Religion: Germanised Gospels

In Nazi Germany, God’s Word has been tampered with by Protestant scholars on a scale unequaled since the heresies of early Christianity. This fact was documented in a threepenny pamphlet, The Germanisation of the New Testament, issued in England by the Friends of Europe, and circulated in the U. S. last week. In a foreword, Dr. Howard Chandler Robbins, of Manhattan’s General Theological Seminary, estimated that one-tenth of Germany’s Protestant pastors have defied the predominantly anti-Christian Nazi State and suffered the consequences. About two-thirds are lying low, hoping the storm will blow past. The remainder have either joined Germany’s innumerable pagan cults or, as “German Christians.” have sought to purge Christianity of its inconvenient elements. Purgers-in-chief have been the German Christian Bishop of Bremen, Dr. Heinz Weidemann, and Ludwig Miiller, the bullet-pated army chaplain whom Hitler appointed Reichsbischof in 1933, supplanted in 1935. Both prelates have sought to find a pure, Nazified essence of German Christianity in the New Testament—the Old Testament being, to Nazis, a bad job, hopelessly full of Jews. Dr.

Miiller revised the Sermon on the Mount, Bishop Weidemann the Gospel according to St. John. Though both jobs were done more than 18 months ago (TIME, Jan. 25, 1937), the Friends of Europe pamphlet is the first extensive English study of them.

Neither the Christian concepts of sin, grace or life everlasting, nor any reference to the Hebrew prophets, are to be found in the Miiller or Weidemann scriptures. Both translators make Christ’s teachings as utilitarian and earthly as possible. Some of Dr. Miiller’s Beatitudes, as compared with those in the King James Version:

Miiller

Happy is he who, Blessed in childlike simplicity, trusts in God; he has community with God.

Happy is he who bears his sufferings like a man; he will find the strength never to despair with courage.

Happy is he who is always a good comrade; he will make his way in the world.

Happy are they who keep peace with their fellow-countrymen; they do the the will of God.

King James

Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn; for the shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.

Blesseed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.