Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/37

Rh has told us (Koestlin-Kawerau I, p. 106), concerning the methods used in exegetical lectures of that time, but we watch the inner man of the Reformer develop in an astonishing manner. Especially in the "Scholien" we see the lightning flashes of the great themes of the following years much more frequently and distinctly than in the lectures on the Psalms. In the "Palatina" Ficker also found a copy of Luther's expositions on the Epistles to the Hebrews which Luther had treated in lectures (1517). At Elberfield there is also in the possession of Dr. Krafft a manuscript containing the expositions of Galatians, begun by Luther October 26, 1516. This, however, is not identical with the printed commentary on Galatians of 1519. It is to be lamented that both of these are as yet not published, and that the exposition of the Epistle to Titus, which belongs in this collection, is not yet discovered.14

Concerning the methods used in these exegetical lectures of Luther we can say the following, thanks to these discoveries: Luther had the respective biblical book, which he was about to explain, printed as a separate book for himself and his audience, its lines widely separated and its margins very broad (the text used was that of the Vulgata). Between the lines and on the margin there was room for all kinds of comments. "These explanatory comments," says Ficker, "that briefly give the meaning of the words and the intention of the text are according to the medieval habit either interlinear or marginal. The comments placed above the individual words give in the shortest form the explanation of the word and connect in strictly logical fashion words and phrases. Whereas in the marginal explanation such notes are given that pertain to the strictly linguistic, more than that, to the sense and the context, to the ultimate proofs of the word-explanation: proofs, explanatory, circumscribed, religious and ethical, historical and literary notes and references to contemporaneous history are found here." To be distinguished from these two kinds of "Glossen" are the "Scholien." These