December 1516.
Before speech.
First of all, this booklet admonishes all who want to read and understand it, especially those who are of sound reason and sensible mind, not to rush to judgment, because in some words it seems incompetent, or to speak from the way of ordinary preachers and teachers. Yes, it does not float above, like foam on the water, but it is chosen from the bottom of the Jordan by a true Israelite, which name God knows and whom He has chosen.
wants to know it. For this time the booklet is found without title and name, but to estimate by possible memory the matter is almost after the manner of the enlightened Doctor Tauleri, Order of Preachers. Now as to all that is true, thorough teaching of the Holy Scriptures must make fools, or become fools, as the Apostle Paul touches, 1 Cor. 1, 23: "We preach Christ, a foolishness to the Gentiles, but a wisdom of God to the saints."
F. Martinus Luder
subscripsit.
*The booklet mentioned in the title is a fragment of the "German Theology", about the fourth part of this writing (only so much had come to Luther's hands at that time), which he published under the following title: "Eyn geystlich edles Buchleynn von rechter underscheyd vnd Vorstand, was der alt vn new mensche sey. What Adam's child is, and what God's child is. And how Ada died to us, and Christ first fell." At the end: "Printed in Wittenberg by Joanne Grunenbergk. Anno, nach Christ geburt Tausent funffhundert vn jm sechtzenden jar am tag Barbare [4. Dec.]. Beh den Augustinern." A reprint under the same title appeared in 1518 in Leipzig by Wolfgang Stöckel. The preface is found in the "Gesammtausgabe": in the Eisleben one, vol. I, p. 16; then in the Altenburg one, vol. I, p. 13; in the Leipzig one, vol. XXII, appendix p. 74; in the Erlanger one, vol. 63, p. 238 and in the Weimar one, vol. I, p. 153. Also in Löscher, Reformations-Acteu, vol. I, p. 301. We give the text according to the Weimar edition.
2. preface from the book "A German Theologia". *)
June 1518.
Preface.
One reads [2 Cor. 10, 10] that St. Paul, a lowly and contemptible person, yet wrote mighty and valiant letters; and he himself boasts [1 Cor. 1, 17] that his speech was not adorned with embellished and flowery words, but was full of all the riches of the art of wisdom. Also, when one considers God's miracles, it is clear that His words are not always accompanied by splendid and seeming preachers, but as it is written [Ps. 8, 3]: Ex ore infantium, through the mouth of the unborn and infants You have proclaimed Your praise in the best way. Item [Wis. 10, 21.]: The wisdom of God makes the tongues of the unregenerate most eloquent. Again he punishes the arrogant men, who are offended and angry at the same simple ones: Consilium inopis etc. [Ps. 14, 21]. [You have disgraced good counsel and doctrine, because they were given to you by poor and unsightly men etc.
This is why I say that I want to warn anyone who reads this booklet, so that he does not forfeit his harm, and get angry in your bad German, or un-
I do not want to know more about God, Christ, man and all things, because this noble little book, as poor and unadorned as it is in wisdom and human wisdom, is much richer and more exquisite in art and divine wisdom. And that I boast after my old fool, next to the Biblia and St. Augustine, I do not find a book from which I have learned and want to learn more about God, Christ, man and all things. And now find first of all that it is true that some scholars speak shamefully of us Wittenberg theologians, as if 1) we wanted to do new things, as if there had not been people before and elsewhere. Yes, of course they were, but God's wrath, forfeited by our sin, has not made us worthy to see or hear them. For it is by day that in the universities such things have not been acted upon for a long time, to the point that the holy Word of God has not only lain under the bench, but has decayed by dust and moths. Read this booklet, whoever wants to, and then say whether theology in our country is new or not.
1) In the original: thus.
*) Not long after Luther had published the fragment with its preface mentioned in the previous number, he had received a manuscript containing the entire scripture, which he also published. On June 4, 1518, the new edition was completed, and appeared under the title: "Eyn deutsch Theologia, das ist Eyn edles Buchleyn, von rechtem Vorstand, was Adam vnd Christus sey, vnd wie Adam yn vns sterben vnd Christus erstem fall." At the end: "Printed in Wittenburg by Joannem Grünenberg. After Christ's birth thousand five hundred, and in the eightieth year." Already in the same year, this writing was reprinted in Leipzig, and with a different title, namely "Theologia Teutsch", by Silvanus Ottmar in Augsburg. Further, in 1519, again at Leipzig, and under the changed title at Strasbourg by Johannes Knoblouch. For the period from 1518 to 1520, the Weimar edition lists nine different printings. Until recent times, Franz Pfeiffer counted seventy different editions of the "German Theology," and yet several have remained unknown to him. "Luther's editions (so says the Weimar edition) are based on manuscripts that have been lost to us. It was not until the middle of our century that a manuscript containing this work was discovered again, but of fairly recent origin: it dates from 1497. According to this, Franz Pfeiffer first published the 'Theologia deutsch' in 1851, then improved it and added a new translation, and since then Luther's editions have come into disrepute. Pfeiffer's text alone is significantly inferior to Luther's: it is often only a matte extension, not a more complete reproduction of the original." The original is published in its entirety by I. K. F. Knaake: "Ein deutsch Theologia." Weimar, H. Böhlau. 1883.In all of the previously mentioned editions, Luther's preface is at the very beginning. This is followed by a short preface, already found in the manuscript of 1497, according to which the author of the work had been "a priest and a custos in the German gentlemen's house at Frankfurt." In the collections of Luther's works, our preface is found: in the Eisleben one, vol. I, p. 1; in the Altenburg one, vol. I, p. 12; in the Leipzig one, vol. XXII, appendix p. 74, and in Walch with an incorrect date (namely 1516) but with good text; conversely (so says the Weimar edition) with bad text but correct date in the Erlanger, vol. 63, p. 238, "although in the introduction it is brazenly claimed that one follows the ^Wittenberg] 'original print', since in reality a Strasbourg edition, not described at all, is taken as a basis". We give the text according to the Weimar edition, which is printed there in Vol. I, p. 378 f. according to the original.
old, because this book is not new, but will perhaps say, as before, that we are German theologians; we let that be so. I thank God that I hear and find my God in the German tongue in a way that I, and they with me, have not found before, neither in Latin, Greek (Cyrillic) nor Hebrew.
tongue. God grant that these little books will come to light more often, so we will find that the German theologians are without doubt the best theologians, amen.
Doctor Martinus Luther,
Augustinians at Wittenberg.