Contributions from Martin Luther’s Translation of the Bible to the Hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur

Abstract

In this paper, my objective is to share reflections about the hermeneutic nature of translation that emerges from the analysis of the dialogue between two authors who have clarified the act of translating: Paul Ricoeur (2009) in Sobre la traducción and Antoine Berman (2003) in La prueba de lo ajeno. Berman presents Martin Luther's translation of the Bible, my hypothesis is that Paul Ricoeur (2009) considers it as a key example of translation. I explain Ricoeur’s arguments in one of the essays of his book The Paradigm of Translation where the French philosopher stands in favor of one of his main thesis: language is a universal competence; however, what we have in practice is the diversity of languages. Consequently, when translating, it should be considered the local linguistic performances (the acts of speech in use), since it is by means of them we could give solutions to the lack of understanding (Ricoeur, 2009, p. 51). The first thing Martin Luther did was to renounce to make a translation, which did not contemplate the current use of certain terms or words used by the Germans in their daily life. Luther translated the Bible listening to the everyday talk, the popular German, so much as to welcome the dialectal multiplicity without denying or eliminating any of them. To clarify this idea (Berman, 2003, p. 50) takes up Luther’s words (in Luter, Oeuvres, VI, Labor et Fides, Geneva, 1964, pp. 190-196) saying that it is not the Latin letters that it is necessary to scrutinize, but to question the mother in her house, the children in the streets, the ordinary man in the market, in short, Luther gave an account of «the daily procedures of a living language» (Ricoeur, 2009, p. 51). In both Luther and Ricoeur, no universal language can achieve the absolute reconstruction of an indefinite diversity.