Luther’s
Works

Volume 34

Career of the Reformer

IV

Lewis W. Spitz

Editor

Helmut T. Lehmann

General Editor

Fortress Press / Philadelphia

© 1960 by Fortress Press

Library of Congress Catalogue Number 55-9893

ISBN 0-8006-0334-6

General Introduction

The first editions of Luther’s collected works appeared in the sixteenth century, and so did the first efforts to make him “speak English.” In America serious attempts in these directions were made for the first time in the nineteenth century. The Saint Louis edition of Luther was the first endeavor on American soil to publish a collected edition of his works, and the Henkel Press in Newmarket, Virginia, was the first to publish some of Luther’s writings in an English translation. During the first decade of the twentieth century, J. N. Lenker produced translations of Luther’s sermons and commentaries in thirteen volumes. A few years later the first of the six volumes in the Philadelphia (or Holman) edition of the Works of Martin Luther appeared. Miscellaneous other works were published at one time or another. But a growing recognition of the need for more of Luther’s works in English has resulted in this American edition of Luther’s works.

The edition is intended primarily for the reader whose knowledge of late medieval Latin and sixteenth-century German is too small to permit him to work with Luther in the original languages. Those who can, will continue to read Luther in his original words as these have been assembled in the monumental Weimar edition (D. Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe; Weimar, 1883 ff.). Its texts and helps have formed a basis for this edition, though in certain places we have felt constrained to depart from its readings and findings. We have tried throughout to translate Luther as he thought translating should be done. That is, we have striven for faithfulness on the basis of the best lexicographical materials available. But where literal accuracy and clarity have conflicted, it is clarity that we have preferred, so that sometimes paraphrase seemed more faithful than literal fidelity. We have proceeded in a similar way in the matter of Bible versions, translating Luther’s translations. Where this could be done by the use of an existing English version—King James, Douay, or Revised Standard—we have done so. Where it could not, we have supplied our own. To indicate this in each specific instance would have been pedantic; to adopt a uniform procedure would have been artificial—especially in view of Luther’s own inconsistency in this regard. In each volume the translator will be responsible primarily for matters of text and language, while the responsibility of the editor will extend principally to the historical and theological matters reflected in the introductions and notes.

Although the edition as planned will include fifty-five volumes, Luther’s writings are not being translated in their entirety. Nor should they be. As he was first to insist, much of what he wrote and said ...