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Newly Discovered Report of Luther's Reformation Breakthrough from Johannes Bugenhagen's 1330Jonah Commentary
Translation and Commentary by Martin Lohrmann

hen the University of Wittenberg reopened after the Smalcald War in 1547, Johannes Bugenhagen, Wittenberg's chief pastor and a professor at its university, began lecturing on the Book of Jonah. From these lectures came his 1550 Jonah Commentary. Exegetically, this work builds upon Luther's lectures on Jonah from 1525-26. Of even more interest to Luther scholars, it also contains Bugenhagen's record of how Luther first came to his evangelical theology, thus providing a new source for understanding and dating Luther's theological development.1 Bugenhagen's account adds important details to Luther's own descriptions from the 1545 Preface to the Latin Works and the Table Talk.2The imprecision of these sources has led to scholarly disputes about the moment and nature of Luther's breakthrough. Attempts to date the breakthrough generally range from 1512 to 1518.3 Bugenhagen's account appears to support an earlier dating, while also suggesting that Luther's breakthrough served as the basis for his development from 1510 to 1519. The Reformation Breakthrough4
Father Luther often told me in the presence of many others: "I used to be amazed at Pauls argument for the justification of the ungodly [Rom. 4:5] and to rejoice in Scripture when I read the exceptional consolation of the

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Holy Spirit and God's promises of grace in Christ, but I did not understand it because I was a most righteous monk, being confident in my works and merits, in monastic vows, and my rules and observances; I ran after papal indulgences; and the mass was for me the highest righteousness and holiness and a sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead in the pope's purgatory. I invoked the saints, whose merits and intercessions I could acquire with fervent fasting and sacrifice. For I made them my mediators, to placate the wrath of God for the forgiveness of my sins. Now I know this to be true idolatry against the First Commandment; but at that time through such things we imagined ourselves to be true worshipers of the true God while we condemned as heretics those who even murmured anything to the contrary. "And therefore this phrase, 'the righteousness of God,' in the Episde to the Romans [1:17], which Paul wrote to us as a highest consolation against our righteousness (which we always seek in ourselves and which we can not find unless we Pharisees are blinded) was poison to me, and I abhorred it and reluctandy sang from the Psalms: your righteousness, deliver me, O Lord' [Ps. 31:1]. For I understood, as did all those who were under the pope, that what was called the righteousness of God was nothing other than certain judgment and the wrath of God against my sins, that is, the righteousness of the law. "I did not know that through the preaching and the Holy Scripture in Christ's church there was a twofold judgment of God, one of the law and another of the gospel, and likewise a twofold righteousness of God, one of the law and another of the gospel. In the world the judgment and righteousness of the law is known, but it is not performed; but - as the prophets announced - David's son, our Lord Jesus Christ, would bring about the judgment and righteousness of God through the gospel when he was upon the earth, as in Jeremiah 23[-.5]: 'He will make judgment and righteousness on the earth...'. This I did not know, just as to this day all the papists are ignorant, because they hate the gospel of the righteousness of God, which is Christ in us through faith. "And I impatiendy put up with what Jerome rendered in the Psalm [24:5]: 'he receives blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation,' as it says in the Latin. The Greek has Eleemosynam: 'And mercy from the God of his salvation.' I did not know these [mercy and righteousness] were the same and that therefore Jerome's translation was correct. But then I read in Augustine: 'the righteousness of God, that is through faith in Christ, which God imputes to us unworthy people and so justifies the ungodly freely through grace,' as it says in Book IV of De Trinitate, which is also quoted in the Sentences of the Master, Book III, distinction 35: 'It is said that the righteous ness of God is not only that by which he [God] is righteous, but also that which he gives humans when he justifies the ungodly.'5

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"And I found in Paul, Romans 3 etc., that Augustine also had gotten this from Paul's words. Thus the door was first opened to me and I entered into all Holy Scriptures and the gospel of Christ, by understanding this phrase alone: the righteousness of God. For my righteousness perished by knowing the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, of which Peter spoke in Acts io[:43]:'To this all the prophets [bear witness, that all who believe in him receive forgiveness of sins through his name.']" In this and similar ways, Father Luther often spoke to us.

Bugenhagen's Account in Historical Perspective Bugenhagen began and ended this account with the assurance that it was received from Luther's mouth in the presence of others. Bugenhagen had been Luther's colleague in Wittenberg for over twenty years. Although this retelling was published over four years after Luther's death, Bugenhagen wrote the Jonah Commentary amid controversies with Rome and with other Lutherans. The fact that Bugenhagen was engaged in a very public argument suggests that he would be careful about accuracy here. This account also shares a similar style with Luther's own reminiscences, especially Luther's descriptions of how the scriptural phrase iustitia Dei troubled him until it became a gate to a new and heavenly understanding. The peculiar way of speaking in the first person singular as Luther's ipsissima verba and the fact that Bugenhagen follows Luther's narrative style of describing the breakthrough may indicate that this account came from reliable notes on conversations with Luther or from Bugenhagen's personal reminiscences. Bugenhagen's citations of Augustine and Lombard contain some errors, yet these may actually argue in favor of the claim that this presentation was received orally from Luther and not reformulated by Bugenhagen. Had Bugenhagen wanted, he surely could have taken exact quotations from the books he cited. Instead, slight inaccuracies remain. For example, De Trinitate Book IV does refer to Romans 4:5 ("God, who justifies the ungodly") as Bugenhagen mentioned. However, the sentence that matches the line cited in Lombard comes from De Trinitate Book XIV: "...we call God's righteousness not only that by which God is himself righteous but also

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that which God gives to a person when he justifies the ungodly." 6 The common theme is that God's righteousness justifies sinners. But even in the more direct citation, Bugenhagen (or Luther himself) embellished the text with evangelical phrases such as "per fidem Christi," "Deus imputt nobis," and "gratis per gratiam" that are in neither Lombard nor Augustine. These inaccuracies may further validate Bugenhagen's claim that his account was built upon Luther's direct testimony. Not only do these inconsistencies potentially support Bugenhagen's reception of this account, but they also point to the heart of Luther's evangelical theology. Both passages from Augustine explain the centrality of God's righteousness in justifying sinners. Although this similarity makes the difference between the De Trinitate quotations appear negligible, the quotations are different enough to stand as two sources for Luther's theological development. The quotation from De Trinitate Book IV reads, "For the soul is resuscitated through repentance, and in this mortal body the renewal of life is begun by faith that believes in him who justifies the ungodly!'7 This short passage contains three words that became central to Luther's evangelical theology: poenitentia,fides,and iustificatio. Because scholars have struggled to identify clear moments of major change in the young Luther's theology, it can appear as if Luther may have had several breakthroughs as he developed his theology piece by piece. 8 These two sources from Augustine, however, present a holistic way to interpret Luther's budding theology, in which key Reformation concepts were closely related to each other from the beginning. Bugenhagen's account also adds to Luther's 1545 Preface to the Latin Writings and the Table Talk, because it identifies Luther's early teaching career as a time in which he was already struggling to understand tustitia Dei and justification by faith. Luther was reading the texts Bugenhagen cited (Augustine's De Trinitate and Lombard's Sentences) in 1509 as preparation for his first lectures at the University of Erfurt.9 To be sure, finding a "Lutheran" Luther in the 1509 Randbemerkungen and other early sources has proven difficult. For this study, the critical historical question is whether iusititia Dei played a central role in Luther's early thought and was not imposed later by a more established Luther or Lutheranism.

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Although Luther and Bugenhagen's recollections came decades after the event described, there is evidence that tustitia Dei was on Luther's mind as early as 1509. Commenting on Augustine's treatment of John 5:26 in De Trinitate, Luther noted, "For [Christ] himself is our life, our righteousness, and our resurrection through faith in his incarnation."10 While this quotation by no means presumes a fully developed evangelical theology in Luther, it reveals that "the youngest Luther" (as Oberman put it) was already beginning to connect the knowledge of God to justification by faith early in his teaching career. This concern could then grow into the central doctrine of the Reformation as Luther engaged the Bible and the tradition as a professor, preacher and monk and as he began publicly confronting the questionable sacramental practices of his day. By pointing to the 1509 readings in Augustine and Lombard, Bugenhagen's account presents a new source in Luther research that describes how Luther may have been coming to significant evangelical discoveries about tustitia Dei and justification by faith already as a young teacher. It suggests that Luther, uncertain about the meaning of tustitia Dei in Romans and the Psalms, studied the Bible and the tradition with that specific problem in mind. Looking for resolution, Luther found in Augustine and Lombard that God's righteousness is the righteousness with which God justifies the ungodly, a righteousness received by faith in Christ. This is not to say that Augustine was more important than Paul in Luther's early thought, but that Luther had Paul in mind while he was reading Augustine. From this strong foundation built upon the Bible and traditional church authorities, one sees how Luther could then approach the challenges that arose with the confidence that became typical of him. Bugenhagen's account of this breakthrough shows Luther deeply engaging the Bible and the tradition and emerging with an understanding of the Christian faith grounded in tradition, yet ground-breaking for his day and beyond.

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NOTES
1. T h e author thanks Dr. Timothy J. Wengert of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia for his invaluable suggestions and editorial work. Any shortcomings in this article, of course, belong to the author himself. 2. For the 1545 Preface to the Latin Works see Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtsausgabe, eds. J.F.K. Knaake, et al. (Weimar, 1883fr) [hereafter WA] 54:185.12-186.24 and Luther's Works, American Edition, Eds. Pelikan and Lehmann, (St. Louis and Philadelphia, 1955) [hereafter LW] 34:335-37. Accounts of the "tower experience" are found inWA Tischreden 4:72, no. 4007; LW 54:308-09 andWA Tischreden 3:228, no 3232c; LW 54:193-194. 3. Numerous studies on this subject exist. Two works by Bernhard Lohse offer qual ity summaries of recent research: Der Durchbruch der Reformatorischen Erkenntnis bei Luther: Neuere Untersuchungen, Lohse, ed. (Stuttgart, 1988) and Martin Luther's Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development, Harrisville, trans. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999). 4. Johannes Bugenhagen, lonas Propheta Expositus (Wittenberg: Creutzer, 1550), Tviii-Vii.The microfilm copy used for this study is part of the collection of the Thrivent Reformation Research Program of Luther Seminary Library, St. Paul, Minnesota. An original is in the Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbttel, Germany. The Latin text: Pater Lutherus sepe dixit mihi coram multis, Mirari solebam Pauli disputationem de iustificatione impii, et gaudere in Scripturis, quando legebam egregias consolationes Spiritus sancii, & promissiones Dei de Gratia in Christo, sed non intelligebam, quia eram Iusticiarus Monachus, confidens in opera & merita mea, in Monastica vota, regulas & obseruationes meas, Cucurri ad indulgentias Papales, Missatio erat mihi summa iusticia & sanctitas, & sacrificium pro peccatis viuorum & mortuorum in Papae pugatiorio, inuocaui Sanctos, quibus &feruiui ieiuniis &feriis, confisus sum eorum mentis & intercessionibus, Nam fed eos mihi mediatores, ad placandam iram Dei pro remissione peccatorum meorum, que omnia nunc agnosco esse ueram idololatriam contra primum preceptum, & tarnen tunc per taita somniabamus nos esse veros veri Dei cultores, & damnabamus ut herticos, qui vel contra hiscerent, Ideoque hoc vocabulum Iusticia Dei, in Epistola ad Romanos, quod Paulus nobis scribit summa consolatione, contra iusticiam nostram (qua perpetuo querimus in nobis, & non inuenimus, nisi sumus excecati Pharisei) erat mihi venenum, Abhorrebam & inuitus canebam ex Psalmo. In tua iusticia libera me Domine, Intelligebam enim, vt omnes sub Papatu, Iusticiam Dei nihil aliud, quam certum iudicium & iram Dei contra mea peccata, id est, legis iusticiam, Ignorabam per praedicationem & Scripturam sanctam esse in Ecclesia Christi, vt duplex iudicium Dei, alterum Legis, alterum Euangelii, ita & duplicem iusticiam Dei, alteram legis, alteram Euangelii. Iudicium & iusticia legis cognoscebatur in mundo, sed non praestabatur, Iudicium autem & iusticiam Dei per Euangelium, tunc promittebant Prophte, quandoque super terram facturum filium Dauidis Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, vt 1re, xxiii. Faciei iudicium & iusticiam in terra &c. Haec ignorabam, quemadmodum adhuc hodie omnes Papiste ignorant, qui oderunt Euangelium de iusticia Dei, quae est Christus perfidem in nobis. Et indigne ferebam quod Hieronymus vertisset in Psalmo sic. Accipiet benedictionem a Domino & iusticiam a Deo salutari suo, quod latinus vertit. Et misericordiam a Deo salutari suo. Graecus dixit Eleemosynam, Non noram haec idem esse, ideoque Hieronymum recte venisse. Cum vero legerem in Augustino. Iusticiam Dei, que est perfidem Christi, quam Deus imputt nobis indignis, & ita iustificat impium gratis per gratiam, vt est in libro UH. de Trinitate, id quod recitatur lib. Hi. Sententiarum magistri dist. 3$. Dicitur iusticia Dei non sola ilia qua ipse iustus est, sed etiam ilia, quam dat homini cum iustificat impium. Et inueni in Paulo Rom. Hi. &c. hoc

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Augustinum ex Pauli verbis accepisse, tunc primum aperta est mihi ianua, & ingressus ad totam sacram Scripturam & Euangelium Christi, hoc solo vocabulo cognisto Iusticia Dei. Cecidit enim mea iusitida, cognita iustira Dei in Christo Iesu Domino nostro, De quo dit Petrus, Act. . Huic omnes Prophetae &c. Talia & similia saepe narrabat nobis Pater Lutherus.

5. Augustine, De Trinitate, Book IV, 3 in Corpus Christianorum (Turnholti, 1968) [here after CC], 50:165. Lombard Sentences, Book III, dist. 35, in Patrologiae Latinae, Migne, ed. (Paris 1880), 192:828. The citation used by Lombard is from De Trinitate, Book XIV, 12 in CC 5:443. 6. CC 5oA.*443: Sed quemadmodum dicitur etiam iustitia dei non solum illa qua ipse iustus est sed quam dat homini cum iustificat impium. 7. C C 50:165: Resuscitatur ergo anima per poenitentiam, et in corpore adhuc mortali renouatio vitae inchoatur afide qua creditur in eum qui iustificat impium (emphasis in CC text). 8. Volker Leppin has argued for this understanding of the breakthrough in his recent biography, Martin Luther (Darmstadt: WBG, 2006), 116-17. Leppin suggests that in light of Luther's comments regarding poenitentia from a 1518 letter to Staupitz, it can seem as if the later Luther changed the breakthrough's theological basis from poenitentia to iustitia Dei. While Leppin's historical questions about the later "breakthrough" texts are valid, he does not fully take into account that the letter to von Staupitz might be mentioning poenitentia precisely because ofthat word's importance to the Ninety-Five Theses, from the first the sis on. Indeed, the letter to Staupitz was published as a preface to Luther's Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses. This context means that the letter to Staupitz is not more histori cally valid simply because it comes earlier, but is subject to the same rhetorical analysis as the later accounts of the breakthrough. For the letter to Staupitz, see WA 1:525-527; LW 48:64-70. 9. Luther's Randbemerkungen on De Trinitate are dated 1509 and recorded in Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtsausgabe, eds. J.F.K. Knaake, et al. Weimar, 1883fr [hereafter WA], 9:i5fF. The Randbemerkungen on Lombard's Sentences begin at WA 9:30. 10. Where Augustine was discussing how the Father and Son relate to each other, Luther asked how the life of God becomes part of the life of the believer. In this context, Luther's notes include a discussion of the raising of Lazarus and Christ's words "I am the resurrection and the life" (John n:25).WA 9:17: Sed hoc credere est in humanitatem ejus credere quae nobis data est in hac vita pro vita et salute. Ipse enim perfidem suae incarnationis est vita nostra, justitia nostra et resurrectio nostra. Qui dicit se nobis daturum vitam aeternam i.e. spiritum sanctum cum patre et filio. Ergo in eo textu videtur loqui de vita et resunectione quae est perfidem ejus. Illa autem est ipse in humanitate sua: postquam vitam sequetur eterna vita. "But this 'to believe' is to believe in his humanity, which has been given to us for life and salvation in this life. For he himself is our life, our righteousness, and our resurrection through faith in his incarnation. He says that he will give us eternal life, that is, the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son. Therefore in this text he seems to speak of life and resurrection, which comes through faith in him. And that life is he himself in his humanity: after life will come eternal Ufe."

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