This book, a new edition of the 16th century Altenburg Bible (Altenburger Bibelwerk), was one of the first projects the early Missouri Synod took on to promote biblical literacy. The current study Bible put out by CPH used this work as a source for many of its notes, but it’s interesting to see the things that were left out. The newest copies I’ve seen are dated 1898 and I suspect it was in print or at least still available from CPH in the early 20th century.
Below is a translation of the title page followed by the prayers, section summary, references, and notes for 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.
The New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, Germanized by Dr. Martin Luther with his forewords [for each book] and [his] marginal notes, as well as the Summaries of M. Veith Dietrich, with the forewords [to the chapters] and closing prayers of Franciscus Vierling.
Newly issued by the Central German Evangelical Lutheran Bible Society.
St. Louis, Mo.,
Printery of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States,
1857.
[1. Corinthians]
Prayer. [for Chapter 10—Franciscus Vierling]
May our Lord Jesus Christ preserve for us His dear word pure and unfalsified, and His holy sacrament in proper use; may He preserve and strengthen us against the crafty devil, evil world, and our sinful flesh in true faith and godly life, until our end, Amen.
The 11th Chapter. Foreword. [Franciscus Vierling]
Beloved Christians! Man is the Lord Christ’s glory, and woman is man’s glory. Man is the glory of the Lord Christ: for, when he keeps himself righteously in his station, then he presents himself symbolically to other people in the manner Christ is disposed toward his congregation: namely that he governs, loves, and protects her; and that is then a great honor to Christ, when one feels in his members his nature and character as the head. [und das ist denn Christo eine große Ehre, wenn man an seinen Gliedern spüret, seine, als des Häupts, Natur und Eigenschaft.] The woman is the glory of man: for as she helps her husband maintain livelihood, and is pious, loyal, and obedient, then that is so much as to say in deed: See here, thus has God honored my husband, that he has given him me as a helper, and has equally along with this commanded to be submissive to him. Now because man is the glory of the Lord Christ, he covers not his head when he prays, in order to show that he is thus subject to Christ, that he likewise has lordship and power, love and fidelity [Herrschaft und Gewalt, Liebe und Treu] concerning another person, namely concerning his wife. But the woman shall cover her head, as an indication of her submission, and that she does not refuse to be faithful and obedient to her husband. The first part of the 11th chapter also teaches this.
Of some behaviors [Geberden/Gebärden] in prayer, and worthy use of the holy supper.
1. Cor. 11:2-16 notes:
V. 3. *the man *Eph. 5:23.
*God *1 Cor. 3:23.
V. 4. *prophesy *1 Cor. 12:10, 14:1.
V. 7. *God’s image *Gen. 1:27 f.
V. 9. *but the woman for the man *Gen. 2:18, 23.
V. 10. apower [Macht]) i.e. the veil or covering, whereby one may mark, that she is under the man’s power, Gen. 316. [Marginal note and reference from Martin Luther c.1534]
V. 11. *in the Lord *Gal. 3, 28.
V. 13. *Judge *Act. 4, 19.
V. 16. *But if any man *1 Tim. 6, 4.
Summary. [Veith Dietrich]
This is the sixth point, and concerns the order which should be maintained between man and woman, that a man should pray and prophesy with a bare head and short hair, and a woman with covered head, V. 4. St. Paul takes this ordinance not alone from the custom of the Jews, but from nature. For it is uncomely for a woman, says he, to be bareheaded and to have short hair. To have long hair and to be covered adorns her, and is comely.
St. Paul adds yet another cause to this and says: To have something on the head is a sign that one is not free, but has a lord. Now because the man is the woman’s lord, the man should have nothing on his head; but the woman should have something on hers. But, says he, such distinction remains here below on earth; for God, a believing woman is worth just as much as a believing man. Likewise one should keep such ordinance for the sake of decency [Zucht]. For not only do the people take offence at indecency [Unzucht], but the angels are repulsed by it. V. 9.
Votum. [Franciscus Vierling]
May God the Lord, the author and preserver of the holy estate of marriage, govern all married people, that they would dispose themselves toward one another, that their deeds and life may please Him, that it may be a joy to the angels and that it may serve as a good example to others, and that they with their children might retain His temporal and eternal blessings, Amen.
You can acces the complete Altenburg Bible here.
Volume 1
One response to “What the Lutheran Study Bible says about Headcoverings”
Christology is at the very center of the head covering debate, and the western Lutherans have completely abandoned the Christology of Lutheranism and joined camps with the Reformed. The glory of Christ is at stake in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, and when a woman does not wear a head covering, she is refusing to give all glory not merely to men, but to Christ. It is a denial that Christ HAS come in the flesh as all false doctrines as a denial of the incarnation, that Christ is now amongst us. The reformed divide the person of Christ into two persons ever since the incarnation, one up in heaven and His human nature person on earth, and this is somewhat akin to what Lutheran women do today when they refuse to wear head coverings in Church, for actions speak louder than words. Simply put, the greater glory of Christ is being denied by Lutherans today in the west in Church, for not only is Christ greater than the prophets of old, than even that of Moses (Hebrews 3:2-5), but His glory is greater than that which was present in the Temple which is why head coverings are required in the New Testament. God says, “this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And this God man is still “with us” (Matthew 1:23) applies not merely at His incarnation, but today in the Sacrament. Yes, His death and earthly humiliations “is finished” (John 19:30; Hebrews 4:3), yet this same Christ “has come in the flesh” (cf. 1 John 4:2,3; 2 John 1:7). The KJV version mistranslates these verses as “is come”, but the Greek uses the perfect active participle “has come in the flesh” as taught elsewhere (“I am with you always”). Thus Christ is still subservient to the Father according to His human nature in serving the Saints in heaven in many ways, and throughout eternity, and on earth presently, until the second coming. Christ while on earth did not always make use of His Divine powers, although He ruled the heavens and the earth while on earth, and since His resurrection (and in heaven right now) He rules both in, with, and through His human nature. At the same time He is at the right hand of the Father displaying that all authority, judgement, and power is His, and thus His equality in the Godhead (Hebrews 2:8). Yet He remains, at the same time, according to His human nature, second chair to the Father-as Joseph was to Pharaoh (Genesis 41:4) enabling Joseph to serve not merely all people, but especially the Israelites; that, as 1 Corinthians 3:21 declares, “Christ is God’s”, or as 1 Corinthians 11:3 declares, “the head of Christ God.” Even though His earthly humiliation mission is finished, His mission of serving the Church (i.e. Isaiah 25:6-8; John 14:2) and the Saints in heaven will never be finished, for His grace began from eternity and will go on forever throughout eternity-for this saving grace was present from eternity. God is love (1 John 4:8), and His love, as accomplished in time, reaches into the heavens, but also beyond the heavens into all eternity- as His very visible exaltation rose beyond the heavens-as 1 Timothy 1:9 (cf. also Hebrews 4:3) declares, “Who hath saved us…not according to our works, but…His…grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” proving to the world no man can chose salvation, but faith itself is totally a gift from God. Chemnitz correctly identifies this grace as meaning His eternal forgiveness of sins. Christ began His service to the Church from all eternity, for no mere sinless man died on this cross as the reformed and Catholicism teach, but the love of God and His salvation have forever been from eternity, always outwardly directed from eternity, to us, to you, to me, to mankind. And thus Christ wants our love to be outwardly directed, especially to the Church (a violation of government discrimination laws today), and it is this love which continues at the right hand of the Father throughout eternity, as we witness in the book of Hebrews in numerous passages assuring our mortal souls on earth that He has our sins covered even there too (i.e. Hebrews 9:24). This is the greater person, the greater glory which is being worshipped and received in Church today, and no mere mortal glory of a woman’s hair can remain in the presence of this glory of Christ in Church, even though the laws of nature support that human right (1 Corinthians 11:15-“a glory to her”), for God is the creator, controller, an ruler of the laws of nature, and only He can rescind them at times as it serves His glory, as He did at the Red Sea,, as He also requires all men to wear short hair at all times of their life (1 Corinthians 11:14), even though the laws of nature again allow long hair often on young men, for all governments of this world, all people, and all Churches are to submit to the glory of Christ, even though the laws of nature sometimes teach otherwise…at all times, for all governments of this world, for all Churches, for all people…to God alone be the glory!