five books of Moses. *)
Genesis prophesies of his book, and says Deut. 32, 2. f.: "Let my teaching drip like the rain, and let my speech flow like water, like the rain on the grass, and like the drops on the herb. For I will praise the name of the Lord." This prophecy has been fulfilled and will be fulfilled until the end of the world. For as all the Greek poets' art flowed from "Homer" as a fountain, so also from it flowed all the prophets' books, yes, also the whole New Testament, which is promised in it; and all that is well and divinely taught and is taught in the people of God or churches, is all from Moses originally, from the cause, for he does not preach fables nor men's wisdom, but, as he himself boasts here, "the name of the Lord I will praise", that is, of God and his works he will 1) preach. This is the only wisdom, against which all the wisdom of the world is nothing. For no heathen speak and teach of God as Moses did; nor do the heathen know, nor can they know, that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, where death and sin come from, what will come after this life; and that Messiah must be the seed of a woman, who is to bless the world and redeem it from death and sin. Sirach also praises Moses, Sir. 24, 32. ff.: "All this is the book of the covenant, made with the most high God, namely, the law, which Moses commanded the house of Jacob for a treasure, from which wisdom flowed, like the waters of Pison when it is great, and like the waters of Tigris when it overflows.
1) Erlanger: he; Wittenberger and Jenaer: I.
2) From it the mind has flowed, like the Euphrates when it is great, and like the Jordan in harvest. From the same the breeding has broken out, like the light, and like the water Nilus in the summer. He has never been, who would have it ausgelernet, and will never be, who would have it ausgelernet. For his mind is richer than any sea, and his word deeper than any abyss."
This is also truly true. For I, as a lesser Christian, have also tried it a little, and when I have brought it up, I have become aware that I have hardly been an alphabetist in it. Although the great teacher St. Augustine also confesses, 3) that he first learned and increased in writing and teaching, and is a far different man in the last books than in the first.
3 But that some say, although Solomon himself says, Ecclesiastes 12:12, "The writing of books is too much," who can read them all? is right and well said, but should be understood of my and my like untimely books, which either are not yet sufficiently taught and experienced, or do not want to praise the name of the Lord (like Moses), but their own name; do not see how the church can improve its doctrine, or how the Scriptures can be explained, but how they can be sold on the market, and be praised; to whom it finally happens, like the untimely fruit, which among the trees the sows
2) Erlanger: Glenzen.
3) Erlanger: bekennt; Wittenberger and Jenaer: bekand.
*The text to which Luther wrote this preface first appeared in Strasbourg in 1535, and in 1543 under the title: "Das erst teyl des alten Testaments. ANnotation in the five books Mosi, by Doctor Wentzeßlaum Lincken. von Colditz. A beautiful preface, Doctoris Martini Lutheri. To the Elector of Saxony, and his electoral graces, brothers. M.D.XLIII" At the end: "Straßburg Bey Balthassar Beck." in quarto. Wenceslaus Link was first an Augustinian monk in the Nuremberg monastery, then vicarius of the Augustinians in Saxony. In 1523 he became a Lutheran preacher in Altenburg and in 1525 the first Lutheran preacher in Nuremberg, where he died in 1547. - This preface is found in the collections: in the Wittenberg (1559), vol. XII, p. 372d; in the Jena (1562), vol. VIII, p. I35b; in the Altenburg, vol. VIII, p. 303; in the Leipzig, vol. XII, p. 77; and in the Erlangen, vol. 63, p. 376. We give the text after the Erlangen.
eat before it is half ripe. Just as we have seen many books these thirty years, none of which are remembered or present anymore; but there have never been too many good books, not yet. So also we have a certain command from the Lord that we should search the Scriptures. And St. Paul commands Timothy to stop reading [1 Tim. 4:13]. Now such research and reading cannot be done, one must be there with the pen and write down what is especially given to him under reading and study, so that he can remember and retain it.
4 And in this way, no doubt, they studied the prophets in Moses, and the last prophets in the first, and wrote out their good thoughts in a book, inspired by the Holy Spirit. For they were not such people as the spirits and the mobs, who put Moses under the bench, and made up their own faces, and preached dreams, but practiced in Moses daily and diligently; as he also commands very often and hard to read his book, also to the king, Deut. 17, 19. and Joshua 1, 8.
(5) But whether the same good and faithful teachers and searchers of the Scriptures sometimes built with hay, straw, wood, and not with silver, gold, and precious stones, yet the foundation remains there; the other consumeth the fener of the day, as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 3:12, 13, and Moses [Deut. 26:1) 10], "Ye shall eat of the fener, and when the new cometh, ye shall put away the fener." For so we do also with some writings, as M[agistri] Sententiarum, Augustini, Gregorii, Cypriani, and almost all teachers. Therefore it is right and well done, whoever is given the grace, to take care of the Scriptures with right earnestness, to research and search, and what good things God gives him, to communicate to others also through books, and thus to help interpret the Scriptures, and to improve the churches, according to the rule 1 Cor. 14, 4. 6. 2) For everything should be done for the better.
1) In the Wittenberg and in the Jena erroneously: "Deut. 26."
2) Here the Erlanger from Walch has printed: 1 Cor. 14, 46.
The church is to be established for the glory of God, so that we may praise the name of the Lord with Moses.
Since in these annotations my dear lord and friend, Doctor Wenceslaus Link, has also taken care of Moses, and I know well his gift, which is given to him, that he means it seriously and diligently, it is well done that his faithful work be communicated to others through printing; for he has now been well practiced for many years in the pure Christian, apostolic doctrine. Would God that they all did so, or that those who did not have the grace to leave their untimely, useless writing, so that the Church would be weighed down, would stand. If 3) Carolstadt, Zwingel, and their like had refrained from writing, the church would have remained purer, and it would have fared better in the end.
Finally, we shall and will do our part in our time, and help to promote the Word of God, according to St. Paul's command, that it may dwell abundantly in the church, so that no one may have to excuse himself at the last judgment that it has not been revealed to him, or that it has been revealed too scantily and little, but must confess that it has been presented to him, not by one book, but by many books, not by one doctor, but by many doctors, without ceasing, with all fidelity, rightly and well. Hereby we are excused and have washed our hand. For we should not have it better, neither the apostles had it, that they complain of itching ears after new doctrine, and weariness of wholesome doctrine [2 Tim. 4, 3. f.]. Or perhaps this is the last time of which they speak; yes, I think it is not perhaps, but certainly the same time. For the more abundantly one preaches and teaches, the more weary and casual the people become; they will answer for themselves; we are to [persevere] continually, 4) importune, opportune, our labor is not in vain, of this we are sure. To God be praise and glory for such his rich gift of his word, from now until eternity, Amen.
3) In the old editions: "Hat".
4) Added by us according to 2 Tim. 4, 2.