As a Lutheran, many pastors and family members have told me that Martin Luther had the New Testament memorized and that it is what helped him translate the Bible into German. I asked my Western Civilizations professor this question, and she couldn't give me a definite answer. Is there any evidence to back this claim? Thank you in advance for any answers.
There are plenty of german-language secondary sources that claim that Martin Luther did have the vulgata (latin) bible committed to memory. for example: Jürgen Becker Annäherungen: Zur urchristlichen Theologiegeschichte or Hermann Gelhaus Der Streit um Luthers Bibelverdeutschung. The sources claim that this knowledge comes from the time he spent as a professor at the University of Wittenberg. The sources also claim that this level of familiarity was not uncommons for monks in that time.
However, he did have several versions of the written bible to work with when he did the actual translation at the Wartburg.