May 11. 1850.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
453 
Windsor, as follows :—“ 1669. Fudit Josias Ibach 
Stada Bramensis;” and is Mr. Hewitt, in his recent 
Memoir of Tobias Rustat, correct in calling him 
“ Stada, an Jialian artist ?” J. G. IN: 
Worm of Lambton.—Is there any published 
notice of the “Knight and Serpent” tradition, 
regarding this family and parish ? A. 
{A quarto volume of traditions, gathered in the im- 
mediate neighbourhood of the scene of action, was 
privately printed in the year 1830, under the title of 
The Worm of Lambton.] 
REPLIES. 
LUTHER'S TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
Luther’s solemn request that his translation 
should on no account be altered, accompanies most 
of the earlier editions of the N.T. I find it on 
the reverse of the title-page of the edition in 8vo. 
printed at Wittemberg by Hans Lufft in 1537, 
thus :— 
“TI request all my friends and enemies, my master 
printer, and reader, will let this New Testament be 
mine; and, if they have fault to find with it, that they 
make one of their own. I know well what I do, and 
see well what others do; but this Testament shall be 
Luther’s German Testament; for carping and cavilling 
is now without measure or end. And be every one 
cautioned against other copies, for I have already expe- 
rienced how negligently and falsely others reprint us.” * 
The disputed verse (1 John, v. 7.) is omitted in 
all the editions printed under Luther's eye or 
sanction in his lifetime; but it has not, I think, 
been remarked that in verse 8. the words auf erde, 
found in later editions, are wanting. The passage 
stands :— 
“Denn drey sind die da zeugen, der Geist, und das 
Wasser, und das Blut, und die drey sind beysameu.” 
In the first edition of the Saxon (Diidesche) ver- 
sion of Luther’s Bible, by Jo. Heddersen, printed 
in a magnificent volume at Lubeck, by Lo. Dietz, 
in 1533-4, the verse stands thus :— 
“ Wente dre synt dede tiichinisse geven, de Geist 
unde dat Water, unde dat Bloth, unde de dre synt by 
einander.” 
A MS. note of a former possessor remarks : — 
“ The 7th verse is not found here, nor is it in the 
Bibles of Magdeburg, 1544, of Wittemberg, 1541, 
ditto, 1584, Frankfort, 1560 and 1580.” 
* “ Ich bitte alle meine Freunde, und Feinde, meine 
Meister Driicker und Leser, wolten dis Newe Testa- 
ment lassen mein sein, Haben sie aber mangel dran, 
das sie selbs ein eigens fiir sich machen; Ich weiss wol 
was ich mache, Sehe auch wol was andere machen, 
Aber dis Testament sol des Luther’s Deudsch Testa- 
ment sein, Denn Meisterns und Klugelus ist jtzt weder 
masse noch ende. Und sey jederman gewarnet fiir 
andern Exemplaren, Denn ich bisher wol erfaren wie 
unfyleissig und falsch uns andere nachdriicken.” 
In the edition of this same version, printed by 
Hans Lufft, Wittemberg, 1541, the passage is ex- 
actly similar; but in one printed by Hans Wal- 
ther, Magdeburg, 1545, the words up erden are 
inserted. 
These Saxon versions are interesting from the 
very great similarity that idiom has to our early 
language; and they, doubtless, influenced muck 
our own early versions. 
In a translation of the N. T. from the Latin of 
Erasmus (the first printed in Latin with a trans- 
lation on the same page, and which is very similar 
in appearance to Udal’s), printed at Zurich in 
1535, 4to., with a Preface by Johansen Zwikk of 
Constance, the 7th verse is given (as it was in the 
Latin}; but is distinguished by being printed in 
brackets, and in both verses we have— 
“ Unnd die drey dienend in eins.” 
Erasmus having admitted the verse into his 
third edition, gave occasion perhaps to the liberty 
which has been taken in later times to print both 
verses, without this distinction, in editions of the 
Lutheran version. The earliest edition, I believe, 
in which it thus appears, is one at Wittemberg in 
1596, which was repeated in 1597, 1604, 1605*, and 
1625. It also appears, but printed in smaller type, 
in the Hamburgh Bible by Wolder in 1597, in 
that of Jena 1598, and in Hutter’s, Nuremburg, 
1599. 
In acurious edition of the N. T. printed at Wan- 
desbeck in 1710, in 4to., in which four German 
versions, the Catholic, the Lutheran, the Reformed, 
a new version by Reitz, and the received Dutch 
version, are printed in parallel columns, both 
verses are given in every instance; but a note 
points out that Luther uniformly omitted the 7th 
verse, and the words auf erde. 
There cannot be a doubt, therefore, that the in- 
sertion is entirely unwarranted in any edition of 
the New Testament professing to be Luther's 
translation. S. W. Sineur. 
April 25. 1850. 
Luther’s Translation of the Bible (No. 25. 
p-399.). —De Wette, in his critical Commentary 
on the verse 1 John, after stating his opinion that 
the controverted passage is a spurious interpola- 
tion, gives a list of the codices and editions in 
which the passage is not found, and of those in 
which it is found. 
The passage is wanting in all Greek Codd. ex- 
cept Codd. 34. 162. 172. (of his introduction, where 
it is introduced from the Vulgate), and in all MS. 
* Fy. Er. Kettner, who printed at Leipsic, in 1696, 
a long and strenuous defence of the authenticity of the 
7th verse, exults in the existence of this verse in an 
edition of the Bible, Wittemberg, 1606, which is falsely 
said on the title-page to be juxta ultimum a Luthero re- 
visum exemplar correctum. 
