# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1855_S155
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Original Form of the Small Catechism, etc. 155

of Peter Prätorius’s falsified catechism of 1568: “The questions printed at the back after the catechism were composed not by Luther but by Dr. Lang at Erfurt, and were also first printed at Erfurt under Luther’s name” (by this he means the aforementioned writings of Judex from 1564), “and they were never reprinted at Wittenberg” (this probably means after or at the back of the catechism), “except only once” (namely, in 1551); “nor will they be printed again, because Luther does not wish to have another’s work attributed to him.” This testimony of Walther is the only reason Bertram gives on p. 102 of his literary treatises for his assertion that the Questions were composed not by Dr. Luther but by his friend Johann Lange. They also appear in the Göttingen Church Order of 1568.

Whether they originated with Dr. Luther himself or with one of his associates, the great similarity of some of them to passages in Luther’s writings is in any case unmistakable. Thus the answer to Question 19 is a summary of what is developed more fully in the Large Catechism, in the exhortation to receive the Holy Supper frequently: namely, how Christ’s command, His promise, and our own need should admonish and urge us to do so (New York edition, pp. 791–795). The same is true of the answer to Question 20. It summarizes the counsel given there (p. 796 ff.) to those who do not feel their need, which in turn agrees with the conclusion of the preface to the Small Catechism beginning with the words: “But whoever does not highly esteem the Sacrament, etc.” A very similar and exceptionally forceful answer to Question 20 is also found in Luther’s Exhortation to the Sacrament, which he probably had published at Coburg in 1530. (W. X, 2705 ff.)

These Questions are without doubt the first and most concise communion booklet of the Lutheran Church; for Questions 1–4 deal with the knowledge of sin, Questions 5–10 with the knowledge of the removal of sin from the Holy Gospel, Questions 11–14 with faith in the words of Christ, Questions 15–18 with the use of the Sacrament itself, Question 19 with the reasons for receiving it frequently, and Question 20 with counsel for those who feel no desire for it.

It should also be noted in passing that in the New York reprint of the Small Catechism, after the heading “Works of Baptism, etc.,” “Words” appears instead of “Works.”

The Marriage and Baptism Booklets for pastors already appear in the second edition of the Small Catechism and constitute two independent little works, the latter of which had already appeared in a somewhat different form in 1523. Both are absent from the first edition of the Book of Concord of 1580 and were added only in the following year at the instigation of the Helmstedt theologians.

Excellent are the prefaces, especially the one to the Baptism Booklet, and the