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The word(s) the Spirit gives: Lutheran and Reformed exegesis of 1 Corinthians 2:13

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2017

Steven Edward Harris
Steven Edward Harris*
Affiliation:
Hamilton, ON, Canadasteve.harris0@gmail.com
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Abstract

Distinctive Lutheran and Reformed theologies of the relationship between Word and Spirit influenced the history of Protestant exegesis of 1 Corinthians 2:13, which states, ‘we speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit’. The interpretation of the time of the Spirit's teaching (past or present) and the identity of the words taught (scripture or preaching/teaching) are seen to depend upon and develop these respective Lutheran and Reformed theologies. The essay concludes with a brief evaluation of the adequacy of these interpretations in light of the divine economy and some ecumenical considerations.

Keywords

1 Corinthiansdivine economyhistory of exegesisMartin LutherWord and Spiritpneumatology
Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 70 , Issue 3 , August 2017 , pp. 295 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Introduction

The relationship between the Word and the Spirit became a key battleground between the different Reformations of the sixteenth century. In response to certain spiritualist reformers, Luther developed his own theology of the Spirit's radical dependence upon the Word that broke with pre-Reformation Christian tradition. Reformed theologians, while aware of the dangers of ‘enthusiasm,’ nevertheless developed a more balanced theology incorporating the elevated place of scripture in Protestant thought into the patristic and medieval understanding of the interrelation of Word and Spirit. The Spirit follows the going forth of the Word, as for Luther; yet the Word, for Reformed thinkers, is also brought forth by the Spirit's preceding work. Their operations thus remain conjoint, without foreclosing some of the Spirit's role in the present divine economy.

To examine these two theologies of Word and Spirit in more detail, we turn to the history of exegesis, which, according to Heiko Oberman, allows one to trace contrasting theologies with precision, because exposition occurs in response to a (relatively) determinate text.Footnote 1 In this case, we look to a single, significant verse from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians: ‘we speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit’ (2:13). In both Greek and Latin, it contains ambiguity. In the Latin Vulgate, ‘those [words] taught by the Spirit’ became ‘in the teaching of the Spirit’ (in doctrina Spiritus).Footnote 2 This ‘teaching of the Spirit’ can indicate – in Latin as in English – the act of teaching as much as the content of what is taught. Patristic and medieval commentators took it in the former sense, as meaning that when ‘we speak’ we do so in and through the teaching activity of the Spirit. Yet this is also an uncertainty present in the original Greek to which the Reformers more often turned. Does Paul mean to say that when one speaks in the present (λαλοῦμεν), one does so ‘in those [words] taught by the Spirit’ (ἐν διδακτοῖς πνεύματος) in the past? or in a divine activity contemporary with one's speech?

This ambiguity led to a divergence in interpretation on two fronts. First, the time of the Spirit's teaching can be read as past or present. Second, the words taught by the Spirit can be identified as either scripture (given in the past and/or reactualised in the present) or preaching/teaching (a present activity). Thus, the verse can serve either a Lutheran or a medieval/Reformed interpretation of the relationship between the Word and the Spirit. The first part of this essay will trace the creative, new way in which Lutheran exegetes read this passage up until the late eighteenth century; a further section will detail how Reformed exegetes brought together the patristic and medieval interpretation with the Lutheran (and more generally Protestant) emphasis on scripture, and how this can serve ecumenical conversation; finally, a short conclusion will explore what resources Lutheran exegesis offers to develop a more accurate account of the relationship of Word and Spirit in the economy.

Luther's theology of Word and Spirit

For Martin Luther, the Spirit always follows the Word.Footnote 3 This conviction about the Spirit's agency was forged in Luther's controversy with the spiritualist reformers, whom he called ‘enthusiasts’ (Schwärmer). These ‘enthusiasts’, such as Thomas Müntzer and Andreas Karlstadt, held that it was possible to receive spiritual illuminations, including words and visions, from the Spirit apart from the ministry of the Word. In this way, Luther felt, they denigrated the Word of God and opened themselves to all kinds of self- and demonic deception.Footnote 4 Rather, ‘we must hold firmly to the conviction that God gives no one his Spirit or grace except through or with the external Word which comes before (dem vorgehend eusserlichem Wort)’. Luther argues thus so that ‘we shall be protected from the enthusiasts – that is, from the spiritualists who boast that they possess the Spirit without and before (vor) the Word and who therefore judge, interpret, and twist the Scriptures or spoken Word’.Footnote 5 The result of Luther's reaction to the enthusiasts, then, is a narrowing of the Spirit's agency: the Spirit only ever follows the preceding Word.

Yet it is the Spirit, of course, who gives the Word in the first place by speaking through the prophets and apostles and inspiring the writing of the scriptures. Luther's theology, then, is necessarily a claim about the present moment in the divine economy: following the Spirit's going before the Word in inspiring the scriptures, the Word now always precedes the Spirit. But is even this an accurate account of the roles of Word and Spirit in the present divine economy? What about other ‘words’ in relation to the Spirit's agency – words, for example, of preaching or teaching? Are these words given by the Spirit in the present or are they derived from the words of scripture, given by the Spirit in the past? Lutheran exegetes prefer the latter, in accordance with Luther's theology of the Spirit's recurrent dependence on the preceding Word. Luther himself did not leave us a commentary or homilies on this section of 1 Corinthians, but as we trace out the variety of Lutheran exegesis of this verse, his influence will become clear.

Luther's theology in exegesis: Reading 1 Corinthians 2:13 in the past tense

In the patristic and mediaeval periods, 1 Corinthians 2:13 was taken, with a kind of self-evidence, to refer to a contemporary giving of words by the Spirit to preachers or teachers. According to Aquinas, for example, to speak with words taught by the Holy Spirit means that the Spirit teaches us inwardly what we are to speak and also illuminates our listeners to understand.Footnote 6 In fact, the main question by the late medieval period and among early Reformed theologians became how the Spirit gives these words in the present: is it by infusion,Footnote 7 an impulse,Footnote 8 instruction,Footnote 9 suggestion or dictation?Footnote 10 Paul's claim that ‘we speak in those [words] taught by the Holy Spirit’, then, was understood to refer a present, contemporary action of the Spirit in the economy. Among Lutherans, however, a new way of reading this passage developed, a way that referred to the Spirit's giving of words as a past event, as the event of the inspiration of scripture.

The earliest Lutheran commentary on this verse comes from the pastor Johannes Bugenhagen (1485–1558). He published a set of lectures on 1 Corinthians 1–4 in 1530, in between Luther's Against the Heavenly Prophets (1525) and the Smalcald Articles (1537, quoted earlier). Bugenhagen's interpretation of 1 Corinthians 2:13 invents a new way of reading the passage and exemplifies the application of Luther's theology of Word and Spirit to the verse. ‘[W]e teach’, he begins, ‘in those words which the Holy Spirit spoke in the Scriptures’.Footnote 11 The Spirit's giving of words is in the past tense; the role of teachers at present is to learn the words the Spirit gave in scripture. Bugenhagen's reasoning behind this theology of the Spirit's agency in 1 Corinthians 2:13 is the same as Luther's: he wishes to prevent the deception of Christians by extrabiblical inventions. We must hold to the Spirit-given words in scripture, he argues, ‘lest some minister of Satan begin to teach strange things, as if they were something new which God wishes to teach beyond the gospel and Holy Scripture, just as under these masks, in the name of the Holy Spirit, from the time of the apostles until now, people have always been thus deceived’.Footnote 12 Bugenhagen holds up liberum arbitrium and the phrase communicatio idiomatum duplicis naturae in una persone Christi as examples of extrabiblical words not of the Spirit.Footnote 13

It is important, thus, for Lutheran exegetes to emphasise that the agency of the Spirit was solely exercised in the past in relation to his giving of the Word, in order to secure a theology of the Word's contemporary precedence over the Spirit. This guards, they argue, against the dangers of enthusiasm. In the homilies of Johann Mathesius (1504–65), we are told that we speak ‘with words which the Holy Spirit teaches, uses and leads, that is, with words that the Holy Spirit has brought before (herfür gebracht hat)’.Footnote 14 Lucas Osiander (1534–1604) writes similarly that ‘we adduce those proofs which are dictated to us by the Holy Spirit in the prophetic writings, and still (adhuc) are dictated to us by the Holy Spirit’.Footnote 15 This theology is echoed almost two centuries later in the commentary of the biblical critic Johann Salomo Semler (1725–91): ‘We rather use arguments which the Holy Spirit here, the much greater teacher, himself dictated in the writings of the prophets’.Footnote 16 The Holy Spirit preceded the Word in the past, but now, his agency is restricted to following ‘the external Word which comes before’ (Luther). Semler, in fact, argues that 1 Corinthians 2:13 should be read this way in explicit opposition to the patristic, medieval and Reformed understanding of the passage as indicating a contemporary event of the Holy Spirit's agency. Though noting that ‘very many tend to understand it’ as referring ‘to the apostles in this same period’, and so to their preaching, he prefers to refer it to the Old Testament prophets.Footnote 17 ‘Thus, “to speak in [words] taught of the Holy Spirit” is the same as “to show through the Scriptures”’.Footnote 18

Bound to the Spirit's past giving: on Verbindlichkeit

The positive force of Luther's proscription against seeking Spirit-given words outside of or apart from scripture is that preachers and teachers are ‘bound’ to the Word. This is seen as a concomitant effect of the Spirit's past giving of words in scripture, and is combined with a denial that he continues to give words at present outside of the biblical words. Sebastian Schmidt (1617–96) states that one speaks ‘in words which the Holy Spirit teaches and prescribes in his Word, not in philosophy’.Footnote 19 This language of ‘prescription’ sees in the Spirit's giving of the words of scripture also an act of binding teachers of God's Word to its words. Thus, according to the Pietist Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705), ‘[W]hat we wish to speak about divine things, we should work to express not so much in our words as in the words of the Holy Spirit as they stand in Scripture’.Footnote 20 As with Bugenhagen and Schmidt, this implies a caution against the use of philosophy or scholastic terminology in theology.Footnote 21

The Holy Spirit's giving of words in scripture is in itself an act of binding; obligation is concomitant with inspiration. According to Mathesius:

The Holy Spirit has himself composed the words with which one should teach and preach this secret counsel of God. This is now a wonderful and useful teaching and great rule for the preacher and even for all Christians, that they should not speak of God's Word according to their pleasure and use words as they desire, but should speak with the words which the Holy Spirit teaches. . . . We are rather bound to his Word, composed through the prophets and apostles, such that we should voluntarily use no other jot nor iota.Footnote 22

Similarly, the pastor Rupert Erythropel (1556–1626) writes of ‘how richly we are graced by God. . . . [W]e must enter school and learn to speak of the things of God not otherwise than the Holy Spirit has spoken of them in God's Word. Indeed, five words or sayings of Scripture, spoken with understanding, are better than many thousand splendid words (1 Cor 14).’Footnote 23 Thus, the act of the Spirit's binding preachers to the biblical words is actually a giving of grace: the Spirit has richly provided both the words and the manner of speaking in which the ‘treasure of the gospel’ should be expressed.Footnote 24

This ‘binding nature’ (Verbindlichkeit) of the Spirit's giving of biblical words is still recognised toward the end of the eighteenth century. In the commentary of Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten (1706–57), to which his assistant Semler supplied the preface, the Lutheran professor argues:

‘Words taught of him’ are such discourse, such expressions and manner of speech as were taught and inspired immediately (unmittelbar eingegeben) by the Spirit of God (Matt 10:19–20; 2 Sam 23:2; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:12–13). . . . [T]his Spirit, who inspires in them the truths, the content of discourse, also inspires, determines and teaches the words. Consequently, there flows therefrom an obligation (Verbindlichkeit) to prefer to all other expressions the expressions used by the Holy Spirit in Scripture for discourse about revealed truths.Footnote 25

Because both the words themselves and their form of expression were immediately inspired and given by the Holy Spirit, both form and content impose themselves on present preachers of the Word of God. The Spirit's past activity constitutes an act of binding, a present Verbindlichkeit in the economy with regard to the biblical words. Yet this binding does not have to be taken in a unilateral sense, with the Spirit bound to the Word. Reformed exegetes, as we will see, could argue that the activity of Word and Spirit is necessarily conjoint, without thereby making the Spirit's agency dependent on the preceding Word. Sometimes, the Spirit comes and works first, in order that the Word may go forth in power.

Bound to the past, free in the Spirit: Reformed exegesis

The Reformed were concerned, like their Lutheran counterparts, about the danger inherent in spiritualist claims to receive words from the Spirit unhinged from the biblical Word. Unlike their Lutheran counterparts, however, they perceived that it was a false overcorrection to then bind the Spirit's agency entirely to the external Word. The Spirit continues to be active, they would argue, in giving words internally to the minds and mouths of preachers; and the early Reformed exegetes especially would describe this in bold terms reminiscent of their medieval forebears. Not only is this Reformed interpretation of 1 Corinthians 2:13 more promising for ecumenism, as we shall see, but more importantly, it bears a truer likeness to the actual operations of the Spirit in the present moment in the divine economy. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor 3:17), including a bold freedom in speaking, a παρρησία (Acts 2:29, 4:13, 9:29, etc.).

Very much echoing his medieval predecessors, the early Reformer Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) states that ‘we speak and preach what is revealed to us by the Spirit of God dictating . . . in words which the Spirit inwardly suggests’.Footnote 26 Later figures, such as Willem Hessels van Est (‘Estius’, 1542–1613) and Salomon van Til (1643–1713), would likewise argue that the Spirit suggests words for one to use, with the latter arguing that he gives even the thoughts (ratiocinia) to be expressed in them.Footnote 27 No later exegete, however, would quite approach the expressiveness of a Sebastian Meyer (1465–1545), or a Wolfgang Musculus (1497–1563), who writes, ‘we are imbued with the Spirit of God, whom we have not only as the enlightener and teacher of our hearts, but also as the governor of our mouths and shaper of our words’.Footnote 28 Other Reformed commentators, such as Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562), would agree that the Spirit gives one both the knowledge of spiritual things and the words with which to communicate them.Footnote 29

Yet like Johannes Bugenhagen, the Zurich pastor Rudolf Gwalther (1519–86) saw in the medieval-style exegesis exemplified by Zwingli and Musculus the possibility of ‘enthusiastic’ misinterpretation. ‘For’, he states in his tenth homily on 1 Corinthians, ‘it thus occurs to fanatics, who invent inspirations and new revelations beyond the Word of God, that this is a most certain and quick short cut to errors and superstitions of every kind’.Footnote 30 As Luther and Bugenhagen, Gwalther sees a number of opponents falling into this category: the heretics of the first centuries, Mohammed, the Pope and ‘patrons’ of the Councils, and Anabaptists in the present day.Footnote 31 Some Reformed exegetes, following this reasoning, argued along Lutheran lines for a restriction of Spirit-given words to the text of scripture.Footnote 32

Instead, however, of arguing that the Spirit does not act apart from the preceding Word, Gwalther gives a sound rule by which to safely recognize the lordly freedom of the Spirit in giving words. This rule, for pastoral and spiritual discernment, is based on the same principle of ‘binding’, or conjoint operation, promoted by Lutheran exegetes, but it operates in a different way. ‘Therefore, the Spirit must be conjoined with the preaching of the Word’ – the principle of the necessarily conjoint operations of Word and Spirit, which provides the basis for the rule for discernment – ‘nor is a spirit, however attractive, to be believed, unless what it states is consistent in all matters with the Word of God revealed in the Scriptures’.Footnote 33 In arguing that the Spirit is conjoined with the Word, Gwalther does not thereby limit the Spirit's work to the external Word but recognises that the Spirit might bring forth a word from God. In other words, the relationship between Word and Spirit is not unilateral (the Spirit following a preceding Word) but bilateral (the Spirit might also come to bring a word from God).

In this, Gwalther provides a material principle for discerning claims to words from the Spirit. This principle operates on the basis of a non-contradiction of content between past and present Spirit-given words. The Spirit, that is, is consistent in what he says across the history of the economy; he speaks the same Word. Inconsistency, then, is a recognisable sign of the voice of a false spirit. John Calvin (1509–1564), when discussing the ‘weighing’ of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14:29, makes clear the formal principle implicit in this. It is not, for Calvin, so much the content of the claimed prophetic words that are to be judged, as their source. Examining preaching for whether it is truly God's Word can easily devolve into presumption. As he writes,

It seems improper to allow human beings to sit in judgment over God's teaching, which should be set beyond all dispute. I answer, that God's teaching is not subjected to human censorship, but it is only granted that they may weigh, by the Spirit of God, whether it is his own Word that is proposed, or whether human imaginations are masked by this false pretext.Footnote 34

Calvin acknowledges that contemporary speech can be identified as the Word of God, spoken through the Spirit's gift of prophecy.Footnote 35 The proper discernment of this speech is grounded theologically on the identity of the divine actor. Is this the same Spirit speaking who spoke the Word in scripture? Est-ce que c'est point sa parolle, ou non? Or put another way, drawing on John 10:4–5, do we hear in these words the voice of our Shepherd?Footnote 36 Thus, discernment by means of a material principle (consistency with scripture) may lead to a formal affirmation (both are the same Word from the same Spirit), resulting in moral and spiritual effects in the lives of the hearers.Footnote 37

The Welsh Presbyterian expositor Matthew Henry (1662–1714) opens this ecumenical avenue more broadly through his comments on 1 Corinthians 2:13. His choice of words evokes another significant passage in which the Spirit is said to give words. The apostles, he writes, ‘plainly declared the doctrine of Christ, in terms also taught them by the Holy Spirit. He not only gave the knowledge of these things, but gave them utterance.’Footnote 38 This final phrase calls to mind the events of Pentecost: on that day, the apostles are reported to have spoken in other languages ‘as the Spirit gave them utterance’ (Acts 2:4, KJV). In fact, it is hard not to think that Henry had this passage in mind when drawing up his notes on 1 Corinthians 2:13, given the similarity of language and ideas.Footnote 39

In quite a short scope, Henry's comments on Acts 2:4 clearly describe the conjoint works of Word and Spirit at different moments in the divine economy: in the inspiration of scripture, the incarnation and the mission of the apostles. ‘They were tongues’, he begins, ‘for from the Spirit we have the word of God, and by him Christ would speak to the world, and he gave the Spirit to the disciples, not only to endue them with knowledge, but to endue them with a power to publish and proclaim to the world what they knew.’Footnote 40 The Spirit preceded the Word in inspiring the scriptures; he empowered the Word in his earthly ministry; and in the life of the Church, the Spirit not only reveals the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10) but also teaches the words in which to express knowledge of them (2:13). It is appropriate that the Spirit gives the gift of tongues, Henry argues, because throughout the history of the divine economy, he has been giving words: in scripture, in the incarnation and in the apostolic preaching. This theological principle, namely, the continued, contemporary giving of words by the Spirit, is a crucial bridge for a conversation with Pentecostalism.Footnote 41

The importance of Reformed exegesis of 1 Corinthians 2:13 for ecumenical conversation with Pentecostals (and, in a very different way, Catholics and Orthodox) comes from its openness to the continuing work of the Spirit in the divine economy. The Spirit taught words in the past by inspiring the writing of scripture; he teaches in the present through the Church's teaching and preaching. This rests, theologically, on its recognition of the unity of the Spirit's work across various actions in the history of the divine economy. In other words, it is the same Spirit who first gave the words of scripture who now inspires words with which to teach and preach the biblical words and the realities they signify. The Spirit's work is not foreshortened, as in Lutheran theology and exegesis, by being limited to the past inspiration of scripture (and, perhaps, the present reactualisation of the biblical words), but is acknowledged in its full and continuing lordly exercise. The Lord, who is the Spirit, continues to act in his sovereign freedom, teaching words of wisdom to those he gifts in the church to teach, to preach and to prophesy. Just what one means by prophecy, of course, is a question for Reformed and Pentecostals to discuss. I only add here that what Pentecostals understand by ‘prophecy’ is shaped by what they take to be a new (or renewed) manner of the Spirit's working in the divine economy – that is, a new Pentecost.

Conclusion: the economy of the Spirit's words

Looking in the other ecumenical direction, now, from Pentecostalism to Lutheranism: there is a resource within Lutheran theology to incorporate a broader account of the Spirit's agency alongside Luther's strong emphasis on the binding character of the external Word of God. This is, as we have noted, the theological principle shared with Reformed theology, the necessarily conjoint work of Word and Spirit. One can, as we saw from the Reformed, speak of this without predetermining the order of their succession: the going forth of the Word can follow the Spirit's activity and the Spirit's work can follow the proclamation of the Word. Within Lutheran theology, of course, one finds strong arguments for the inseparability of the two. The theologian Christian Chemnitz (1615–66), for instance, argues, ‘The Holy Spirit, then, is present in his power and efficacy . . . inseparably from his Word’.Footnote 42 Yet this principle can operate not only to reduce the Spirit's agency to a past event (the inspiration of scripture) and the reactualisation of that event in the present; it can also, as we saw with Gwalther, function to secure the continuity of the Spirit's giving of words into the present and the church's discernment of that continuity (the material principle of consistency with scripture). According to Johann Mathesius, writing on 1 Corinthians 12:8, ‘There is one Spirit who, for a while, through Judah and Balaam and, at other times, through Paul, John the Baptist, through Luther and others, spoke and still speaks one Word’.Footnote 43 It is the same Spirit who inspired the Old and New Testaments in the past who inspires preachers and teachers today.

This continuing giving of words by the Spirit is, of course, ingredient in Luther's theology of the preached Word. Between the ‘Scriptures or spoken Word’,Footnote 44 between biblical words and extrabiblical words of proclamation, it is the latter, according to Althaus, which Luther regards as the Word's ‘original as well as . . . essential form’.Footnote 45 The proclaimed Word, then, is also, and perhaps even primarily, the Word of God; it is, in Jeffrey Silcock's phrase, the ‘continuation of Jesus’ own preaching’.Footnote 46 If Luther had not overcorrected in his polemics with the ‘enthusiasts’, he might have been more consistent in affirming that the Spirit not only gave the words of scripture in the past, words on which preachers draw and depend; rather, he still acts to give words of preaching and teaching that confirm, elucidate, exegete and preach the biblical words, as well as the purposes for which they were given and the realities about which they speak. The Reformed contested the ‘enthusiasts’ or ‘fanatics’ as well, but with rules of discernment like those presented by Calvin and Gwalther, they safely retained the truth that the Spirit does also precede the Word, acting to bring to utterance words of teaching and preaching. It is not, then, so much a matter of the Spirit following ‘the external Word which comes before’, as of perceiving the various words, biblical and extrabiblical, the Spirit receives from the Word in the triune economy and passes on to his people, internally and externally. What one needs, finally, is not a principle of cessationism but a practice of discernment.Footnote 47

References

1 Oberman, Heiko A., ‘ Curiosi te salutant: A Premature Assessment’, in Muller, Richard A. and Thompson, John L. (eds), Biblical Interpretation in the Era of the Reformation: Essays Presented to David C. Steinmetz in Honor of his Sixtieth Birthday (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1996), p. xii Google Scholar.

2 There is, in fact, a single Greek codex that reads ἐν διδαχῇ τοῦ πνεύματος ἁγιοῦ, and which was known in the sixteenth century. Cf. Beza, Theodore, Novvm D. N. Iesv Christi Testamentum . . . cum eiusdem annotationibus (Basel: Nicolas Barbarius & Thomas Courteau, 1559), p. 518 Google Scholar.

3 The classic study on Luther's pneumatology is Prenter, Regin, Spiritus Creator: Luther's Concept of the Holy Spirit (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1953; repr. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2001)Google Scholar. See more recently, Kärkkäinen, Pekka, Luthers Trinitarische Theologie des Heiligen Geistes (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2005; repr. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009)Google Scholar; Silcock, Jeffrey G., ‘Luther on the Holy Spirit and his Use of God's Word’, in Kolb, Robert, Dingel, Irene and Batka, L'ubomír (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology (Oxford: OUP, 2013), pp. 294–309Google Scholar; Althaus, Paul, The Theology of Martin Luther, trans. Schultz, Robert C. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1966), pp. 35–42 Google Scholar; Bayer, Oswald, Martin Luther's Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation, trans. Trapp, Thomas H. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2008), pp. 239–54Google Scholar; Zahl, Simeon, Pneumatology and Theology of the Cross in the Preaching of Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt: The Holy Spirit between Wittenberg and Azusa Street (London: T&T Clark, 2010), pp. 1–9, 158–83Google Scholar; Thiselton, Anthony C., The Holy Spirit: In Biblical Teaching, through the Centuries, and Today (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2013), pp. 255–62Google Scholar.

4 Luther, Martin, ‘The Smalcald Articles’, 3.8.5, in Lull, Timothy F. (ed.), Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1989), p. 530 Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., 3.8.3, p. 530 (WA 50:245).

6 Thomas Aquinas, In I ad Corinthios 2.2.109: ‘Astruit enim modum convenientem, cum dicit sed in doctrina spiritus, id est, prout spiritus sanctus nos loquentes interius docet, et auditorum corda ad capiendum illustrat.’ Cf. Hugh of St Cher, In Epistolas omnes D. Pauli, Actus Apost. Epistolas septem Canonicas, Apocalypsim B. Joannis (Venice: Nicolas Pezzana, 1703)Google Scholar, fol. 78r: Quae & loquimur,] id est, docet [Spiritus] nos qualiter dona Dei manifestamus aliis, vel etiam ut sciamus quae loquimur.

7 Denis the Carthusian, In omnes beati Pauli epistolas commentaria (Cologne: Peter Quentel, 1538)Google Scholar, fol. 39v: secundum doctrinam nobis a spiritu sancto infusam.

8 Meyer, Sebastian, In utramque D. Pauli epistolam ad Corinthios commentarii (Frankfurt: Petrus Brubacchius, 1546)Google Scholar, fol. 16r: Que & loquimur.] Quia illa spiritu dei didicimus,. . . cuius & impulsu ea loquimur.

9 Nicholas of Lyra, Bibliorum sacrorum cum glossa ordinaria iam ante quidem a Strabo Fulgensi collecta: nunc autem novis, cum Graecorum, tum Latinorum patrum expositionibus locupletata: Annotatis etiam iis, quae confuse antea citabantur, locis: Et Postilla Nicolai Lyrani: Additionibus Pauli Burgensis ad ipsum Lyranum: ac ad easdem Matthiae Toringi Replicis, 6 vols., ed. Jean Dadré and Jacques de Cuilly (Venice, 1603), vol. 6, p. 212: sicut Spiritus sanctus nos instruit ad loquendum.

10 Zwingli, Huldrych, In Evangelicum historiam de domino nostro Iesu Christo Epistolasque aliquot Pauli (Zurich: Christoffel Froschouer, 1539), p. 454 Google Scholar: ‘Quae & loquimur.) Quae nobis dictante spiritu dei reuelata sunt, loquimur ac praedicamus. Hoc enim officium nostrum est. Neque tamen loquimur ea eruditio aut ornato sermone, quem docet humana philosophia, sed his uerbis quae spiritus intus suggerit.’ One Lutheran commentator, Erasmus Sarcerius (1501–59), follows this medieval and Reformed line of interpretation: Quae docet spiritus, Suggerit, tradit, suppeditat spiritus sanctus (In D. Pauli Epistolas ad Corinthios eruditae ac piae meditationes (Strasbourg, 1544), fol. 65v).

11 Bugenhagen, Johannes, Commentarius in quatuor capita prioris epistolae ad Corinthios (Wittenberg, 1530)Google Scholar, fol. H2r: docemus uerbis, quibus spiritus sanctus in scripturis locutus est; cf. fol. Hr: Boni doctores non solum recte docent, sed etiam iis uerbis quibus ipsi docti sunt a deo per sacras litteras.

12 Ibid., fols. [G8]v–Hr: Scire quidem simpliciter omnia solius dei est, sed Christiani sciunt omnia, quae scire eos necesse est ad salutem, haec enim eis reuelat per Euangelium & Scripturas sanctas spiritus sanctus, reliqua quae deus noluit reuelata libenter ignorant. Vt sciamus inquit, quae a deo donata sunt nobis, sciunt itaque haec omnia qui sunt in ecclesia sanctorum, ne aliquis Satanae minister incipiat aliena docere, quasi quaedam noua, quae ultra Euangelium & sacras scripturas deus uelit doceri, quemadmodum his laruis, sub nomine spiritus sancti, hactenus semper a temporibus Apostolorum, homines subinde decepti sunt.

13 Ibid., fol. Hr, Hv.

14 Mathesius, Johann, Homiliae Mathesii. Das ist: Außlegung und gründliche Erklerung der Ersten und Andern Episteln des heiligen Apostels Pauli an die Corinthier (Leipzig: Johann Beyer, 1590)Google Scholar, fol. 54r: ‘mit Worten, die der heilige Geist lehret, brauchet und führet, das ist, mit Worten, die der heilige Geist herfür gebracht hat’.

15 Osiander, Lucas, Epistolae S. Pauli Apostoli Omnes Quotquot Extant (Tübingen, 1583), p. 201 Google Scholar: eas que probationes adducimus, quae a Spiritu sancto nobis in Scriptis Propheticis sunt dictatae, & adhuc nobis a Spiritus S. dictantur. While the latter phrase could be read as indicating a contemporary speaking of the Spirit, it is better taken to refer to the Spirit reactualising in the present the biblical words given in the past.

16 Semler, Johann Salomo, Paraphrasis in Primam Pavli ad Corinthios Epistolam. Cvm Notis, et Latinarvm Translationvm Excerptis (Halae Magdeburgicae: Carol. Herm. Hemmerde, 1770), p. 54 Google Scholar: ‘vtimur potius argumentis, quae spiritus hic sanctus, longe praestantior magister, in prophetarum scriptis ipse praeiiuit’.

17 Ibid., pp. 54–5: Πνευματος ἁγιου, illud διδακτοις referri potest ad scripta veteris testamenti, hinc desumuntur loci ad demonstrationem; atque sic iam veteres, Theodoretus, Chrysostomus, Grotius et quidam alii; potest vero etiam ad apostolos hoc ipso tempore, trahi; atque sic plerique omnes solent intelligere. Malim vero priorem explicationem praeferre. I have not found Semler's claims regarding Theodoret and Chrysostom to be supported by their commentaries.

18 Ibid., p. 55: Itaque λαλειν ἐν διδακτοις πν. ἁγιου, idem est ac ἐπιδεικνυναι δια των γραφων etc.

19 Schmidt, Sebastian, Commentarii in Epistolas D. Pauli ad Romanos, Galatas & Colossenses. Una cum Paraphrasi Epistolae Prioris ad Corinthios, Utriusque ad Thessalonicenses, Prioris ad Timotheum, Epistolae ad Philemon, & Canctici Mariae (Hamburg: Benjamin Schiller, 1704), p. 828 Google Scholar: . . . sermonibus & verbis, quae Spiritus sanctus docet, & in Verbo suo, non in Philosophia, praescribit: quemadmodum etiam facere summi juris est, & decet.

20 Spener, Philipp Jakob, Divi Pauli Apostoli Epistola Ad Romanos et Corinthios homiletica paraphrasi illustratae (Frankfurt-am-Main: Johannis Davidis Zunner, 1691), pp. 290–1Google Scholar: quae de rebus divinis loqui volumus, non tam nostris, quam Spiritus S. verbis in Scriptura extantibus, exprimere laboremus.

21 Ibid., p. 291: Hoc usum terminorum Scholasticorum, qui non desumti sunt ex Scriptura, suspectum, aut saltem cautos circa eum facere nos debet. Potest enim facile etiam nobis nescientibus verbum tale adhiberi, quod rei magis oppositum quam congruum est. Si vero servamus verba, quae Spiritus Sanctus docet, plane de re ipsa certi sumus. Ô utinam Theologi nostri ad pristinam illam simplicitatem reducerentur.

22 Mathesius, Homiliae, fol. 54r: ‘Der heilige Geist hats selber gefasset, mit was worten man diesen heimlichen Raht Gottes verkündigen und lehren sol. Daß ist nu gar eine schöne und nützliche Lehre und grosse Regel für die Prediger und auch für alle Christen, das sie nicht sollen von Gottes Wort reden ihres gefallens, und wie es ihnen gelüstet, wort gebrauchen, Sondern reden es mit worten die der heilige Geist lehret. . . . Und spricht also der heilige Geist auch: Ich habe diesen heimlischen Rahtschlag Gottes und seinen Vaterlichen Willen im Worte gefasset, derselbigen sol sich nu ein jeder Prediger befleissigen, das wir uns nicht Wort erfinden nach unserm dünkel, Sondern binden uns an seine Wort, durch die Propheten und Apostel gefasset, das wir mit willen kein andere Pünctlein oder Iota gebrauchen.’

23 Erythropel, Rupert, Theologia Apostolica & Methodica: Ausführliche und richtige Außlegung der Ersten Epistel Pauli an die Corinther (Goßlar: Joh. Voigts, 1616), p. 59 Google Scholar: ‘Durch welchen [den heiligen Geist] wir wissen, wie reich wir von Gott begnadet seyn: Zu dem wir auch in die Schule kommen müssen, und lernen von Gottes Sachen nicht anders reden, als der heilige Geist davon geredet in Gottes Wort. Da fünff wort oder Sprüche der Schrifft mit Verstand geredet, besser sein, als viel tausent prechtige worte, I. Cor. 14.’

24 Mathesius, Homiliae, fol. 54r: ‘Das ist, wir predigen denselbigen Schatz des Euangelii . . . mit Worten, die der heilige Geist lehret’ (cf. n. 14 above).

25 Baumgarten, Siegmund Jakob, Auslegung der beiden Briefe St. Pauli an die Corinthier (Halle: Johann Justinus Gebauer, 1761), p. 95 Google Scholar: ‘Λογοι διδακτοι αυτου sind ein solcher Vortrag, solche Ausdrücke und Redensarten, die von dem Geist Gottes unmittelbar eingegeben und gelehret werden, Matth. 10, 19.20. 2 Sam. 23, 2. Marc. 13, 11. Luc. 12, 12.13. Damit wil Paulus zugleich einem Einwurf begegnen, daß sie eben diese Warheiten auf eine andere, menschlichen Geschmack gemässere, Art vorbringen könten; welches aber deswegen nicht geschehen könne, weil eben dieser Geist, der ihnen die Warheiten, den Inhalt des Vortrags eingebe, auch die Worte eingebe, bestimme und lehre. Folglich fliest daraus eine Verbindlichkeit, die vom heiligen Geist in der Schrift gebrauchten Ausdrücke beim Vortrag geoffenbarter Warheiten allen andern eigenen Ausdrücken vorzuziehen, nicht aber eine rechtmäßige oder notwendige Unterlassung und Hintansetzung des Gebrauchs menschlicher Hülfsmittel und des gehörigen Nachdenkens zur bequemen Einrichtung des Vortrags götlicher Warheiten, als welches (eine solche Unterlassung des eigenen Nachdenkens) nur bey der unmittelbaren Eingebung statfindet.’

26 Zwingli, Epistolasque aliquot Pauli, p. 454 (cf. n. 11 above).

27 van Est, Willem Hessels, In Omnes Divi Pavli Apostoli Epistolas Commentariorvm (Douai: Baltazar Beller, 1614), p. 259 Google Scholar: vtentes oratione qualem docet ac suggerit Spiritus-sanctus; van Til, Salomon, Commentarius in Quatuor Pauli Epistolas (Amsterdam: Gerard onder de Linden, 1726), p. 24 Google Scholar: testatur, se adhaesisse sermonibus & ratiociniis a Spiritu Sancto edoctis.

28 Musculus, Wolfgang, In ambas apostoli Pauli ad Corinthios epistolas commentarii (Basel: Joannes Hervagius, 1559)Google Scholar, col. 68: . . . Dei spiritu imbuti sumus, quem habemus non solum cordis nostri illuminatorem & doctorem, sed & oris gubernatorem & uerborum informatorem. Cf. Meyer, Sebastian, In utramque D. Pauli epistolam ad Corinthios commentarii (Frankfurt: Petrus Brubacchius, 1546)Google Scholar, fol. 16r: Quia illa [uerba] spiritu dei didicimus, qui & in cordibus nostris uera esse de Christo testificatur, cuius & impulsu ea loquimur, quo credentes salui fiant.

29 Vermigli, Peter Martyr, In selectissimam D. Pauli priorem ad Corinthios Epistolam (Zurich: Christoffel Froschouer, 1551)Google Scholar, fol. 48v: spiritum sanctum non modo res docuisse, uerum etiam sermones & uoces illis accommodatas applicasse.

30 Gwalther, Rudolf, In priorem D. Pauli ad Corinthios epistolam homiliae (Zurich: Christoffel Froschouer, 1572)Google Scholar, fol. 26v: Ita enim fanaticis occurrit, qui inspirationes & reuelationes nouas fingunt extra Dei Verbum, quod certißimum breuißimumque est ad omnis generis errores atque superstitiones compendium.

31 Ibid., fols. 26v–27r.

32 Pareus, David, In Diuinam ad Corinthios Priorem S. Pavli Apostoli Epistolam Commentarivs (Frankfurt: Jonas Rhodius, 1609), cols. 123–4Google Scholar: is [Spiritus sanctus] non solum res, sed & verba docet: hoc est, praescripsit literis sacris, qualiter exponi doctrina Euangelii debeat; Trapp, John, A Commentary or Exposition Upon All the Books of the New Testament (London: R.W., 1656), p. 663 Google Scholar: ‘So that not the matter only, but words also of holy Scripture are dictated by the Spirit, and are therefore to be had in higher estimation, 2 Pet. 1.21’.

33 Gwalther, Homiliae, fol. 27r: Debet ergo Spiritus cum Verbi praedicatione coniungi, neque credendum est spiritui quantumuis specioso, nisi quae dictat cum Verbo Dei in scripturis reuelato per omnia conueniant. Gwalther then quotes Gal 1:8, ‘But even if we or an angel from heaven . . .’. Cf. fol. 220r: Nam sunt qui clament, sic hoc statuatur [i.e. si omnium est judicare de doctrina], iam Verbum Dei hominum iudicio subiici. At non hoc vult Apostolus, sed vt de Scripturarum interpretatione & iis quae Verbi Dei nomine proponuntur, iudicium fiat. An scilicet quod a Prophetis illis dicitur, cum Verbo Dei conueniat?

34 Calvin, Comm. Cor. I, p. 529: Atqui absurdum esse videtur, iudicium permitti hominibus in Dei doctrinam, quae extra controversiam constituta esse debet. Respondeo, non subiici Dei doctrinam bominum censurae: sed tantum hoc dari, ut ex Dei spiritu expendant numquid verbum ipsius sit quod proponitur: an falso isto praetextu ornentur humana figmenta; cf. Commentaire de M. Jean Calvin, sur la premiere Epistre aux Corinthiens (Geneva: Jean Girard, 1547), p. 501: ‘Mais il semble aduis que cecy ne conuient pas bien, qu'il soit permis aux hommes d'asseoir iugement sur la doctrine de Dieu, laquelle doit estre hors de toute controuerse et different. Response. Vray est que la doctrine de Dieu n'est point subiette à la censure des hommes: mais seulement cecy leur est ottroyé, de poyser par l'Esprit de Dieu, si ce qui est proposé, est point sa parolle, ou non, & si les inuentions humaines ne sont point couuertes de ce faux pretexte.’

35 Calvin identifies prophecy with the proper interpretation of scripture. This might seem to bind the Spirit's work (the gift of prophecy) to the preceding, external Word, the text of the Bible. Yet prophecy is not simply interpretation, for Calvin, but also the wise application of that interpreted Word to ‘present needs of the church’ (CO 49:506, on 1 Cor 12:28: ad circumspiciendam praesentem ecclesiae necessitatem). At one point, Calvin says this occurs by wisdom, experience and skill (ibid.); elsewhere, however, he states that it comes ‘by revelation and the special impulse of God’ (CO 49:519, on 1 Cor 14:6: ex revelatione et peculiari Dei impulsu). If the latter is true, then it involves the Spirit's giving of internal words, wisdom and thoughts apart from – yet, of course, consistent with – the external Word of scripture.

36 Cf. Gwalther, Homiliae, fol. 220r.

37 For a parallel argument from a different disciplinary perspective, see Boda, Mark J., ‘Word and Spirit, Scribe and Prophet in Old Testament Hermeneutics’, in Spawn, Kevin L. and Wright, Archie T. (eds), Spirit and Scripture: Exploring a Pneumatic Hermeneutic (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013), pp. 25–45 Google Scholar.

38 Henry, Matthew, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 3 vols. (London: Joseph Ogle Robinson, 1828), vol. 3, p. 1020Google Scholar.

39 Henry's exposition of Romans through Revelation was left unfinished at his death; 1 Corinthians was completed from his notes by Mr Simon Browne (see Henry, Exposition, vol. 1, p. 136).

40 Henry, Exposition, vol. 3, p. 726. Cf. ibid.: ‘They spake not matters of common conversation, but the word of God, and the praises of his name, as the Spirit gave them utterance. . . . They spake not from any previous thought or meditation, but as the Spirit gave them utterance; he furnished them with the matter as well as the language.’

41 See also, the language of the time aside, Henry's approval of Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson in saying, ‘if the conversion of infidels to Christianity were now sincerely and vigorously attempted by men of honest minds, God would extraordinarily countenance such an attempt with all fitting assistance, as he did the first publication of the gospel’ (Exposition, vol. 3, p. 726). Pentecostalism sees itself as a renewal of the first day of Pentecost narrated in Acts 2 and the missionary work that flowed from it. See e.g. Menzies, Robert P., Pentecost: This Story is Our Story (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 2013)Google Scholar.

42 Chemnitz, Christian, Commentariolus in Omnes Epistolas D. Pauli (Jena: Joh. Jacobus Bauhoferus, 1667), p. 226 Google Scholar: Unde dependeat efficacia Verbi divini? . . . A revelatione Spiritus Sancti: quia est ejus verbum. v.10. & 13. Adest igitur Spiritus Sanctus virtute & efficacia sua aequaliter & inseparabiliter verbo suo.

43 Mathesius, Homiliae, fol. 270r: ‘Aber da ist ein Geist, der da ein Wort eine zeitlang durch Judam, Bileam, und sonst durch Paulum, Johannem den Teuffer, durch Lutherum, und andere, geredt hat und noch redet.’

44 Luther, ‘The Smalcald Articles’, 3.8.3, p. 530 (WA 50:245).

45 Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther, 35, with reference to WA 40/2:410ff./LW 12:369; WA 50:240; Book of Concord, p. 310.

46 Silcock, ‘Luther on the Holy Spirit’, p. 297. Silcock is correct to see Luther in continuity with the patristic tradition on this point. See esp. Augustine, In epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos tractatus 3; Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Evangelia 2.30.3; Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob 27.23.

47 An earlier version of this paper was first presented at the conference The Protestant Spirit: The Holy Spirit in Protestant Thought, St John's College, University of Oxford, 23–25 Sept. 2015. My thanks to the participants in that forum for their helpful questions and insights. I would like to thank, in addition, Mark Boda, Alec Ryrie and Simeon Zahl for their conversation on the expanded argument of this article.