"Silver and gold have I none: but such as I have give I thee."
Somewhat in the spirit of these words Luther had planned to dedicate a
small book to his host of the Wartburg, Hans von Berlepsch. For a time
Luther had thought that von Berlepsch himself was bearing the expense
of his entertainment in that retreat, and that he was being more
royally treated than he deserved. Not only the material comforts with
which he was surrounded appealed to him, however. Von Berlepsch was
interested in Luther and in Luther's work. He talked with him
seriously on religious questions, and expressed a desire to have more
information, particularly concerning the authority of the teachings of
the Roman Church which had no direct warrant in Scripture.
To this desire of von Berlepsch we can trace the origin of our
treatise, That the Doctrines of Men are to be Rejected. There is no
dedication to von Berlepsch, however, and no reference to the months
of companionship on the Wartburg. Luther returned from the Wartburg
early in March, 1522, and on the 28th of March sent the first part of
the treatise to Spalatin, with the request that it be forwarded to von
Berlepsch. The second part, the Reply to Texts Quoted in Defence of
the Doctrines of Men, was added in a second edition.
This was not the only writing forwarded to von Berlepsch in memory of
the pleasant days spent on the Wartburg. Perhaps of even greater
interest was the gift sent on September 25, 1522--one of the first
complete copies of the German New Testament.
Buchwald has called our treatise "a model of sound explanation of the
Scriptures for the purpose of refuting error." We must caution the
reader, however, not to think of Luther's occasional statements
concerning the authority of Scripture as final. Luther is still
largely upon medieval ground, accepting the premise of the Roman
Church, and refuting the practice of the popes, priests and monks from
the fundamental assumption of the authority of the Scriptures. The
succeeding years, the controversies with the leaders of the peasants
and with the heavenly prophets, led him to clearer views. Where in
this treatise he wrote, "The same things which are found in the Books
of Moses are found in the others. For the other books do no more than
show how in the course of history the word of Moses was kept or not
kept," he was thinking of the one Gospel which he found everywhere in
the Scriptures. But he distinguished carefully between the permanent
and the temporary in the Books of Moses and elsewhere, and speaks of
"that which God has decreed" in the Old Testament as having "come to
an end, and no longer binding the consciences of men" (p. 442). That
which is permanent is the Gospel, "for it is beyond question that all
the Scriptures point to Christ alone" (p. 432). Probably the clearest
statement of his views is found in a sermon preached in 1527: "The
Word was given in many ways from the beginning. We must not only ask
whether it is God's Word, whether God spoke it, but much more, to whom
He spoke it, whether it applies to you or to another." "The false
prophets rush in and say, 'Dear people, this is God's Word.' It is
true, and we cannot deny it; but we are not the people to whom He
speaks" (_Erl. Ed._, 33, 16.)
In reading the treatise, therefore, it will be well to consider when
it was written and for whom; and not to think of it as a final
statement of Luther's views on the authority of the Scriptures.
The treatise is found in the original German in Weimar Ed., X2; in
Erlangen, 28, 318-343; in Berlin, 2, 289-314.