StL3a: Walther on Vol. 10—Luther's Catechetical writings (Der Lutheraner 1885)

      This continues from Part 2 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. — Only seven volumes of the StL were produced while Walther was living and only six of those were reviewed by Walther.  But fortunately for us, in 1885, 2 years before his passing, he wrote his last one, a stirring announcement and promotion of Volume 10, Luther's Catechetical writings.  After I completed the massive task of OCRing and machine translating all 25 volumes, I wanted to have blog posts that answered the question:

Why read Luther?  

I found my source material conveniently supplied by Luther's greatest promoter for reading Luther – for today.  What follows is a 5-part sub-series of Walther's book review of Volume 10 (other reviews will follow). So to find the answer to the above question, and why this edition, read Walther!

(From Der Lutheraner, vol. 41 p. 105-107 (No. 14, July 15, 1885)[EN] (all underlining and bolding follows Walther's emphasis):

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Dr. Martin Luther's

Complete Writings,

edited by

Dr. Johann Georg Walch.

Newly published on behalf of the Ministry of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod

 of Missouri, Ohio and other States.

Tenth volume.

Containing Luther's Catechetical Writings.

St. Louis, Mo.

Luth. Concordia Publishing House (M. C. Barthel, Agent).

1885.

Again, by God's grace and with His faithful help, a new volume of the first American Lutheran edition of the incomparably valuable complete writings of our dear Reformer Luther is ready for dispatch. This is the tenth volume in the order followed by Walch. We announce the appearance of just this volume with very special joy. This volume contains the so-called catechetical writings of Luther, that is, not only the two catechisms, the Small and the Large, as they once came from Luther's hand in 1529, but also all those Luther writings that treat and explain any part of the chief parts of the Catechism. 

This tenth volume is therefore one of the most important after the postil volumes [sermon volumes 11, 12, 13a, 13b] and indispensable for the Lutheran Christian people. The editor, Pastor and Professor G. [Georg] Stöckhardt, has therefore made it his highest priority to produce this people’s volume of Luther's works as perfectly as possible and in accordance with its purpose. It is true that in this case the editor, in addition to his busy other offices, could not take the editorial work on his shoulders alone. If the completion of the work should not have to be postponed long, he needed essential help, not only mechanical help. But God, by His grace, has made it so cleverly that a candidate of the holy ministry, who emerged from our Concordia, has been found, who was quite excellently suited for the editorial work, namely Mr. Heinrich Bayer, who also subjected himself to this work with just as much diligence as efficiency and skill. While Pastor Stöckhardt mainly took over the revision and completion of Walch's detailed historical introduction of more than 100 quarto pages in all individual writings in this volume, Mr. Bayer edited these individual writings of more than 1100 quarto pages in consultation with the  editor-in-chief. 

- - - - - - - - - - - -  Continued in Part 3b  - - - - - - - - - - - 

Walther informs us of another assistant editor, Heinrich Bayer, whose name is not given in any of the online library catalog listings for this edition. And Walther explains that we are the beneficiaries of his Latin scholarship. — Walther used the term "people's volume" for this volume.  He will explain this later in this promotional writing. — In the next Part 3b,  we learn more about the task of Latin translation and other details.

St Louis Edition: Sermon volumes - now in English (Part 2)

      This continues from Part 1 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition of Luther's complete writings in English. — As promised, the 4 volumes of Luther's sermons translated into English are now available. The original table containing a listing of all volumes has now been updated to include downloads for these remaining volumes.  I am also adding these here for the convenience of those who have already downloaded all the others previously:

       2-col                    1-col

         DOCX    PDF     DOCX

11	Church Postils, Gospel Sermons	*	*	*	Kirchen-Postille Evangelien-Predigten
12	Church Postils, Epistle Sermons along with mixed sermons	*	*	*	Kirchen-Postille Epistel-Predigten neben vermischten Predigten
13a	House Postils part 1, Luther sermons for one year, compiled by Veit Dietrich	*	*	*	Die Hauspostille Teil 1, Lutherpredigten für ein Jahr, zusammengestellt von Veit Dietrich
13b	House Postils part 2, Luther sermons for one year, compiled by Georg Rörer	*	*	*	Die Hauspostille Teil 2, Lutherpredigten für ein Jahr, zusammengestellt von Georg Rörer

I have not taken the time to cross reference these to the "New Series" of the CPH "American Edition", but Steve Born's cross-reference to the old series is indispensable. 

Walther on a ship—his Good Friday, Easter poems: "I swim on the sea of grace" (Der Lutheraner, 1888)

      While searching for materials for Passion Week and Easter, I happened to come across the wonderful posthumous publication in Der Lutheraner of poems that Prof. C. F. W. Walther composed in his diary.  Prof. Martin Günther gave the following information in a footnote:

*) Since the state of health of the blessed man had become a most anxious one, in February 1860, at the request of the Synod, he traveled to Germany to seek recovery through travel and the use of a bath. This [Good Friday poem] and the following poem [Easter] are taken from the diary kept during the trip. G. [Günther]

The obvious shortcoming of the following modified machine (DeepL) translation is the loss of rhyming.  But Walther's poetic talent still comes through enough to give us the spiritual benefit of his compositions while he was on "the sea of grace". From Der Lutheraner, volume 44 (March 27, 1888), p. 49:

On Good Friday.	On the first Easter day.
On April 6, 1860, versified on the ocean by  Dr. C. F. W. Walther.	On April 8, 1860, poem written on the ocean by  Dr. C. F. W. Walther.
How shall I, O day, call thee,  Since the mediator once faded away,  Since he with cries and tears  Sacrificed Himself on the cross,  Since he cried: It is finished!  Sinking into the night of death? Day of wrath, day of fury! See, the sword of the judge flashes,  That — O secure man, hearken to it! — Atonement blood in streams drinks. Today happens what God threatened:  Sin is followed by death. Even the heart of the begotten  Strikes the Father's vengeful blood,  When he willingly took upon himself  Sinful abominations upon himself.  Earth and heaven may perish,  Eternally the right must stand. Alas! happens on the green branch  This, where will the lean one go? Suffers innocence such pranks,  Sinner, how wilt thou escape?  O day when God's curse  Is fulfilled according to His book! But not for his own sins  Died the Lord of glory,  Love that cannot fathom,  Makes him ready for death.  To buy us childhood rights,  The eternal Son becomes a servant. Therefore, heart, let it resound  Today loud your song of joy. For, O consolation of sinners! — For all  One died today on the cross; One pays all the debt,  So is all grace and favour. O then be welcome to me,  Blessed Friday, day full of salvation! Sinners, not the proud pious  The consolation of thee is given.  For the flood of my sins too  Today the blood of reconciliation Therefore roar all the same, you waves, —  I swim on the sea of grace; Roar down from the arch of heaven,  Thunder, like the host of hell —  I am gently and softly surrounded  God's holy wind of grace. The mast and flag of my ship  Is the cross of Golgotha, With it I laugh at every reef,  Every sandbank that I come near.  In the sea of grace  My anchor of hope does not break. Merrily today I sail on  To my sweet home,  He on the cross is my companion To the land of eternal rest.  Soon I shall see what I sought,  Through His blood — Heaven's Bay.	Risen, risen is Jesus Christ,  Let all that is on earth rejoice,  Let heaven rejoice with its host,  O leap, ye mountains, and roar, ye sea. Lord, have mercy. The enemy triumphed on Golgotha, Hell sounded Victory,  For at last the power of darkness  Had brought the Prince of Life to the cross. Lord, have mercy. But in spite of you, hell, and in spite of you, O world,  The Duke of Salvation keeps the field. Hardly three days had passed,  Then thy prisoner was released and free. Lord, have mercy. Where is now thy sting, O form of death? Where is now thy victory, O infernal power? Where is now, O sin, your power? Where now, Law, are your curses and imprisonment?  Lord, have mercy. Voluntarily the eternal Son became man,  Voluntarily He left the heavenly throne,  Voluntarily He suffered shame and torment,  Voluntarily He climbed the cross-post. Lord, have mercy. With suffering He paid man's debt,  Atoned for their crimes with death in patience,  Drank for them the cup of wrath.  And endured for them the horror of hell. Lord, have mercy. But behold! no death and no grave holds him,  He comes from the battle as a victorious hero, Overthrown for ever is the land of the dead —  And Satan lies powerless in chain and band. Lord, have mercy. The will of the Law is fulfilled,  And thus the eternal wrath is satisfied;  So He who vouchsafed for us is loosed  And rises as head from the bosom of the earth.  Lord, have mercy. Therefore arise! be happy, you sinful generation,  By Christ's revival thou art righteous,  As your crimes engulfed his grave,  So now His life has won thee innocence. Lord, have mercy. What is it, O sinner, that thou art so timid,  And complain of the host of thy sins?  The father has long since declared thee righteous  And granted thee what thou seekest in Christ. Lord, have mercy. The Lord is risen, the grave is empty,  The army of our sins has fallen asleep;  Now all that are called sinners rejoice,  And praise the Father, Son, and Spirit. Lord, have mercy.

May we sail on that same "sea of grace" to the shore of "Heaven's Bay".

St. Louis Edition - Digitized text, now in English; Part 1 of ?

St. Louis Edition:
21 volumes digitized,
and translated

[2023-12-08: added another line to "Table of Contents" below; 2022-05-05: added more posts to Table of Contents; 2022-04-24: Added links to the sermon volumes 11, 12, 13a, 13b. See this blog for more details.]

      For several reasons, I have desired for many years to obtain the digitized text of the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's works:

• The plain text of the Google Books and HathiTrust scanned versions are practically useless due to the 2-column layout of the pages.
• The Weimar Edition (WA) has some of its text in Latin which is much more difficult to have automatically translated, whereas the St. Louis Edition was published in German for German readers.  German is easily translated by the superior online DeepL Translator service.
• The American Edition (AE) of Concordia Publishing House was lacking in some of its available translations. Also its editors' comments were sometimes unorthodox and critical of Luther, even of the StL. (However the StL does not have the 1515 Romans commentary, that the AE (Vol. 25)  does have.) 
• The Old Missouri Synod frequently referenced the St. Louis Edition in its writings, so an English translation would provide English readers of Old Missouri writings helpful resource for their understanding.

For these reasons and more, I decided to take on the extensive project of OCRing (ABBYY FineReader) the entire St. Louis Edition, and running the digitized German text through the automated online DeepL Translator.  I have now spent six months producing the output for all but the four volumes of sermons, volumes 11, 12, 13a, and 13b — over 22,000 pages, over 100 million characters.  (see the image at right of the title pages of all 21 volumes so far completed).  I chose to delay the sermon volumes because most of them have been available in English translation for many years. Even so, these will be added in the next few months (maybe this month?). [2022-04-24: these are now included]

      NOTES: ● Click on activated asterisk symbols for downloads.  ● All DOCX files have been zipped to avoid difficulties in downloading from my Google Drive. ● The PDFs are links to files uploaded to Archive.org.  On that site individual pages for permanent reference may be accessed and linked to.  ● The highly formatted 2-column version is in the latest MS-Word DOCX format, while the 1-column version is in the oldest DOCX format.  Difficulties? send me an email. ● The downloads of 1-column DOCX files for the "Letters" volumes 21a and 21b are newly produced, and correct some errors of the previous downloads.  ● The "2-column DOCX" version is best when comparing the English translation with an image of the original German page in Google Books, HathiTrust or Archive.org (see here and here.)  ● Unfortunately the automated translator often dropped the leading paragraph numbers, so one will have to find the nearest numbered paragraph to figure out the missing numbers. Or open up the same page in Google Books, HathiTrust or Archive.org to easily determine the paragraph numbers.

Six months in the making, now the St. Louis Edition, in English:

No.	Title — English (EN)	2-col. DOCX	PDF	1-col. DOCX	Title — German (DE)	DE DOCX
1	Interpretation of the First Book of Moses [Genesis]. First part.	*	*	*	Auslegung des ersten Buches Mose. Erster Theil.
2	Interpretation of the First Book of Moses. Second part.	*	*	*	Auslegung des ersten Buches Mose. Zweiter Theil.
3	Sermons on the first book of Moses and interpretations on the following biblical books up to the Psalms (excl.).	*	*	*	Predigten über das erste Buch Mosis und Auslegungen über die folgenden biblischen Bücher bis zu den Psalmen (excl.).
4	Interpretation of the Psalms	*	*	*	Auslegung über die Psalmen
5	Interpretations on the Psalms (continued), Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.	*	*	*	Auslegungen über die Psalmen (Fortsetzung), den Prediger und das Hohelied Salomonis.
6	Interpretations on the major and some of the minor prophets, namely Hosea, Joel and Amos.	*	*	*	Auslegungen über die großen und etliche der kleinen Propheten, nämlich Hosea, Joel und Amos.
7	Interpretation on the evangelists Matthew, Luke and John, up to the sixth chapter of John (incl.).	*	*	*	Auslegungen über die Evangelisten Matthäus, Lucas und Johannes, bis zum sechsten Capitel Johannis (incl.).
8	Interpretations of the Evangelist St. John, chapters 7-20, the 15th and 16th chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, and the 7th and 15th chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Luther's shorter interpretation of the Epistle to the Galatians.	*	*	*	Auslegungen über den Evangelisten St. Johannes Cap. 7—20., über das 15. und 16. Capitel der Apostelgeschichte und das 7. und 15. Capitel des ersten Briefes an die Corinther. Luthers kürzere Auslegung der Epistel an die Galater.
9	Interpretation of the New Testament (Conclusion.) Luther's great interpretation of the Epistle to the Galatians and the other exegetical writings.	*	*	*	Auslegung des Neuen Testaments (Schluß.) Luthers große Auslegung der Epistel an die Galater und die übrigen exegetischen Schriften.
10	Catechetical writings and sermons.	*	*	*	Catechetische Schriften und Predigten.
11	Church Postils gospel sermons	*	*	*	Kirchen-Postille Evangelien-Predigten
12	Church Postils epistle-sermons besides mixed sermons	*	*	*	Kirchen-Postille Epistel-Predigten neben vermischten Predigten
13a	House Postils part 1, Luther sermons for one year, compiled by Veit Dietrich	*	*	*	Die Hauspostille Teil 1, Lutherpredigten für ein Jahr, zusammengestellt von Veit Dietrich
13b	House Postils part 2, Luther sermons for one year, compiled by Georg Rörer	*	*	*	Die Hauspostille Teil 2, Lutherpredigten für ein Jahr, zusammengestellt von Georg Rörer
14	Forewords, historical and philological writings. (The "Passional" with illustrations.) As a supplement to the sixth volume: Interpretation of the Old Testament. (Conclusion.) Interpretations on the prophets Obadiah to Malachi.	*	*	*	Vorreden, historische und philologische Schriften. (Das „Passional" mit Illustrationen.) Als Supplement des sechsten Bandes: Auslegung des Alten Testaments. (Schluß.) Auslegungen über die Propheten Obadja bis Maleachi.
15	Reformation Writings. First part. Documents pertaining to the history of the Reformation. Against the Papists. From the years 1517 to 1524.	*	*	*	Reformations-Schriften. Erste Abtheilung. Zur Reformationshistorie gehörige Documente. Wider die Papisten. Aus den Jahren 1517 bis 1524.
16	Reformation Writings. First part. Documents pertaining to the history of the Reformation. Against the Papists. (Continuation.) From the years 1525 to 1537.	*	*	*	Reformations-Schriften. Erste Abtheilung. Zur Reformationshistorie gehörige Documente. Wider die Papisten. (Fortsetzung.) Aus den Jahren 1525 bis 1537.
17	Reformation Writings. First part. Documents pertaining to the history of the Reformation. Against the Papists. (Conclusion.) From the years 1538 to 1546. A. Against the Reformed.	*	*	*	Reformations-Schriften. Erste Abtheilung. Zur Reformationshistorie gehörige Documente. Wider die Papisten. (Schluß.) Aus den Jahren 1538 bis 1546. A. Wider die Reformirten.
18	Reformation Writings. Second part. Dogmatic-polemical writings against the papists.	*	*	*	Reformations Schriften. Zweite Abtheilung. Dogmatisch-polemische Schriften. wider die Papisten.
19	Reformation Writings. Second part. Dogmatic-polemical writings against the papists.	*	*	*	Reformations Schriften. Zweite Abtheilung. Dogmatisch - polemische Schriften. wider die Papisten.
20	Reformation Writings. Second part. Dogmatic-polemical writings. B. Against the Sacramentarians and other fanatics, as well as against the Jews and Turks.	*	*	*	Reformations Schriften. Zweite Abtheilung. Dogmatisch-polemische Schriften. B. wider die Sacramentirer und andere Schwärmer, sowie auch wider die Juden und Türken.
21a	Dr. Martin Luther's Letters together with the most important letters addressed to him and some other strikingly interesting documents. Letters from the year 1507 to 1532 incl.	*	*	*	Dr. Martin Luthers Briefe nebst den wichtigsten Briefen, die an ihn gerichtet sind, und einigen anderen einschlagenden interessanten Schriftstücken. Briefe vom Jahre 1507 bis 1532 incl.
21b	Dr. Martin Luther's Letters together with the most important letters addressed to him and some other strikingly interesting documents. Letters from the year 1533 to 1546. Supplement. Supplement to the letters from April 1531 to July 1536.	*	*	*	Dr. Martin Luthers Briefe nebst den wichtigsten Briefen, die an ihn gerichtet sind, und einigen anderen einschlagenden interessanten Schriftstücken. Briefe vom Jahre 1533 bis 1546. Nachlese. Nachtrag zu den Briefen vom April 1531 bis zum Juli 1536.
22	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 from the year 1538.	*	*	*	Colloquia oder Tischreden. Zum ersten Male berichtigt und erneuert durch Uebersetzung der beiden Hauptquellen der Tischreden aus den lateinischen Originalen, nämlich des Tagebuchs des Dr. Conrad Cordatus über Dr. M. Luther 1537 und des Tagebuchs des M. Anton Lauterbach aus das Jahr 1538.
23	Main subject indexes, the indexes of sayings, corrections and addenda to all volumes of the St. Louis edition of Luther's works.	*	*	*	Haupt-Sachregister, Spruchregister, Berichtigungen und Nachträge zu sämmtlichen Bänden der St. Louiser Ausgabe von Luthers Werken.

If any of the above downloads are updated, they will be noted here on this blog post. — 

      Download links to the German digital text (DE DOCX) are being withheld for certain reasons, but I plan to provide these at some point in the future. Then anyone in the world will be able to translate Luther into their own language using either DeepL Translator or another service. (Anyone in the world who now would like these translated into another available DeepL language pair may contact me. I will consider paying the approximate $70US cost, and doing the work, of getting this accomplished for them.  Spanish? French? Portuguese? Latvian? Chinese? Japanese? Finnish? , etc.? Contact me by email on the right.

      To show the benefits for English readers, a comparison of a page from volume 18 is shown below:

  Original page (Fraktur font)                               ———                    DeepL Translated page (Latin font)

      In upcoming parts, we answer questions of Why: why Luther?… why the St. Louis Edition?… why Walch?, etc. Also the question of "Where do I begin to read Luther?"  Also some of Luther's writings will be highlighted.

      The so-called St. Louis Edition, or "Walch-2", is actually the "Walther-Walch Edition" for C. F. W. Walther, who pushed for the revision of the Walch edition (per Stoeckhardt), promoted this so much that other teachers with him gained the same fervor in seeing Luther in this new dress, by German-American Lutherans. It is the first, the Original "American" edition of Luther's complete works. To repeat Walther's words: "may many be encouraged by this opportunity to acquire a priceless treasure for so little."

[NOTE: Google no longer sends me automated notices of comments and I have not taken the time to look at these. If you want your comment posted, send me an email to the email address on the right. If you want to remain anonymous with me, use a temporary email address. But I never reveal private correspondence unless requested to.]

- - - - - - - - - - - - -  Table of Contents  - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Intro 1: Stoeckhardt's announcement of this project in Der Lutheraner (blog of February 2021)

Intro 2: Walther's announcement of first volume in Der Lutheraner (blog of April 2021)

Letters: Volumes 21a and 21b released (blog of December, 2021)

Part 1: this post with downloads for all volumes, except 11, 12, 13a, 13b

Part 2: Sermon volumes now available in English, volumes 11, 12, 13a, 13b

Part 3a: Walther's book review, Vol. 10 – Luther's Catechetical writings; Heinrich Bayer, asst. editor

   Part 3b: Latin translation, musical notation; superiority of St. Louis Edition?

   Part 3c: Index included; only $5.00!; early vs later Luther

   Part 3d: Take the time to read Luther; low cost

   Part 3e: Parish library; great fire in America; Luther's writings, not his person; "Nor should they be"?

Part 4a: Walther's review of Vol. 2 – Luther's Genesis: better than church fathers; no fault with Scripture

   Part 4b: Luther’s own judgment of Genesis; the “later Luther”

   Part 4c: Low price; indexing; the next future volume to appear (vol. 11 — Sermons)

   Part 4d: “old famous theologians” speak: "surpasses all other writings"

Part 5a: Franz Pieper on Luther's writings (Der Lutheraner 1907)

   Part 5b: Luther’s writings unique, for all places, all time; Walther “only imitated Luther”

   Part 5c: Human wisdom… [uses] smooth, pleasing language; no human teacher… like Luther

   Part 5d: Younger pastors want complete writings; England translated, circulated Luther’s Galatians

Part 6a: Walther reviews Vol. 11, first volume of sermons (Church Postils, part 1, Der Lutheraner 1882)

   Part 6b: Bucer's deception; Luther judges Church Postils his best for “poor, misguided Christianity”

   Part 6c: Conversion not by own moral improvement, but by grace; best, most reliable edition

Part 7a: A. L. Graebner reviews Vol. 9 containing Luther's famous Galatians commentary

   Part 7b: Luther's Galatians exceeds fathers; Justification of poor sinner; Bookmarks

Part 8a: Ludwig Fuerbringer on Vol. 15, Reformation History documents (Der Lutheraner 1899)

   Part 8b: History—rich content; so many gruesome papist writings

   Part 8c: Papist writings now accessible; priorities for lay vs. advanced readers

Part 9a: Guenther, vol. 18; Luther's Polemics – first rank (Der Lutheraner 1888)

   Part 9b: Luther's harsh language; scholarly Latin translation, editing

   Part 9c: Pieper, v. 19: Of Justification, Councils, etc.; Hoppe's excellent work (Lehre und Wehre 1890) 

Part 10a: Guenther (& Walther) on Vol. 20, against Sacramentarians, Jews, Turks (Lutheraner 1890)

   Part 10b: Polemics strengthen the weak; Lord's chosen armor 

   Part 10c: Pieper's review- "against the 'false spirit' of the enthusiasts" (Lehre und Wehre 1890)

Part 11a: Table Talks, Vol. 22 reviewed; superiority of St. Louis Edition

   Part11b: 2 sides of Talks; sifting done, "Our edition is the best"

Part 12a: Stoeckhardt’s overview of St. Louis Edition; reviews v. 23 Index (Der Lutheraner 1910)

   Part 12b: First 2 volumes easy, then need full time editor — Prof. A. F. Hoppe in 1884

   Part 12c: Latin translation, scholarship, not a so-called “critical edition”

   Part 12d: More benefits for pastors, lay people: Why Luther?

   Part 12e: Melanchthon summarizes Luther’s teaching

   Part 12f: Index vol. 23: collection of Luther's powerful sayings, “a floral selection", "a kind of encyclopedia."

Part 13?: ?? Editor Hoppe on very real benefits of St. Louis Edition (LuW v. 40, p. 302-311)

Part 14: Weimar Edition on… the value of the St. Louis Edition [added 2023-12-08]

[Lehre und Wehre - English  —  Der Lutheraner - English]