While reading three biographies of William Tyndale, each of the authors made a point of mentioning that in the course of translating the same into English, Tyndale had made extensive use of Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek.

Since the Tyndale biographies’ focus centered on his love for the original languages in which the Bible was transmitted, his burning desire to translate them into English so that even the ‘ploughboy’ would have access to God’s Word, his honest approach to doing so being deemed heretical in the eyes of Rome, with the outcome being his eventual martyrdom, I was hoping for a similar scheme in the Metaxas biography of Luther.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. In fact, Tyndale receives extremely short shrift, being mentioned in one paragraph at the bottom of page 412 to the top of page 413 of a 451-page tome, not counting several pages devoted to notes, with the main reasons for his martyrdom given as writing against Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn and Cardinal Wolsey, which I would suggest were merely peripheral issues.

Although this is the first biography of Martin Luther I have read, I would imagine that there is a finite amount of source material Metaxas had available to research and on which to base his biography, meaning that he would find it difficult to ‘say something new’ that would captivate his readership. It is my impression that the author attempted to create a compelling storyline by choosing to sensationalize, or to shock the reader with, a given piece of information he had come across as well as to employ a writing style that lightens a somewhat dreary or heavy subject. As a result, I would appraise his endeavor as pedestrian.

As sensationalizing or attempting to shock his readers, I am referring to the chapter entitled “The Cloaca Experience,” in which Metaxas makes much of the fact that Luther found saving faith – termed the “Reformation breakthrough” – while sitting “on the john.” The Biblical truth gleaned and explained quite clearly by Metaxas based on this ‘breakthrough,’ in my opinion, was only hindered by his syntactic analysis of a sentence penned by Luther, illustrating the filthy world that The Son of God penetrated after leaving the purity of His Heavenly home. In fact, the reader who is competent in German may take issue with this author’s rendering of the sentence and agree with that of Luther expert Volker Leppin, with whose translation Metaxas disagrees; I suggest he does so in order to more forcefully make his point, but in the process, winds up with a forced translation (possibly in Metaxas’ defense, he footnotes this section with Smith, The Life and Letters of Martin Luther, 43-44.) Metaxas insists that Luther intended to equate “…in diesem Leben” with “…in das Scheisshaus,” i.e., that this life is a house of excrement (I am translating euphemistically, since I consider using 4-letter words in any venue in poor taste. I fault Metaxas for insisting on being so graphic or, for that matter, even including this in order to bolster his argument.) In my opinion, his argument is better served by remaining true to the original syntax, i.e., that God has interjected Himself into this cesspool of a world in such a way that this corporeal life that each of us experiences is enriched beyond anything that we deserve, so that what is to be expected in the world to come for those who have put their faith in Christ is unfathomly more than we can imagine.

As for writing style, there were times when it seemed I was reading an episode of Robin Hood and the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest starring Friar Tuck rather than a serious examination of one of the most significant events in western civilization. Rather than exploring events that lent themselves – in Metaxas’ view, apparently – to employing a slapstick writing style, the author should have delved into the translation issues that brought negative reverberations from Rome, such as Luther’s decision to translate ekklesia as Gemeinde (fellowship/community), not Kirche (church) (plse cf. this page Faith and Practice for my reviews of the biographies of William Tyndale in this regard) as well as other theological differences that impacted Luther’s more accurate translation into German of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament than the Latin Vulgate in use by Rome.

In my opinion, by not addressing the above subject, Metaxas was delinquent in a full-scope investigation of Luther’s influence, not only within Germany, but in England where, as I mentioned above, Tyndale made extensive use of Luther’s translation while translating the Bible into English.

It seems that Metaxas had in mind as the overall theme of his biography to portray Luther as one of the masses, and therefore honed in on the issue of indulgences, a Robin Hoodesque thematic of robbing from the rich to give to the poor. In the situation at hand, however, drawing on Luther’s theological objections to Rome’s practice of selling indulgences, in a strictly secular, ethical dimension, was stemming the robbing of the poor by the rich. Extrapolating further and building on the image of Luther as a commoner called and used in a special way by God, the author mentions in a couple of spots Luther’s enjoyment of the local brew, a man who had suffered from constipation.

At the book’s conclusion, Metaxas connects Luther’s opening the way for every man to read God’s Word in German to dispensing with the rule of powerful elites over the common man and thereafter to the spread throughout the West of the ideas of freedom and democracy.

The book is not without its strong points. The author indeed has presented the high points and probably lesser known facts of Luther’s life in a very interesting style. He also took the opportunity to clearly present the Gospel message at various points in his narration. My only objection is the lack of information concerning Luther’s translation work.

For the one who is reading their initial biography of Martin Luther and that for an introduction into his life, the Metaxas volume fits the bill.