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The Case of the Lost Luther Reference

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The Case of the Lost Luther Reference 1 CONCORDIA 1 THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY I Volume 43 Number 4 OCTOBER I979 .4nnouncement: -1 hird Annual Sq.mposium on the Lutheran Confessions ........................................... 271 Rabbinical LVritings of the Earl! Christian Centuries and Keu. Testament interpretation ....... Ravmond F. Surbi~rg273 I God's h,linisters. Their Calls. and Their Relationship to Each Other ................ Vetnon H. Harley 286 qar-ne W. Teigen 295 i The Case of the Lost Luther Reference ... The State of Evangelibrn in the i l,ut heran Church-Missouri SJ nod ............ E~Rin J. Kolb 3 10 I An .Application of Case Grammar to Two I New Testament Passages ..................... Theodore Mueller 330 A Reformation Hymn ............................... Douglas Judisch 326 > 3 Opinion of the Department of' Systematic Theolog~............ >2I Homiletical Studies .............................................................. 338 Book Reviews ........................................................................ 773 The Case of the Lost Luther Reference Bjarne W. Teigen The authors of the Formula of Concord appeal especially to Luther to cast further light on what they are expounding. They speak of him as "This highly enlightened man" (SD VII, 28), and call him the "chief teacher of the Augsburg Confession" (SD VII, 34). They particularly appeal to his writings on the Sacrament of the Altar in connection with Article VII and VIII of the Solid Declaration. A careful reading of the Formula of Concord shows that the confessors wanted to confess compIetely the doctrine of Luther on the Lord's Supper and the person of Christ because they were convinced that his doctrine expressed what the Word of God teaches. The Solid Declaration, as a guide for the proper understand- ing "concerning the consecration and the common rule that there is no sacrament apart from the instituted use" (SD VII, 73), asserted the general rule which "has been derived from the words of institution: Nothing has the character of a sacrament apart from the use instituted by Christ, or apart from the divinely instituted action (that is, if one does not observe Christ's institution as He ordained it, it is no sacrament)" (SD VII, 85). The Formula, then, to show that its intention is to return to Luther's understanding of the Lord's Supper as opposed to that of the Sacramentarians, appeals to Luther: "It was against such papistic abuses that this rule was first formulated and explained by Dr. Luther" (SD VII, 87). It is, however, also evident that the rule was intended to guard against those who deny that it is the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ who through His almighty Word achieves the presence of the body of Christ (SD VII, 90; SD VII, 74). There can hardly be any question that all that Luther said about the Lord's Supper, and especially the consecration, has __LC _ .I-_- --- a bearing on this part of the Formula because he is the chief teacher (SD VII, 73-90). But a specific reference to Luther would be of great help in shedding light on this section of Article VII. Judging from the context, very evidently one must look for a passage of Lut her that discusses the "use" or the "action" of the Lord's Supper and the I time element during which the sacramental--_ __ _ ______union takes-- place. - ! ~6?~a~jTerkdiiibnofthii~56k of Concorahas been on the way of being more or less the official English translation since its pub- lication in 1959.' As the source for the Lutheran reference in SD 296 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY VII, 87, it givesUWA30,11,254,255; cf. Smalcald Articles, Pt. 111, Article XV, 4." If one takes the time to look up the reference one finds that it refers to Luther's "Exhortation to All Clergy Assembled at Augsburg" (1 530; LW 34, 9-6 l).' The Tappert footnote refers to the pages of this work where Luther describes superstitions rampant in the Roman Catholic churches, e.g., that only men (no women) could wash the corporals, the baptism and dedication of churches, bells, altars, pictures, etc. But there is nothing in the entire work about the 'action" or "use" with regard to the Lord's Supper. The other reference which Tappert gives in this same footnote is to the Srnalcald Articles. Here Luther in a concluding after-thought to his Confession says that he does not wish to have anything to do with the "Pope's bag of magic tricks which contains silly and childish articles," and he gives as examples the consecration of churches, the baptism of bells and altar stones, the blessing of candles, palms, spices and oats, etc. He asserts that they cannot be called blessings and they are nothing but mere mockery and fraud. Once again, there is no reference here to the "useful rule and norm derived from the words of institution." Tappert, for the most part, took his supplementary notes from the Goettingen edition of the Book of Concord,) and this particu- lar footnote came lock, stock and barrel from the modern, definitive (jerman edition of the Confessional books. But Tappert made one significant alteration in the text proper. The Gennan version, after the reference to Luther, has in the text this reference, "Tom. IV, Jena." The reference to the Jena edition of Luther's works has fallen by the wayside in the English translation so that we have here a lost Lutheran reference in SD VII, 87. But then the Goettingen edition is not much help either, since the footnote in question has only the same references which Tappert reproduced. The unwary reader would be tempted to think that in "Tom. IV, Jena," there would be a reference to Luther's 1530 address to the clergy. Such, of course, is not the case. The Goettingen edition gives no information where this reference to volume four of the Jena edition could be found in modern editions of Luther. The Jena edition of Luther's Works is not found in the ordinary pastor's library; as a matter of fact, it probably is not in too many university and seminary libraries. : After all, the German edition was first published in 1555 and the Latin edition in 1556. When one looks at the earlier editions oft he . Book of Concord, one finds the following: The 1580 edition of the Concord has it embedded in the text. The first Latin translation of the Concordia, done in 1580, gives the reference on the margin of the page, as it does all the other references. The reference also occurs in such recent editions of the Book of Concord as J. T. The Case of the Lost Luther Reference 29 7 Mueller's, the Caspari-Jo hnson Norwegian translation of the Book of Concord, and the Triglotm4Those of us who were raised in the Triglott edition of the Lutheran Confessions were at least given the privilege of being curious as to just what Luther said about the useful rule and norm in volume four of the Jena edi- tion, something denied the reader of the Tappert edition. Not that we ever heard or read any comment about what Luther said in volume four of the Jena edition. A cursory reading of the conser- vatory theological material of the last hundred years does not yield any information as to what Luther said in this volume. For one who is not familiar with all the facts surrounding the controversies which brought into existence the Formula of Concord, but who now looks at what the reference could mean, he will find two possibilities. The reference can be either to the German or the Latin edition. Volume four of the German edition contains Luther's German writings from 1520- 1530. This writer has not had the opportunity to examine this volume, but Dr. Tom Hardt has. The only possible reference in the German volume four that he could come up with which might have some reference to the "common rule that there is no sacrament apart from the instituted use" was Luther's letter to Carlstadt, written on January 29, 1528. As Hardt rightly points out, however, it really does not have anything to say about the useful rule and norm? Yet this letter of Luther's clearly sets forth what is often contested ' in this regard; Luther teachzthzt the bread becomes the body of ; Christ at the consecration; But Luther makes it clear that neither he n~r-~n~~trbe-Lutheran would want to be drawn into the old argument from the Middle A~&as to the exact point in the syllables of the words of institution at which the body of Christ is present. Rather, Luther says, "We are simply content to believe with certainty that whatever Gad says happens or exists does happen." But Luther assumes tha$ when the officiant speaks the words of institution in accordance with Christ's command, then there really takes place what the words declare. For Luther says specifically, "We are not curious qbout the__----_ time of_._ the syllables or the moment at which ir'wagdone; and'Lazarus was revived as the Word of Christ sounded, 'Lazarus, come out' (John 11:43). We leave it to the idle and to the boastful as to whether or not he revived him at the word 'come,' or 'out,' or 'Lazarus.' and there are many such things? And so here we say that bread is the body of Christ because Christ said, 'This is my body,' and we stay away from the other idle arguments, when they dispute about moments and syllables. For we are commanded to believe that the words of God are true, but not to investigate at what instant or how the - words are true and how they arefulfilled."6 Therecan be no doubt ; that in Luther's mind the bread.__._ - bscomes the body-of Christ at the 1 298 COSCORDIA THEOLOCiICAL QUARTERLY consecration.
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