Full Text for Luther's Monumental Work: Galatians (Text)

eiHgen ®ef)rifi ba~ ~uef) bet maim, ba~ ~uef) ber @efef)ief)ie, ba~ ~uef) bet ,gefef)ief)trief)en ®iunbe' regen unb barin [efen." (®.7.) (fIeri roeifi naef), ba13 bie &;;>eiHge ®ef)tifi un~ anbJeifi, auef) aUf ba~ au meden, roa~ @oti un~ in maim: unb @efef)ief)±e f agt. ma±ilrfief) f ef)opf± bie ef)tifHief)e :it~eoIogie batau~ nief)± iljre Eeljren. ,,~a, roenn e~ fief) bat u m ~anben, bor roefef)er muioritii± bie firef)Iief)e ~ogmatif [eOt unb allein Ieoen fann, bann ftim~ men roir filr unfere \13erfon allerbing~ Sl:atf ~ari~ rild~amo~ oei: lla~ rann n u r ba~ )fiori ber &;;>eiHgen ®ef)rifi fein." (®.10.) moer in biefer ~eroinbung Iegt nun (fIert fetnrn {yinger aUf ben @ruubfeljIet ber ~att~fef)en :itljeologie: fie ift nief)t ®ef)riftt~eorogie, fonbern ®ef)tlJiir~ merei. ,,®ie footbiniert ba~ mit 0:~riftu~ ibentif ef)e ,)fiott @otte~' mit bem )fiott @otie~, ba~ fief) in ber ~erfilnbigung ber mpof±eI uub ber Sl:iref)e an un~ roenbet." (®. 8. - Eu±ljerif ef)er au~gebrilcrt: mit bem )fior± @o±te~, ba~ ~ei13±, mit ber &;;>eUigen ®ef)rift.) ~a, naef)bem (E:ler± bargefegt ~at, ba13 )fii~eIm &;;>errmann roeiter gegangen if± a15 feIOft mitf ef)I (e~ fiinbe fief) naef) &;;>errmann oei mitf ef)I noef) au bief ,,®ef)rifi~ ireue"), er~eOt er bief e mnUage: "Sl:arI ~attlj oefannie, oei )fiHljefm &;;>errmann in bie ®ef)uIe gegangen au fein." (®. 5; bgI. ®. 16.) -----~~.+I----- :it~. (f n g eI be r. Luthers Monumental Work: Galatians. I. Continuously in Use from 1535 to 1935. In the year of our Lord 1535, four hundred years ago, Luther published his larger and final Commenta.ry on St. Pa.ul's Epistle to the Galatians after fifteen years of expounding Scripture in general and after an additional fifteen years of expounding Epistola ad Galatas in particular. Not the hasty effusion of a turbulent enthusiast, but rather the well-digested and well-prayed-over result of a generation of intense Bible-study, Luther's celebrated commentary proves that grand fundamental point of all Ohristian faith, the point the Re- 8) lI~arf iSattfj£l :;Snbe); bet betbo±enen iSUd)et." (:'tfjeologie 9JH1itan~, &jeft 2.) mon m5etnet ~lett. ~. ~eidjettfd)e medagsbud)fjanblung, 53eiV3ig. 1935. 22 i5eiten 5 X 8. Ij.ltei~: iStof djiett, M .. 60. Luther's Monumental Work: Galatians. 889 former had most at heart in all his labors, contests, and dangers- the doctrine of justification by faith alone. This commentary, continuously republished since 1535, was the outcome of Luther's lectures on Galatians to his Wittenberg students, first from 1516 to 1519 and again from 1532 to 1535. His students took down the lecture notes and later published them in much the same manner in which our own Dr. Walther's lectures on the Law and Gospel were avidly preserved in note form by his erstwhile stu- dent hearers in St. Louis. Luther himself prepared the first and earlier commentary for the printer. The first edition was dedicated to the president of the university, Peter Pupin, and to Carlstadt. It left the presses in the autumn of 1519. An abridged form of this same edition was printed in 1523. The second series of lectures on Galatians waxed into a most voluminous commentary up to 1535. Then being reduced to print in both Latin and German, it became extensively used. We are indebted in no little measure to the zeal and industry of George Rorarius (Roerer), deacon of Wittenberg University, for this excellent and painstaking work. Eoerer was a diligent churchman, who with the help of some of the academics wrote down what Luther said during his public lectures and then submitted what he had thus written to the inspection and criticism of the lecturer himself. Look- ing over these notes, Luther expressed his astonishment at the bulk to which his exposition of this short epistle had grown. He said:- "I myself can hardly believe that I was so prolix as this volume represents me when I was expounding the epistle publicly. Yet I feel that all the thoughts which I find noted down with such diligence in this book are mine, 80 that I am forced to confess that all of it, and perhaps still more, was said by me in those public lectures." He then wrote a preface to it, carefully revised the whole, and released the book for publication in 1535. This gives us another four- hundredth anniversary this year. The commentary of 1535 is at least three times as large as the one published in 1519. It is Luther's most noteworthy single exe- getical work as a university professor. Not a century has passed in which it has not been acclaimed his most important exegetic and dogmatic work. He himself held the Epistle to the Galatians in highest esteem, as he remarked in 1531: "Epistola. ad Galatas is my own epistle. I am espoused to it. It is my Catherine de Bora." II. In the Language of the Angles and Saxons. Luther's Oommentary on Galatians was known in the English language comparatively soon after his death. An English translation appeared as early as 1575. The translators prefaced this volume 890 Luther's Mouumental Work: Galatians. with a dedication "to all affli.cted consciences which groan for sal- vation and wrestle under the cross for the kingdom of Ohrist." The then Bishop of London, afterwards .Archbishop of York, Edwin Sandys, who during the great ritualistic controversy in England looked with disfavor upon the continued use of papal vestments, was an avid reader of Luther and furnished an enlightening preface to the com- mentary under date of April 28, 1575. (The full text of this preface has been published in Lehre und Wehre, Vol. 66, p.205 :II.) The present senior professor at our St. Louis seminary has in his private collcction aLI. Oommentarie of Master Doctor Martin Luther upon the Epistle of S. Paul to the Galathians. First collected and gathered word by word out of his preaching and now out of Latine faithfully translated into English for the unlearned." With the cumbersomeness customary to the age the elaborate title- page gives in the queer spelling of the day: "Wherein is set forth most excellently the glourious Tiches of God's gTace, and the power of the Gospell, with the di:IIel'ence betweene the Law and the Gospell, and the stTength of faith declared: to the joyiull comfod and con- nrmation of all true Ohristian beleevel's, especially such as inwardly being affiicted and grieved in conscience, do hunger and thil'st for justincation in Ohl'ist J esu. For whose cause most chiefly this Booke is translated and printed and dedicated to the same." This interesting volume came from George Miller's print-shop in London, A. D. 1635. Handwritten notes and entries in Dr. Fuer- bringer's copy show how the book was passed from hand to hand and read in turns by one family alone from 1655 to 1741. It is most likely that a copy of this edition of 1635 fell into the hands of John Bunyan (1628-1688). Speaking of the tattered copy of Luther's commentary that came to his attention, the celebrated author of that most successful of all allegories and indispensable bit of our childhood's literary diet, viz., Pilgl'im's Progress, says: "It was so old that it was ready to fall piece from piece if I did but turn it over. I was pleased much that such an old book had fallen into my hands." From the great "age" of this book we may of course also deduce that a very early translation may have fallen into Bun- yan's hands, or the book might have been read to shreds from making so many rounds of readers. Either theory can but be a credit to the book. The noxt tcstimony as to English translations of the great commentary comes to us from Joseph Milner, the eloqnent and thor- oughly evangelical historian of the Ohuroh of England (1744----1797). He writes: "The only English translation of Luther's commentaries on the Epistle to the Galatians which I have seen was the work of several pious pel'sons. It has many defects, but is nevertheless a very useful performance. The book is SCaTce; and I cannot but observe Luther's Monumental Work: Galatians. 891 that a modern translation of both the editions of Luth81"s commen- taries on this epistle, with a few judicious notes, would be a most valuable present to the Christian world." Another edition in English appeared in London as late as 1888. III. Between the Atlantic and the Pacific. In America, Luth81"s Oommentary on Galat'ians was known and read about two generations before the Liberty Bell proclaimed free- dom throughout all the land and the inhabitants thereof. The com- mentary, in English, was read diligently in the North Oarolina border country of Virginia as early as 1740. J ames Hunt, Samuel Morris, and two others, whose names are blurred from the records, were ardent readers of "Luther on the Galatians" in the privacy of their homes. They confessed that the book had brought them to a knowledge of their sins and to faith in Christ, their Savior. There must have been several copies of the book in circulation this side of the Atlantic as the one reader was ignorant of the experience of the other. It was not until both found themselves arrested for the same "offense" and thrown into the same dungeon that they also found themselves to be of the same mind. It so happened that the spiritual court of His Majesty's (De- fensor Fidei) crown colony of Virginia arraigned them for their late laxness in attending the Anglican services. The culprits, it was proved, had agreed to meet in their respective homes alternately each Sunday "in order to read the Scriptures and Luther's Oommentary on the Galatians." As the Anglican Ohurch was the state church of Virginia at the time, they were repeatedly arrested and punished. But neither Hunt nor Jl.t[orris wavered in their determination. In those days, readers of Luther's Galatians took their religious convictions seri- ously. Unfortunately there was no Lutheran pastor within reach or call who could have cared for the spiritual needs of these students of this commentary of Luther. Somewhat later an itinerant Pres- byterian missionary reaped this early American harvest of souls, and thus Oalvin conquered Luther. Fourteen years later, in 1754, Muehlenberg and the Pennsylvania Synod sent an appeal to both London and Halle, stating: "Many thousands of Lutheran people are scattered through North Carolina, Virginia, JYIaryland, etc." With a grateful heart to God we note that since that early day those English colonies have become free and sovereign States in a nation that cherishes religious liberty as its most preeious pos- session. The principles so tersely stated in Luther's Oommentary on Galatians hRve the power to help us preserve this possession. Need- 892 S)er ~ii~epunft be!! .RitdJenfampfes. less to say, during the ensuing years of our national development, with its increasing church-life and expansion, several editions of Luther's commentary have been issued from American printing- presses, and in the language of the country. In 1891 Philadelphia gave birth to one, and the latest of these issued from a l-fichigan publishing house in 1932, incidentally another instance of Luther's traveling westward. But Luther does not only speak Latin and English in this com- mentary. A Spanish translation of the earlier commentary appeared as early as 1520 and found its way into the Spanish Americas. This was five years before even a German version was published. The later and more voluminous commentary of 1535 appeared in a French translation as early as 1583 and became a foundation-stone for the French Protestant Ohurch. Sequoia National Park, Oal. R. T. Du BRAU. S!)er .f>iilje~uuft be~ stirdjtnfaUt~fe~. A. )fib: miiiien ben Baben ber ®efdjegniffe 1llieber aUfneqmen. Mit jener freicn rerormierten ®l)nobe, bon ber in friigeren 2IrtifeIn bief er ®erie bic mcbe iDar, 1llar bel' )fieg in bie ®emeinben gcfunben. ®i:': foIgte cine meiljc bon Q3efcnntnii:':flomoben audj in fogenannt Iutljerifdjen ®eoieien. 2roer ei:': ift medloiirbig: ;,Dai:': ®ute, 1llai:': aUf jcner refor~ mierten ®tJnobe gefag! ioorben 1llar, 1llurbe nirgenM iioertroffen, unb ber gefiigrlidje reformierte unioniftif dje ®inf djlag loar anbererorti:': eoen~ farr;::: borganben - ein Q3e1lleii:':, baB bie Biigrung oei bel' 2erfagrenqeit be§ boIf§firdjIidjen Eutgeriumi:': aUf bie meformicrten iioergegangen if±. ;,Da iagie am 18. unb 19. Beoruar 1934 in ;,DiiffeIborf im bor" 1lliegenb reformierten :iteH ber tJreuBif djen Union bie Breie ®bangeHf dje ®lJnobe im mqeinlanb, fdjon unier oebeutenber EaienoeteiIigung. Lic.D. Q3eclmann, ;,DiiffeIborf, fdjIug ben uni:': aU§ ben wUBerungen ber ®lJno~ balen aUf jener reformierten ®lJnobe oefannien Q3dennerton an in einem !8odrag "meformct±orifdje£; Q3etennini§ geute". ;,Dai:': bon un§ au§fiiqr~ Iidj eri:ider±e Q3armener mefetat llSrof. D. Q3arigi:': oiIbete audj ljicr bai:': gegen bie ;,Deu±; djcn [grif±cn aUf ben ®dji1b erljooene iljcologif dje Q3c~ fennini£;. 2rm 7. lDeiirs 1934 fanbcn fidj 2rogefanbte aui:': ben oefenn±nii:':~ freuen - 1llte fic fief) jeti nannten - ®emetnben Q3erlini:': unb ber Mad (bon jebem Sfirdjenfreii:': S1llei llSfarrer unb bier Eaien, oUfammen ei1lla bierljunbcr± lD,iinner unb biersig Brauen) au etner Brcicn ®ban~ gelif djen ®tJnobe in Q3crlin unb Q3tanbenourg in Q3erIin~3)aljlem 3U~ fammen. Lie. D. Q3eclmann 1llieberljoHe feinen !8or±rag. llSrof. Sl'arl Q3artlji:': Q3armener ®dliirung 1llurbe audj loieber borgeiragen. ;,Der oe"