# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1864_S356
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

356 Proposal and Specimen for the Preparation of a Bible Commentary, etc.

and Colossians, following the pattern of the very first exposition by Dr. Luther on the Psalms (W. A. 9, 1474ff.). Of this too I have given a sample in Appendix B.

My plan, formed right from the start, concerning such a Bible commentary from Dr. Luther's writings, very soon extended also to the exegetical works of his fellow-workers. I thought in this connection of the Catenae patrum (see Buddeus, Isagoge historico-theologica, p. 1635) and of A. Osiander's Latin Bible, which contains a Glossa ordinaria — admittedly a very brief one — drawn mostly from the works of Lutheran theologians of the post-Reformation period. I wished for a similar compilation such as Chr. Starke has supplied in his Synopsis, and as P. Lange has begun in our own time. Most of the exegetical writings from the Reformation period have become so rare that many of them are now to be found almost only in public libraries. I recall only the following names: Althammer, Artopoeus, Brentius, Bonnus, Bugenhagen, Cruciger, Draconites, Jonas, Lambertus, Linke, Melanchthon, Purvaeus, Rhegius, and Weller. Should we not, out of gratitude for the gift of the exposition of Scripture — which is indeed the highest gift in the Christian Church, and which he bestowed on those men, though in varying measure — as well as out of care for our contemporaries and descendants, apply all diligence to compile faithfully from their writings, in the briefest possible form, what serves for the right understanding and fruitful application of Holy Scripture, and in particular also for setting forth right doctrine and refuting every kind of false doctrine? Of his own time Dr. Luther rightly says, in the sermon for the second Sunday of Advent: The parable of the fig tree strikes me as though it were Holy Scripture, which has lain under the bench until now; it is budding, it has put forth leaves, that is, its word breaks forth, for in twelve hundred years it had not come out so far, nor were the languages so well known.

In Appendix C I have made an attempt to supply such an exposition of the epistle for Ascension Day, to which I add the following. The scope of the material is to be governed, in the first place, by the scope of what is offered in Dr. Luther's writings. The additions from the store of contemporary Lutheran theologians are not meant to repeat what is the same as, or similar to, what is already found in Dr. Luther, but rather to serve more for filling in the gaps, as well as for insight into differing explanations. The pericopes in particular are to be treated in detail, and indeed also making use of the writings available on them by Melanchthon, Weller, and Spangenberg. Also, throughout, the indication of the most accurate and most important parallel passages, as well as a harmony of the Gospels, is to be added.

Of those who might wish to take part in such an undertaking, some could first take on the preliminary work from Dr. Luther's writings and the symbolical books, others the compiling of the material thus offered, and still others the filling of the gaps from other commentaries. If then a similar