A. [The first epistle of St. Peter preached and interpreted. *)
First editing.
Preached in 1522 and 1523; printed toward the end of 1523.
[Preface by D. Martin Luther.]
Before we come to the Epistle of St. Peter, it is necessary that we give a brief instruction, so that one may know what this Epistle is to be held for and have a proper understanding of it.
2 First of all, it is to be known that all the apostles' teachings are one; and it is not right to count four evangelists and four gospels, for all that the apostles have written is one. One gospel. Gospel but
means nothing else than a sermon and cry of the grace and mercy of God, earned and acquired through the Lord Christ with his death. It is not what is written in books and letters, but rather an oral sermon and living word, and a voice that resounds in the whole world and is shouted out publicly, so that it is heard everywhere.
S) In the course of 1522 and deep into 1523 Luther preached on the first epistle of St. Peter on Sunday afternoons. This is reported to us in an index of the Zwickau Luther finding. (Buchwald, Andreas Poach's handwritten collection of unprinted sermons of D. Martin Luther 2c. Erster Band, erste Hälfte, Seite XVI. Leipzig 1884): "Den Nachmittag s^.nno 1523^ hatt er die erste und 2. epistel S. Petri vnd Judä gepredigt." Still in 1523, the sermons on the first epistle of St. Peter appeared in print, probably not until the end of the year, under the title: Epistle St. Peter preached and interpreted by Mart. Luther." At the end: "Gedruckt zu Wittemberg durch Nickel Schyrlentz ym drey vnd zwentzigsten jar." In addition to other individual editions of the first letter in 1523 and 1524, two editions were published in 1524, one by Adam Petri in Basel, and one by Silvanus Ottmar in Augsburg, to which the interpretations of the second epistle of St. Peter and Jude were also added. Bucer translated the interpretations of the two epistles of Peter and the Epistle of Jude into Latin. This translation was published in July 1524 in Strasbourg by Johann Herwagen, and in May 1525 another edition was published there. In the "Gesammtausgabe": Jenaer (1585), vol. II, p. 293d; Altenburger, vol. II, p. 405; Leipziger, vol. XI, p. 479; Walch, vol. IX, col. 624; Erlanger, vol. 51, p. 324 and Weimarsche, vol. XII, p. 249. Bucer's Latin translation: Wittenberger (1554), Dom. V, col. 439d. - This interpretation did not come from Luther's own pen, but was copied and edited by Caspar Cruciger. Since Luther later preached again on the first epistle of St. Peter, Georg Rörer changed some things in the first edition on the basis of these sermons and also added much from the same. The reason that no single edition of this review appeared is that Rörer had made this revision for the first volume of Luther's collected works, which came out in 1539. Luther's sermons on the First Letter of Peter were still in progress when the publication of this first volume was already in progress. The last sermon, which was used for the improvement of the first redaction, about I Petr. 5, 9, Luther held on July 13, 1539. To give this (so far unknown) exact time determination, has been made possible by the Zwickau Lutherfund. If one takes into account the "Luther's" writings from the same in this volume sub Xo. X, 0, the "Five Sermons on I Petri Cap. 4 and 5" with this interpretation, one will recognize the correctness of the information we have given. Probably Luther's sermons on the first letter of Peter will extend back into the year 1538. The improved text is found only in the Wittenberg edition (1556), vol. I, p. 473 d and in the Erlangen, vol. 52, p. I. Walch had only the text of the first edition. In the next number, however, we will bring the improved text according to the Wittenberg edition. Luther's preface, which precedes the second edition in the Wittenberg edition, is not a preface to this interpretation, but a preface to the epistle itself, which had already appeared in print in 1522 in the German translation of the New Testament. Therefore, we leave it here "nd will place it, as Walch did, in the fourteenth volume of our edition under Luther's prefaces to the biblical books. In the Erlangen edition it appears twice, namely vol. 52, p. I and vol. 63, p. 151. The preface to the first interpretation is missing in the German Wittenberg edition, but is found in the other editions, also in the Latin translation, which reproduces the first redaction. We give the text according to the Weimar edition.
hears. So it is not a book of laws that has much good doctrine in it, as it has been held until now. For it does not tell us to do works to become godly, but proclaims to us the grace of God, freely given and without our merit, and tells us how Christ interceded for us, and was sufficient for our sin, and blots it out, and makes us godly and blessed by his works.
3 Whoever preaches or describes these things teaches the true gospel, as do all the apostles, especially St. Paul and Peter in their epistles. Therefore all that is preached of Christ is one gospel, even though one preaches it in a different way and speaks of it in different words than the other. For it may be a short or a long speech, and described in a short or a long way. But if the point is that Christ is our Savior, and that we are justified and saved through faith in him, without our works, then it is one word and one gospel; just as there is only one faith and one baptism in all Christendom.
(4) Thus one apostle has written the same things that are written in the other; but those who do this most and most highly, how faith in Christ alone justifies, are the best evangelists. Therefore, St. Paul's epistles are more of a gospel than Matthew, Marcus and Lucas. For these do not describe much more than the history of the works and
miraculous signs of Christ; but the grace that we have through Christ, no one so boldly as St. Paul, especially in the epistle to the Romans. Since the word is more important than the works and deeds of Christ, and since it would be better to lack works and history than words and doctrine, those books are to be praised most highly which deal most with the doctrine and word of the Lord Christ. For even if the miraculous works of Christ were not there, and we knew nothing of them, we would still have enough of the word, without which we could not have life.
5 So this epistle of St. Peter is also one of the noblest books in the New Testament, and the true, righteous gospel. For it also does the same thing that St. Paul and all the evangelists do, that it teaches righteous faith, as Christ is given to us, who takes away our sin and makes us blessed, as we shall hear.
(6) From this you may judge of all books and doctrines what is or is not the gospel. For what is not preached or written in this way, you may freely judge that it is false, however good it may seem. All Christians have this power to judge, not the pope or concilia, who boast that they alone have the power to judge doctrine. That is enough for the introduction and preface. Now let us hear the epistle.