About Paul E. Kretzmann

About the Author

A Lutheran expositor for the people

The source material hosted at the Kretzmann Project presents Paul E. Kretzmann as the author chosen for a major Concordia Publishing House effort to produce a dependable popular commentary on the whole Bible. The 1922 Lutheran Witness article preserved there says he was selected at once for the work and began it in St. Louis in 1919.

That same article helps explain Kretzmann's significance. The commentary was meant to give simple explanation, doctrinal and historical help, and practical guidance for Sunday-school teachers and Bible students. In other words, Kretzmann mattered because he helped bring confessional Lutheran Bible exposition out of the seminary and into the home, classroom, and parish.

The foreword and publishers' note hosted by the Kretzmann Project underscore the same thing from another angle. They present the Popular Commentary as intentionally Lutheran in spirit and content, yet written for ordinary readers rather than specialists. That combination made it useful for pastors, teachers, and laymen alike and helps explain why confessional Lutherans kept valuing it long after the printed set became difficult to find.

Local summary based on the Kretzmann Project's 1922 Lutheran Witness article, foreword and publishers' note, and project homepage.