In this episode, we welcome back Rev. Nathaniel Biebert to continue his mini-series on lesser-known details of 500th anniversaries of the Reformation.
Here, we focus on the 500th anniversary of the "September Testament." In this case, almost any detail will be a “detail less often told.” Most Lutherans familiar with Luther’s life are aware that he translated the New Testament into German at the Wartburg in less than eleven weeks, that it was published later that year, that he famously included the word alone in his translation of Romans 3:28, and that his translation (not just of the Testament, but eventually of the Bible as a whole) helped to standardize the German language and to unify German-speaking peoples.
In this episode, we welcome back Rev. Nathaniel Biebert to continue his mini-series on lesser-known details of 500th anniversaries of the Reformation.
Here, we focus on the 500th anniversary of the "September Testament." In this case, almost any detail will be a “detail less often told.” Most Lutherans familiar with Luther’s life are aware that he translated the New Testament into German at the Wartburg in less than eleven weeks, that it was published later that year, that he famously included the word alone in his translation of Romans 3:28, and that his translation (not just of the Testament, but eventually of the Bible as a whole) helped to standardize the German language and to unify German-speaking peoples.
Pastor Nathaniel Biebert was born and baptized in California and attended Lutheran grade schools in Wisconsin. He graduated from Martin Luther College (BA with a minor in confessional languages, 2005), and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (MDiv, 2009). After serving in Wisconsin and Texas, in February of 2022, he accepted the call to serve the members of Trinity in Winner, South Dakota.
Nathaniel is the author of Luther at the Manger (Milwaukee: Northwestern, 2017)—a translation of a 1531 sermon series—and the translator and editor of Heaven Is My Fatherland: The Life and Work of Michael Praetorius (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2020). He has authored articles and translations for the Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly and Forward in Christ. He is a 2018 recipient of the Concordia Historical Institute’s Award of Commendation for his serial in the WELS Historical Institute Journal, “Johannes Strieter: Raconteur of Past Reminiscences.”