From Luther's lectures, which began on September 11, 1525, and were probably completed in the same month. Printed in 1886.
[Preface] on Haggai.
This prophet is probably the easiest of all, and if the matter is considered without the right attitude of heart, his prophecy seems to be small, especially in our times, when the kingdom of the Jews has already been destroyed and the temple destroyed. For it seems foolish that the Lord should raise up so excellent a prophet for the sake of the rebuilding of the temple. For the temple was a natural thing, and yet the divine majesty allows itself to make so many words because of such a small object (materiam). Therefore, both the thing and the position of the heart must not be considered. For in all things the divine will must always be considered. If God would command the very least work, in His eyes such a work is no less than the greatest, because by the divine will all things receive weight. Human reason looks at the greatness and quantity of works, the Word does not consider them. Faith acts in the opposite way, knowing that it is the work of the same God to command great and small things. In both kinds of works, it is incumbent upon us to look at the truth of God and the Word.
The time of the prophet was under the king Darius. Knowledge of history is required here.
1) Both the Altenburg and Hall manuscripts have rnutoriuU8 instead of nuturuUs.
This, however, is different, so that nothing certain can be determined. Josephus counts many kings of the Persians, Philo few; there is still dispute among the historians about the number of kings of the Persians. You have the table in which I have arranged these years with the greatest possible care. The diversity of the names (vocabulorum) has caused the diversity of the history, because one king had two, even three names. The Latin and Greek histories call Cambyses the son of Cyrus, this great Cyrus. In Josephus, however, he is constantly called Cambyses. 2) In the book of Judith [Cap. 1, 6.] he is called Nebucadnezzar. Nehemiah [Ezra 4, 7. 23.] calls him Artaxerxes ["Arthahsastha"], [the Greeks call him] 3) Xerxes. Judith was under Cambyses, who sent Holofernes. The king Cyrus reigned .two years with Darius [ with whom united he overcame the Belshazzar]. 4) This very powerful king he killed at the council of Arphaxad. In the history of Judith [Cap. 1, 1. 6.] Arphaxad is mentioned. This [Cyrus'] son was Cambyses. The fourth [king], Darius shat den Beinamens Langhand. So much is enough to understand this prophecy. One calls
2) 4o86pU. XntiM., üd. XI, 63.x. II, § 2 SM.
3) This addition is made by us from the following to give some sense. Our template provides: Xorx68 4uditlr. luit sud EÄrnd^so oto.
4) Supplemented from the following and from the Hall manuscript.
*First of all, compare to this writing the first note to the previous relation of this prophet. Our writing is, like the lectures on Habakuk and Zephaniah, an immediate college booklet, which is found in the Zwickau manuscript No. 6. It is first printed in the Erlangen edition, oxe^. oxp., torn. XXVII, x. 355, then, "improved in many places", in the Weimar edition, vol. XIII, p. 511. According to the latter, we have translated.
Darius Hystaspis 1) in Daniel (Cap. 5, 31.), who is said to have died before Cyrus, longhand. He was until the reign of Cyrus. It is clear who we are talking about. (It is he,) under whom the kingdom of the Persians began, who with Cyrus killed the last king of the Babylonians and captured him (sic!). After he died, Cyrus or Cyrus alone succeeded him. He ruled alone for twenty-two years. He gave the Jews a very broad permission to return to Jerusalem, as is written in the book of Ezra. Since he had gone out to Scythia against his rebellious chief Arphachad, he was killed by the queen Tomyris. In the meantime, the returned Jews tried to rebuild the temple, but they could not, not only because the pagans came and resisted them with a violent hand, but also because after the death of Cyrus Cambyses succeeded, a haughty man. The Greeks call him Xerxes, the Scriptures Artaxerxes. He forbade by a public order that Jerusalem be built. Thus the work on the house of the Lord was omitted under Cambyses. Thus the promise, by which he (Cyrus) gave them permission, seems to have been kept nothing, because nothing was accomplished, except that they returned to Judea.
1) Here, our original leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, Luther's table, to which he refers, is no longer available, therefore it is not possible for us to bring light and order into this confused relation. The Hall manuscript also has hystaspis. - According to Luther's (Mronwon of 1541, this is the sequence of the Persian kings: 1. Darius Medus together with Cyrus. 2. Cyrus alone. In the absence of Cyrus, Cambysns reigns seven years. 3. Artaxerxes, Priscus Ahasverus, the son of Hystaspis, also called Darius, the husband of Esther. 4. Darius Longimanus. Beginning of the weeks in Daniel [Cap. 9, 1.].Whereas here, according to both the Zwickau and Hallic manuscripts, this seems to be the order. 1. Darius Hystaspis (which is Darius Meduss. 2. Cyrus. 3. Cambyses. 4. Darms Longimanus. This is confirmed by what Luther himself says in the interpretation of Zechariah: "Dieweil Kores (the first king in Persians in Scythia moved, he left Darius Hystaspis iin land, who was with him king.... After the death of Cyrus came Arthasastha, who is otherwise called Artaxerxes or Cambyses, and Ahasuerus Priscus, who became captain of Holofernes.... After this came the third king Darius Longimanus, of whom Zechariah and Haggai speak here."
2s "not" inserted by us because it seems to be missing.
are turned back. A human king, a man had commanded, not God, therefore the work, although they had begun, was not carried out. After Cambyses died, Darius Longhand followed. I do not care much why he was called so. It is said that the cause was that he had very long hands. So much of the time of Darius, the next after Cambyses.
Then you have that these two prophets Zechariah and Haggai prophesied at the same time, only that Haggai began two months before Zechariah. There in Zechariah it says: "In the eighth month", in Haggai: "In the sixth"; therefore Haggai is earlier than Zechariah. This is in Ezra in the fifth and sixth chapters (Ezra 5:1]. Read also Nehemiah. Philo and Josephus say that they prophesied at the same time. And Haggai at the end of the first chapter confesses it.
One must judge the spirit and the attitude of the prophet. The word of God always comes in the greatest difficulties, because the word of God is an almighty power that comes only when everything seems to be in despair. It is not received by those who are in good peace, but by those with whom it stands in despair, because it promises unbelievable and impossible things, so that the mouth of the world and of the flesh may be shut, that it may not boast that it has begun, but must confess (that it would have been unable to do anything) if it had not been for the Lord. Look at the circumstances, and you will see an exceedingly great work in the spirit. They are commanded a very small work in appearance, but see what enemies the Jews and Zerubbabel have to fight against, since so great princes resist them in the building of the temple. That is to begin a quite impossible thing. In Ezra you see how hostile the neighboring nations were without the king's commission, and that is a lot. Read the history of the Greeks about the arrogance of this king. Yes, it is something great that Zerubbabel and others set themselves against the king. Cambyses threw gold into the sea; he wanted to be mightier than Neptune. He connects the ships (to a bridge) through the black sea, 3) he measures the people like wheat;
3) In the Erlanger and in the Weimarschen: per pontnrw. instead of: per konturn.
this exceedingly pompous king reigned, and yet [Haggai] prophesied. Here one' must look at the greatness of the spirit, not at the insignificance of the works. In a very small thing this prophet speaks exceedingly great things, because he awakens the hearts and the spirit exceedingly powerful against the strongest and most powerful king, as if I would sit down against the Turk today. Cambyses was stronger then than the Turk is nowadays. Behold, how soon God assists His own! While these believe/ Cambyses dies. Darius follows; God made him exceedingly kind to the Jews, and the commands against the Jews turn into the most peaceful ones for the Jews.
transformed. Before with violent hand was resisted that the Jews should not build: the colonels write, the Jews build. One looks after the book from [Ezra 6, 1.,f.^ and so it is found. This seemed impossible, afterwards it was quite easy. This seems very easy to us when we look at the spirit. The exceedingly hard ordinance is changed into a very kind one. Where does this change come from? From heaven. The whole world may be against us, 1) if God is for us etc., Rom. 8, 31. If this were preached to us, few would believe, as then few believed Haggai.
1) Instead of 8i we have assumed 8it.