Sounds like an angry response. It was. But is was not as you have portrayed it. His translation was being lifted by others and claimed for their own.
I think I’d be angry, too.
Why did he insert the word solum?
If you quote the Open Letter on Translating, please quote in context.
Be that as it may, even this, taken out of the context of the letter, does not support your charge that he thought he was the authoirty, not the Bible.
As for “It was up to Luther to determine the truth by determining which books didn’t meet with his approval.” Luther was a theologian. He was far from alone in discussing the canonicity of any of the books he questioned. It is what theologians do. They discuss and question things. If your charge fits Luther, it fits a host of other theologians of his time, before, and since, Catholic, Orthodox and protestant.
If you disagree with Luther’s POV on canonicity, or his understanding of the German language of his time regarding Romans 3:28, that’s fine. Personally, I can’t say one way or another since I don’t know German. Perhaps you are a German scholar and can. And btw, “alone” isn’t in any English translation I know of.
I take umbrage at what appears to be an attack on his faith and character, and what was in his heart.
Maybe you are right, but you can’t know that anymore than I can know your heart or Leo’s. Only God can know that, and we do best by not questioning the hearts of others.
beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2006/02/luther-added-word-alone-to-romans-328.html
Jon