CAPTIVE TO THE WORD Martin Luther: Doctor of Sacred Scripture by A. SKEVINGTON WOOD B.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S. "I am bOIIIIII by the Scriptures ••• and my conscima Is capti11e to the Word of God". Martin Luther THE PATERNOSTER PRESS SBN: 85364 o87 4 Copyright© 1969 The Pakrnoster Press AusTRALtA,: Emu Book Agendes Pty., Ltd., 511, Kent Street, Sydney, N.S.W. CANADA: Home Evangel Books Ltd., 25, Hobson Avenue, Toronto, 16 NEW ZEALAND: G. W. Moore, Ltd., J, Campbell Road, P.O. Box 24053, Royal Oak, Auckland, 6 SOUTH AFRICA: Oxford University Press, P.O. Box 1141, Thibault House, Thibault Square, Cape Town Made and Printed in Great Britain for The Paternoster Press Paternoster House 3 Mount Radford Crescent Exeter Devon by Cox & Wyman Limited Fakenham By the Same Author THE BURNING HEART John Wesley, Evangelist THE INEXTINGUISHABLE BLAZE Spiritual Renewal and Advance in the Eighteenth Century VoL. VII in the PATERNOSTER CHURCH HISTORY PAUL'S PENTECOST Studies in the Life of the Spirit from Rom. 8 CONTENTS page PREFACE 7 PART I. THE BIBLE AND LUTHER I. LUTHER's INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURES II 11. LUTHER's STRUGGLE FOR FAITH 21 Ill. LuTHER's DEBT TO THE PAST 31 IV. LUTHER's THEOLOGICAL DI!VELOPMENT 41 V. LUTHER's ENcouNTER WITH GoD SI VI. LuTHER's STAND FoR THE TRUTH . 61 PART 11. LUTHER AND THE BIBLE (a) Luther's Use of Scripture VII. LUTHER AS A COMMENTATOR 7S VIII. LUTHER AS A PREACHER ss IX. LUTHER AS A TRANSLATOR • 9S X. LUTHER AS A REFORMER lOS (b) Luther's View of Scripture XI. LUTHER AND THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE 1!9 XII. LUTHER AND THE REVELATION OF SCRIPTURE 129 XIII. LUTHER AND THE INSPIRATION OE SCRIPTURE 139 XIV. LUTHER AND THE UNITY OF SCRIPTURE 149 XV. LUTHER AND THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE IS9 XVI. LUTHER AND THE CHRisT-CENTREDNESS OF ScRIPTURE 169 ABBREVIATIONS 179 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 INDEXES 187-192 PREFACE "LUTHER LIVED IN THE CLIMATE OF THE IDBLE, NOT as ifin the sWilit archipelago ofa few chosen books; rather he was at home in the whole continent of Holy Writ, and was the first biblical cosmo­ politan for over a millennium." So writes Bertram Lee Wool£, and the correctness of his estimate is being increasingly recognized today. Luther is indeed one of the pivotal figures in current dialogue, and the whole question of his relationship to Scripture is of major significance. If we are to reach a right judgment on the theological issues which now confront us, we cannot afford to ignore the contribution of the pioneer reformer. He represents something more than merely an echo of the past. Because his supreme concern was to transmit the Word of God, his is still a living and therefore a relevant voice. The full measure of Luther's stature is presently emerging into view. "Even if Christianity disappeared so that he survived only as a maker of myths," Sir Herbert Butterfield has declared, "he would still be a colossal figure- almost the greatest of the giants in modem times." But, of course, Luther's essential contribution lay in the realm of faith. He was the instrument of God in recalling the Church to the truth of the gospel. It is as the progenitor of the Protestant Reformation that he is to be assessed today. And it is recognized that the renewal he initiated was in the first instance theological rather than either ecclesiastical or political. It arose, moreover, from his own encoWiter with God in the Scriptures. It was because he thus experienced divine grace in Christ, through the medium of the written Word, that henceforward the Bible was to be central in the Reformation. Throughout his career as a remodeller of the Church, Luther occupied the chair of biblical exegesis at the University of Wittenberg. As he himself often explained, it was simply as he fulfilled his academic fWiction of expoWiding the Word of God that the Reformation was effected. The title he most cherished was "Doctor of Sacred Scripture". Our approach to Luther in these ecumenical times is immeasurably facilitated by the virtual disappearance of previous caricatures. There was a Roman Catholic distortion which presented Luther as a renegade monk whose revolt against the papacy was motivated largely by pique. There was a Protestant legend which deprived him of all the temperamental traits that make him seem so human, and blew him up into a king-size 7 8 PREFACE Gothic hero figure who put to flight the armies of the alien. Happily, each of these caricatures is now emphatically repudiated by responsible historians, whether Protestant or Roman. More recently, a psychological reinterpretation of Luther has been attempted by scholars like J. Paul Reiter and Erik Erikson, which might unfortunately encourage the per­ petuation of a further misunderstanding. It is to be hoped that this pseudo­ Freudian mock-up of a Luther whom the historians find hard to recognize will be discarded as resolutely as the two former misrepresentations, and that we may be left free to meet him as he really was, untrammelled by pre­ conceptions. This man and his Bible provide the theme for the present study. No claim is made to originality, except in the organization and projec­ tion of the material. The footnotes sufficiently indicate the range of my indebtedness. The only justification for such an undertaking as this is that comparatively little has been written on the subject in English. My aim has been to put the general reader in the picture: there is scant likelihood that the specialist will come across much that he has not seen somewhere before. But in this country such specialists are rare, and the need to know more about Luther is great. It is this consideration that has prompted me to rush in, no doubt foolishly, where angels fear to tread! Wherever possible I have tried to let Luther speak for himself, making use of the latest English translations as these are available. A historian's passion for accuracy has compelled me to provide references to a considerable number of German sources, but it would be misleading to imply from these a general familiarity on my part with such literature. In addition to recording my gratitude to the publishers and printers, along with a list of libraries too lengthy to itemize, it is a particular pleasure to mention two teachers without whose help and inspiration such a work as this would hardly have been possible. The project was first discussed more than twenty years ago with my former Principal at New College, Edinburgh, the Very Reverend Doctor Hugh Watt, under whose aegis I pursued post-graduate studies. The counsel of this distin­ guished Church historian, who in 1967 celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of his ordination, proved invaluable. My first serious introduction to Luther research, however, dates back to my days as a theological student at Wesley College, Headingley. It was then that the Assistant Tutor succeeded in communicating to me some of his own enthusiasm for the subject. He is now Professor Philip S. Watson of Garrett Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, and belongs to a select band of British­ bom Luther experts. To these men, and others like them who have in­ fluenced my thinking, must be attributed any merits this book may possess: its shortcomings are all my own. • York, September, 1968 A. SKEVINGTON WooD PART I The Bible and Luther CHAPTER I LUTHER'S INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURES IT wAs AS HE oPENED THE PAGES OF CHAPMAN's Homer, and feasted on the riches he found there, that John Keats became aware of his poetic vocation. The experience gave birth to the now familiar sonnet in which his genius first revealed itsel£ Previously Keats had read Homer only in Alexander Pope's rather formal translation. When he was introduced to the more exciting version of George Chapman and heard him "speak out loud and bold", he tells us that he felt •.. like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star' d at the Pacific - and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise - Silent, upon a peak in Darien.l Such was Martin Luther's reaction to the Word of God. His discovery of the Scriptures marked the decisive turning-point in his career, and destined him to be a reformer. Before he began to use the Bible to such good effect as he set about his task of calling the Church to renewal, the Bible had already transformed him. This, indeed, is the key to Luther's ministry and mission. But we cannot be sure just when it was that Luther first held a copy of the Scriptures in his hands. The precise facts which lay behind Keats' discovery of Chapman's Homer have been laid bare by the literary historians.2 It was on a summer evening in the year 1817 that his friend Charles Cowden Clarke, son of his former schoolmaster, brought him the precious volume. We even know that it was the folio edition of 1616, loaned to Clarke by Alsager of The Times. The two young enthusiasts were intoxicated by what they read. Keats more than once shouted aloud in the intensity of his delight. All through the night they pored over the pages, and the grey light of dawn found them still engrossed. That very day Keats penned the sonnet which launched him as one of the immortals. Luther's first acquaintance with the Bible was similarly determinative 1 The Poetical Works ofJohn Keats, ed.