LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

ZWECK: LUTHER ON JAMES 67
preaches Christ would be apostolic, even if Judas, Annas, Pilate, and
Herod were doing it. 46
Although the graphic way in which Luther expresses himself here gives
ample opportunity for the stupid or the malicious to start up any number of
hares, what he says is profoundly true.
Note, first of all, that Luther is not setting up a test here by means of
which one may judge within Scripture between that which is Word of God
and that which is not Word of God. On the contrary, his reference to “all the
genuine sacred books” makes it clear that he is concerned here about the
distinction between that which is Scripture (“all the Scriptures”) and that
which is not Scripture (compare the “true chief books of”). As we have
seen above, passage after passage in Luther indicates that if something is
Scripture it is Word of God. Luther is here speaking of a criterion of
canonicity itself, not of a criterion for a “canon within the canon”. He is
spelling out a canonical principle, not only a hermeneutical rule. In this, he
was imitating the early church.
In keeping with this principle, the Lutheran Church has always insisted
that division in the church is permissible only where the Gospel itself is at
stake.
The “not yet” in the above citation from Luther was changed in 1530
from the simple “not”. This does not necessarily imply any change of
meaning. It was, presumably, an attempt to help those who are dull in
understanding to get the point. The point is that true apostolicity includes
not only that which originates from an apostle, but also that which does
what an apostle by definition (Acts 1:16-21) does: bear witness to Christ.
If we wish to insist that apostolicity is limited in meaning to that which
originates from an apostle, we create all sorts of problems for ourselves. We
would have to maintain, for example, that every grocery list written out by
St Paul, was canonical. We would also have to consider the first (I
Corinthians 5:9) and third (II Corinthians 2:4) letters of St Paul to the
Christians in Corinth to be lost Scriptures, even though no one in the ancient
church ever considered them to be Scripture. 47 We would also create for
ourselves problems concerning the unapostolic behaviour of St Peter in
Antioch (Galatians 2:11-14), or indeed of St Paul himself (John Mark [Acts
15:36-40]).
What about the hypothetical apostolicity of statements of the various
unsavoury characters mentioned by Luther We surely have an example of
46 AE 35:396.
47 Martin Franzmann, The Word of the Lord Grows: A First Historical Introduction to
the New Testament (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961) 82, 96.