Luther's Canon

Luther began the work of translating the bible into German at the Wartburg in 1521 and the New Testament was first published in September 1522.

At the conclusion of the preface of this first edition Luther included a section on “the books which are the best and noblest in the New Testament":

You are in a position now rightly to discriminate between all the books, and decide which are the best. The true kernel and marrow of all the books, those which should rightly be ranked first, are the gospel of John and St Paul's epistles, especially that to the Romans, together with St Peter's first epistle. Every Christian would do well to read them first and most often, and, by daily perusal, make them as familiar as his daily bread.  You will not find in these books much said about the works and miracles of Christ, but you will find a masterly account of how faith in Christ conquers sin, death and hell; and gives life, righteousness and salvation.  This is the true essence of the gospel, as you have learned. 

If I were ever compelled to make a choice, and had to dispense with either the works or the preaching of Christ, I would rather do without the works than the preaching; for the works are of no avail to me, whereas His words give life, as He himself declared. John records but few of the works of Christ, but a great deal of His preaching, whereas the other the evangelists record many of His works, but few of His words. It follows that the gospel of John is unique in loveliness, and of a truth the principal gospel, far, far superior to the other three, and much to be preferred. And in the same way, the epistles of St Paul and St Peter are far in advance of the three gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. 

In sum: the gospel and the first epistle of St John, St Paul's epistles, especially those to the Romans, Galatians and Ephesians, and St Peter's first epistle, are the books which show Christ to you. They teach everything you need to know for your salvation, even if you were never to see or hear any other book or hear any other teaching. 

(Dillenberger, Martin Luther:  Selections From His Writings, pp.18-19)

At the other end of the spectrum, Luther differentiated four books from “the true and certain" books and placed them at the end of his New Testament:  Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation (click here for further information and the text of the original prefaces).

In making his assessment Luther relied to some extent on the writings of Origen in the third century and Eusebius in the fourth century which, in addition to the books above, also identified 2 Peter, 2 John and 3 John as disputed books in the early church.

Excluding all the disputed books and overlaying biblical scholarship on likely date of composition it is possible to put forward a New Testament that progesses chronologically and theologically starting from the letters of Paul and ending in the Johannine works as follows (“+" indicates a book specifically highlighted by Luther, Pauline epistles listed in canonical order):

The Epistles of Paul
- Romans +
- 1&2 Corinthians
- Galatians +
- Ephesians +
- Philippians
- Colossians
- 1&2 Thessalonians
- 1&2 Timothy
- Titus
- Philemon

The Epistle of Peter (1 Peter) +

The Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Matthew

The Works of Luke
-  The Gospel of Luke
-  The Book of Acts

The Works of John
- The Gospel of John +
- The Epistle of John (1 John) +

Scriptural creeds

In common with other Chalcedonian churches, Lutheranism subscribes to the ancient ecumenical creeds which are reproduced in the Book of Concord: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the (much less popular) Creed of Athanasius.

While these creeds are very important I find several biblical passages to contain a succinct and compelling distillation of our shared faith, in effect creeds that are fully contained within scripture.

Three of my favorites include:

There is one body and one Spirit .. one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
(Ephesians 4:4-5 ESV)

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
(1 Timothy 3:16 ESV)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
(Colossians 1:15-20 ESV)

Dating the crucifixion

A very interesting and well argued paper dating the crucifixion and related dates in the life of Jesus based on biblical, historical and astronomical evidence. The authors put forward two possible dates of Friday, 7 April AD30 and Friday, 3 April AD33 and then argue for the later date as it also coincides with a lunar eclipse as (obliquely) referred to in the Book of Acts. They also point out that AD33 is more consistent with Pilate's behaviour given changes in Roman policy towards the Jews that occurred in AD31.

I have always been partial to the AD30 date as it implies that the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem occurred forty years later in AD70. However the additional evidence they present for AD33 is interesting. It also shows conclusively that, for either date, the specific biblical references are fully consistent with non-religious evidence.

Click here to view the paper