So what does The Twentieth Century Luther, The Second Walther have to say to introduce the monumental work called the Concordia Triglotta? A lot... topics such as World War I, German language in America, the English language in the old Missouri Synod, modern theology, Martin Luther, the Reformation century, the Church fathers, etc.
No one, not even the highly praised Prof. F. Bente, speaks with more authority since 1921 than ... Franz Pieper.
My interspersed comments are in green. Underlining is in the original. Highlighting is mine.
Hyperlinks added including page links to original essay in Google Books.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Concordia
Triglotta"
by
Franz Pieper
Lehre
und Wehre, vol. 67 (1921), pgs
297-301
What
caused our Synod to organize a trilingual edition of the confessional writings
of the Lutheran Church is expressed in the petition from the theological
faculty of Concordia Seminary–St. Louis to the Delegate Synod in 1917. The
petition reads:
"As a result
of the European war [World War I], the Latin-German edition of our symbolical
books of [J.T.]
Müller currently cannot be obtained, and we will already in next year's
classes at St. Louis probably have to make do with the bare German text edition
of the St. Louis edition; also already in America there is an ever growing need
of an English edition of Concordia, not just with Latin and German text; furthermore,
since the study of them is easier and promoted by such a Latin-German-English
edition of our symbolical books, and all over the Lutheran Church of our
country would be provided a great service and the best advance of true
Lutheranism in America; that finally, through the publication of such a
trilingual Concordia would be a worthy, useful and God-pleasing monument
established for the 400-year anniversary of the Reformation which would allow
us to experience God in these troubled times: so have we, the members of the
faculty of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Mo., decided herewith to address
the petition to the venerable Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States, [Page
298] as gathered here rejoicing in Milwaukee, to take the
necessary steps without delay to establish as soon as possible a
Latin-German-English edition of our 'golden Concordia' – for the commemoration
of the four-hundred year jubilee celebration, for the service to the Church,
and for the praise and glory of God and his glorious name."
The Synod proceeded
willingly on the request of the St. Louis faculty, and unanimously decided for
the publication of the now completed Concordia.
Does
the reader see how God used the hardship of World War I to bring about the Concordia
Triglotta? ... and how He used this
monument to comfort those German American Lutherans?
Pieper proceeds with some details on the editors and this printing:
The
editorial work was done by Professors Bente and Dau. Prof. Bente says in the preface concerning
this edition of the work:
"While I alone
am responsible for the Latin and German texts, the English translation of the Triglot
is throughout the joint effort of Prof. W.H.T. Dau and myself. It is based on the original German and Latin
texts, respectively, and on the existing English translations, chiefly those
incorporated in Jacobs`s Book of Concord."
The Triglotta
has a total of 1556 pages, of which 453 pages are devoted to a Preface,
Historical Introduction, Visitation Articles, and Register. The text of the confession itself takes 1103
pages to complete, because it presents the three languages in three parallel
columns. The fourth column (half page)
is open, a welcome feature to add comments, literary supplements, etc. From the Triglotta, reference
information is given at the top of each page to the editions of J.T.
Mueller [Müller], J.G.
Walch, and A. Rechenberg
so that orientation is easily possible because the pagination of Müller and
Walch is at the top of the page which is also accompanied by text in
parentheses from Rechenberg's
Latin edition. Other information
relating to the treatment of the texts as they exist in the printing can be
found in the preface.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - continued in Part 4b - - - - - - -
Now with some details out of the way, Pieper approaches the heart of the matter, the heart of the Lutheran Confessions... in the next Part 4b.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments only accepted when directly related to the post.