Comments on: Luther’s view on four books of New Testament

By: luciasclay

luciasclay — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:21:19 +0000

The irony to me is that Luther includes the four books you reference in his “Bible” in the same way as he includes the Dueterocanonicals. And yet my protestant upbringing, and most I talk to, will declare he rejected the Duetero’s and accepted these 4 books brushing away the issue by saying “ultimately he put them in”.

What I find even more startling is that Luther threw out James for, among other things, not speaking of the passion of Christ. Yet if Luther had understood the Wisdom of Solomon’s prophetic nature in the 1st and 2nd chapters, and their centrality to everything in the NT, he would have seen James directly referring to the passion when he said the entire passage ending with “You have killed the righteous man”. But Luther didn’t understand the nature of Wisdom of Solomon despite lamenting what a central role it played in the Church.

By: vivator

vivator — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 03:56:31 +0000

“There is no protestant axe to grind against James but Luther’s. Furthermore, Luther was not the sum of reformation as some people think.” The post is meant to raise awareness of this fact and as you wrote some do think Luther was the sum, or I should say hero (or whistle blower?) of Reformation.

By: Newchasm

Newchasm — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:55:53 +0000

I don’t see the jump to not being apostolic except for James. In this he states his ‘opinion’ without trying to prejudice others to it. I see the rest as if Luther trying to argue what is of higher caliber. He throws in authorship only to try and give weight to apostles over their immediate followers. The problem with it is that this would exclude Paul if applied elsewhere. He is inconsistent and alone in his opinion. There is no protestant axe to grind against James but Luther’s. Furthermore, Luther was not the sum of reformation as some people think.

The only ground Luther has in what he says is over the books of higher caliber and clarity. John is clearly exhalted by Luther because it does most clearly teaches salvation and the trinity. I would even recommend it to others for that end. Unlike Luther, I feel no need to denegrate books to promote it.