Luther 500 - Die Bibel and Ockers in Thuringia

The year of our lord 2017 is approaching, and the One True Protestant Communion - Lutheran obviously - is making preparations. It's almost 500 years since Brother Martin posted (in a pre-blogging sense) his 95 theses and thereby kick-started the Reformation on the last day of October 1517. Travel agents haven't been slow to cash in, intent on making a buck (or perhaps more to the point, a euro) out of visitors heading for the heritage sites in Germany. In my view a bunch of Australian Lutherans of Prussian descent in bush hats roaming free in Thuringia is a much scarier prospect than any Syrian refugees huddling on the border.

Anyway, as any good ex-Lutheran blogger would, even a ratbag like me, Otagosh will be providing an intermittent series on the events, starting with a link to this article on Luther's Bible. The impact of this translation is much under-appreciated in the English-speaking world, but arguably was (heck, there's no argument to it) a far greater accomplishment than the later King James Bible.

For the curious, you can find the Luther Bible online, in the original sacred German, complete from 1 Mose to Offenbarung.

But fear not, there'll be no hagiographies appearing here. Luther's lack of conventional saintliness is legendary. But he certainly was an interesting fellow (which isn't necessarily true of his imitators then or now).