1580 German Book of Concord — Online
March 11th, 2006
The Book of Concord, the official confessions of the Lutheran church, were first published in 1580, in German, soon thereafter published as well in 1584, in Latin. These two editions of the Book of Concord, in German, and in Latin, are the "textus receptus" of the Lutheran Confessions. There is now available a scanned copy of the 1580 German Book of Concord, online, free for you to peruse, print out and enjoy to your heart’s delight.
It is made available by "Lutheran Legacy" which we have mentioned here before, an effort to scan and put online classic works of Lutheran theology.
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Categories: Lutheran Confessions


What a wonderful resource for Confessional Lutherans! I suspect few American Lutherans will use this site for actual reading, because it would require a strong knowledge of German script. But one use of the site could be to create truly Lutheran graphics for websites (instead of just plastering everything with Orthodox icons).
+Andrew
Thank you, Pastor McCain, for sharing our project with your list! We are delighted to be able right now to share the 1580 BoC and many other interesting items with the Latin- and/or German-proficient among us, in picture form. We plan in the future, God willing, to do much more, enlisting those with the skills to transliterate and to translate key works into forms more accessible to modern readers. Doing this will take the development of a lot of infrastructure and the help of many contributors (in talent and treasure), and we are in the process of securing both non-profit status and more extensive web hosting facilities to support this big effort. In the meantime, please continue to enjoy our pictures (whether by reading or by decorating with them), visit our web site for updates, and let us know (mtaylor / jsias@lutheranlegacy.org) what we can do to enhance your interaction with these wonderful texts.
Pax,
John
McCain response: John, I was wondering if there is any way you could create a print function that would allow people to print the pages off on standard printers. That would be useful. Blessings on your work!
Greetings, all. The printing feature Pastor McCain requested is now available at the bottom of the browsing page, for your enjoyment. Today we also put our first American, English-language document on the site (David Henkel, a response to a Methodist on Baptism). Thanks for your interest! Enjoy.
Pax,
John