Rüstzeug: German Wiktionary says Luther "apparently" formed its figurative sense, and a 1523 critic objected to the word in Acts 9:15
In modern German, das Rüstzeug is the knowledge or skills you need for a job ("das nötige Rüstzeug"). DWDS dates the word to the 16th century and builds it from rüsten + Zeug. German Wiktionary adds: "Luther hat das Wort offenbar im übertragenen Sinne für 'Werkzeug' gebildet" (Luther apparently formed the word in the figurative sense of "tool"). I can't check that beyond the dictionary.
Luther's 1522 New Testament uses it in Acts 9:15: "diser ist myr eyn außerwelet rusttzeug." The Vulgate there has "vas electionis," a chosen vessel.
Hieronymus Emser, a Catholic opponent, went through Luther's New Testament in 1523 and objected to this choice: "our text does not have 'a chosen instrument' but 'a chosen vessel,' which also agrees with the Greek, where one reads not organum ('instrument') but skeuos, that is, 'vessel'; from which comes skeuarion, 'a little vessel.'" (Emser, 1523, English translation)
Whether the word existed before 1522 and whether Luther started its figurative use are separate questions, and the dictionaries I checked only speak to the second one.
Is there any evidence of Rüstzeug before 1522, in any sense?
https://redd.it/1wv6nyu
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Post #12856
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