Always Reforming

Reflections on Martin Luther and Biblical Studies
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68359-470-3
Verlag: Lexham Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 208 Seiten

Reihe: Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology

Luther challenges the academy to speak beyond itself. Whatever the theological malady, Martin Luther prescribed the same remedy: the word of God. For Luther, the Word was central to the Christian life. As a lover, translator, and interpreter of Scripture, Luther believed the Bible was too important to be left to academics. God's word has always been and must always be for God's people. What, then, can biblical studies learn from Luther? In Always Reforming,leading Lutheran, Reformed, and Baptist scholars explore Martin Luther as an interpreter of Scripture. The contributors elucidate central themes of Luther's approach to Scripture, place him within contemporary dialogue, and suggest how he might reform biblical studies. By retrieving Luther's voice for the conversations of today, the contributors embody a spirit that is always reforming.

Channing L. Crisler (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate professor of New Testament and Biblical Greek at Anderson University. He is author of Reading Romans as Lament: Paul's Use of Old Testament Lament in His Most Famous Letter and Echoes of Lament and the Christology of Luke. Robert L. Plummer (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Collin and Evelyn Aikman Professor of Biblical Studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is founder of The Daily Dose of Greek and author of 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Crisler

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION “Comfort yourself with the Word of God, the pre-eminent consolation.”1 In this way, Martin Luther consoled a father and husband suffering the loss of both his wife and newborn. Similarly, to a woman troubled by recurring outbursts of anger, Luther reassured her with the words: “Your sin is forgiven. Rely resolutely on this. Do not revive your own notions. Give heed to all that your pastor and preacher tell you from the Word of God.”2 To one stricken by unbelief, Luther recommended, “For at such a time you must accustom yourself not to wrap yourself up in your misfortune and sink into your own thoughts, without the Word of God, as if you proposed to wait until the terror subsides. On the contrary, you must remember at that very time to hear nothing but prayers and the Word of God.”3 After observing a woman stricken by a mixture of spiritual and physical maladies, he wrote to her husband: “In a word, her illness is not for the apothecaries (as they call them), nor is it to be treated with the salves of Hippocrates, but it requires the powerful plasters of the Scriptures and the Word of God.”4 Indeed, for Luther, the word of God was like “powerful plaster,” offering healing properties for the soul. In his many consolations to the afflicted, without fail, Luther prescribed the word of God for any and every malady. However, Luther did not prescribe the word without hermeneutical instruction. He knew that to truly hear the word, one needed interpretive assistance. While Luther did not eschew the role of reason, rhetoric, and language in biblical interpretation, such things did not stand at the heart of interpretation.5 Instead, Luther stressed the importance of one’s disposition toward the word. This emphasis is encapsulated in Luther’s instructions to his dear friend George Spalatin, who asked for advice about the study of Scripture: In the first place, it is most certain that one cannot enter into the Scriptures by study or skill alone. Therefore, you should begin by praying that, if it pleases the Lord to accomplish something through you for his glory, and not for your own glory or that of any other man, he may grant you a true understanding of his words. For there is no master of the Scriptures other than Him who is their author. Hence it is written, “They shall all be taught of God.” You must completely despair of your own industry and ability, therefore, and rely solely on the influx of the Spirit. Believe me, for I have experience in this matter.6 For Luther, exegesis begins with despair and a cry for help, which could only be answered by the Spirit. Those who approach the Scriptures must confess to God their inability to truly understand. Luther had experience in this matter, and he found that only the “influx of the Spirit” could lead to an understanding of the word. While Luther underscores the inward disposition of the interpreter, he does not end his interpretive advice to Spalatin there. He continues his instructions to Spalatin by underscoring that the interpreter must be familiar with the biblical stories and humble enough to seek exegetical help: Then, having achieved this despairing humility, read the Scriptures in order from beginning to end so as to get the substance of the story in your mind (as I believe you have already done long since). Saint Jerome’s epistles and commentaries will be of great help in this. But for an understanding of Christ and the grace of God (that is, for the hidden knowledge of the Spirit) Augustine and Ambrose seem to me far better guides, especially because it appears to me that Jerome Origenizes (that is, allegorizes) too much. I say this although it is contrary to the judgment of Erasmus. But you asked for my opinion and not for his.7 It is not surprising that, in just a few lines of advice, we find those elements that define Luther’s entire approach to Scripture. For example, he recommends a reading of the text that captures the “substance” of the larger scriptural story. Individual texts could then be interpreted in relation to the whole of Scripture. We also see that Luther does not forego the help of biblical commentators. He prefers those commentators whose interpretation of the text illuminated the “hidden knowledge of the Spirit,” that is, “Christ and the grace of God.”8 However, Luther warns against excess allegorizing in the vein of Origen. He still preferred the “plain” meaning of the text. Luther’s preference for the “plain” meaning of the text includes his reading of the Old Testament, which he often used to comfort the Christian. In this way, he takes the apostle Paul at his word: “For as much as was written beforehand, it was written for our instruction, in order that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4). Luther puts Paul’s description of the Old Testament into pastoral use. As one witness recalls from one of those famed table talks: I held a Psalter in my hand and he [Luther] inquired whether I found pleasure in it. “Do you find joy or sorrow in it?” I replied, “I have often derived consolation from it, but then Satan comes and asks what the psalms have to do with me.” He said, signing himself with the cross, “ ‘Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for us that we through,’ etc. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the dear Joseph, Rebecca, and Leah have no idea whatsoever that we are today reading narratives about them. David does not know that we now have his psalms in Germany and that we find comfort in them even as he did long ago. The Lord helped David, who put his trust in God. So he will also aid us who hope in him, for his word is yea and amen.”9 Here we see that Luther encouraged readers to see themselves in biblical figures, especially afflicted figures. As he wrote to a father grieving the loss of his son, “The Scriptures do not prohibit mourning and grieving over deceased children.”10 In this way, Luther’s admonition to capture the “substance” of the scriptural story did not gloss over an individual’s pain. He did not advise the afflicted to find their place in the grand narrative—rather, he advised them to find their salve in the way God healed the pain of those found in the sacred text. Of course, in his reading of either Testament, the crucified and risen Christ stood at the center of Luther’s hermeneutic. The centrality of Christ shines brightest when Luther consoles those afflicted by God’s wrath. As Luther wrote to a man who had been imprisoned and lost his wife, “What must distress us most is that God himself seems to be smiting us; yet it is from him that all our comfort is to come.”11 Moreover, Luther acknowledges that Christian suffering must look like divine wrath to an unbelieving world: “Thus it appears as if God has now attacked you, and your enemies can boast and say, ‘So fare these Christians; this is the reward of your new gospel.’ This is more than suffering and dying; it is being buried and descending into hell.”12 In these instances, Luther consoles the afflicted by accentuating the centrality of Christ in the word.13 For instance, in rebuking a brother’s sharp tongue, he wrote: Therefore, my dear brother, learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to pray to him and, despairing of yourself, say: “Thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, but I am thy sin. Thou has taken upon thyself what is mine and hast given to me what is thine. Thou has taken upon thyself what thou wast not and hast given to me what I was not.”14 Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one. For Christ dwells only in sinners. On this account he descended from heaven, where he dwelt among the righteous, to dwell among sinners. Meditate on this love of his and you will see his sweet consolation.15 If ever Luther’s words consoled those afflicted by fears of divine wrath, surely the dictum “Christ dwells only in sinners” did just that. One has to “learn” Christ and him crucified. Such learning takes place when one hears the word in affliction. While Luther’s consolations through the word are embedded in the muck and mire of medieval Europe, it turns out that his historical setting and hurts are not the sort of hermeneutical obstruction that some modern interpreters have railed about.16 As we near the completion of the first quarter of the twenty-first century, we find remarkable overlap between earliest Christianity, Luther’s day, our own day, and all the days in between.17 That is because, for believers of all eras—including our own—the Christian experience unfolds between the tension of hope in a crucified and risen Christ on the one hand and a world full of darkness and divine wrath on the other.18 It was within this tension that Luther penned his letters, which are teeming with timely correctives for those who critically engage in biblical interpretation and theological formation today, if they are willing to hear him. Martin Luther routinely consoled the afflicted. He consoled bereaved parents, widows, convalescents, and those engulfed by depression. He consoled those afflicted by uncertainties about doctrine, faith, forgiveness, the interpretation of Scripture, ecclesiastical practices, marriage, the politics of the day, and the like. In short, Luther consoled those whose bodies, minds, and hearts were racked by pain...