with notes by D. Wart. Luther. 1532.
Preface by Doctor Martin Luther on Ecclesiastes,
laid out from the school in Wittenberg.
Because this book was translated from the Hebrew in a sinister manner, all kinds of learned people have set about interpreting it, and all have endeavored to apply some sayings of it to their state, or rather to their delusions, whether out of presumption, which delights in dark and, as it were, new and unusual things, or because it is easy to invent and conjecture anything arbitrary in dark writings.
For the philosophers thought that what he says right at the beginning [Cap. 1, 8]: "Everything is so full of trouble that no one can talk it out" refers to them, as if Solomon is talking about the worldly wisdom that plays with thoughts. Some have also 1) taken offense at the word, since Solomon says [Cap. 3, 19]:
1) Instead of enim in the Erlanger we have assumed with the Wittenberger and the Jena Minna.
*) In 1526 (not only in 1532, as the Erlangen edition, 6X6A. opp., tom. XXI, x. Ill), Luther gave lectures on Ecclesiastes, and finished them in November of that year (Köstlin, M. Luther f3^j, vol. II, p. 156). Fast-writing listeners caught the lectures and spread them among friends. Luther himself considered publishing this interpretation of his (De Wette, III, 222), but refrained from doing so when he heard that in 1528 Brenz was planning to have his interpretation of Ecclesiastes printed by Johann Secerius, printer at Hagenau. In the form of a friendly letter to the printer, Luther wrote a preface to "Joh. Brentii Auslegung des Predigers Salomo, Hagenau 1528." (Walch, old edition, vol. XIV, 188, with the erroneous date 1527.) It was not until 1532 that others, with Luther's consent, also put a postscript of his lectures into print. The time of writing is confirmed by two letters of Luther in De Wette, Vol. Ill, p. 120 and 130, both from 1526, and also by a passage in our writing: "wie es fängst (nnper) den Bauern widerfahren ist", from which Köstlin 1. 0. p. 647 draws attention. The first single edition appeared under the title: "Deelesianws Kolornonis, ouni Vnnotntionidus Ooe. LIart. Inrtü. VuittemböiMtz. 1. 5. 32." At the end: "Vtitskur^no oxeudsdat "loannos ImM. 1. 5. 32.", and still in the same year at the same another edition. In 1536, under the same title, but with the indication: eorrootus "b oinernlatus oum indios sto., another edition came out with Peter Brubach in Schwäbisch-Hall. Justus Jonas made a German translation, which was published in 1533 by "Georgen Rhaw" in Wittenberg and was provided with a dedication "to the Landgrave [Philipp] of Hesse" dated May 1, 1533. Peter Seitz at Wittenberg reprinted the same in 1538. In the collections: in the Latin Wittenberg (1552), tom. IV, col. 1; in the Jena one (1603), bom. Ill, col. 230 and in the Erlangen, 6X0F. opp., boM. XXI, x>. 1 German according to Jonas' translation: Wittenberger (1559), vol. XII, p. 81; Altenburger, vol. V, p. 1181 and in the Leipziger, vol. VI, p. 570. I "replaced this old translation, which is also found in Walch, with a new one according to the Wittenberg edition, comparing the Jena and Erlangen editions. In this work, we recognized that the first Wittenberg edition contains many printing errors, some of which are corrected in the so-called "improved" edition of 1536, but that nevertheless the advantage lies significantly on the side of the Wittenberg edition. For in the edition published in Schwäbisch-Hall, whose text the Erlangen edition reproduces, many errors have been corrected, a number of omissions, and in addition probably at least as many new printing errors as the first edition had. The "Erlang" edition has faithfully reproduced all of this.
"As the cattle dies, so dies the man. And both have the same end and the same breath" 2c. They have thought that he was an Epicurer, or at least speaks in the person of Epicurers.
But no one has used this book in a more pernicious way than the schools of theologians who have used this passage [Cap. 9, 1. according to the Vulgate]: "Man does not know whether he is worthy of hatred or love", on the conscience against God and have twisted it in such a way that they have miserably tortured the consciences of all by this distortion and have completely eradicated the very certain faith in Christ with the whole knowledge of Christ, by teaching and inculcating nothing more serious in the poor afflicted hearts than that we had to doubt and be uncertain about the grace and love of God toward us, however blamelessly we lived. So thick was the more than Egyptian darkness that they no longer saw the writings of the apostles and evangelists before this saying of Solomon, rather before their own errors, which they had forcibly brought into this saying, which testify with such great signs, scriptural passages and proofs that Christ is our mediator and the author of the very certain grace and blessedness, which is offered and given to us by God out of grace for free.
Many of the holy fathers and outstanding teachers in the church have done no less harm through this book, which they misunderstood, since they thought that Solomon teaches through this book the contempt of the world (as they call it), that is, the contempt of the things that God has created and ordered. Among these is St. Jerome, who through this book urged his Blesilla to monastic life, since he published an interpretation about it. Therefore, the theology of the monks or hermits, in which it was taught that it was Christian to leave the trade, the worldly government, even the episcopate or, more correctly, the apostolic office, to flee into the deserts, to separate oneself from the society of men, to live in silence and stillness, flowed and spread throughout the whole Church like a flood of sin.
Whether Solomon calls the marriage state, the imperial state (imperia), office and service of the word "vain", all of which he praises here extraordinarily and calls gifts of God. And while Solomon teaches that men themselves, or their proposals, are vain, they turn everything around, and call things vain, but think that they themselves and their own actions are well-founded and right, dreaming just the opposite of what Solomon says. In short, they have brought us nothing but abominable things (monstra) out of this very beautiful and exceedingly useful book, and, as is evident, they have cast abominable idols out of the divine gold.
Therefore, in order to enlighten this darkness and to destroy the so shameful idols, I have the more easily allowed that these notes of mine, which are taken from the hand of others and have received this form in my lecture (because due to many affairs I have not been able to interpret this book myself in a due commentary), are published. For although they are only meager and small, they can give those who have nothing better, or who, like me, were once seduced by false glosses, a reason to become better themselves and to find better things. For me, at least, it gave me great pleasure to get even a small taste of this booklet, after I had labored with it all my life, and had martyred myself in vain and corrupted myself by ungodly opinions against the faith of Christ. For this I give thanks with great joy to the Father of Mercy, who has graciously condescended to renew this last time with so many revelations and by such a great light.
Now this book, Ecclesiastes, we might more properly call Solomon's book of worldly government (Politica) or of housekeeping (Oeconomica), not, of course, as if it gave laws or ordered how to govern a state or a family (for this the law of nature amply directs, or human reason, to which earthly things are subject, Gen. 1, 28.; it is of all laws, both in worldly government and in housekeeping, always the source, the
It is still and must remain), but that it gives a man, who has to work in the worldly regiment or in the household, advice in cases of tribulation, and instructs the heart and strengthens it to patience in the suffering of all kinds of misfortune. For there are innumerable accidents, as the books of all sacred histories, even the fables of all poets testify, as there are the works of Hercules, the conquest of monsters by Ulysses and others, as also for David the bear, the lion and Goliath 2c. [1 Sam. 17, 34. ff.] He who does not know this art finally grows weary, gives way and falls, and does a great fall, as Timon, Demosthenes, Cicero and others more have fallen. Out of such impatience the heretics in the church have also caused havoc,
because they could not bear their office because of the wickedness of men. Thus (as it is said in the proverb) despair has made monks, for it is true what that wise man [Bias] said: Regiment shows what kind of man one is. But unless some Solomon exhorts and comforts, regiment crushes a man and takes away his strength and ruins him completely.
Therefore, I commend to godly brethren this my Solomon, of whom it could more properly be said that he is pointed to than that he is interpreted, and I wish that someone with a richer spirit and better gifts may come forth to explain and accentuate this book properly to the praise of God and His creatures, to whom be praise forever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.