Abstract

The Christian concepts of justice and justifi cation were deeply infl uenced by the Latin Vulgate, which coined a specifi c interpretation of the Hebrew concept ofjustice, contained in the root ›sdq‹. In the four Middle Low German Bible translations printed before the Reformation (1478–1522), these specifi c problems oftranslation became visible and led to an unsystematic use of the terms available in secular law: ›(ge)rechticheyt‹ and ›rechtferticheyt‹. This article analyzes thedifferent translations of the Latin ›iustitia‹ and its synonyms and antonyms in the Middle Low German Bibles. They contain a concept of justice which adoptsseveral aspects from the Hebrew Bible that differ from the Vulgate: the close connection of justice and mercy, the strong orientation towards the legal community, and justice as a mutual duty of God and humans rather than a hierarchic virtue. But most striking is the lack of a codifi cation of the content of the different available variants in Middle Low German: a sign of the ongoing semantic mobility of a central religious concept, and consequently of the lack of controlthe Church had over religious discourses in the vernacular.