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the last part of the first book of Moses, starting from the 37th chapter.
To the devout and faithful reader grace and peace through Christ.
Since I knew that many kind-hearted people had long ago fervently desired that this last part of the interpretation of Genesis should also go out in print, I not only considered it unnecessary to write a long preface, but also saw that it would cause delay and annoyance to the godly, who hasten that they may read the interpretation itself the sooner the better, which is very highly famous on account of its dignity and usefulness, and which, in addition, attracts those who are somewhat repugnant to this writer and his writings, because of the marvelous importance and sanctity of the things dealt with herein. Above all, however, I have been concerned that I might not, with this benevolence of mine, win the approval of those to whom my small intellect might have
The reader will find that I have either written these interpretations with a long preface, or that I have had such work imposed on me. For I well remember that Mr. Veit Dietrich, an excellent, godly and learned man, complained about this heavy work and wished that this interpretation could have been written by D. Luther, our dear preceptor, himself and put into print. Luther, our dear preceptor, himself, and put it into print, which he taught in the school at Wittenberg with great earnestness and well-dressed words, and in addition with rich matter and important things, which he dealt with; because it would be almost difficult to reach and write down all the words under the reading, however nimbly one can also write, or also to bring them into such a fine and equal order, as by him, Mr. D. Luther himself,
might have been written and spoken. Now, however, all the blessed know well that Mr. Veit had special skill to work in this area of the good arts, and the writings of D. Luther, of blessed memory, which he had printed to serve the descendants, also testify to this. And I have seen that he has written with great skill many other things and also the first part of this interpretation of Genesis, not only from what he himself wrote, but also from what D. Creutziger and M. Georg Rörer had written out. That is why I have become so much more concerned because of the weakness of my forces, and such weakness and inability would also have moved me completely to leave this undertaken work where I could have done it with their will and permission, who with their godliness and great reputation have led me to take this burden and work upon myself.
Therefore, I thought I should recently tell the cause of this work, not only so that a godly and faithful reader would know it, but most of all so that the descendants would be assured that this interpretation has been faithfully described. For after Mr. Vitus Dietrich departed from this life, in the year after the birth of Christ our Lord in 1549, precisely in the night before the day on which the feast of the Annunciation of Mary or the Conception of Christ is celebrated in the Christian Church, on which day Isaac was also sacrificed and Christ suffered death, as the ancients considered it, not only our church but also this interpretation has been deprived of its teacher and faithful instrument, which he, as much as was always possible for him due to his illness, had in his hands daily, as his only consolation and relief from so many great pains he suffered; so that shortly before his departure from this life, since he could no longer hold the pen in his hand, he nevertheless promoted the work he had begun and read to another's pen, and hoped that he would complete the history of Abraham and finish it.
He had brought him to Mount Moriah, as he himself used to say, so that he would end his life with it and be buried with Abraham. And such his hope and desire that he would be redeemed from this life was not in vain. For before he brought the same part of Mount Moriah to an end, where he used to go in his heart, he was called and challenged to the eternal fellowship of Christ, and of the dear patriarchs and prophets, since he presented the doctrine drawn from their writings, both orally and in writing, to the church and congregation of God with great faithfulness and diligence. Which benefit I and all the blessed want to boast with the grace of Christ for all eternity with a grateful heart. And it occurs to me now that I remember, not without great pain, both the virtues and gifts with which he was gifted to serve and help the church in this fatherland of ours, and also to promote and continue the good arts and those studied therein, and in addition also the danger and miserable confusion that came over the church during his life, and after his death has generally increased and become greater.
At that time, the terrible power of darkness, which was aroused by the infernal Antichrist to extinguish the light of the Gospel, shown to us by God, and to suppress the churches from time to time, as well as the same hostel, in which the voice of the Son of God was taught by pious, godly teachers and church servants, raged and raged over all of Germany. And in the great terror, when pious hearts have been thus distressed, because all things have appeared so very strange and miserable, this fear has also come to pass, that the servants of the Antichrist might search for these writings, and take again the power and liberty to print such writings, which had been given to the churches before by godly rulers; which we have heard several times, that they have dealt with it, and threatened us with it. Therefore, since the friends and heirs of Mr. Vitus were in fear and therefore dismayed,
they have sought a safe place and container for this interpretation, namely, with the distinguished man, Mr. Hieronymus Baumgärtner, where it might lie hidden; as the hundred prophets lay hidden with Obadiah. 1 Kings 18:4.
Although in such great terror and consternation there was little hope that we would again come to our former freedom, where God Himself would not defend the enemies of Christ, the sighing of the blessed, who in the same sorrowful time always had a great desire for the last and noblest work of their dear prophet and pastor D. Luther blessed, did not let this commentary or interpretation lie hidden any longer. And he, Jerome, himself took great pains so that at least what he, Veit, had written would go out in print, since the adversaries were still raging and subduing each other in many ways. And because he could easily assume that everyone would like to see the whole history go out in print, he asked me to complete the remaining part, as I also heard D. Luther in the school in Wittenberg, since he had read and taught the same. And this pleased Mr. Philippus and M. Rörer well, and M. Stolz also gave me what he had written out: which is then very well to be read. In addition, I had also written out much myself from D. Luther's mouth, which he had read; which was very helpful to me, since I was not yet accustomed to the foreign hand or writing, and I was very pleased that all copies were so finely harmonized and so similar to each other.
Because I was indebted to those who gave me this work for many great benefits and because they were dear to me, and also because of their and Mr. Vitus' recommendation and statements that I had become D. Luther's housemate, I did not want to deny this to such great respectable people. Luther's housemate, it did not seem proper to me to deny this to such great and respectable people. And was entirely of the hope that the pious faithful reader would interpret and accept it for the very best, if he understood that I neither from my own discretion or my own will, but rather from my own will.
I have taken on this burden out of a sense of duty and a simple good heart, only that this interpretation may be preserved and maintained.
But since the history of Abraham had gone out, I have also undertaken the others, precisely on the admonition and encouragement of the same men, and have felt in something a relief from the tedious work of copying, because of the greatness and usefulness of the good things, matter and examples, which especially D. Luther in his last words wanted to hold up to the church and command, so that the way would be opened for readers to understand the Bible all the better. Luther in his last words wanted to reproach and command the church, so that the way would be opened for the readers to understand the Bible all the more diligently and better. For these are truly the true wells of Israel, from which all prophets, apostles and godly teachers at all times have drawn all heavenly wisdom. What wells, since they have been covered with dirt and filth of past times, it is a great blessing that God has awakened the dear Luther to cleanse them again and to explain the oldest writings of the first fathers, to whom the promise of the seed of the woman and the Son of God, who was to become man, was given in the beginning and has always been repeated with them. But as the prophets and apostles diligently looked to the same promise, so under the pope, your Antichrist, it has been despised and obscured by various idolatries, superstitions, and the confused human statutes of monastic vows, of the celibacy or dishonorable life of monks and priests 2c.
And I still remember that D. Luther spoke many times in his house over the table, when I was his table companion, with sighs and pains of the blindness and darkness of his time, and said, among other things, how the celibate popes had greatly despised the Book of Creation, and had shied away from it as from such a book, which was full of filth and fornication, so that it taught nothing else, except only how the patriarchs had begotten children and waited for stewardship. But he added an excellent recommendation and beautiful praise of this book, namely, on account of the word and voice of God, of which one often-
The first time you hear that it was spoken to the fathers.
This, he says, makes Genesin delicious: "The Lord has spoken"; "the Lord has said"; "the Lord has appeared". This the monks did not respect; for they did not have God's word. No pagan has it. The Jura did not have it, nor did Medicina. The whole Bible is therefore exalted: Dixit Dominus: "The Lord has said"; the New Testament also: "In the beginning was the Word", Joh. 1, 1. Whoever loses the Dixit is lost. They do not have the Dixit (He has said), that is, Pater (the Father), so they do not have the (Let there be), that is, Filius (the Son), they have the Facta sunt (It has become), as Paul says that the Creator is known through the creature a posteriori, as one says; but we theologians have it a priori, we have the Dixit and the Fiat.
And he has always diligently done the same in the interpretation of Genesis. However, I also wanted to tell this story in order to awaken others, so that they might gain a love for the stories in the holy scriptures and learn to marvel at them. These stories do not appear as glorious to the eyes of men as the stories of the pagans or the monks and hypocrites of superstitious worship do; it can also be seen that they are not adorned with any graceful speech. But the words and holy things that are spoken of are very important, as our interpreter has explained with great diligence, and they are also first properly rinsed and understood in the true and spiritual battle.
He often compared the writings of the prophets and apostles, which flowed from Moses as from a well, and showed not only how the things of which they wrote rhymed with each other, but also in some of them the difference of the speeches. Of Moses he said that he could have taught well and orderly; of Isaiah that he used great, splendid, and dainty words, as Cicero spoke daintily. David's speech, he says, would have been like Sallust's speech, that is, finely short and clean. But
Solomon's speech would have been adorned; although David's speech would also have been wonderful and very rich, especially in the 19th Psalm, as he used to praise it. Finally, he gave them from the New Testament to Paul and John as excellent, excellent interpreters of the Old Testament, because they had studied Moses and the prophets much more deeply and diligently. He exhorted us to study the Hebrew and Greek languages diligently, so that we might more easily compare and understand the sayings of the prophets and apostles. And because I believe that such an admonition would not only be pleasant and agreeable, but also necessary and useful to those who study the Holy Scriptures, I will tell it in the same words, so that he has spoken it in a very friendly and pleasant way. And I do not doubt that the Venerable D. Justus Jonas, who was also present at this speech and gave cause for it, has still kept it in his fresh memory. For he was about the same time from the Saxon salt mines (of Halle) walking to D. Luther, and also to visit the other preceptors; and as he heard them in the school discussing various things artificially and Christianly, he told about tables under the meal, as he had heard from Mr. Philippus, that the whole Scripture was nothing else than a dispute or fight between the serpent and the seed of the woman. Luther said: "Do you also believe that John is a commentary and interpretation of the whole Bible? Paul also? It is not a word that John wanted to make Christ God. The holy Scriptures press much more upon the Son than upon the Father; for all Scripture is written for the sake of the Son: therefore also in the Old Testament there are more sayings or testimonies of the Son than of the Father.
Among other things, the interpretation of the seventy interpreters was also remembered, of which he said at that time: Paul would have kept the same interpretation in many places. He did not despise it, for he spoke to the Greeks. In the 19th Psalm v. 5, according to the Hebrew text, it says: In omnem terram
exivit regula eorum, that is: "Their cord goes out into all the earth", which Paul calls Rom. 10, 18: Sonum, "a sound", and also says the same. So he says 1 Car. 15, 55.: Absorpta est mors in victoriam, which is, "Death is swallowed up in victory"; there it reads from the Hebrew text from Latin, in finem, or in aeternum, etc. And Isa. 25, v. 8.: Praecipitabit mortem in aeternum: "Death shall be swallowed up altogether"; he shall not come again in victoriam, id est, vita vincet, life shall prevail. Paul is rich in words. One word of Paul has three speeches of Cicero. He speaks one word that sees through a whole Isaiah or Jeremiah. O, it is a fine preacher! He is not called in vain a chosen one. Our Lord God says: I will give the world a preacher who shall be excellent. There is no one who understands the Old Testament as well as he; I take John. (Matthew and the others write the histories, and they are highly necessary, but they do not express the power and words of the Old Testament. Paul translated many things from the Hebrew into Greek that no one else could do. He speaks in a chapter that often interprets four or five prophets. Oh, he loved Isaiah and Moses! They are also. The words and matter that Paul deals with are in the prophets and Moses. That is why the young theologians should study Hebrew, so that they can compare Greek and Hebrew. Moses says of Abraham: Et imputatum est ei ad justitiam: "And it was reckoned to him for righteousness" 2c. Paul made use of this, and yet in the Hebrew it only says: Et cogitatum est. If I were young and wanted to become a high theologian, I would compare Paul with the Old Testament. He was a dialectician and a delicious rhetor or orator.
This has pleased me well to tell all here, because I have had to say something; for it rhymes therefore not badly: and I have hoped that it would also bring air and please those who have ever heard D. Luther himself, it would also bring air and please them. For I can indeed nir
I am not content with so much in this present fierce anger of the devil, so that he now rages and rages so horribly against the church and free cities or regiments, which are well ordered and properly constituted, as that I think of what I have heard from D. Luther. Luther, both publicly and in particular; so that I may keep myself upright, as well as I can, tolerate and bear both common miseries and misfortunes so much the easier: and have hitherto also taken care to guard myself with so much care and greater diligence against falsifying the doctrine which dear Luther has taught and left behind him. For, among other things, he also gave notice that terrible outrages and punishments would come upon Germany, not only from the enemies of the gospel, but also from the fierceness of some horrible and whimsical people, who, with all kinds of pretense of a good appearance, would secretly pursue the freedom of the fatherland. And this is what happened. For we have heard that the name and doctrine of the gospel have been used as a pretense, since they have committed unjust cruelty, murder, burning and robbery. It is also well known what hard fights the church and godly people had with those of whom he said before that some would devise new arts and deceptions to bring in the old idolatry again. The others, however, would, out of arrogance and ambition, and that they would like to establish something new, confuse everything in the churches, which are rightly and well arranged and put in good order. And they would be surrounded with great prestige and the name of great art, and would thus boast and brag about themselves under such a name and fictitious help to the rash and unstable people.
And that I other damages, not to mention that now for some years the church and common regime have been almost severely challenged and weakened, has truly given birth to much trouble and strife the new way of speaking so introduced by Osiander in the doctrine of justification, both with falsification of many sayings in the Scriptures.
of the prophets and apostles, and also some testimonies from D. Luther's writings, which he falsely drew from his error. For he takes the word full of essential righteousness from the book, which in the beginning of the gospel Luther let proceed from three kinds of righteousness: with which word he wanted to exalt and praise the worthiness of the righteousness of faith against the righteousness of human works. As the interpretation given in this context clearly shows, namely, that Luther did not understand the essential righteousness. Luther did not understand by essential righteousness the righteousness of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, or only the divine nature in Christ, as Osiander would have us believe, but all that which Christ did and suffered for us; as he refers, among other testimonies of Scripture, to the saying of Paul, Rom. 5:18, 19: "As by one man's sin came condemnation upon all men; so also by one man's righteousness came justification of life upon all men," and "by one man's obedience shall many be justified."
In the other scripture, however, about two kinds of righteousness, which is appended there (which, in my opinion, is especially sent by God to counteract error and so that the same word would not be so wrongly understood), he has clearly defined what the essential righteousness is, which he calls there. For thus the words of Luther read: "This righteousness is given to men in baptism, and at all times, if one does right repentance, so that man can boast with all confidence in Christ and say: That Christ lived, did and said, that he suffered and died, all this is mine, no different than if I myself had lived, done and said, suffered and died in this way. And soon after: Wherefore also Christ himself, who saith that he came to do this gracious will of his Father, was made obedient unto him; and all things whatsoever he did, he did unto us, willing that they should be ours, saying, Luc. 22:27, "I am in the midst of you, as one that ministereth." And
Again in the words of the Lord's Supper he says, v. 19: "This is my body, which is given for you." And Isaiah says Cap. 43, 24: "Yea, thou hast made me labor in thy sins, and hast given me trouble in thy iniquities. "2c.
Now I do not doubt at all that all intelligent and godly people know this well, and the sayings of the prophets and apostles also rhyme well with it; and in Luther's books all the same is repeated more than a thousand times and imagined by everyone. Nor can this be denied by those who adhere to the new Osiandrian doctrine (which few people really understand); and yet they are not ashamed to use the respectable name of Luther to gloss over their error. But wherever they come across such words in Luther's writings, which are so clear that they can easily be referred to them, there they make up that it is spoken by some figure or simile; they invent some figures and tropes (special ways of speaking), just as if D. Luther had wanted to play and joke with figures and fancy words in this most noble main piece of our salvation and blessedness. This man of God has well understood from so many difficult temptations and spiritual struggles, with what comfort the human heart, which is dismayed and frightened by fear of the judgment and wrath of God, can best be satisfied, namely, with the cross, death and blood of the Son of God, our mediator JEsu Christ; as the prophets, John the Baptist, Christ himself and the apostles point us to the exaltation and his sacrifice on the cross, and the blood of the covenant, by which the prisoners are let out of the pit, since there is no water inside, Zech. 9, 11. Yes, they show us his wounds and stripes, and say: This is our righteousness before God; as Paul clearly says Rom. 5, 9: "After we have been justified by his blood" 2c. There he interprets what Zechariah meant by letting the prisoners out of the pit, or as elsewhere the Scriptures speak, redeeming and saving from the power of Satan. This,
I say," Paul says by the word "become righteous," so that he may show that there is no difference between the same words. And Rom. 3, 25. he says: "Whom God has presented to a mercy seat through faith in His blood." Item Joh. 16, 8. 10.: "The Holy Spirit will punish the world for righteousness, because I go to the Father." All of which should be diligently noted for the sake of the petty and childish mockery or deceit they perpetrate with the preposition per (through), with which Osiander transposes and destroys such sayings of Paul. Among many other testimonies of Luther, however, there are very beautiful and remarkable sayings in the last lection of this interpretation, namely, about the death of Christ, against the quarreling about words, by which redemption and reconciliation are separated from justification and Christian righteousness, as, with the difference of years or time. For although Christ suffered once and at a certain time and accomplished the work of redemption, nevertheless the power and effect of the suffering and redemption applies at all times, and serves for the righteousness and blessedness of those who bring the same to themselves at every moment through faith. And faith asks nothing of the arithmetical reckoning of years, or of any time, however long or short it may be; but says with D. Luther thus: I know that Christ did not die according to history alone, but that his death lasts from the beginning to the end of the world, and that he comes to the aid of all the saints throughout the whole time of the world, Adam, Eve, and others. So new is Christ to me now, as if he had shed his blood this hour. And how could he have spoken more clearly or more truly? And I have heard that he did not speak this without a special zeal and hot spirit. For at the very same time he raised himself up, comforted and strengthened himself with these words, when he desired with all his heart to depart from this life; which is indicated by the last clause with which he concluded this book of Genesis. For he often said that he desired to conclude his life with this book of Genesis, and God indeed fulfilled his desire and wish.
And since he did not come back to school from the day in which he completed Genesin, and was claimed to eternal life in the following year, 1546, the 18th day of February, he repeated several times, when he was in the last stages, the same consolation that is held up to us in the words of Christ, John 3:16: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Of which giving of the Son of God he certainly considered that it fei salvation from eternal death, and thereby we are absolved and absolved from God's judgment; yes, he considered it his righteousness, so that God would have clothed and graced him. The enthusiasts draw on the saying of Solomon, where he says, Prov. 13, 2: "Righteousness redeems from death." But since the prophets and apostles so often ascribe the same power to the blood and obedience of Christ, how then are the enthusiasts so impudent as to allow them to take this honor and name of righteousness from the blood and obedience of Christ? But God wanted them to experience and learn this in spiritual trials by deed, which cannot be brought back on the right path by words.
But what they dispute at length, I have recently wanted to put on, so that I thereby indicate to pious and kind-hearted people that I have not been moved by chance or without cause, but by such a salutary admonition of D. Luther, my dear preceptor. Luther, my dear preceptor, that I should resign from those to whom I had been related by close friendship, and that I should thereby lament the miserable damage to our church, which is miserably poisoned with this pestilence and error; not so much for the sake of the adversaries, but also because of the perverse hypocrisy of some hypocrites, so that they also crept in at first and came among the number of right teachers, and with just such hypocrisy now also deceive the church and congregation of God, and falsify and corrupt what others have rightly said and taught. They present themselves as if they were subject to the error and the
They are completely hostile to the enthusiasts, who nevertheless secretly harbor errors and falsehoods, which they also hold above them. But in order that they may beware of enmity on both sides, one often hears of them that they put on and always repeat the saying, "Christ is our righteousness." And if you look at the same words, you will say that such things are faithfully and Christianly spoken. But look at the deceit, and how they can blind the people, so that they get away with it, and hang the poor foolish multitude upon them, that they may put up with their thing. They keep the name and person of Christ, who is God and man, and hold the same against his works and sufferings. Christ, they say, is our righteousness, not the works, not the blood, not the death or resurrection, but the person. But what is this but that they take away from the hearts and eyes of the godly the benefits of the mediator Christ, that he was made for us by God for wisdom and righteousness, for sanctification and redemption, 1 Cor. 1, 30, and for whose sake God made Jesus a Lord and a Christ, as Peter says in Acts 2, 36. 2, 36.? And what is it but to be God and man, and to be humbled, and to become obedient to the Father unto the death of the cross, Phil. 2, 8? How then do they want to separate the two, unless they want to separate the two natures in Christ and fall to the conclusion (which they still diligently conceal and keep secret) that the divine nature alone is our righteousness? Paul, 1 Cor. 1, 30, speaks of Christ crucified; and Rom. 3, 25, he says that he was presented to us by God as a mercy seat in his blood. Christ, John 3:14, 15, says: "As Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." There he showed, as it were, with his fingers, what faith should hold on to and rely on. But if they would have thee look unto that person only, that thou shouldest not perish, but be justified, and have everlasting life.
If we do not receive the life and not the exaltation on the cross, then the heart is immediately pulled back and forth, and the comfort disappears, by which the heart, which is terrified of God's judgment, should be raised up and preserved. For this reason, these parts of the mediator Christ must not and cannot be divided or separated from one another, and one should be diligently on guard against such secret cunning, by which the devil subjects himself to diminish and reject the ministry and obedience of Christ.
St. Augustine makes a wonderful and beautiful admonition out of great understanding and prudence, when he says in his Enchiridion, or Manual, ad Laurentium: The certain and right foundation of the catholic and universal faith is Christ. For "other foundation," saith Paul 1 Cor. 3:11, "indeed no man can lay, save that which is laid, which is JESUS CHRIST." And it is not necessary to say that this is not the foundation of the Catholic and Christian faith, because it may be thought that some heretics hold this also to be the case with us. For if we diligently consider what belongs to Christ, Christ is found in all heretics by name, who also want to be called Christians; but in truth he is not with them. But to prove this would be too lengthy. For then one must relate all the heresies that either have been, or still are, or may have been under the Christian name. And how true this is, one would have to prove by any heresy in particular; to which disputation many books belong, so that it is also considered to be infinite.
And it is very useful to remember this exhortation, so that the simple hearts may be strengthened against the hypocrisy and pretense that is made of the name and person of Christ, since they throw away the pieces that belong to Christ. For though they say that they hold to the merit of Christ with both hands, as they are wont to speak, yet they take away from the obedience of Christ against the public word of God, and so many churches' be-
This name of righteousness, by which sinners are justified in the sight of God, is not to be our righteousness. But they will see for themselves whether God wants to be with such people and dwell with them, which they so often say and boast about themselves with their mouths full, and yet they are sure that they are misusing the words of Christ and falsifying them. For Christ says in John 14:23 that He and His Father love those who keep His word, and He promises that they will dwell with them. But he does not say that he will be loved by those who do not keep the word that he brought forth from the bosom of the eternal Father. Therefore he does not demand of us with less seriousness than Moses does of the people of Israel, when he says Deut. 4:2: "Ye shall not do any thing that I command you, neither shall ye do any thing of it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you." For this reason we should always have the words of the apostle Paul before our ears and also keep them in mind, in which he admonishes Timothy to be careful to hold fast to the saving word, and to beware of the crafty deceit of false spirits, as he says
2 Tim. 1, 13. 14.: "Keep this good supplement through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us" 2c., "but abstain from unspiritual loose talk." Cap. 2, 16. and 1 Tim. 6, 20. 21.: "Avoid unspiritual loose talk, and the wrangling of false fame, which some pretend to, and lack faith." For this reason the Son of God, who sits at the right hand of the Father, has raised up in these last times the dear, dear man D. Luther, and other such spiritual men, who are faithful interpreters of the Scriptures in the house of the Lord. Their interpretation and confession of pure doctrine is to be kept, so that we may be strengthened by their earnest admonition, lest we be swayed and lulled by all kinds of wind of doctrine through the craftiness of men and deceitfulness, so that they deceive us into seduction, Eph. 4:14.
Therefore let us watch and pray always, and the same the more fervently, how much greater confusion and error there is to fear in this utter and childish age of the world, and fickleness of men's minds, that we may be counted worthy to escape all this, and to stand before the Son of man.