StL11a: Table Talks, Vol. 22 reviewed; superiority of StL Edition

      This continues from Part 10c (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. — This is the first of a 2-part sub-series presenting the book review of Volume 22, "Table Talks". Although no author is identified, it is likely Prof. Martin Guenther, who was an active contributor and associate of editor Walther who recently had "gone-home".  It could have also been the StL editor George Stoeckhardt, judging by the quality of the essay. — Modern scholars in the LCMS and elsewhere have totally ignored the work of the St. Louis Edition. But in this book review we will be informed of good reasons to possibly prefer it. 

(From Der Lutheraner, vol. 43 p. 125-126 (No. 16, Aug. 15, 1887) [EN]: [underlining follows original emphasis]

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Dr. Martin Luther's

Colloquia or Table Talks.

For the first time 

corrected and renewed 

by translating the two main sources of the Table Talks from the Latin originals, namely the diary of Dr. Conrad Cordatus about Dr. M. Luther in 1537 and the diary of M. Anton Lauterbach on the year 1538.

This latest volume of our Luther [St. Louis] edition, the 22nd, contains Luther's Table Talks, i.e., the talks he made in conversation with his housemates and friends, especially at the table. [Johann] Mathesius says in his Luther’s Life [AE Companion Vol.]:

“As his office and teaching was holy and comforting, so also in his life one saw many beautiful and great virtues, and those who were around him heard many good sayings and histories; as also at the table he explained many beautiful and precious texts, and gave many good reports when one had occasion to ask something from the Scriptures. … Although our Doctor often took heavy and deep thoughts with him to the table, and sometimes kept his old monastic silence throughout the meal, so that not a word was spoken at the table, he nevertheless let himself be heard very amusingly at the appropriate time; as we used to call his speeches condimenta mensae (table condiment), which we preferred to all condiments and delicious food. If he wanted to get us to speak, he used to make an accusation: The first admonition we let pass; when he stopped again: ‘Prelates, what's new in the country?’ The old people around the table started to talk. Doctor Wolf Severus, who had been the preceptor of the Roman Royal Majesty, sat at the head, and would bring something to the discussion if no stranger such as a wandering courtier was present. When the conversation started, but with due discipline and respect, others sometimes added their part, until the Doctor was brought in; often good questions were posed from the Scriptures, which he answered finely rounded and briefly; and if one once held their own part, he could also suffer it and refute it with a skillful answer. Often honest people from the university, even from foreign places, came to the table; there fell very beautiful discourses and histories.” (p. 208. 212. [AE Companion p. 424, 431)

His friends used to write down and collect these talks immediately or soon thereafter. They meant well, but they did not act wisely and prudently. They did not consider that not all sayings of even great men, which they made in intimate circles, at table or otherwise, are suitable for publication. They also suffered the same fate as others who write down what they have heard: one overhears something or does not understand it correctly, or when writing it down later, one no longer remembers exactly the words that were used. Thus, many misunderstood and incorrect things have found their way into the “Table Talks". In the course of the many copies, further errors were made in them, as well as in the later adaptations for printing.

Elias Frick, the translator of Seckendorf's “History of Luther”, therefore writes in his report of Luther's writings:  

“The things that the dear blessed man said around the table and other things have been recorded too precisely, and those who were around him and talked with him at tables and other things may, out of good opinion, have marked at home for their own benefit what they heard from him; But everyone knows well that it is not possible to remember all the words as they were spoken, so that they could be written down afterwards; and especially those who recorded such things were quite unequal; likewise it often happens that one does not always correctly grasp the meaning and opinion of another in their talks, and therefore cannot put it down on paper. Over this, such Collectanea were copied again by others, whereby, as is always the case with such copies, even more inaccuracies were included; however, Johann Aurifaber brought such Collectanea, which had been collected and copied by various men, under certain titles and put them into print under the name of Luther's Table Talks in 1569” etc.

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      The point that some theologians/historians do "not always correctly grasp the meaning and opinion of another in their talks" is the basis for my assertion that the judgments of the Weimar Edition and the American Edition are inferior to the judgments of the Old Missouri Synod in their St. Louis Edition. Especially with Luther's Table Talks, the historian must have a firm foundation in Scriptural theology to properly translate and make decisions on inaccuracies of the things "recorded too precisely".— In the concluding Part 11b…