Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the CreationLuther, Martin
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Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation
Luther, Martin
Bible. Genesis -- Commentaries
Aristotle does indeed say something of note when he makes the end of
man to be happiness, a happiness consisting in the action of virtue.
But in all this weakness of our nature, who is there that ever yet
attained unto that end, when even the very best of men are exposed to
a multitude of evils, which the common trials of life or the depravity
and malice of men are sure to bring upon them? That happiness of which
Aristotle speaks, requires tranquility of mind to make it perfect; but
who can always hold fast that peace of mind, amid such tossings to and
fro of human life? In vain therefore is such an end proposed by the
philosopher, which no man can attain.
The principal end of man's creation therefore, which the Holy
Scriptures set before us is, that man was created in the likeness of
God, with the divine intent that he should live forever with God, and
that while here on earth he should praise and extol God, give him
thanks and obey his Word in all patience. And this end we do attain by
some means or other, through grace, though with all infirmity in this
life, and in the life to come we shall attain unto it perfectly. Of
these things philosophers know nothing. And therefore the world, in
the height of all its wisdom, is yet sunk in the deepest ignorance,
wherever it is found destitute of the Word or of theology. For men
without the Word know nothing of their beginning or their end. I
mention not any of the other living creatures, who are not created, as
we have abundantly shown, to know any of these things, nor to partake
of these high blessings.
PART V. THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY.
V. 22. _And the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made
(built) he a woman, and brought her unto the man._
A new expression is this again, unheard before. Moses does not use the
verb "to create," or "to make," as in Gen. 1:26; but the verb "to
build." This has caused all commentators to conclude that some great
mystery lies under so singular a phraseology. Lyra thinks, with his
Rabbi Solomon, that the new form of the female body is intended to be
intimated. For, as the form of buildings is broader at the base, but
narrower at the upper part, so, he says, the bodies of women are
broader in the middle, and more contracted in the upper parts, while
men have wider chests and broader shoulders. But these are mere
peculiarities of certain parts of the body; whereas the Scripture is
speaking of the body as a whole, and calling it a building; just as
Christ himself calls the body the house of a man, Math. 12:29.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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