changes of the original text of Luther's translation, which, together with a multitude of unpardonable misprints, especially since the beginning of this century, passed into the various editions of the Bible.

As proof of this the following passages may serve:

In the Dresden Bible stands: 1 Mos. 19, 9. besser instead of bas; Ps. 74, 5. blicken instead of blinken; Ps. 102, 15. sahen instead of sähen; Isa. 10, 9. ich instead of ist; Luke 24, 28. weiter instead of förder.

In the Frankfurt N. Test. (by Brönner): 1 Cor. 15, 40. Herrschaft instead of Herrlichkeit; 2 Pet. 3, 15. Pilatus instead of Paulus.

In an old Halle edition: Col. 1, 15. the first-born "von" instead of "vor" all creatures (so much often depends on a single letter; for in the little word "von" lies hidden the Arian heresy that Christ is only a creature.)

In an old Basel Bible: Joshua 7, 21. a golden Zeige instead of Zunge (a clasp in the shape of a tongue).

In a New York New Testament there stands at Matt 5, 21., at the words: "Whosoever is angry with his brother," the false gloss "without a cause," which most American editions of the Bible have; Matt. 21, 33. the householder dug a Keller instead of Kelter or wine-press; John 7, 21. ein eigenes Werk instead of einiges.

So great a difference of the text in the manifold editions of the Bible had to produce not only a great confusion in the use of them in the church, but especially in the school, but also to exert a ruinous influence upon the doctrine of the Bible itself; for if St. Paul, 1 Cor. 1, 11., exhorts that in divine things we should all speak the same thing, this is so much the less possible the more the present nuisance of such different Bible texts gains the upper hand. Therefore all upright Lutherans ought to rejoice at being put in a position, by the new Leipzig Bible, to arrive at a greater agreement in the text of the Lutheran translation of the Bible, and thus to see this unsurpassed masterpiece, this precious heirloom of the Lutheran Church, preserved and renewed.

The chief principle according to which Doctor Hopf has prepared this new edition is this:

"To remove all alterations distorting the sense and unnecessary, which have crept into the place of the original readings, and to restore the Lutheran text, so far as it is compatible with the just demands of the present time.

Accordingly the editor has kept the right mean between the literal restoration of the original text according to the Bible of the year 1545 and the arbitrary innovations of the later editions. For a literal reprint of that original edition would be quite unsuitable for use in church and school, since the old forms, now unusual, one could often scarcely read, to say nothing of understanding. Thus, e.g., in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10, 23–37) such words would occur as: VND (und), Nehester, zoch, furber (vorüber), Ole, Grosschen, and the like.

On the other hand, the editor has avoided all arbitrary innovations, but has retained all real improvements of the original text which are found in the Halle and other editions. Where several readings were of equal worth, the preference was given to the Ori-