The article examines the Danish reformer Hans Tausen’s translation into
Danish of the Pentateuch (1535). It was the first complete translation
into Danish of these first five books of the Old Testament (which also
was the title of the Tausen edition). The few studies in Danish church
history and bible studies of this translation have all concluded the Tausen
edition as primarily a translation from Hebrew into Danish rather
than being an adaption into Tausen’s vernacular of Luther’s German editions.
In a critical review of these older studies (primarily Wøldike 1745
and Pedersen 1917) the article points to Tausen’s dependence on Luther
both theologically and linguistically. Through various examples the article
illustrates the Tausen edition as a translation from Luther’s German
version of the Pentateuch rather than an original translation from
the Hebrew text. Tausen did consult the Hebrew Bible version, yet the
article argues that the Hebrew text functioned more as an improvement,
supplement and alteration of Luther’s editions in the translation into
Danish by Tausen. Likewise, Tausen consulted both Vulgate and LXX
in the process of translation and sometimes preferred the Greek or Latin
wording to the literal Hebrew or the translation of Luther. According to
Molde 1949, Tausen’s translation, is one of the sources for the first complete
Danish Bible translation from 1550 (also known as the Christiern
Pedersen or Christian III edition) – predominantly a translation from
Luther’s complete German Bible. From this Danish 1550-version parts
and expressions from Tausen’s translation has been incorporated into
Danish bible language. In his introduction to a facsimile edition of Tausen’s
translation from 1932, the church historian Bjørn Kornerup complained
that Tausen’s well formulated Danish prose had not influenced
Danish biblical language. Bertil Molde proved this wrong in his study
from 1949, and the article supports this view and thus the early influence
on Danish bible translations from the translations by Luther. The 1535
translation by Tausen gained some popularity in the formative years of
the Danish Reformation and in the years 1535-37 it was reprinted in four
to five different editions. Tausen’s edition of the Pentateuch has thus
been a widespread work towards the official introduction of the Reformation
of State and Church in Denmark in 1536-37 and this also explains
the use of it by the translation committee of the Danish 1550-edition
of the Bible.