For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

Commentary on Genesis

by Luther, Martin (1958)

Abstract

This first chapter of our Holy Bible is written in the simplest and plainest language, and yet it contains the greatest and at the same time the most difficult themes. Therefore the Jews, as Jerome testifies, were forbidden to read it or hear it read before they were thirty years of age …

Key Passage

But the text speaks of human "tilling" and human "keeping" absolutely. So Cain just below, Gen. 4:2, is said to have been "a tiller of the ground." And in Job and Ecclesiastes kings are called tillers of the earth or husbandmen; not merely on account of their labor itself in tillage, but on account of their guardianship and protection. But as I have all along said, labor and protection are now hard and difficult terms? But originally they were terms denoting a certain delightful employment and exquisite pleasure. (p.97)

Keywords

Reformation, Protestantism, Theology, History, History Of Ideas, Religious Views On Work

Themes

Luther, Protestantism, Religious Views on Work

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