Armchair Book Review: Luther's Commentary on Galatians

 

Martin Luther's greatest commentary has been "digitally remastered" as it will in this new edition.

Luther has lectured on several books of the Bible. Romans gets a lot of attention because of how Luther himself attributes later his Reformation breakthrough to that book and we can see early development of justification by faith really starting to take shape within that commentary. However, as Green notes in How Melanchthon Helped Luther Discover the Gospel (review here) Luther's mature theology of justification, especially of forensic justification is not fully developed yet at that time. Green argues that for one to really see the mature Luther, one should read his 1535 Commentary on Galatians developed from his lectures on the book. It is important to note the edition as Luther also lectured on Galatians in 1519. But that edition - like his Romans commentary - is at the time of Luther's own development of Reformation Evangelical theology and far smaller in size than this edition.

Serious readers in Luther definitely need this book for this reason. There are few works of Luther that compare in size or depth, especially with that Mature Luther theology Green speaks of. Along with works like Bondage of the Will this is a Hallmark Luther masterpiece. Don't expect a quick read, as Luther says at the start of his preface "I can hardly believe I was so wordy" and that is an understatement. But because of his excessive size, you will get justification like hardly anywhere else in Luther's works. You will get comparisons to scholastic belief and pastoral concern that we see often in Luther, but you will get much more nuanced pieces as well. The work is particularly importantly towards Luther's theologies of the simul (the Christian being simultaneously saint and sinner), how God is revealed, the bondage of the will, and the proper distinction of Law and Gospel. Because of the situation Paul faces with the church in Galatia the book works well for Luther and engaging his own contemporary issues. The book features Luther's uncompromising style, and his commentary along with discussing modern issues or the theological implications of the verse often also include his homiletical style of paraphrasing. There are many moments in which he says things along the lines of "It is as if Paul were saying..." followed by a quotation to help one have a better understanding of the text. 

Now as I got this edition from 1517 Publishing, already having a copy from the American Edition of Luther's Works (vol 26-27), similar to my review of 1517's Freedom of a Christian I was particularly interested in how this edition stacked up against the competition. And my review in that respect could not be higher as this edition certainly surpasses that of LW's. Here are several things I noticed in comparison:

• Yes I know, you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. But we do. Whereas with Freedom of a Christian my critique centered on the cover, I couldn't be more pleased with this one (pictured above). I mean, there is just no getting around it: it's cool. And along with being cool it evokes the idea that you're going to get Luther taking to the mic, getting the word out. It evokes the right image. Also, it gives you some really important information - that it is the later 1535 edition of his commentary on Galatians not his 1519 one, that it is a commentary that is actually developed from his lecture notes, and that it is put into today's English. I've commented in the past on 1517's nice matte covers and this one is no different.
• Economically speaking this edition is nicer than the LW because it comes in a single edition whereas the LW copy requires two volumes (owing in large part to the 1519 Commentary also being included). Yet as a single edition it does not suffer greatly from font size or spacing. This is something 1517 in general needs to be commended on again. As I am currently reading Bo Giertz's commentary on the synoptics (expect a review on that in the future), I have noticed how there is actually quite a bit crammed into a single page, but it doesn't feel crammed when reading, one has to take sort of a backed up view to realize just how much they've actually done that. This tells me 1517 has done well in finding a font, size, and spacing that gets the most without making the reading experience suffer. While this book is in no means a large print book, and might be hard for those who old eyes, I had absolutely no objection to its size.
• I was surprised to find that LW did not even include Luther's prefaces but only his introductory summation of Paul's argument in Galatians. This is sad, especially because some of Luther's wit comes through in this part of the book. Like his outline of the book given the mock title "Let's Hear it for Self-Righteousness and its Fifty Select Virtues Resulting from Works! As Penned by the Apostle Paul to the Galatians" in which he highlights from the chapters fifty claims of Paul about justification by works that immediately show why they are contrary to the Gospel of justification. 
• The overall layout of the book is superior as well to LW. The use of bold for highlighting when we moved on to a new verse made for more noticeable transitions when paging through than LW's italics. It also allowed the headings for argument transitions (which were done like LW in italics) to be more distinguishable from the verse transitions. Additionally, LW put where we were in the commentary in the inner margin of the header whereas 1517's puts it more noticeably in the center of the header. These little things made for subtle but noticeable improvements on the reading experience. Another detail that this includes that LW does not is the dates and breaks of the lectures.
• The work is full of translator footnotes. I'm an absolute fan of footnotes (as I lamented in my review of Green who used endnotes). Most of the footnotes are merely sharing the original Latin, which though I am not proficient in even I was still able to find at times inciteful. And had I a better grasp of the language I would imagine would be very helpful. There were at times also references to word plays, historical references, and differences from other English editions. All these make for a good scholastic edition and therefore give this book a place in academia.
• The book however is not falsely advertising when it says "in today's English" on the cover. I found that as I held it side by side with my LW edition the English was definitely smoother and the work superior. This was really important because one of the questions I asked myself as I looked at this work was "why would I want this edition over against the others that are already out there?" As you can hopefully see, it is my belief that this work is worth the buy.
• There are some sections italicized and referenced as left out of the first English translations that were included in this edition. However, I am unsure as to what editions these may be and if any are new enough that readers may likely still be using them. The sections I checked against LW were included in that edition. But it's worth noting that some editions are inferior to this in regards to whole paragraphs missing.
• There are sections where there exists some decent amount of differentiation in translation. I was surprised at the way one translation would put a phrase in the preceding to succeeding sentence as opposed to the other. There were even areas where they did not both include or agree on a scriptural reference. I was also confused by how even some of the headings/delineations to new verses did not always agree. Not having the original I'm unsure as to which edition is closer to Luther or taking more liberties. But I was surprised to see this happen. I also noticed that this edition often split some paragraphs from the LW edition, which was helpful again on the eyes and overall layout of the book.

Overall, one of Luther's monumental achievements has received a commendable new look and is a worthy investment even for those who already possess predecessor copies. Translator Haroldo Camacho has done a commendable job in producing an edition that will serve academia as well as readers looking for Luther in more accessible English than some past editions. Luther's paraphrase of Paul's meaning of the final verse may just as well stand for his own intentions in these lectures: 

I have taught Christ to you with all purity, I have urged you, I have reproached you, I have not left anything undone that would be of benefit to you. There is nothing else I could have told you. But with all my heart I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ bless and multiply my effort and govern you by His Spirit throughout eternity.

Armchair Grade: A, 9/10