Talk:A Mighty Fortress is Our God

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Psalm 46 Verse 9: He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

The Mighty Fortress Luther speaks of is one of pacifism! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.6.30.192 (talk • contribs).

Umm... I don't get what this has to do with the hymn... Luther is after the point of the whole Psalm, which is that God is a place of refuge in times of trouble, so a child of God does not need to be afraid. --CTSWyneken^(talk) 17:51, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other Translations

Just a comment. Three english translations are mentioned in the passage, but only one is given. The Lutheran Book of Worship has this translation:

A mighty fortress is our God,
A sword and shield victorious.
He breaks the cruel oppressor's rod
And wins salvation glorious.
The old satanic foe
Has sworn to work us woe.
With craft and dreadful might
He arms himself to fight.
On Earth he has no equal.

No strength of ours can match his might.
We would be lost, rejected.
But now a champion comes to fight,
Whom God Himself elected.
You ask who this may be.
The Lord of Hosts is He.
Christ Jesus, mighty Lord,
God's only son, adored,
He holds the field victorious.

Though hordes of devils fill the land,
All threatening to devour us,
We tremble not! Unmoved, we stand;
They cannot overpower us.
Let this world's tyrants rage;
In battle we'll engage!
His might is doomed to fail,
God's judgement must prevail-
One little word subdues him.

God's Word forever shall abide,
No thanks to foes who fear it,
For God himself fights by our side
With weapons of the Spirit.
Were they to take our house,
Goods, honor, child or spouse,
Though life be wrenched away,
They cannot win the day;
The Kingdom's ours forever.

Yeah, this is the one that I know. -Maaya まあや 17:07, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm still not sure if we're supposed to put full texts of the hymn in Wikipedia. It seems that the rules discourage it. In any case, I believe this version is still protected by copyright, while the others are not. --CTSWyneken^(talk) 17:51, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

Shouldn't this page: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott be a part of this page? -Maaya まあや 17:09, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I think I've tidied it up. The spelling is wrong (eine Burg or ein' Burg, but not ein Burg). I've added the Bach categories to this article, and made that article a redirect here. — Gareth Hughes 18:18, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! I happened to search 'feste Burg' and it was the first thing that came up, but I was here a few months ago and had looked at this particular article (A Mighty Fortress is Our God) and what surprised to see all the info that I remembered had disappeared. Glad to see that it hadn't, really. -Maaya まあや 23:10, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Composition Date

According to the German Wikipedia page for Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott, this hymn was written and composed in 1529. This date would convey much more precisely when the hymn was created, and it would not be gathered from deductions about the manner in which hymns were published during this time period.

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott ist ein Kirchenlied, das 1529 von Martin Luther geschrieben und komponiert wurde. [1] —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dwspig2 (talk • contribs).

I'm not sure where the German encyclopedia gets the date. The info in this article comes directly from scholarly commentary in the cited sources. Since there is uncertainty in the literature, we need to reflect it in the article. --CTSWyneken^(talk) 00:37, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Earliest extant version?

The article cites John Julian, according to whom the earliest extant version is Andrew Rauscher's 1531 book; however, here they give an earlier date: "The oldest extant copy of the hymn is found in Form und Ordnung Gaystlicher Gesang und Psalmen, Augsburg, 1529 (Skaar, 1879; Nutzhorn, 1911)." Fact-checking needed. --Tgr 07:13, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

If a moment presents itself, it's worth checking. I tend to give Julian the benefit of a doubt, since his is the most respected hymn resource in the English language. --CTSWyneken^(talk) 11:26, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

According to Julian (John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology: Setting Forth the Origin and History of Christian Hymns of All Ages and All Nations rev. ed. London: John Murray, 1908, 323 the earliest printing was Klug's Gesang Buch, Wittenberg, 1529. --CTSWyneken^(talk) 18:23, 30 March 2007 (UTC)