Luther on the New Testament Canon

Here is evidence that Martin Luther did not accept the books of Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation as canonical. One can read his own words. See the quotes below that I provided, along with the link where the full prefaces can be found.


If someone can show that Luther retracted these statements, then I will add that evidence to my blog. The greater question is this. Why did Luther think he had the authority to pronounce on the canonicity of these books in the first place?

The answer is that he gave that authority to himself. If he had retracted, he would have done it on the same authority - that which he gave to himself.

I find Martin Luther to be a complex human being, not without his virtues.  I think he was wrong on many things. Protestants can still admire him if they wish. At the same time, they can accept him as he was, not as they wish he had been.

Luther’s appeal to his own authority is part of what is wrong in Christianity.  This extreme individualism has its downside.

Yes, we all suffer from it, so I don’t mean to say this is a problem with Luther and not with me.

It just doesn’t seem that is how Jesus wants His Church - His Body - to be run. The Apostles didn’t even claim that kind of individualistic authority for themselves.


Notice the words in red.

1.  Hebrews:

   
   

   However that may be, it is a marvelously fine epistle. It discusses Christ’s priesthood masterfully and thoroughly, out of the Scriptures, and interprets the Old Testament finely and richly. Thus it is plain that it is the work of an able and learned man, who was a disciple of the apostles, learned much from them, and was greatly experienced in faith and practiced in the Scriptures. And although, as he himself testifies in Hebrews 6:1, he does not lay the foundation of faith, which is the work of an apostle, nevertheless he does build finely thereon gold, silver, precious stones, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:12. Therefore we should not be hindered, even though wood, straw or hay be mixed in with them, but accept this fine teaching with all honor; though to be sure, we cannot put it on the same level with the apostolic epistles.
   

   
   

   James:

   In a word, he wants to guard against those who relied on faith without works, and is unequal to the task [in spirit, thought, and words, and rends the Scriptures and thereby resists Paul and all Scripture], and would accomplish by insisting on the Law what the apostles accomplish by inciting men to love. Therefore, I cannot put him among the chief books, though I would not thereby prevent anyone from putting him where he pleases and estimating him as he pleases; for there are many good sayings in him.
   

   
   

   Jude:

   Concerning the Epistle of St. Jude, no one can deny that it is an extract or copy from St. Peter’s second epistle, so very like it are all the words. He also speaks of the apostles as a disciple coming long after them, and quotes sayings and stories that are found nowhere in the Scriptures. This moved the ancient Fathers to throw this Epistle out of the main body of the Scriptures. Moreover, Jude, the Apostle, did not go to Greek-speaking lands, but to Persia, as it is said, so that he did not write Greek. Therefore, although I praise the book, it is an epistle that need not be counted among the chief books, which are to lay the foundation of faith.
   

   
   

   Revelation:

   PREFACE TO THE REVELATION OF SAINT JOHN (2) 1522 FT510

   
   

   About this book of the Revelation of John, I leave everyone free to hold his own ideas, and would bind no man to my opinion or judgment; I say what I feel. I miss more than one thing in this book, and this makes me hold it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic. First and foremost, the Apostles do not deal with visions, but prophesy in clear, plain words, as do Peter and Paul, and Christ in the Gospel. For it befits the apostolic office to speak of Christ and His deeds without figures and visions; but there is no prophet in the Old Testament, to say nothing of the New, who deals so out and out with visions and figures. And so I think of it almost as I do of the Fourth Book of Esdras, and can nohow detect that the Holy Spirit produced it.

   
   

   Moreover, he seems to me to be going much too far when he commends his own book so highly, — more than any of the other sacred books do, though they are much more important, — and threatens that if anyone takes away anything from it, God will deal likewise with him. Again, they are to be blessed who keep what is written therein; and yet no one knows what that is, to say nothing of keeping it. It is just the same as if we had it not, and there are many far better books for us to keep. Many of the fathers, too, rejected this book of old, though St. Jerome, to be sure, praises it highly and says that it is above all praise and that there are as many mysteries in it as words; though he cannot prove this at all, and his praise is, at many points, too mild.

   
   

   Finally, let everyone think of it as his own spirit gives him to think. My spirit cannot fit itself into this book. There is one sufficient reason for me not to think highly of it,-Christ is not taught or known in it; but to teach Christ is the thing which an apostle is bound, above all else, to do, as He says in Acts 1:8, “Ye shall be my witnesses.” Therefore I stick to the books which give me Christ, clearly and purely.
   

   
   
2. 
   

   http://www.godrules.net/library/luther/NEW1luther_f8.htm