May I suggest you polish your skills relating to civil discourse?
Martin Luther entered the seminary at age 21, yet you seem apoplectic at his claim to have been 20 when he first read the Bible. Is there a reason?
Mr. Lucky,
You wrote: "May I suggest you polish your skills relating to civil discourse?"
Yes, you may suggest it. I think it is far more important, however, to expose error for what it is. If something is dumb, then it is. If something is dishonest, then it is. I see no reason, whatsoever, to label things as they actually are.
"Martin Luther entered the seminary at age 21, yet you seem apoplectic at his claim to have been 20 when he first read the Bible. Is there a reason?"
Yes, it is physically impossible that that is true. No one, growing up in prosperous Saxony, attending good schools, visiting cathedrals, going to university 40 years after the invention of moveable type printing not too far away, and having spent a good time in libraries could have NOT seen a Bible until age 20 (which would be in 1503). Even while at university he must have seen one before 1503. There were more than 1300 students at Erfurt when Luther attended. None had a Bible? Not a single professor? Only one copy on campus? Nonsense.
Look at this: "Two of the Bibles were purchased by Scheide's father, John H. Scheide, including the Gutenberg Bible, which was printed in Mainz about 1455-1456 and was the first substantial book to be printed from moveable types in Europe. Forty-nine copies of the 158 or 180 printed there are conflicting reports survive. The Scheide copy, printed on paper, originally was sold in the university town of Erfurt, where it was finely illuminated and bound. Its first owner probably was the Dominican convent in Erfurt where the Bible remained until 1873, when it was brought to the United States by collector George Brinley. The invoice from London book dealer Henry Stevens advised Brinley's New York agents to "let none of Uncle Samuel's Custom House OfficialsÖsee it without first reverentially lifting their hats." John Scheide acquired the Bible in 1924."
Still think Luther never saw a Bible before he was 20?
Go to Eisleben -- Luther's home town -- and what do you find in his rebuilt home? A museum of Bibles that were printed BEFORE the Reformation. No, I'm not kidding.
The simple fact is that Luther made things up for dramatic effect. He was melodramatic at times.
Don't believe in myths!