Martin Luther’s commentary on Psalm 90 affords a rare opportunity to compare Luther the lecturer with Luther as edited by others for publication. The Psalm 90 commentary began as lectures in 1534-35, and was recorded in notes by Georg Rörer, Caspar Cruciger, and Veit Dietrich, before being revised by Rörer for publication in 1541.^[1] There is an English translation of the published commentary in Luther’s Works, vol. 13, but none (so far as I am aware) of the notes; both texts are printed in vol. 40.3, 484-575, of the Weimarer Ausgabe of Luther’s works.

The two texts differ in some key respects. My intention in this series is to track the use of classical sources in each. We shall see how far I get.

The first references we find are in the opening of the Praelectio (lecture) of October 26, 1534. There, Luther says that one must understand the argumentum (purpose) of the Psalm before getting into the details of the text.

Luther then proceeds to lament our ignorance of ourselves and of God caused by original sin. We see this especially in the case of death. Left to our own resources, we do not understand it. Even the wisest men have treated it “not only very foolishly, but even impiously.” So we try to find ways to ignore it, to not have to think about it. Or we try to counterbalance it with pleasure (so the published version; this is not clear in the notes).

It is at this point that the first classical allusion occurs, in what appears to be a marginal note: Summum nec metuas diem nec optes (“Neither fear nor desire your final day”). This is from Martial, Epigrams 10.47.13. This quotation also appears in the published version, though not in the Praefatiuncula (preface), but rather in the next section on the argumentum (purpose) of the Psalm. Luther quotes it (again?) later in this first lecture. Did the note-taker move it back closer to the opening as his own gloss? Or did Luther cite it more than once?

The notes show another classical quotation next to the first occurrence of Martial: Horace, Odes 4.17-18. The notes have Quis scit, an hodiernae crastina tempora vitae, with the words dii superii apparently written above the name Hor[atius].^[2] What you will find in a modern text of Horace is:

Quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae

tempora di superi?

Who knows whether the gods above will add tomorrows

To today’s sum of life?

This does not appear in the published version. There, we find instead a “wicked verse taken from the epitaph of Sardanapalus: Ede, bibe, lude, post mortem nulla voluptas (“Eat, drink, play; after death, there is no pleasure”).^[3] Is this Rörer’s addition? That is unclear. Paul M. Bretscher, the translator of the text in Luther’s Works, notes that “Luther also quotes these words, together with the passage from Martial.., in his comments on Gen. 25:17 (Weimar XLIII, 373)” (76, n.3). So it seems that Luther arguably thought of these passages together, and so perhaps he is–somehow–their source here.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more (I hope) in the future.