the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

zuerzeigen einen rechtschaffen vnd vnstrefflichen Erbeiter, der da recht teile [give greek
here] das Wort der warheit.” 686
The term has not survived its sixteenth century origins, but its role in the history
of Lutheran theology begins with the philological work of Erasmus and Luther. A brief
detour into the way that these earlier theologians use the term will help understand
Weigel’s critical stance towards orthotomein. Although the Greek passage used the word
orthotomein, the literal sense of the word was not carried over to the Vulgate, which read
“recte tractare” (to treat or handle correctly). 687 Erasmus, basing himself on the Greek
text of his New Testament edition 1516, amended the Latin text to recte secante.” 688
Luther took Erasmus’ correction into his German translation (cited above), adding a gloss
in the margin to explain what the metaphor of cutting a text meant to him: “Das er nicht
das Gesetz vnd Euangelium in einander menge, sondern treibe das Gesetz, wider die
rohen, harten, boesen, vnd werff sie vnter das weltliche Recht oder in ban. Aber die
bloeden, betruebten, fromen, troeste er mit dem Euangelio.” (Perhaps it is this marginal
note that the Preacher is echoing when he tells the Layman to practice orthotomia rather
than mixing things together, vormengen.)
Separating the Law from the Gospel, as Luther notes in his gloss, is a fundamental
principle of Lutheran theology, serving not only as a guide to interpreting the Bible, but
also as the mark of the true theologian and the sign of a real Christian. 689 Correctly
686 In an earlier version of his Bible translation (from 1522), the text reads “schneytten” rather than “teilen”:
“Befleyß dich Gotte zuertzeygen eynen bewerten vnd vnuertaddelichen erbeytter, der da recht schneytte
das wort der warheyt.”
687 Danneberg, Säkularisierung in den Wissenschaften seit der Frühen Neuzeit: Die Anatomie des Text-
Körpers und Natur-Körpers, Vol. 3 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2003), 206.
688 Ibid.
689 From Luther’s commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1531): “Is locus de discrimine legis et
Evangelii scitu maxime necessarius est, quia continet summam totius Christianae doctrinae. Ideo quisque
diligenter discat discernere legem ab Evangelio, non tantum verbis, sed etiam ipso affectu et experientia,
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