Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings:

13. Preface to the Old Testament (1523, Revised 1545)

97 13 Preface to the Old Testament (1523, Revised 1545) Justifiably known for his gospel-centered theology, Luther spent most of his career lecturing on the Old Testament (particularly Genesis and Psalms).1 In the OldTestament, says the Reformer here, one finds “the very words, works, judgments,and deeds of the majesty,power,and wisdom of the most high God.” Despite popular misunderstandings of a contrast between the two Testaments, Luther knows full well that both law and gospel are found in both. Indeed, for Luther, the Scriptures are “the richest of mines which can never be sufficiently explored.” There are some who have little regard for the Old Testament.They think of it as a book that was given to the Jewish people only and is now out of date, containing only stories of past times. They think they have enough in the New Testament and assert that only a spiritual sense2 is to be sought in the 1. Luther finished translating the five books of Moses by the middle of December, 1522.They were published as a group by Melchior Lotther in Wittenberg by early summer, 1523, and revised six times by 1528. In contradistinction to the New Testament, the Psalter, Ecclesiasticus, and the Books of Solomon,the Pentateuch was never published in separate edition after its incorporation into the complete Bible of 1534 (WA, DB 8:xix–xi).This preface, composed after completion of the translation of the Pentateuch and first published with the Pentateuch in 1523,was retained almost intact in the 1534 and later versions of the complete Bible. It has reference, of course, primarily to the first five books of the Old Testament (WA, DB 8:xli).This translation is based on the 1545 text as given in WA,DB 8:11–31.See LW 35:227–32 for the general introduction to all of Luther’s biblical prefaces. 2. Geistliche sinn. The allegorical sense of Scripture was difOld Testament. Origen, Jerome, and many other distinguished people have held this view.But Christ says in John 5[:39],“Search the Scriptures, for it is they that bear witness to me.” St. Paul bids Timothy attend to the reading of the Scriptures [1 Tim. 4:13],and in Romans 1[:2] he declares that the gospel was promised by God in the Scriptures, while in 1 Corinthians 15 he says that in accordance with the Scriptures Christ came of the seed of David, died, and was raised from the dead. St. Peter, too, points us back, more than once, to the Scriptures. They do this in order to teach us that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are not to be despised, but diligently read. For they themselves base the NewTestament upon them mightily,proving it by the Old Testament and appealing to it, as St. Luke also writes in Acts 17[:11], saying that they atThessalonica examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so that Paul was teaching.The ground and proof of the New Testament is surely not to be despised,and therefore the OldTestament is to be highly regarded.And what is the New Testament but a public preaching and proclamation of Christ set forth through the sayings of the OldTestament and fulfilled through Christ? In order that those who are not more familiar with it may have instruction and guidance for reading the Old Testament with profit, I have prepared ferentiated from its literal sense and its moral sense by the early exegetes. 98 Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings this preface to the best of the ability God has given me. I beg and really caution every pious Christian not to be offended by the simplicity of the language and stories frequently encountered there, but fully realize that, however simple they may seem, these are the very words, works, judgments, and deeds of the majesty, power, and wisdom of the most high God. For these are the Scriptures which make fools of all the wise and understanding, and are open only to the small and simple, as Christ says in Matthew 11[:25]. Therefore dismiss your own opinions and feelings, and think of the Scriptures as the loftiest and noblest of holy things, as the richest of mines which can never be sufficiently explored, in order that you may find that divine wisdom which God here lays before you in such simple guise as to quench all pride. Here you will find the swaddling clothes and the...