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WesleyF
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What is “sola scriptura” in Martin Luther’s understanding?
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Isaiah45_9
Guest
A Lutheran will probably give you exactly what it is. But from what I have read, I can only conclude that Luther saw “Sola Scriptura” as a way to avoid Church Leaders to run amok and being accountable to something that is free from collusion or influence. At the time, Scriptures fit that bill. What he probably didn’t see coming was the way the concept exploded to others just seeking an excuse to “free” themselves from the Church and start their own school of theology. Keeping in mind that originally Luther did not want to separate from the Church. He wanted to reform from within. But who do you go to when the highest authority office doesn’t want to listen to you?
Jesus said: If there’s a problem, bring it to the attention of whoever caused it (95 thesis)
If they don’t listen bring witnesses and present the problem in front of them (Luther told Eck that if he (Eck) could show him (Luther) in Scriptures where he (Luther) was wrong, then he would recant.
If they still don’t listen, bring it to the Church… we know how that ended.
Luther was stubborn and I suspect he suffered from mental problems, I have read that he had a psychological crisis every 5-6 years. He was also very stubborn and a potty mouth.
If the Church would have listen and Luther would have been more humble things would have been much more different… But nothing is impossible for our Lord!
Peace,
Jose
Just my 2 pennies
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Hounchell1945
Guest
The plain definition would be, “One can discover all one needs to know from the Bible
alone in order to find and obtain God’s redemption and Salvation”
No need for a Church or other Christians. Martin Luther taught that each person
as an individual had the same rights as the Pope when it came to translating God’s
Will from the truth of God being sent to each person directly through the scriptures.
I guess it would be proper to say: “You the Holy Spirit and the Bible alone”
Oddly enough, most Lutherans probably would not be able to define Luther’s own opinion regardnig it. What’s important to Lutherans is the definition of sola scriptura in the Lutheran confessions.
Sola scriptura, for a Lutheran, is a practice of the Church for hermeunetics, not personal interpretation. It is the holding accountable all teachers, doctrine, etc. to scripture as the final norm. It doesn’t exclude Tradition, and it doesn’t say that I can choose to believe whatever I want (regarding doctrine), and still call myself Lutheran. Lutherans are bound to the Lutheran Confessions, most notably the early Creeds, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, and The Small Catechism.
Jon
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ivebeenshown
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Eh… more like the holding accountable of all teachers, doctrine, etc. to one’s own interpretation of scripture as the final norm when put into practice, as evidenced by all of the Sola Scriptura groups at variance with each other. Scripture does not verbally talk to people and say ‘no, that is wrong, but this is right’ like a person would. That’s why we were given the Church, to be the pillar and foundation of the truth.
What other groups choose to do or believe is their business. Talk to them about that. I was speaking of the Lutheran practice, since the question was about Luther. Further, it is safe to say that communions that practice Tradition and Scripture are also at variance with each other - Orthodox, Old Catholics, PNCC. Is the Catholic Church to beheld accountable for what they believe? Then neither are Lutherans accountable for what, for example, Calvinists believe.
Jon
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Uli
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The most Protestants believe that. Evangelicalism like Baptism and Methodism, Fundamentalism like Calvinism and Zwinglianism and Pseudoprotestamtism like Lutherism and Anglicanism. But we Catholics have the hole Gospel (Mt 28.20), whereas not all is in the Bible (Joh 21.25), but in the Traditon, too (1 Cor 11.2).
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pablope
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So Jon…you do not care or are not concerned about the doctrinal spats that resulted from Luther’s rebellion or disregard for the bishop’s authority?
You do not care about what the splitting the Reformation has caused? The disunity? So…you not feel concerned about what the various denoms that split from Luther are teaching? It seems…you only care for your own world?
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pablope
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I have requested Lutheran posters here to provide the actual definition of what SS is according to Luther…none have been able to provide what Luther actually taught or sai SS is or what should it be.
It seems a development of doctrine from the Lutherans…or a development of understanding or a development of practice.
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Dave_Noonan
Guest
Out of the many, many volumes of Luther’s written works, I think he only uses the expression a few times.
Of course I care. I am also concerned about the division that resulted in the abuse of power and corruption among the bishops in his time. The issue today is not what Luther did, or what Rome did. It isn’t even what Luther believed. The issue today is how do Lutherans and Catholics come to reconciliation regarding what each confession teaches. And for Lutherans, what our confession teaches is not synonymous with what Luther the man taught and believed.
Again, yes, but I do not place the blame or fault exclusively with either side. The fact is there are scant few denoms that split from Luther. The bigger problem in Lutheranism is the drift away from orthodox Lutheranism by some of our own.
I am concerned for those who teach in error, but I as a Lutheran am neither responsible for their teaching, nor can I speak for them. They must speak for themselves.
Jon
And I have provided you this from the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration:
bookofconcord.org/sd-ruleandnorm.php
But you are welcome to seek out his Latin preface to see if Chemnitz and the other writers of the FoC were being honest in their assessment.
Jon
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Judas_Thaddeus
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Martin Luther didn’t believe in Sola Scriptura, he believed in “His Scriptura”, see-
ing how he discounted many books and added the word “alone” to Romans 3:28.
ing how he discounted many books and added the word “alone” to Romans 3:28.
Aside from the fact that he did not “add alone”, but instead translated Greek into German, your polemic here falls apart by the reference I gave from the Formula of Concord:
*…Dr. Luther himself in the Latin preface to his published works has given necessary and Christian admonition concerning his writings, and has expressly drawn this distinction namely, that the Word of God alone should be and remain the only standard and rule of doctrine, to which the writings of no man should be regarded as equal, but to which everything should be subjected. *
In other words, Luther here is saying, as related by the Formula of Concord authors, that his words are never to be considered equal to scripture.
Jon
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Judas_Thaddeus
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But he DID add the word “alone”:…you ask why in translating the words of Paul in the 3rd chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, Arbitramur hominem iustificari ex fide absque operibus, I rendered them, “We hold that a man is justified without the works of the law, by faith alone,” and you also tell me that the papists are causing a great fuss because Paul’s text does not contain the word sola (alone), and that MY ADDITION**** to the words of God is not to be tolerated.
But I will return to the subject at hand. If your papist wishes to make a great fuss about the word sola (alone), say this to him: “Dr. Martin Luther will have it so, and he says that a papist and a donkey are the same thing.”
Let this be the answer to your first question. Please do not give these donkeys any other answer to their useless braying about that word sola than simply this: “Luther will have it so, and he says that he is a doctor above all the doctors of the pope.” Let it rest there.
I know very well that in Romans 3 the word solum is not in the Greek or Latin text — the papists did not have to teach me that. It is **fact **that the letters s-o-l-a are not there.
It is my Testament and my translation, and it shall remain mine.
-(An Open Letter on Translating)
“Dr. Martin Luther will have it so.”
-(An Open Letter on Translating)
“Dr. Martin Luther will have it so.”
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thenobes
Guest
So he felt that his idea of sola scriptura was also fallible then? Seems to be a fallacy there somewhere.
edit Ok ok you could say that about me and my choice of following Tradition, Scripture, and the Magisterium.
peace
steve
So, why did you stop your quote from the open letter there?
"I know very well that in Romans 3 the word solum is not in the Greek or Latin text — the papists did not have to teach me that. It is fact that the letters s-o-l-a are not there.
And these blockheads stare at them like cows at a new gate, while at the same time they do not recognize that it conveys the sense of the text –* if the translation is to be clear and vigorous [klar und gewaltiglich], it belongs there. I wanted to speak German, not Latin or Greek**, since it was German I had set about to speak in the translation.”*
He recognizes it is not in Greek or Latin. He also recognizes that Greek and Latin do not necessarily translate directly, word for word, to German or any other language for that matter. So, for the meaning to be clear in German, alien is needed. In the English, “alone” is not needed. Hence, no English translation that I know of has “alone” in Romans 3:28.
You can dispute Luther’s translation assessment, but at least be honest by posting the whole thought.
Jon
PS: I can use large print, too.
Do you mean because he refused to put his words at the level of scripture? I have no idea how he felt about the practice, other than he was convinced that Tradition was not consistent, that it at times had contradictions.
It just that we don’t see “infallibility” in the same way Catholics do. Something doesn’t have to be infallible to be right, and being right does not necessarily mean being infallible.
We can accept the three Creeds as right, without saying that the writers were infallible in the writing. We can say the 7 General councils of the Church were right, and even authoritative, without saying they are infallible.
Jon
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thenobes
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