Barely Anyone Reads the Bible in Germany. So Why Are Luther Bibles Selling So Well?

From “better an end with horror than a horror without end” to expressions like bloodhound, baptism of fire, and heart’s content, the German language is peppered with idioms from a source that’s more than 500 years old: the Luther Bible.

A translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, the Bible continues to be a touchpoint for German culture, politics, and language. And in 2022 — over 500 years after its initial publication — it was a bestseller yet again.

According to the German Bible Society (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft) in Stuttgart, they circulated 130,000 copies of the Luther Bible in 2022, accounting for almost half of their total distributions that year.

“After five centuries, it remains the most popular Bible translation in Germany,” said the German Bible Society’s General Secretary Christian Roesel (Rösel), “it is and will remain a classic.”

While the Luther Bible may remain a definitive example of German literature and hold a special place in its national psyche, ordinary Germans often know its catch phrases better than its contents. According to a 2017 opinion poll conducted by Insa-Consulare (Erfurt) and the German Christian magazine “Idea,” only four percent of German adults read the Bible every day. 70 percent say they have never read it once.

That begs the question, at a time when Bible sales are generally falling — related to a decline in Christianity’s share of the overall German population — why do so many Germans keep buying it?

For Norwegians So Loved the Bible, a New Translation Made Many Mad

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

But what if it isn’t that straightforward?

In Norway, a public debate about what the Bible says — or doesn’t — is currently unfolding around the latest efforts to translate scripture into modern Norwegian.

At the center of that controversy are terms like “brothers and sisters,” “slave,” “flesh” and the words of John 3:16, known as “the Little Bible” (den lille bibel) in Norway.

As the Norwegian Bible Society (Det Norske Bibelselskap) worked toward releasing a new Bible revision in 2024, it published previews. Reception to the published pericopes was mixed, forcing questions about the use of biblical texts in public worship, the relevance of scripture in largely secular Norway, and whether a new revision is needed after a major overhaul to the text as recently as 2011.

In a country where only 2 percent of the population regularly attend church, one doesn’t expect to find a national debate about the correct translation of John 3:16. And yet, across Norway, news that a forthcoming Bible translation will replace gå fortapt (get lost) with gå til grunne (perish) has roused strong feelings.

In my latest for Christianity Today, I talk to translators and critics about the controversy and what it can tell us about the Bible and Norwegian society.