Here I conclude the second decade of the whole Psalter and freely and sincerely confess that I have undertaken very much beyond my strength and do not have this glory of the apostle, of which he writes to the Romans [Cap. 15, 18]: "I should not speak anything where Christ did not work through me. For by the holiness of my life I have gained nothing, though I know how necessary it was and is that I should not teach something before I did it. By my learning, however, I have gained little, since I have also been a student up to now, not only in the languages, but also in learning the prophetic spirit. For he who treats the Scriptures needs both, but the spirit more than the language.
Therefore, although I see that I have erred in more than one place in the Hebrew language, I fear that I may have erred in even more places in the spirit, although I am not aware that I have violated the true and Christian (catholicam) faith anywhere, so that I can boast that my errors are quite harmless, since in this language the most experienced and greatest, but in the spirit also the highest and holiest have erred.
1 ) Therefore, I ask the scholars for the sake of Christ, in whom we share, to disregard what is mine, then also the
1) This paragraph is missing in the Wittenberg, in the Jena, in the Leipzig and in Walch.
Printers or any people who publish books, that they did not want to spread this until I or another have corrected some gross errors. For up to this point I have done enough, if it is found that I have given an impetus to wiser people, and have done what necessity requires. For the work that I have taken upon myself and the complaint I do not count highly.
(3) But this I have learned, that the Scripture is such that it disgraces and exceeds every man's ability (ingenium), learning, diligence, and holiness in many things, and while it is laid out to abundance (satietatem) for all, even for the underage, yet it always leaves the great hungry, so that Gregory rightly and wisely said that the Scripture is a water through which a lamb can wade, but an elephant must swim. And no one has erred more shamefully and corruptly in it than those who have presumed that they have erred in no part. And no one has progressed more happily and wholesomely in it than those who feared that they had erred in all things. For this is wisdom, the beginning of which is the fear of God, which gives understanding to babes and rejects the understanding of those who have understanding [1 Cor. 1:19].
4 Therefore, let every one who is my brother judge my errors in such a way that he does not doubt that he will also err somewhere, so that he does not become arrogant everywhere.
error. Rather, we want to give each other a helping hand in the Lord with all our strength, especially in the treatment of the Holy Scriptures; but even then we will not be able to avoid errors, as long as we are in this
are unclean lives. But he who has been without sin in this life can boast that he has not erred in any thing. Farewell, my Christian brother, and may the grace of Christ be with you? Amen.