Martin Luther — "The more one reads the Bible, the more one loves it."
The more one reads the Bible, the more one loves it.
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More from Martin Luther
"I am a peasant, a son of a peasant; my father, grandfather, all my ancestors were genuine peasants."
"If I am not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there."
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About Martin Luther (1483-1546)
German theologian whose 95 Theses (1517) launched the Protestant Reformation and broke the Catholic Church's monopoly on Western Christianity. Closely associated with Philipp Melanchthon (Lutheran systematizer) and John Calvin (later Reformer who built on Luther's break). For an intellectual contrast, see Pope Leo X, Renaissance pope (1513-1521) — Leo X's indulgence sales triggered Luther's break and Leo excommunicated him in 1521 — Luther's entire Reformation is structured as a direct answer to the indulgence-funded Vatican Leo represented.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Regular, sustained engagement with Scripture deepens a person's affection for it. Familiarity does not breed boredom but rather genuine attachment, because each rereading reveals new layers of meaning, comfort, and challenge. The quote suggests that love for the Bible is not instant or automatic but grows through habitual exposure. The reader who keeps returning to the text discovers it becomes more rewarding, not less, the longer the relationship continues.
Relevance to Martin Luther
Luther translated the entire Bible into German so ordinary people could read it directly, a task that consumed years of his life. He believed Scripture alone (sola scriptura) was the final authority for Christian faith, not Church tradition or papal decree. Preaching thousands of sermons and lecturing on biblical books at Wittenberg, Luther embodied the conviction that personal, repeated encounter with the text transformed believers. This saying captures the lived experience behind his entire reforming project.
The era
In early sixteenth-century Europe, the Bible was largely inaccessible to laypeople, locked in Latin and mediated by clergy. Gutenberg's printing press, perfected decades earlier, was beginning to flood Europe with affordable books. Luther's 1522 German New Testament and 1534 complete Bible exploited this technology, putting Scripture into household hands for the first time. His words reflect a revolutionary cultural moment when ordinary Christians could finally develop personal, repeated reading relationships with the sacred text.
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