Words And Faith

October 28, 2007     Reformation Sunday

Jeremiah 31:31-34             Psalm 46

Romans 3:19-28         St. John 8:31-36

I have received your letter with the question, or inquiry, to which you ask my reply. Why in translating the words of Paul, in the third chapter of Romans (3:28), I rendered them thus: "We hold that man is justified without the works of the law, only by faith"?

I shall show why I chose to use the word sola, though in Romans 3:1, it was not sola, but solum or tantum that I used. I have constantly tried, in translating to produce a pure and clear German, and it has often happened that for two or three or four weeks we have sought and asked for a single word, and sometimes have not found it even then. In working at the book of Job, I could sometimes scarcely finish three lines in four days. Now that it is translated and complete, anyone can read and criticize it, and one now runs his eyes over three or four pages and does not stumble once. But he is not aware of the humps and lumps that were there, where now he slips along as over a planed board, while we had to sweat and toil to get the humps and lumps out of the way so that one could slide over it so finely.

Here, in Romans 3:1, I know right well that the word solum was not in the Greek or Latin text and had no need of others to teach me that. It is a fact that these four letters s-o-l-a are not there, and at these letters they stare, like a cow at a new door. At the same time they do not see that the sense of them is there and that the word belongs there if the translation is to be clear and strong. I wanted to speak German, not Latin or Greek, since I had undertaken to speak German in the translation. But it is the nature of our German language that in speaking of two things, one of which is admitted and the other denied, we use the word "only" along with the word "not" or "no." So we say, "The farmer brings only grain and no money"; "No, I have no money now, but only grain"; "I have only eaten and not drunk"; "Did you only write it, and not read it over?" There are innumerable cases of this kind in daily use. In all these phrases it is the German usage, even though it is not the Latin or Greek usage, and it is the way of the German language to add the word "only," in order that the word "not" or "no" may be more complete and clearer. To be sure, I can also say, "The farmer brings grain and no money," but the words "no money" do not sound as full and clear as if I were to say, "The farmer brings only grain and no money." Here the word "only" helps the word "no" so much that it becomes a complete, clear, German phrase. We must not ask the Latin letters how we are to speak German; but we must ask the mother in the home, the children on the street, the common man in the marketplace about this, and look them in the mouth to see how they speak, and afterwards do our translating. That way they understand it and mark that one is speaking German to them.

Judas the traitor, in Matthew 26:8, literally translated says: "Why has this loss of the ointment happened?" But what kind of German is that? What German says, "Loss of the ointment has happened"? If he understands that at all, he thinks that the ointment is lost, and must be looked for and found again, though even that is obscure and uncertain. But a German man says, "Why this waste?" or "Why this loss? The ointment is ruined." That is good German, from which it is understood that Magdalene wasted the ointment that she poured out, and did damage. That was what Judas meant; he thought he knew a better way to dispose of it.

This I can testify with a good conscience, I have been faithful and diligent to the utmost in this work and have never had a false thought. All that I am and have is of His grace and mercy, nay, of His dear blood and His bitter sweat. Therefore, God willing, all of it shall serve to His honor, joyfully and sincerely.

On the other hand, I have not disregarded literal meanings too freely, but with my helpers, I have been very careful to see that when a passage is important, I have kept the literal meaning, and not departed freely from it.

For example, in John 6:27, Christ says, "Him hath God the Father sealed." It would have been better German to say, "On him hath God the Father put His mark," or "It is he whom God the Father means." But I preferred to do violence to the German language, rather than depart from the words. Translating is not an art that everyone can practice, it requires a right pious, faithful, diligent, God-fearing, experienced, practiced heart. Therefore I hold that no false Christian, or sectarian, can be a faithful translator. So much for translating and the nature of the languages!

Now, however, I was not only relying on the nature of the languages and following that when, in Romans 3:28, I inserted the word solum, "only," but the text itself and the sense of St. Paul demanded it and forced it upon me. He is dealing, in that passage, with the main point of Christian doctrine, that is, we are justified by faith in Christ, without any works of the law. He cites Abraham as an example and says that he was justified so entirely without works, that even the highest work, which had then been newly commanded by God, before and above all other works, namely circumcision, did not help him to righteousness, but he was justified by faith, without circumcision and without any works at all. So he says, in Chapter 4, "If Abraham was justified by works, he may glory, but not before God." But when works are so completely cut away, the meaning of it must be that faith alone justifies, and one who would speak plainly and clearly about this cutting away of all works, must say, "Faith alone justifies us, and not works".

Now it is only Christ's death and resurrection that make us free from sin, and righteous, as Paul says in Romans 4:25, "He died for our sins and rose for our justification." Tell me, further, what is the work by which we seize and hold Christ's death and resurrection? It cannot be any external work, but only the eternal faith that is in the heart. Faith alone, nay, all alone, without any works, seizes this death and resurrection when it is preached by the Gospel. Why then, this raging and raving, this heretic making and burning at the stake, when the case is so plain and well founded, and it is proved that faith alone seizes Christ's death and resurrection, without any works, and that His death and resurrection are our life and our righteousness? Since, then, it is so clear that only faith brings us, grasps for us, and gives us this life and righteousness, why should we not say so? It is no heresy that faith alone lays hold on Christ and gives life; and yet it must be heresy, if anyone says it.

I am not the only one or the first to say that faith alone justifies. Ambrose said it before me, and Augustine and many others; and if a man is going to read St. Paul and understand him, he will have to say the same thing and can say nothing else. Paul's words are too strong; they endure no works, none at all; and if it is not a work, it must be faith alone. How could it be such a fine, improving inoffensive doctrine, if people were taught that they might become righteous by works, beside faith? That would be as much as to say that it was not Christ's death alone that takes away our sins, but that our works, too, did something toward it; and it would be a fine honoring of Christ's death to say that our works helped it and could do that which He does, and that we were good and strong like Him. This is of the devil, who cannot leave the blood of Christ without abuse!

The matter itself demands, then, that it be said, "Faith alone justifies," and the nature of our German language teaches us to express it that way. I have the precedent of the holy Fathers also, and the peril of the people compels me to it, so that they may not continue to hang upon works and be without faith, and lose Christ, especially in these days, when they have been so long accustomed to works and have to be torn away from them by force.

Therefore, it is not only right but highly necessary to speak out as plainly and fully as possible, and say, "Faith alone, without works, justifies." I am only sorry that I did not also add the words alle and, and say, "without any works of any laws," so that it would have been said fully and roundly. Therefore it shall stay in my New Testament.