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The prefaces to the early editions of Martin Luther's Bible
by Martin Luther
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Excerpt:
may be fulfilled. But in the Old, as well as in the New Testament, in addition to the doctrine of grace, many other doctrines are introduced. Such are the laws and commandments for the government of the flesh; because, in this life, the spirit is not perfect, nor will mere abstract grace direct us. There are, therefore, in the Old Testament, besides the laws, many promises and declarations of grace, by which the holy fathers, and the prophets, as well as ourselves, are comprehended, under the law, in the faith of Christ. The leading doctrine of the New Testament is to announce grace and peace, through forgiveness of sins, in Christ; and the fundamental principle of the Old Testament is to lay down a law, and to point to us what is sin, and to require obedience. This is what you have to look to in the Old Testament. Beginning with the Books of Moses, we are taught in his first book how, all things have been created, and next (and this is essentially vital) how sin and death came into the world, namely, by the fall of Adam, through the malignity of the devil (Genesis, ch. 3, v. 4). We then learn, but long before Moses appeared, from whence the remedy was to come which should conquer sin and death, namely, not through law, or through any works of man, for then there was no law, but through the seed of the woman, through Christ (Genesis, ch. 3, v. 15), promised both to Adam and to Abraham (GenesiSj ch. 12, v. 3), in order that faith, from the beginning of Scripture, might he unequivocally exalted above all works, laws, and merits. Therefore, the first book of Moses is almost eonfined to examples of faith and infidelity, and to the fruits which faith and infidelity have severally produced; and hence it becomes, as it were, an evangelical work. In the second book, when the world was now peopled, and had so fallen into blindness that it was almost difficult to say what sin was and how death followed, God brings forward Moses with the law, and separates to himself a peculiar people, that through them the world might be more enlightened, and the nature of sin revived and expounded through the law. He encircles this people with laws of every kind; he distinguishes them from every other nation; he commands them to build a tabernacle, and institutes divine worship; he orders them to submit to rules and to public officers, and through the medium of the promulgation of these laws, and security at the same time for their execution, that they shall be governed with temporal wisdom in this world, and shall enjoy spiritual wisdom as it relates to God. In the third book the priesthood is specially ordained, together with its laws and privileges, and the rule prescribed how priests are to act, and how they are to teach the people. From this we may perceive that the sacerdotal office is only introduced
as the consequence of the announcement and of the definition of sin, and that they, the priests, are to declare the ordinances of God, and to make atonement for the sins of the people. So that everything which relates to sin and to sinners proceeds from and is revealed by God. For this reason, no temporal duties were assigned to the priests, nor were they permitted or required to rule in a temporal manner, but solely to regulate the conduct of the people, and to confine themselves to this duty. In the fourth book, priests and princes having been established, the tabernacle and the service of God prepared, and whatever relates to the people of God having been ordained, the whole is put into execution, and the trial made of the operation and of the effect. The book speaks much, therefore, of the disobedience of the people, and of the punishment which this disobedience entailed. And thus it is, at all times, laws are easy to be given, but when they come into practice, and men are called upon to obey them, nothing but obstacles present themselves, and what the law requires is either resisted or evaded. That this book is a remarkable instance of the impossibility of making people virtuous by mere laws St. Paul shows, when he says, the law works only sin and transgression (Romans, ch. 4, v. 15). In the fifth book, the people, having now been punished for their disobedience, and the
favour of God so extended to them, that they have been allowed to conquer two kingdoms, but with the accompanying condition that they should, with desire and with affection, obey the commandments of God, Moses recapitulates the entire law, together with all the intervening events, except such as relate to the priesthood. He explains to them a second time whatever concerns the temporal and spiritual administration of a people. Moses, therefore, like a consummate legislator, fulfilled his duty in every respect, not only by giving the law, but by his constant readiness to enforce it, explaining it where it was obscure, and supplying it where it was defective. But this explanation, in the fifth book, really contains no more than the doctrine of obedience to God, and love of your neighbour, a doctrine to which all the laws of God invariably tend. Hence Moses, in his explanations, reproves whatever may be obstructive to faith in God as far as the 12th chapter, and from thence to the end of the book whatever is adverse to charity. We may observe here, as prominent, that Moses so completely encompasses the people with laws, that he leaves no space open for reason, either to select their own works or to construct their own forms of divine worship. He teaches nothing beyond the fear of God, to trust in him, and to love him, and he gives so many instructions with respect to public worship, to sacrifices, to fastings, to vows, to repentance, to repentance1 and atonement, that no man can have any excuse for adopting any other ceremonies. In short, he teaches them how to plant and to build, to marry and to fight, to repent1 and to atone, to govern their children, their servants, and their houses, to purchase and to sell, to borrow and to adjust, and everything which is to be done externally or internally, so much so, that some regulations seem almost superfluous or nugatory. And why does God do all this? Because, having taken the people under his own special protection, that they might be his people, and that he should be their God, he desires to govern them in such a manner that all their conduct should be exemplary, and should be under a strict and thoroughly defined control. For when any man does that for which he has not the previous authority or sanction of the Word of God, such conduct is not acceptable to God, and may be considered as either vain or useless. For in the 4th chapter, 2nd verse, and in the 12th chapter, 32nd verse, he specifically requires that they should add nothing to his laws; and ch. 12, v. 8, he lays it down, as a rule, that they should not act according to their own individual notions of propriety. The Psalmists and the Prophets perpetually exclaim that the people are doing what they consider to be good works, the result of their own imaginations, but which never have been stamped by the direct sanction of God. For God never will or can permit that they who profess to be his servants should deserve any reward from doing what he has not commanded them to do, let the actions be what they may: for obedience is the test and virtue of every work connected with, or dependent upon, the Word of God. Hence, as this life cannot be carried on without external rites and recognised ceremonies, he ordained that they should practice certain forms of recognition and of adoration, and he confirmed these forms by divine authority, that as they must, either from desire or necessity, perform some outward worship, they should adhere to that one which he ordained, and not invent another of their own; they might thus be certain of walking in the right path, and of their whole conduct being governed by strict obedience to the ordinances of God. They were prohibited in every respect from following their own inclinations, or the dictates of their own unassisted reason, whether in apparently doing good or in pursuing their own views of prosperity; and sufficient space, andT-oom, and time, and persons, and means, and materials were allotted to them, so that they might have no reason to complain, or be induced to follow the example of serving other gods. It may be here proper to remark, that the laws delivered to the Israelites were of three kinds; some related to the administration of personal property, or what we should term municipal or agrarian laws. They were established by God in condescension to the sinful passions of men, and confined to one object. Therefore, these laws were merely prohibitory laws, and did not involve any point of doctrine. Such, for instance, where Moses declares that a man may give a bill of divorcement to his wife (Deut., ch. 24, v. 1), that he may try his wife's fidelity by the sacrifice of jealousy (Num., ch. 5, v. 14), and that he should be conditionally obliged to marry his brother's widow1 (Deut., ch. 25, v. 5). These are all worldly laws. There are other laws which relate, as I have before said, to the performance of divine service. But, above all these, there are the laws relating to faith and charity, and all other laws must be tested by this joint standard, and our works must be judged by the same criterion, namely, that they shall not have violated these two grand principles. For where they violate these two grand principles, they are both void and vain, useless and ineffectual. Thus we read that David did not order that Joab should suffer death, although from having twice committed murder Joab deserved it (2 Samuel, ch. 3, v. 27; and ch. 20, v. 10). He promised also the woman of Thecoah that her son should not die, although he had slain his brother (2 Samuel, ch. 14, v. 11), nor does he kill Absalom (2 Samuel, ch. 14, v. 21), and David himself eats the shew-bread reserved expressly for the priests (1 Samuel, ch. 21, v. 6). Thamar also ('according to the then prevailing notions) imagined the king would not object to give her in marriage to his halfbrother (2 Samuel, ch. 13, v. 13). From these, and similar examples, it may be presumed that kings, priests, and princes did not consider themselves reprehensible if they deviated from the literal strictness of the law, where the case did not appear to militate against faith and charity. Faith, therefore, in Christ is superior to all laws, and the law is subservient to faith; for all laws are, or ought to be, grounded upon faith and charity; all laws, therefore, which are in opposition to these two great principles cannot be considered as obligatory. The Jews of the present day act exceedingly wrong by observing, with such extreme punctiliousness, certain laws of Moses, and by preferring the sacrifice of peace and quiet to the supposed defilement of eating and drinking with Christians. They do not attend to the meaning and spirit of the law. But this is the light in which laws ought to be viewed, not only by Jews, but by every person who lives in community with or under the protection of laws. Christ says, we do not violate the Sabbath if, when an ox falls into a ditch, we drag him out. And yet, this is only a temporary loss or inconvenience. How much more right have we to act in opposition to laws when extreme personal safety requires it, and the main objects of faith and charity are not violated. Christ tells us that David was justified when he eat the holy bread (Matt., ch. 12, v. 4). Now, what can be the reason that Moses mixes up his laws in a manner so apparently irregular? Why has he not separated and methodised the temporal and spiritual laws, and reserved a special chapter for faith and charity? Nay, he sometimes repeats a law so often, and uses the same words so frequently, that the mind confesses a degree of tedium in reading it. But the answer is, that Moses writes in conformity with the nature of the human mind, and agreeably to the experience of life. So that his book is at once an image and an example of the versatility of man. And thus it is, in the process of life, at one moment you have to do this, and at the next moment another work; so that no man, although leading in other respects a sincerely religious life, is able to say that to-day he will dedicate himself to spiritual, and to-morrow to temporal affairs. God regulates and distributes
