"Martin Luther (1540s) wrote: "Excedit enim vires meas" upon receiving a Hebrew book. Any suggestions on what it means?"

Topics: translation, reformation, martin luther, latin

Asked by Dannyil 18 months ago

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the above citation is from: Luther's SÃ¤mmtliche Werke," ii. 612, "Briefe" as well as http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=631&letter=L&search=Martin%20Luther
its Latin. I could do with a clear translation. Thank you.

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"Indeed, it's beyond my power"

by PamPerdue on Jul 27 2008 (18 months ago)

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Literally, "This exceeds, truly, my power". Loosely, "It's beyond me" or "It's Greek to me".

Luther felt that understanding Christianity didn't come from minutely analyzing the text, but could be comprehended even in translation through understanding the broader message. He thought that kind of minutiae were misleading. So he never bothered to learn Hebrew.

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... and boo on the Jewish Encyclopedia for including quotes without translations. It just serves to make the text hard to read.