Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  II. These therefore are the primary offices of the sun and the moon: to be the rulers and directors of the night and the day; whereas the stars perform not these offices nor are so appointed of God. But the sun, when he rises, brings in the day without the rising or aid of the other stars. So the moon, even independently of the stars, is the ruler of the night and makes the night; for she is created by God for that very office. As to these changes of the day and the night, they are ordained for the refreshment of our bodies by sleep and rest. The sun shows his brighter light for man’s work. The moon has her paler light as more adapted for repose than for work.

  But what is the meaning of Moses when he says, “And let them be for signs,” etc.? Lyra explains it as signifying signs of rains and storms, etc. This in an interpretation which I would not strongly oppose; though I have great doubts whether these “Lights in the firmament of heaven” do, or can, pre-signify rains, tempests, etc., with any certainty, as the poet Virgil and others represent in their writings. The gospel does indeed make a “reddened” evening a sign of “fair weather,” and on the contrary a “lowering” morning a sign of “foul weather,” Math. 16:2-3. With respect therefore to the common saying that the rising of the constellation of the Pleiades indicates rain and other proverbs of a similar description, I will not with great concern tear them to pieces, nor will I at once admit and confirm them, because I cannot see that they are all uniformly sure and certain.

  I hold the simplest meaning of the text is that he does not speak of such inferior signs, but greater signs, such as eclipses and collisions of heavenly bodies, so that a sign is a wonder, a prophecy or miracle, by which he reveals his wrath or the misfortune of the world. If any think this explanation is too coarse, let us remember that Moses wrote for a rude people.

  Here belong meteors and the rare phenomena which take place in the air, when stars are seen to fall, when halos surround the sun and moon, when the rainbow appears and similar things happen in the sky. For Moses calls the heaven the whole aqueous mass in which the stars and planets move, also the highest sphere. We speak of spheres and circles to make the explanation plainer. For the Scriptures know nothing of these and say that the moon with the sun and stars are not each in its sphere, but in the firmament of heaven, below and above are the waters. That they are signs of future events, experience teaches concerning planet collisions and meteors.

  The expression “For seasons” claims particular attention. The term in the Hebrew is LEMOEDIM; and MOED signifies “a stated, fixed, certain time.” Hence it is a term commonly used in the Scriptures to signify “a tabernacle of covenant;” because there certain feasts were accustomed to be held in a certain place and time according to certain rites. Therefore it is that Moses describes the sun and the moon as being created “For seasons;” not only because the seasons are ruled and evidently changed by the course of the sun; for we see that most inferior bodies are changed by the access and recess of the sun; and the quality of the air according to which our own bodies are also changed is of one kind in the winter, of another in the summer, of another in the autumn and of another in the spring; but because we observe other differences and distinctions of times and seasons in civil life, all which are derived from the motions and revolutions of these heavenly bodies. Hence at a certain time of the year men make their contracts for building houses, hire their servants and their services, and collect taxes, debts and rents, etc. All these are services rendered us and blessings bestowed upon us by the sun and the moon, that we may by their laws and revolutions divide the times and seasons for the various labors of man and enjoy many other blessings which they confer. It is by them that we divide and number our weeks, months, quarters, etc., etc.

  The next expression, “For days,” refers to the natural day, during which the sun performs his revolution round the earth. Our being enabled therefore to number days and also years, are blessings of the creation and are thus ordained of God. Wherefore philosophers define time to be “an enumeration of motions,” which numbering could have no existence if the heavenly bodies did not move by a sure and fixed law. If they all stood fixed in a certain place without motion, numbering could have neither commencement nor regulation. And where there is no numbering of days, months, years, etc., there is no time. Hence a man in a sound sleep, being destitute of all sense of number and of all faculty of enumeration, knows not how long he sleeps.

  In a like manner, though we can in a measure recollect our infancy, yet we are not conscious of the fact of having sucked the breasts of our mothers; and yet we then had natural life. The reason is that we were deficient in the sense of number and the power of annumeration. For this same reason beasts know nothing of time; just as infants have no such knowledge. The sense and faculty of number therefore prove man to be a peculiar and superior creature of God on which account we find Augustine declaring the faculty of annumeration to be an especial gift of our nature, and proving from this very gift the immortality of the soul; because man alone can calculate and understand time.

  With reference to the future life, some here inquire whether the offices of these heavenly bodies are designed of God to cease. But the life to come will be without time. For the godly will enjoy an eternal day and the ungodly will have an endless night and eternal darkness.

  The sun therefore makes the day, not only by his light and brightness, but by his motion, which he makes from east to west until he rises again at the end of 24 hours and thus makes another day. Wherefore astronomers make three great benefits to proceed from the sun: his motion, his light and his influence.

  Concerning his influence however I shall enter upon no subtle inquiry. It is enough for me to know that these heavenly bodies were created for our use; that they may be unto us “For signs of wrath or of grace and for seasons,” that we might observe certain distinctions of time, etc. These things, because they are taught us in the Holy Scriptures are sure. All things else, such as the doctrines and predictions of astrologers, are not thus certain.

  One is wont to inquire here concerning the astrological predictions which some confirm and prove from this text. If they are not defended perseveringly and pertinaciously, I will not combat them strongly. For one ought to concede to the ingenious and learned brains their playground. Therefore when one reads of the misuse and unbelief of their superstitions, I would not be greatly offended if one exercise himself in these predictions for the sake of pleasure.

  As to that which pertains to the practice of astrology I could never he persuaded to count astrology among the sciences, for the reasons that it has no clear demonstration or visible proof. That they cite experiences does not influence me. For all astrological experiences are merely particular. For those, skilled in the practice only, have observed and committed to writing the things that have not failed; the other experiences, however, in which they failed or were not followed by the results they predicted would certainly follow were not committed to writing nor remembered. But just as Aristotle says that one swallow alone does not make summer, so I think one cannot form a true and complete science from such single and particular observations. For just as it is said of hunters, they may hunt every day, but they do not find game every day. The same may be said of astrologers and their predictions, because they fail very often.

  But now since they indeed contain some truth, what folly it is at the same time that one should be so anxious about the future. For grant that it is possible to know the future through the predictions of astrologers, were it not in many respects far better, if they are evil, to be entirely ignorant of them than to know them, as Cicero contends? Instead it is much better to stand in the fear of God always and to pray than to be tormented and tortured by the fear of future events. But more of this at another time.

  Wherefore my judgment is that astrological predictions cannot safely and satisfactorily be founded upon this passage of Scripture; for they are, as I have said, signs observed and collected by reason. But the next and proper meaning, if we understand
Moses concerning the signs, which God knows and shows, is to the end that men in general may be admonished and terrified by them. Let these observations on the fourth day suffice.

  Now here begins to open upon us and to present itself to our meditation that great subject, the immortality of the soul. For no creature besides man can understand the motion of the heaven or estimate the celestial bodies and their revolutions. The pig, the cow, the dog cannot measure the water they drink. But man can measure even the heaven and form his calculations of all the heavenly bodies.

  Wherefore a spark of eternal life glitters forth here from the fact that man is naturally exercised in this knowledge of all nature. For this anxious inquiry indicates that men were not created with the design that they should live forever in this small weak portion of God’s universe; but that they should occupy the heaven, which in this life they so admire and in the study and contemplation of which they are continually engaged.

  If heaven were not the destination of man what aim or need was there for his being endowed with this wide capacity for rich knowledge and thought. Indeed the stature and form of the body of man also argues that he was designed for heavenly things, even though his origin was so very mean and humble. For God made the first man from the common earth. After this the human race began to be propagated from the seed of the male and female, in which the embryo is formed in the womb in all its particular members, and there it grows until by its birth it is ushered forth into the light of heaven. From this birth comes the life of sensation, the life of motion and the life of operation.

  When at length the body has grown and the man has a sound reason and soul in a sound body, then first shines forth in all its brightness that life of intelligence found in no other earthly creature. By this faculty, leaning on the aid of the mathematical sciences, which no one can deny were indicated and taught from above, man mounts in his mind from earth to heaven, and leaving behind him the things below concerns himself about and inquires into heavenly things. Hogs do not do this, nor cows nor any other beasts of the earth, it is the employment of man alone. Man therefore is a being created of God with the design that at an appointed time he should leave the earth, dwell in heavenly mansions and live a life eternal. These great principles of man’s creation form the reasons why he is able not only to speak and to judge, which are things pertaining to language and argument, but is capable also of acquiring any science whatever.

  From this fourth day therefore begins to be manifested the peculiar glory of our race. Because God here forms his mind and purpose to create such a being as should be capable of understanding the motions of those heavenly bodies, which are created on this fourth day; and a being who should delight himself in their knowledge, as peculiarly and exclusively adapted to his nature. All these things therefore ought to call forth our thanksgiving and praise; while we reflect that we are the citizens of that heavenly country which we now behold, understand and wonder at, yet understand only as strangers and exiles, but which after this life we shall behold nearer and understand perfectly.

  Hitherto therefore we have heard the divine historian speak of those creatures only, which are endowed with neither life nor sense; although some philosophers have spoken of the stars and the greater heavenly bodes, as if they were animate and rational. This I think has arisen from the motion of these bodies, which is rational and so certain that there is nothing like it in any other creatures. Hence some philosophers have affirmed that the heavenly creatures were composed of body and intellect, though their bodies were not material. Plato reasons thus in his “Timoeus.”

  All such opinions however are to be utterly exploded and our whole intellect is to be subjected to the Word of God and to what is there written. The Holy Scriptures plainly teach that God made all these things, that he might by them prepare for the man, whom he was about to create, a home and a hospitable reception; and that all these things are governed and preserved by the power of the same Word, by which they were originally created. Wherefore all things being at length prepared pertaining to the furniture of his home, the Scriptures next show us the manner in which man was “formed” and introduced into his possession to the end that we might be taught that the providence of God over us and for us is greater than all our own care and concern for ourselves can possibly be. These things are plainly taught us in the Scriptures. All other things not supported by the authority of the Scriptures are to be repudiated and rejected.

  I have therefore thought it especially becoming and necessary to repeat here that admonition which I have frequently given, that we ought constantly to acquaint and familiarize ourselves with the phraseology of the Holy Spirit. For no one can successfully study any of the human arts unless he first correctly understands the idiom of the language in which its principles are described. For lawyers have their peculiar terms, unknown to the physician and the philosopher. In like manner, the latter have each a phraseology peculiar to themselves with which the professors of other arts have little or no acquaintance. Now one art ought not to perplex another. But every art ought to maintain its own course in its own way and to adopt its own peculiar terms.

  Accordingly we find the Holy Spirit, to use a language and a phraseology peculiar to his own divine self, declaring that God created all things by his Word or by speaking them into being; “He spake and it was done”; that he wrought all things by his Word; and that all the works of God are certain words of God, certain things created by the uncreated word. As therefore the philosopher uses his own terms, so the Holy Ghost uses his. Hence when the astronomer speaks of his spheres, his cycles and his epicycles, he does so rightly, for it is lawful for him in the profession of his art to use such terms as may enable him the better to instruct his disciples. On the other hand the Holy Ghost will know nothing of such terms in the sacred Scriptures. Hence those Scriptures call the whole of that part of the creation which is above us, “The heaven,” nor ought that term to be disapproved by the astronomer; for the astronomer and the Scripture both adopt, as I have said, terms peculiar to themselves.

  It is in this manner that we are to understand the term “seasons” in the sacred text before us. For the term “season” with the philosopher and with the Hebrew has not the same signification. With the Jews the term “season” signifies, theologically, an appointed feast or festival; and also the intervals of days, which concur and conjoin to form the year, wherefore this term is everywhere rendered by the word “feast” or “festival” or “festivity”; except where it is used to signify a “tabernacle” or “tent.”

  I deemed it best to offer these admonitions concerning language and phraseology before we advance further, and I hope they will not be found useless or out of place, as showing the importance that every art should confine itself to its own language and terms; that no one art should condemn or deride another, but that each should rather aid the other and render mutual services. And this indeed the professors of all arts do, in order that the unity of the whole state may be preserved; which, as Aristotle says, “cannot be constituted of a physician and a physician; but must be formed of a physician and a husbandman.”

  PART V. GOD’S WORK ON THE FIFTH DAY.

  I. V. 20. And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth, etc., etc.

  We see Moses retains invariably the same sacred phraseology, “And God said,” etc. Hitherto he has been speaking of the superior creatures; the heaven with all its host of planets and stars, which God created out of water by the Word, and gave light unto it, just as we now see the air around us lucid, with a natural illumination.

  Moses now proceeds to speak of new creatures also produced out of the waters; namely, of birds and fishes. He connects these two creatures in his narrative on account of their similarity of nature. For as the fish swims in the water, so does the bird swim as it were in the air. Though their flesh differs, yet they have the same origin. For the sacred text is here quite plain, that the birds when created out of the
waters immediately flew into the air where they now live. Moses here retains moreover his uniform term in calling the whole region above us, “heaven.”

  And first it is worthy of admiration that, although the fishes and the birds were both created out of the same matter, the waters, yet as the bird cannot live in the water, neither can the fish exist, if brought into the air. Physicians rightly argue, when they affirm that the flesh of birds is more wholesome than that of fishes, even though the nature of birds is also aqueous; because they live in a more rarified element; for air is a purer element than water; the latter, in which the fish are generated and live, being constituted of the dregs as it were of the former. Philosophers however do not believe this identity of the nature of birds and of fishes. But the faith of the sacred Scriptures which is far above philosophy and far more certain, assures us that the nature of the fish and of the bird had the same origin.

  Here again is a further proof of the divine authority and majesty of this book, in that it sets before us under such various forms that power of God by which he created all things, beyond the conception of all reason and understanding. Who for instance could ever have thought, that out of water a nature could be produced, which should by no means endure water? But the Word of God speaks, and in a moment out of water are created birds. If therefore the Word of God but sound, all things are immediately possible; and out of the same water shall be formed either fishes or birds. Every bird therefore and every fish is nothing more or less than a word of divine grammar or language; by which grammar all things, otherwise impossible, immediately become possible and easy; by which also things contrary and conflicting become similar and harmonious; and vice versa.