Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Study of the Hebrew Language

When I experienced a Call to Ministry in June, 1965 it came it words which I found out later to be biblical words: "Go Out in the world to Preach the Gospel" With the use of the concordance I found that these words had a place in history before I heard them. They are found at Mark 16:15 and are Jesus' words to his disciples.

I have always felt a special calling towards the World aspect of that Call. The Internet affords yet another place in which the Call can be addressed. When I first learned about "Justification by Grace" - the leading theme of the Reformation, I could not leave it alone after that. I read Luther's description of his 'break-through experience' in Here I Stand by Roland Bainton. If you have not read it, here it is! Luther's Tower Experience

This experience was connecting point with some of my own experiences. It was as if the four hundred years had vanished and I could experience again what Luther experienced. That is, if I could understand it!

I chose the topic for my Thesis at Union College in 1968, based upon my thirst to understand Luther's Experience. A patient advisor suggested that I not try something on Luther himself, but to choose someone writing on Justification whose works were fairly small in number and therefore accomplishable. He suggested the writing of Professor Hans Küng. I included in my thesis a quotation of Luther's Tower experience, and compared it with similar experiences of John Wesley. That was as far as I could go at that time.

However I was never free from the desire to learn more. In fact when I applied for a scholarship to do post-graduate work in Germany I wrote:

I am filled with a desire to understand more fully biblical documents. My study so far leads me towards the work of Martin Luther. He discovered something very profound in his translation of the scriptures from Hebrew, Greek and Latin into the written German language - something of which the mere exposure to the world caused revolution. I would like to more completely understand the reason for this. My basic purpose is to enhance my understanding and practice of preaching. I would expect to return to the pastoral ministry when complete, but it would be a question of call...

In 1973 I travelled to Germany with my family in a Quest to see and understand the works of Dr. Martin Luther, especially that part that related to "Justification by Grace". I entered the world of the Reformation, on its home ground.

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Chapter 1 - Finding My Topic

I think the Reformation was misnamed. Re-form suggests to me to cast something back into the form it once was. And, indeed, the Reformers often referred to the early church as a model for what they were trying to build.

But in fact it was impossible to re-build the early Church in the 16th Century. So what in fact happened was a tremendous TRANS-formation of almost every aspect of life.

In this regard it may be similar to what has been going on in our recent lifetime. Beginning in 1960's - particularly with Vietnam, Beetles, drugs, turn- on, tune-out - the complete rejection of old authority systems, the consequences continue even today.

These are the topics I would like to address in connection with the Reformation period: i.e. the first half of the 16th century:

1. The place of the Bible in the lives of the Reformers, for example: Martin Luther, Ullrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and Martin Bucer.

2. The challenges to the Reformers in biblical study. After rejecting the Latin Vulgate, how did they approach their biblical studies in Old Testament and New Testament. Which versions of the Bible were available to them, in which languages. How did they arrive at "the plain meaning of scripture"?

3. The role that Hebrew writings played in the hands of the Reformers.

4. Mystical Jewish writings.

5. The need for newly-translated Bibles. Where did the impetus come from, what techniques were used? The challenge of producing a Bible in an indigenous language.

6. The splintering of Churches after the Reformation - how did it happen that those who became "Protestants" so often disagreed with each other. How does this relate to their different methods of interpreting scripture? Was this the only possible outcome or could it have been avoided? What part did personality clashes or other non-biblical factors play in the splintering of the Protestant Church?

I began my studies in the University of Tübingen in October, 1973. I had been accepted as a full student in the Doctoral Program, having passed, by the slimmest of margins, the German entrance requirements.

I started my investigation at the date of 1517 - the nailing of the 95 theses by Luther and worked both ways from there. Went back to about c. 1200 AD and ahead to c. 1611 - the writing of the Authorized Version of the Bible. In fact it was necessary to go back to the time of Saint Augustine and early Jewish writings, so it is hard to state the limits in terms of years.

My method was to use a microscope method - this seems to have been my pattern all through theological studies - to concentrate all my attention on some seemingly small aspect or event - so as to not get lost in the topic - and to get to know at least something about something. I choose to follow one string of the topic through, but also with my eyes open looking at connecting points to the general times and issues.

So the "small thing" I decided to study was Luther's relationship to the Hebrew language.

The connecting point for me, why I would choose such a topic, is that I had found the most exciting moments to be in the Hebrew class - the most ahahs! per minute.

My Thesis: "Justification by Grace"

I left Union College (which is now amalgamated into the Vancouver School of Theology) with two passionate interests:

1. The Doctrine of Justification - focusing on Romans 1: 17 and

2. Excitement with the Hebrew Language.

When I planned my thesis at Union College I tried to bring those two topics into it. And rode both for a while, but found that at crunch time I had to choose between two professors from two separate disciplines under whose guidance to write my thesis. Either the Professor of Doctrine - therefore the Justification topic, or the Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew - therefore the Hebrew topic.

I wanted to write it under both, and to try to harmonize my two loves by finding some topic which involved both.

Professor Hans Küng

I believed at that time it was impossible to achieve such an ambitious goal. I acceded to the suggestion of the Professor of Doctrine - a good suggestion - that I pursue the doctrine of Justification in the writings of a new writer, and one whose works would not be so extensive that it was impossible to write about. Therefor not Martin Luther, nor Karl Barth, but in the writings of someone with a manageable output - and his suggestion was - Hans Küng!

This was a terrific suggestion. Hans Küng had been very active at the Second Vatican Council, was becoming well known - had not yet, as I recall, been silenced by the Church.

Remember it was a thesis, not a dissertation. Still I put in a lot of time to try to understand Küng's writings, which I still do not find easy.

I concentrated on the book, Justification, by Hans Küng. This book was printed first in Germany it was called Rechtfertigung - the German word for Justification.

One of the fascinating aspects of Justification by Hans Küng is that it was written to and with Karl Barth. And the letters from one to the other, of these old friends, makes the book quite charming. Karl Barth was at that time in Basle, Switzerland, and Hans Küng was in a town in southern Germany which I had never heard of before:

TÜBINGEN

It was in the beginning of Küng's book that I heard the word Tübingen for the first time - the town which I and my family called home for 2 1/2 years!

In 1968 I finished my thesis: the Doctrine of Justification in some writings of Hans Küng - and felt this was a difficult, yet worthy accomplishment.

It was an accomplishment, however, which left me unfulfilled, because I remembered that I had had to leave one thing behind in my original wish - the desire to meld the topics of justification and the Hebrew language.

We travel to Tübingen

So when we went to Germany and I was finally enrolled as a full graduate student in the fall of 1973, I started in again on that elusive topic.

It did not take me long to realize that a thesis on "Luther and Justification" was not needed. Nor a thesis on "Luther on the Hebrew Language". There are reputedly 500,000 dissertations on file at the University of Tübingen, and as regards Martin Luther, you almost have to chose one day of his life to find yourself a new topic. Luther has been under so many microscopes that it is hard to edge yours in, without finding that your microscope is overlapping with three or four more.

I had done very little study on the history of the Reformation before I left Canada. I had read "Here I Stand" by Roland Bainton - and scanned a few of the works of Luther in English, but I had no idea of the breadth and scope of the Reformation, nor how it worked.

So here I was, in October of 1973, having just found a place to live in Lustnau, a near suburb of Tübingen, enrolled five childdren in German Schools, having taken two courses in German from a language school in Tübingen. I visited the office of the Akademischesauslandsamt (Office for Foreign Students) and was told by the Secretary that I would not get into the University officially this term. But I persisted and had taken a University course to upgrade my German. I passed and was accepted into full-time accredited study with the lowest possible passing grade for my competence in German, particularly my spoken German.

How was I to chose my courses? Did it matter to anyone? Who should I ask, and what level of German will they require of me just to talk about this?

I decided to enter the History of the Reformation at almost any point, and joined an Advanced Level class in Reformation History - yes, an Advanced Level Seminar without the prerequisite of much Church History, almost non-functional German and having concurrently started my first course in Latin.

The Reformation in Nuremberg - 1525

The first course was entitled, Einführung der Reformation in Nürnberg (Introduction or Importation of the Reformation into Nuremberg.)

You mean that the Reformation had some discreet role to play in different German cities? I couldn't just study something like, "The Introduction of the Reformation in Germany"? RIGHT!!

Because the Reformation did develop at different times in different places - for example it was in the early 1520's in Nuremberg, but in the mid 1530's in Tübingen. And because so much had happened between one and the other and because of accidents of geography and history it was much different (more 'Zwinglian') in Tübingen.

Each town had its own "Reformer" and his supporters. And there were scores of them, not just Luther, Zwingli and Calvin, but people like Martin Bucer in Strasbourg, and Andreas Osiander in Nuremberg.

In our center focus were the events in the town of Nuremberg in the early 1520's. We looked at the events in the cathedrals in that town, and looked also at the various players in the drama which worked out in that town.

Finding my topic

On January 28, 1974 I presented to my seminar class a paper on an aspect of the history of the Reformation in Nuremberg. As I look through my archival materials from those days I see that I have class notes on various activities in the town during the critical period of 1520-1530 including the actual order of the service of worship in St. Lorenz Church as it changed to the evangelical form.

It was extremely difficult for me to read the old texts. Even the German was medieval German, and my Latin was only beginning to be functional, as I progressed with my concurrent Latin course.

But I understood enough to find that Osiander [who later wrote an introduction to Copernicus' book - 1543] was very interested in the Hebrew language.

I found that he was interested in the cabalistic work of Johannes Reuchlin de verbo mirifico,("The miracle-working word")1494. Osiander had learned the Hebrew Language using the Hebrew grammar and lexicon which Johannes Reuchlin also wrote called de Rudimentis Hebraicis Pforzheim, 1506

I had got hold of a string and I was going to follow it where ever it led!

So I sought out a history of the life of Johannes Reuchlin by Ludwig Geiger, who introduced me to one of the true heroes of the early 16th Century. Because Johannes Reuchlin found so much for his Christian soul in the Jewish writings which were available to him, and he did not end up, as many of the Reformers did, despising the people while using their insights. Johannes Reuchlin was the protagonist on behalf of saving Jewish Literature from being burnt over against the Jacob Hoogstraaten and the Cologne Dominicans. This episode has been called "The Battle of the Books" 1514-1516.

In the history by L. Geiger I found reference to de Rudimentis Hebraicis, as well as the fact that this Hebrew grammar-lexicon had been used by many of the Reformers to teach themselves the Hebrew language.

The fact that Luther used it some 2 years after its publication (in 1508) to study Hebrew was beginning to connect me to reasons why I had come to Germany!

But how did Johannes Reuchlin, a Christian Renaissance scholar who had taught the Greek language, obtain the knowledge he required to write this very early Hebrew primer for the Reformers?

Geiger gave the answer - Reuchlin had drawn largely on the grammatical-lexical works of Rabbi David Kimhi - (born in Provence, France in 1160)

Still pulling the string I plunged into the Tübingen library, frantically searching the card catalogue. The card catalogues are arranged only by authors, although there is a very limited topical index. I was searching for works by David Kimhi. I was immediately disappointed.

I found nothing under the K's at all.

But persisting, using any English or German information I had I looked under Q - because the Hebrew letter Quf can be variously transliterated in other languages.

Nothing under Qui - damn!

But then I looked more closely. I needed to look under Qimhi or Qimchi.

Notice that it is Qi - which NEVER happens in English or in German.

There they were, the works of Rabbis David, Moses and Joseph Kimhi!

Their location was shown as in the Sonderlesesaal.

A visit to the Sonderlesesaal, the Library of the University of Tübingen

The Sonderlesesaal (the Special Reading Room) is a wonderful room any visitor to the University of Tübingen Library must see. Anyone who loves old books, that is. You must gain entrance passed a person guarding the door, who inspects your library card and any carrying cases or parcels you have with you must be checked at the door.

On each side of the room, above the racks of old books, there are staircases which lead you to further racks of old books. I loved the Sonderlesesaal, in spite of the poor lighting. Europeans do not make such a thing of good lighting, preferring natural window light in situations I found ridiculous. I sometimes could hardly see! But the room and its contents were delightful!

I took careful notes of a number of books by Rabbis Joseph, Moses and David Kimhi from the card catalogue and set out to see those books with my own eyes.

I now needed to learn more about the Library system for delivery of books. The person sitting at a desk told me that those books could be ordered, and would be delivered to me some hours later, but could only be used in the Sonderlesesaal. At the door you had your books looked over by an attendant who sat there and checked you in and out. It was also very possible to order photostatic copies of most books, unless damage to the binding was a possibility, in which case you could order microfilms.

I ordered the books I wanted by filling out slips and putting them in a box directing them to the Sonderlesesaal.

I see the SEFER MIKLOL "the Book of Completion"

After the requisite wait I was given the books I had ordered, the centerpiece being the Sefer Miklol of David Kimhi. This book was ALL IN HEBREW and RABBINIC HEBREW. I ran my fingers and my eyes over this small book, printed right to left, back to front, not one word of English in it, all in this strange tongue, with its beautiful "colophon" - a picture of what seemed to be the arches of an ancient building, between which were words in Hebrew.

My Hebrew knowledge was not extensive, and certainly not up to the demands of reading a whole book in Hebrew, and especially not those squiggly little characters of what I found out was Rabbinic Hebrew - the Hebrew in which Rabbis wrote their personal comments and interpretations.

Nonetheless, with the help of various Hebrew lexicons, either brought with me or found on the open shelves of the Sonderlesesaal, I could begin to see the outlines of this strange book - Sefer Miklol - "the Book of Completion". The version I was reading had been printed in Venice - "In Venice" was there in non-pointed Hebrew characters and could be transliterated from the Hebrew with some help. The year of this edition I found out to be 1544.

I painstakingly copied individual words from Sefer Miklol, and found I could translate a few words into English.

In between this painful attempt to do an impossible translation I scoured anything I could find in English or German about the book and its author. I also found a reference catalogue to the titles of dissertations at Tübingen and other German Universities to see if this topic had been exhausted by someone else.

I still have the note I wrote, when my AHAH! came. On December 19, 1973, 1 p.m., sitting in the Sonderlesesaal of the University of Tübingen I wrote:

What about a thesis topic

the relation of QIMHI --> LUTHER?

If you would like to continue to the next section of this story:
Rabbi David Kimhi of Narbonne - 1160-1235