Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians

COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS

(1535)

By Martin Luther

Translated by Theodore Graebner




PREFACE

The preparation of this edition of Luther’s Commentary on Galatians was
first suggested to me by Mr. P. J. Zondervan, of the firm of publishers,
in March, 1937. The consultation had the twofold merit of definiteness
and brevity.

“Luther is still the greatest name in Protestantism. We want you to
help us publish some leading work of Luther’s for the general American
market. Will you do it?”

“I will, on one condition.”

“And what is that?”

“The condition is that I will be permitted to make Luther talk American,
‘streamline’ him, so to speak--because you will never get people,
whether in or outside the Lutheran Church, actually to read Luther
unless we make him talk as he would talk today to Americans.”

I illustrated the point by reading to Mr. Zondervan a few sentences from
an English translation lately reprinted by an American publisher, of one
of Luther’s outstanding reformatory essays.

The demonstration seemed to prove convincing for it was agreed that one
may as well offer Luther in the original German or Latin as expect the
American church-member to read any translations that would adhere to
Luther’s German or Latin constructions and employ the Mid-Victorian type
of English characteristic of the translations now on the market.

“And what book would be your choice?”

“There is one book that Luther himself likes better than any other. Let
us begin with that: his Commentary on Galatians...”

The undertaking, which seemed so attractive when viewed as a literary
task, proved a most difficult one, and at times became oppressive.
The Letter to the Galatians consists of six short chapters. Luther’s
commentary fills seven hundred and thirty-three octavo pages in the
Weidman Edition of his works. It was written in Latin. We were resolved
not to present this entire mass of exegesis. It would have run to more
than fifteen hundred pages, ordinary octavo (like this), since it
is impossible to use the compressed structure of sentences which is
characteristic of Latin, and particularly of Luther’s Latin. The work
had to be condensed. German and English translations are available,
but the most acceptable English version, besides laboring under the
handicaps of an archaic style, had to be condensed into half its volume
in order to accomplish the “streamlining” of the book. Whatever merit
the translation now presented to the reader may possess should be
written to the credit of Rev. Gerhardt Mahler of Geneva, N.Y., who came
to my assistance in a very busy season by making a rough draft of the
translation and later preparing a revision of it, which forms the basis
of the final draft submitted to the printer. A word should now be said
about the origin of Luther’s Commentary on Galatians.

The Reformer had lectured on this Epistle of St. Paul’s in 1519 and
again in 1523. It was his favorite among all the Biblical books. In his
table talks the saying is recorded: “The Epistle to the Galatians is
my epistle. To it I am as it were in wedlock. It is my Katherine.” Much
later when a friend of his was preparing an edition of all his Latin
works, he remarked to his home circle: “If I had my way about it
they would republish only those of my books which have doctrine. My
Galatians, for instance.” The lectures which are preserved in the works
herewith submitted to the American public were delivered in 1531. They
were taken down by George Roerer, who held something of a deanship
at Wittenberg University and who was one of Luther’s aids in the
translation of the Bible. Roerer took down Luther’s lectures and this
manuscript has been preserved to the present day, in a copy which
contains also additions by Veit Dietrich and by Cruciger, friends of
Roerer’s, who with him attended Luther’s lectures. In other words, these
three men took down the lectures which Luther addressed to his students
in the course of Galatians, and Roerer prepared the manuscript for
the printer. A German translation by Justus Menius appeared in the
Wittenberg Edition of Luther’s writings, published in 1539.

The importance of this Commentary on Galatians for the history of
Protestantism is very great. It presents like no other of Luther’s
writings the central thought of Christianity, the justification of the
sinner for the sake of Christ’s merits alone. We have permitted in the
final revision of the manuscript many a passage to stand which seemed
weak and ineffectual when compared with the trumpet tones of the Latin
original. But the essence of Luther’s lectures is there. May the reader
accept with indulgence where in this translation we have gone too far in
modernizing Luther’s expression--making him “talk American.”

At the end of his lectures in 1531, Luther uttered a brief prayer and
then dictated two Scriptural texts, which we shall inscribe at the end
of these introductory remarks:

“The Lord who has given us power to teach and to hear, let Him also give
us the power to serve and to do.”

                 LUKE 2

          Glory to God in the highest,
          And on earth peace,
          Good will to men.


                    ISAIAH 40

         The Word of our God shall stand forever.


THEODORE GRAEBNER

St.