Popular Commentary
Foreword and Publishers' Note
Key local excerpts and summary from the Kretzmann Project's source page.
Source-Attributed Background
What the commentary set out to be
The foreword hosted by the Kretzmann Project presents the commentary as a work shaped by Luther's conviction that Scripture belongs in the hands of the people. It insists that the Bible is both profound and clear, and argues that a commentary can serve readers best when it opens that treasure without burying them under technical display.
The same foreword says the Popular Commentary was not meant to be merely critical or academic. Its aim was practical and catechetical: a commentary for the people, written so that readers would better understand, believe, and live the Scriptures.
The publishers' note adds that Concordia's Literary Board initiated the undertaking in 1918, called Kretzmann to the task in 1919, and saw the work as a distinctly Lutheran commentary in the sense that it began with the Bible and ended with the Bible. The note also stresses that the commentary was prepared with pastors, teachers, and ordinary households in mind.