LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

ZWECK: LUTHER ON JAMES 57
Note a similar watering down, also in 1530, of strictures against the Epistle
to the Hebrews. Where he had previously written “This is contrary to all the
gospels and to St. Paul”, he now writes “this seems to be contrary to all the
gospels and to St. Paul”. 19
However, what cannot be debated is that, at least prior to 1530, Luther
did not for himself include the Epistle of St James in the canon of the New
Testament. He did not consider it to be part of his Bible. For him, it was not
Scripture. However, he regarded the extent of the canon to be an historical
question, not a dogmatic question. He therefore conceded to others the right
to differ from his judgement and to include James in their Bible.
7. DID LUTHER CHANGE HIS MIND ABOUT JAMES
Nor is there any indication that Luther changed his estimation of James
in later years. This is demonstrated a number of times in his Table Talk. For
example, one anecdote, probably from 1540, runs:
Only the Papists accept James on account of the righteousness by works,
but my opinion is that it is not the writing of an apostle, especially
because it calls faith body and the works soul. This is apparently absurd
and against Scripture. Some day I will use James to fire my stove. We
can adorn and excuse it, but only with great difficulties. 20
No one who has read deeply in Luther, and has come to understand his
theology of the Word, would find it possible for him to speak in this way
about a book that he considered to be part of the Bible. On the contrary, his
attitude toward Scripture was quite the reverse, as the following examples
demonstrate:
A single letter, yea, a single tittle, of Scripture counts for more than
heaven and earth. 21
It is impossible that there is a single letter in Paul which the entire church
should not follow and observe. 22
And so the entire Holy Scriptures are attributed to the Holy Ghost,
together with the outward Word and Sacrament, which touch and move
our outward ears and senses. … David will not countenance the words to
be ascribed to him. They are “pleasant, agreeable psalms of Israel,” he
says, but I did not make them up; rather, “the Spirit of the Lord has
19 AE 35:395 n. 45; emphasis added.
20 WA TR 5, no. 5854. Qtd John Michael Reu, Luther and the Scriptures (repr. The
Springfielder, August 1960): 26.
21 Qtd Preus 132f.
22 Qtd Preus 133.