Caemmerer, Richard R., Sr.

Mayer, Herbert T.

English

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis: Scholarly Resources

Concordia Theological Monthly Volume 43 Article 54 9-1-1972 Editorial Herbert T. Mayer Concordia Seminary, St. Louis Richard R. Caemmerer Sr. Concordia Seminary, St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm  Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Mayer, Herbert T. and Caemmerer, Richard R. Sr. (1972) "Editorial," Concordia Theological Monthly: Vol. 43, Article 54. Available at: https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol43/iss1/54 This Editorial is brought to you for free and open access by the Print Publications at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Concordia Theological Monthly by an authorized editor of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact seitzw@csl.edu. C CORDIA VoLXLfil GICAL ---=--LY Luther 011 Christ and the Old Testament JAMES S. PREUS The Day of Rest in the Old Testament HANS WALTER WOLFF Aspects of Intertestamental Messianism RALPH W. KLEIN N ew and Old in Mark 16:1-8 ROBERT H. SMITH Critical Methodology and the Lutheran Symbols' Treatment of the Genesis Creation Accounts HORACE D. HUM.l"\IBL Parables in the Gospel of Thomas WILLIAM R. SCHOEDEL Homiletics Book Revie"v September Number 8 1Mayer and Caemmerer: EditorialPublished by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary, 1972A NEW ADDITION TO 1HE MONIJMENTAt TRAW.SLAT/ON OF LUTHER'S WORKS VDLUme 15 Lectures on Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and the Last Words of David LUTHER'S WORKS VOLUME 15 encompasses three of his lecture series. In the first two, held in 1526, Luther discusses the political and social positions of a Christian based on Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. The third commentary, delivered in 1543, interprets the words of David, 2 Samuel 23:1-7, in the light of the New Testament. The lecture on Ecclesiastes is translated by Jaroslav Pelikan The lecture on the Song of Solomon is translated by Ian Siggins The lecture on the Last Words of David is translated by Martin Bertram Cloth, 550 pages, No.15-1757, $7.50 C!!~.!.!1!!!1•a 3558 SOUTH JEFFERSON AVENUE SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI 83118 2Concordia Theological Monthly, Vol. 43 [1972], Art. 54https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol43/iss1/54CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Volume XLII September 1972 Number 8 A Theological Journal of THE LUTHERAN CHURCH-MISSOURI SYNOD Edited by THE FACULTY OF CONCORDIA SEMINARY SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI CoNCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY is published monthly, except July-August bimonthly, by Concordia Publishing House, 3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St.Louis, Mo. 63118, to which all business correspondence is to be addressed. $3.50 per annum, anywhere in the world, payable in advance. Second-class postage paid at St. Louis, Mo. © 1972 Concordia Publishing House. Printed in U. S. A. CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI 3Mayer and Caemmerer: EditorialPublished by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary, 1972Contents Editorial Luther on Christ and the Old Testament JAMES S. PREUS The Day of Rest in the Old Testament HANS WALTER WOLFF Aspects of lntertestamental Messianism RALPH W. KLEIN New and Old in :Mark 16: 1-8 ROBERT H. SMITH Critical Methodology and the Lutheran Symbols' Treatment of the Genesis Creation Accounts HORACE 0. HUMMEL Parables in the Gospel of Thomas WILLIAM R. SCHOEDEL Homiletics Book Review EDITORIAL COMMITfEE 483 488 498 507 518 528 548 561 567 ROBERT W. BERTRAM, JOHNS, DAMM, ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, GEORGE VI. HOYER (Homiletics Editor)' EDGAR KRENTZ, HERBERT T. MAYER (Managing Editor) ARTHUR C. PIBPKORN (Book Review Editor)' GILBERT A. THIELE, JOHN H. nBTJBN WALTER. WEGNER, DAVID c. YAGOW (Assistant Managing Editor) Adtlt-ess dll ,amm#nicalions lo the Bdilorifll Commilles in CMe of Hnberl T. Mayll'f, 801 De M"n A11e., SI. Lo#is, Mo. 63105 II II llC II 0 en 2 ... I! 0 1B ... II.I ,, i - • en - 0 ~ i5 :, 0 ,, e ~ Ii II ~ ,, MOVING? The United Stares Past Office Department requests that mmplere and accuwe c:haage of address information should be 1mt 'a p10mptlJ and dhecd.J to Subscription Department, Concordia Pub- • C: lisbiq Hou,e, 3558 S. JeJfenon ATC., St. Louis, Mo. 63118. m ;;; &:' 8. Ii ,, i' J! • -• • • .. 'a 'a D $ t :g, z II .. 4Concordia Theological Monthly, Vol. 43 [1972], Art. 54https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol43/iss1/54Editorial + "Which Birds?" Some weeks ago a trusted friend advised us to stick to broad theological issues in the pages of this journal and to avoid all the pressing present problems in The Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod. "Fill the church full of Gospel," he said, "so that there will be no room left for non-Gospel problems." That was tempting advice; it would relieve editorial tensions greatly. But at the same time, it might leave the theological field in the hands of irresponsible journalists, and it would seem to imply that the Gospel is not .relevant to our current crises. Instead of following our friend's good advice, we have decided to aim our evangelical guns at the birds that are flying around the synodical chimney. Let's make the proclamation of the Gospel to specific problems the key to our program - that was the staff's final editorial decision. However, it seems that the contributors to this issue, with the exception of Horace Hummel, have followed. our friend's advice. In their articles, most of them concentrate on mining the Scripture for God's proclamation of judgment and His promises of grace, as if nothing else bothered them. Maybe that's good, because it does .reveal their own supreme confidence in the Gospel's powe.r to ove.rcome. It also demonstrates their unified determination to preach the Gospel in season and out of season. Incidentally, each of our contributors, by their careful attention to the minutest details and facts in the Biblical record show that they do not belong to that Gospel-reductionist school, badly caricatured in several District memorials, that is supposed to argue that you can ignore or twist anything in Scripture so long as the Gospel is not affected. In our original design, worked up by a subcommittee of the exegetical department of our seminary, approved by that entire depa.rtment and then ratified by the CTM staff, this issue was to explore various aspects of the relationship between Old and New Testa-ment. Professors Klein, Lange, and Sauer carefully stuck to that assignment, while others went their own useful, helpful, pastoral, scholarly ways. The topic of confessional subscription and exegetical responsibility requires further treatment than it receives in this issue. We did not expect Dr. Hummel to solve all the problems in one essay. Dr. Hummel has provided some of his own ideas on this topic, and some readers will undoubtedly find their own thinking stimulated by his article. Others will find his comments on evolution to be thought-provoking. Dr. Hummel's ar-ticle can be desaibed as a defense of the sou, sai,ptura principle, as are the other articles in this issue. But if Saipture was written for the purpose of making us wise unto salvation by proclaiming Law and Gospel, then we need to ask whether a Lutheran article on Scripture is complete and Lutheran if it does not broaden our understanding and appreciation of Law and Gospel If we make this requirement, are we becoming too fussily Lutheran? too pedantic and mechanical? We think not, in this day and age when the proper understanding of Law and 5Mayer and Caemmerer: EditorialPublished by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary, 1972484 EDITORIAL Gospel is challenged and obscured by many. The church still stands or falls as it succeeds or fails to maintain the Christological purpose and nature of the Scripture in everything the church says about Scripture, and as it succeeds or fails to find Law and Promise in all its chapters. Without this soteriological emphasis, articles about Scripture fall Bat and have little appeal or value to the parish pastor. We wondered what impact Dr. Hummel's article would have on its readers because of its personalistic, subjeaive tone. He has clearly thought through many of the problems to his own satisfaction, but not every reader will want to take his word for it. However, his article is a useful and stimulating contribution to dialogue, and dialogue is an essen-tial ingredient in reconciliation, that blessed goal that so many seem to have given up as hopeless. Planning a Biblical issue requires one fundamental decision concerning what kind of article will be of most service to the 2,500-plus parish pastors who make up the majority of our subscribers. Should contributors be asked to write articles that are spe-cifically and obviously geared to the parish pastor? Most of our contributors to previous issues have rejeaed this approach. They argue that the best way to help pastors is by inviting them to come into their studies and classrooms and watch them do exegetical work. This year the contributors followed that approach, while the staff favored a more specific focus on today's parish pastor. And so, with some embarrassment, we introduce a new and very occasional feature: introduaions to seleaed articles putting them into perspective for the pastor. The em-barrassment stems from the fact that the editor is not convinced our pastor subscribers need them or that he, or anyone else on the faculty for that matter, is really equipped to introduce these articles from the perspeaive of the parish pastor. Embarrassed, also, lest the rest of our readers, some one thousand professional scholars and theologians, turn up their noses at the articles because of the introduction. So with considerable hesitation we'll go this route and wait for the avalanche of mail to show whether it was a good or dumb decision. Articles by Alfred von Rohr Sauer and Harvey Lange, prepared for this issue, will be delayed to the Oaober issue for reasons of space. Good reading, and a blessed fall parish program! HERBERT T. MAYER for the staff - · --6Concordia Theological Monthly, Vol. 43 [1972], Art. 54https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol43/iss1/54Searching the Scriptures Ours is a day in which the people of the church are apt to be a bit uneasy about their exegetes, the men whose calling it is to interpret the Sacred Scriptures. Jesus Christ had a good word for the professional experts of the Bible in His day, and His Word is useful for experts and laymen alike, for opponents of His like those to whom He first spoke that Word, and for us all who propose to be His disciples: You study the scriptures diligently, supposing that in having them you have eternal life; yet, although their testimony points to me, you refuse to come to me for that life. (John 5:39-40 NEB) Those words trigger a number of useful reflections. 1. The Scriptttres are to be searched,. What was wrong with the opponents of Jesus was not that they searched, but that they searched without finding. The Bible does not carry all of its treasure on tl1e surface. The people of the Old Testament read their Scriptures as though through a veil (2 Cor. 3: 14). Prophets in the very act of writing their Scriptures had to search and ponder what it was that they were given to write ( 1 Peter 1: 10-12). We are to search; and anything that stops that search, especially when it is for its right purpose, is damaging. 2. The Scri,pttwes are to be searched, fol' Jes1u Christ. Jesus' opponents were the experts in the Biblical interpretation of their day. But they were on the wrong track. Something kept them from finding Him! They had constructed a religion of statute and ordinance; and instead of searching the Scriptures to arrive at their vitality and purpose in Christ, they only added ordinances to the Law. Anything that stops the searcher of the Bible, whether he be a sophisticated scholar or a simple reader of a trans-lation in his own tongue, from finding Jesus Christ as his prime discovery, is damaging. 3. Seaf'ching the Script11res is a gf'eat ser11ice to Chnstiems. The man who is burrow-ing into the meaning of the Scriptures in order to produce their Word of Jesus Christ is doing his fellow Christians a great service. He is accepting the mandate to handle the Word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-21). He is impelled by the charism of the Spirit and the gift of knowledge to help his brothers and to edify the church of God ( 1 Cor. 12:8, 25; 13:2). He is an agent of the Spirit of God who tells what Jesus said and did (John 15:26; 16:14). Anything that impedes the man who is so gifted and enabled in fulfilling his calling of the Spirit to unfold the Scriptures is damaging. 4. To search the Scnptttf'es d,oes not mean to thf'ow an'J of it 1,1wa1. The average Bible reader develops a bias in favor of certain sections. Many a pastor has through the years of his ministry developed an "inner canon" of favorite preaching texts or of verses and sections for catechetical classes and Bible studies or bedside ministration or coun-seling. This is splendid, this is what the Bible is for. But in using these excerpts he is apt to halt his search through the rest. He is happy, and his people with him, that he is supplying the familiar treasures. But in the process vast areas of the Bible remain un-us~, in part because of neglea, in part because they seem too difficult. Thus a lack of 485 7Mayer and Caemmerer: EditorialPublished by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary, 1972486 EDITORIAL searching sets in, which may hamper the enlarging and growing understanding of the Scriptures. Anything that thwarts such growth is damaging. 5. Gifletl, experiencetl, waineel interpreters of the Bible make 11arietl tlisco11eri6s. I am not talking about the destruaive criticism which speculates about portiom of the Bible to the extent of discarding them as fraudulent or useless. But I am talking about the serious work of the interpreter who aims at recovering as completely as possible the intended meaning of the Bible. The Bible is a varied collection of documents - stories and histories, visions, poems, apologues with spiritual purposes, letters of teaching and counsel. Some of these seem to fit together with difficulty. The committed Christian interpreter seeks to plumb the basic meaning and purpose of all that he is examining. He makes new discoveries all the time. He is modest about his .findings and he knows that they are subjea to improvement and growth. He delights in sharing them with his fellow workmen with whom he is dividing the Word of truth (2 Tim.2:15). For ultimately it is Jesus Christ for whom he is searching; and anything that impedes that search and sharing is damaging. 6. Christians are apt to resist the process f growth in und erstanding the Bible. You wouldn't imagine that people would need the admonition, but Peter had to exhort: "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18 AV). Even good Christians are apt to fear that the foundations of their faith might prove to be an illusion. Or they may feel offended at the expertness of someone who puts their inexperience in the shade. They may want their church, or some fancied con-sensus of Biblical teachers, to freeze the meaning of the Scriptures at a certain point and term every variation from it an error or a heresy. But any such block aaoss the path of growth is damaging. Damaging for what? 7. Halting the growth in insight into t e Sc,iptu,es breeds contention. The church is dmwn into factions when it dusters around prestigious interpreters. I appeal to you, my brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: agree among your-selves, and avoid divisions; be firmly joined in unity of mind and thousht. • . . P.ach of you is saying, "I am Paul's man," or "I am for Apollos"; "I follow Cephas," or ••1 am Christ's." Surely Christ has not been divided among you! Was it Paul who was aucified for you? Was it in the name of Paul that you were baptized? (1 Cor. 1: 10, 12-13 NEB) Superficially it would appear that the posidon of one interpreter might become a rallying point which halts the proliferadon of doctrine. Actually it works in the opposite direc-tion. For the truth of Scripture takes hold of the human heart not at the command of a prestigious teacher, but through the power of its Law and Gospel (Note Francis Pieper, Chnstitm Dogtn41ics, I, 313,315,316) 8. Holling the g,Oflllh m insight into the Sc,ipmes defaces th  cbMch. The church is not the arbiter of doctrine, either in small or large sections of it. The moment that Cliristian men, no matter how well-intendoned, tell their fellow Christians that their own interpretadon of a moot passage of Saipture is to be accepted and others discarded, 8Concordia Theological Monthly, Vol. 43 [1972], Art. 54https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol43/iss1/54EDITORIAL 487 they have ceased to edify and build the church and have asked it to become a collection of automatons. They have stlfied the gifts of the Spirit and have replaced Him with their own method of truth. They have declared that God no longer has great things to uncover from His Word. They have forgotten the rock from whence they have been hewn: Christ the chief cornerstone, apostles and prophets sometimes standing very much alone, heroes of the faith like Athanasius or Martin Luther or C F. W. Walther, recovering treasures of truth like the two natures of Christ or the meaning of justification or the doctrine of the church. As Francis Pieper says about the peril of the ecclesia ~efwae-senldlwa: If the question at issue pertains to matters taught and decided in God's Word, the Christian position is that no man and no assembly of men, no matter how learned and renowned they may be, can decide for a Christian what is Scriptural doctrine. This matter every single Christian must decide for himself on the basis of the clear, in-fallible Word of God. . . . God has not invested the church, or individuals in the church, with legislative authority; on the contrary, here the rule is: "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." (Matt. 23:8. Chrislilm Dogmatics, III, 428,432) It isn't just to keep peace at any price that synodical conventions of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod have refused to sanction the adoption of set interpretations of Seri pture. But they have thrown back to Christians, their pastors and teachers, fathers and mothers, laity and clergy alike, wherever they are, the responsibility of unwearied search in the Saiptures, not just for the rruth of God in general, but for the Christ of God in particular. Where that search goes on, the damage of stagnation, dead orthodoxy, and Law instead of Gospel is thwarted, and God stands by His church with His Spirit, answering its prayer (Ps.119:18): "Open thou mine ey~ that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." RICHARD R. CAEMMERER SR. 9Mayer and Caemmerer: EditorialPublished by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary, 1972

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