Commentary on Genesis - Luther on Sin and the Flood · Martin Luther

028 - Chapter VIII Part III

·29 min·2 clips

Scotus is named directly when Luther argues that natural powers cannot love God without the Holy Spirit.

1. Commentary on Genesis - Luther on Sin and the Flood, Episode 028: Chapter VIII Part III focuses on Genesis 8:21-22 and Luther’s reading of human corruption. 2. Martin Luther is the named author behind the commentary, and John Nicholas Lenker plus Conrad Bruno Godis are named in the translation credit. 3. The episode asks what Moses means by “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth,” and why that matters for original sin. 4. Luther says the phrase is a “powerful passage” that cannot be weakened without missing human experience and scripture. 5. He points to childhood discipline, saying “what an amount of switching it requires” before children learn order and duty. 6. He then describes youth as the time when “a stronger rebellion becomes noticeable,” including lust, jealousy, rivalry, haughtiness, avarice, wrath, and anger. 7. He uses the German proverb “Ye länger, ye erger, ye älter, ye karger” to argue that sins grow worse with age. 8. Luther rejects the claim that original sin is only a minor defect, calling it “complete lawlessness” and comparing it to evil spirits. 9. He says Moses uses “the imagination of the human heart” to mean human energy, wisdom, reason, and all the faculties used in good works. 10. He insists that even civil or social deeds are corrupted when they are done for glory, profit, oppression, or opposition to neighbor and God. 11. Luther says the text cannot be limited to the people destroyed by the flood because God’s wording is generic and applies to man as such. 12. He argues that Ham shows the same nature at work, while Shem and Japheth resist it through the Holy Spirit and hope of forgiveness. 13. He says the same reason that explains punishment is later used to explain God’s promise not to be angry forever, and he calls that fitting to faith. 14. The commentary then turns to critics who soften the Hebrew as “inclined toward evil” and use that wording to defend free will. 15. Luther says that reading leads to claims that natural powers remain good, that reason tends toward what is best, and that grace only completes what nature can already do. 16. He argues against Scotus by saying nature cannot love God without first knowing God through the word and Spirit. 17. He calls scholastic theology a philosophy that disregards God’s word and therefore loses true knowledge of both God and the self. 18. The style is lecture-like, with long doctrinal exposition, repeated scriptural references, and direct arguments against “quibblers” and “sophists.” 19. Listeners interested in Reformation theology, Genesis, and original sin. 20. Listeners wanting light conversation or quick summaries.

As heard by us

A severe case against human innocence, ending in the promise of heaven's rest.

The piece reads Genesis 6:5 as a blunt claim about the human heart: not merely bent, but evil in its reach. From there, Luther turns quickly to merit, cutting against the idea that prayer, fasting, pilgrimages, and other labors can buy reward.

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You want Luther to cut through natural goodness with a hard reading of Genesis.

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