You wrote:
“You can cite 19 editions (and no, they were not in the vernacular by and large,”
They were ALL in the vernacular.
” nor good translations at all).”
How good is your German? I freely admit some were better than others. But if they were not good in the first place then they probably wouldn’t have been printed or sold and then reprinted a dozen times in some cases. Think.
“I’ll cite 100,000 copies in a translation that has lasted 500 years...”
It’s been revised - many times. The KJV was revised as well.
“Amazing what a heretic can do, while the Catholic Church could not - because it cared not.”
Catholics did it. It is not the responsibility of the Diocese of Rome to publish German Bibles. The Germans did it. They still do. And heretics have succeeded before and will continue to do so on this earth. Satan is the prince of this world. Heretics will always have some success. Satan lauded Luther’s efforts according to Luther’s own words.
“Catholics hardly have a good record of bible distribution.”
Actually they have an excellent one. 19 editions - and those are just the printed ones - before Luther.
“Repression? Yes. Distribution? No.”
Again, 19 editions in Germany alone from 1450s to the 1520. Reprinted numerous times.
“And it speaks volumes that the Catholic Church opposed translation into the vernacular and widespread distribution of God’s Word.”
It didn’t. Yet another baseless assertion from you with no evidence whatsoever. Typical.
“It took the heretics Luther and Tyndale to do that...”
Nope. It was already done. 19 editions in Germany alone before Luther.
“Remember. 100,000 copies from one printer alone.”
Yep. A whopping average of 2,500 copies a year. The grand total from all printers is very impressive. State supported heresy can do that. The real issue should be truth. Was Luther really promoting truth when he altered Romans? No, not really.
According to a NY Times article from 1906, of the editions put out prior to Luthers’ all but one were folios...”they were not publications for the people”.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30B10FD3B5A12738DDDA90A94D9405B868CF1D3
As for the one published in mass, “This followed the Latin model so doggedly that its German text can only be grasped by someone who knows Latin grammar as well.”
The figure of 100,000 Bibles in 40 years comes from one printer alone, and was for complete Bibles. The impact was huge, and everyone without a PhD seems to have recognized that.