Translated Text
Philip Melanchthon, “Vom underschied deß alten und Neuwen Testaments,” in Veit Dietrich, Summaria uber die gantze Biblia des alten und neuen Testaments (1567 edition)
On the Distinction between the Old and New Testament
Many indolent ones think it is not necessary to know the entire Scriptures of the New and Old Testament, that it is enough to read something in the Gospel, and they do not consider why God, from the beginning, had initiated, increased, and preserved this entire book for His Church. For this reason, a short reminder ought to be made.
The eternal God did not desire that His teaching and promise should creep into the world without a testimony, but rather, He always confirmed His Word again and again with great, wonderful testimonies, which are contained in this book from the beginning, through the fathers and prophets, up to the building of the Church according to the apostles. In contrast, all heathen religions have crept in in such a way that no one knows when or through whom. Therefore, this book of the fathers and prophets is a precious treasure. It gives us, first, the testimony that this teaching, which is in the Church, is the only true and original one given by God. Second, it follows from this that where this book is not, there the same assembly of God’s people certainly is not—like the heathen, Muhammadans, Turks, etc.—for they are unable to know God’s will concerning the forgiveness of sins and the savior. Third, this book throughout possesses two chief parts: the Law and the Promise of grace for the sake of the mediator, who was to be born of the seed of Abraham.
And before one speaks of Moses and the Old Testament, it must be known that both parts—Law and Promise—were known and revealed before Moses. And the same Law (which existed also before Moses) binds all people on earth, from beginning to end. For God has planted the knowledge of this same Law in all men, that they would know He is the eternal, almighty God, creator, etc., that they should be obedient to the same God, the creator, in these good works: that they should call upon Him alone, live purely in marriage or do nothing shameful outside of marriage, be subject to lawful authority, love His truth, keep fidelity and faith in honest promises, maintain fairness in buying and selling, await recompense from God for obedience, love and fear Him—also expect punishment for disobedience—and whatever else pertains to the doctrine of good manners, which human reason itself recognizes and understands.
Now, although such knowledge is implanted in human nature, the heart in the corrupt nature is disobedient and averted from God; therefore, this knowledge is not as clear as it was before. For this reason, God has already explained and confirmed the Law through His called servants with new revelations, that He may admonish men to repentance and show them in which works they should exercise obedience and the service of God. He also proclaimed the punishment against disobedience—and proclaimed it terribly—that all men may learn His law and true, serious wrath against sin.
Thus, He had the law, “You shall not murder,” preached to Cain, and afterward renewed it through Noah, and punished Cain for his murderous blow. He also gave the law of chaste living in paradise and condemned all intercourse except the honorable one between a husband and his espoused wife. This is why He gruesomely punished Sodom. In this way, God clearly revealed His will, Law, and wrath.
And this Law is binding on all men on earth, calls all to repentance, teaches all men without exception which works are necessary and which are to be avoided, and how God has punished disobedience from the beginning in these same commandments—thus He continues to punish—as one still daily sees that murder is wondrously punished. Even when worldly rulers are too weak, this unchangeable truth continually remains: “You are not a God who takes pleasure in the godless” (Ps 5). Also, “You shall strive to do nothing wrong against your neighbor; you shall not swear falsely, for My soul hates these things” (Zech 8). Although God has ordained eternal punishment for those who do not amend themselves, He also certainly punishes every manner of sin with gruesome plagues in this temporal life, to remind us of His Law and wrath, as the Psalm says, “God punishes men on account of their sins.”
For this reason, then, the dreadful stories from the beginning of the world are to be preached, that we may learn that God has thus revealed His Law, threat, and wrath from the beginning, as with Cain, the Flood, Sodom, Pharaoh, and so on. And we should thereby know that all subsequent punishments on earth are such works wherein God reveals His wrath again, as has often happened in the great wars and destruction of mighty kingdoms, where, during siege, people often devour one another. In such stories, one should consider God’s wrath against sin, fear Him, and turn to Him again in repentance.
Now, man by nature knows nothing but laws, and wrath would remain upon him, had God not revealed His grace and the forgiveness of sins out of great, inexpressible mercy. Therefore, from the beginning, the promise of the mediator, Jesus Christ, was given, and it was repeated and explained again and again, until the Lord Christ came and accomplished His sacrifice, rose again from the dead, and openly showed His Church how He shall take away sin, death, and so on. Moreover, all people on earth should know this promise and believe in it, and in this faith call upon God who revealed Himself and be obedient to Him. But the heathen have lost this eternal treasure.
Nevertheless, God spread this treasure among the heathen through Abraham, Joseph, and afterwards through the prophets. And God’s people and Church were solely the people who held to and believed this promise, and no one else is saved except through the knowledge of this promise. Thus, Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David were saved because they believed God forgave them their sins and saved them for the sake of the promised savior. They preached and declared this grace and savior, called upon God in this faith, and improved themselves.
This promise is fulfilled when Christ was born, suffered, rose again, and gave the Holy Spirit. And the proclamation of this fulfillment is the Gospel. There has never been another assembly nor people of God, nor will there be a people of God, except where this knowledge of the promise and the grace of the mediator, Christ, is taught and preached.
So that this promise would be preserved and there would be a certain place and people wherein God would reveal the testimony concerning His Word, God established a polity for the people of Israel in which polity His Church should dwell and preach this promise.
This polity is and is called the Old Testament, namely the declaration of the Law with the ordering of the external ceremonies and governance, with the promise of the appointed land and other goods that are necessary for governance, together with threats of punishment.
And that this is and is called the Old Testament is demonstrated by the Epistle to the Hebrews, as well as 2 Corinthians 3 and Galatians 4, namely that the Old Testament is the covenant that was made when the Law was given. But the promise of the savior was given previously and was repeated again in the Law, as Deuteronomy 18 and other places indicate. The great, manifold public miracles took place not only for the sake of the Law, but also for a testimony to the promise, that all the world would know that both of these teachings, the Law and the promise, are God’s Word.
Although the promise of the land was a temporal matter and a particular gift, so that the Church would have a certain harborage until the suffering and resurrection of Christ, the promise of the savior and grace are an eternal matter. Thus also, although the civic ordinances had served for temporal governance and the ceremonies for temporal discipline and exercise, nevertheless, the foundation and beginning of the Law is not first and foremost a temporal, bodily matter, but rather the revelation of the eternal and unchangeable divine will, which shows that God is a wise and righteous God and demands from us righteousness and reminds us that the entire human race was created unto this righteousness. And because we are not so, the voice from heaven pronounces the verdict over all men that this corrupted nature is sinful and condemned. And thus, if we recognize our misery and search for the savior, then this voice teaches how we should be and is a testimony to the future, eternal life, namely, that God’s people shall in eternity be such a people as will, in perfect love of God and neighbor, eternally magnify and praise God. This must begin in this life through the help of the savior.
If one punishes a pagan ruler, to what end should your laws serve? What is the goal and end that is thereby intended? He says: for peace. In this manner, the great horde in Israel also possessed worldly, pagan thoughts about their governance, namely, they had these three errors.
First, as the promise of the land was physical, so also they understand the savior in terms of temporal peace and a worldly kingdom. Second, they imagined that they fulfilled the Law and that this would constitute righteousness before God if they did external works, even though the heart was in doubt concerning God and in error; it did not have the proper fear of or trust in God, and it possessed many and various disordered passions and unrighteous desires. Human nature did not give thought to these grievances and did not understand God’s Law—that there is an eternally terrifying judgment against human nature’s doubt and disorder. Third, they erroneously regarded the offerings, namely, that these ceremonies of the offering of calves and the like merited the forgiveness of sins before God and eternal salvation. They amassed more and more such ceremonies, daily inventing new divine services. Whenever they heard of a costly pagan idol, they would set it up and offer sacrifices to it as well. In order to merit much grace and render many great services to God, they burned their own children as an offering. Thus, God’s Church was dreadfully made into a pigsty and a den of murderers.
Nevertheless, God preserved in the people of Israel several right-believing individuals, as Isaiah says in ch. 1, “Had God not left us a remnant, then we would have become nothing, like Sodom and Gomorrah.” And there continually remained this contention among the people that the true prophets expounded the promise of the savior and made a distinction between the temporal possession of the land and eternal grace and salvation, the destruction of sin and death through the savior, and so on.
Second, they further taught that the Law—unlike the heathen laws— was not only aimed at living peacefully in this bodily existence, but was especially a judgment against sin, against the doubting and darkness in human nature concerning God, and so on. Therefore, it should drive all men to the knowledge of their sin and terrify them before God’s wrath, so that they seek forgiveness and grace for the sake of the promised mediator and redemption from sin, and that in this same faith they should call upon God and commence a new obedience.
Third, concerning ceremonies and civil laws, they taught that before all these, the foundation must first be laid in the heart, namely: fear of God’s wrath against sin, the knowledge of the promised savior, faith that God desires to forgive sins for the sake of the same, along with love, a right invocation of God, and a good conscience in this faith. When this foundation was laid, then the ceremonies and civil laws were a beautiful, noble exercise of faith and a confession towards God, as well as a holy, exalted obedience in governance, war, marriage, and every manner of common need.
Moreover, to the same true believers and saints, the ceremonies were a sacrament and testimony to the future savior. They knew well that the offering of calves did not merit the forgiveness of sins. They also saw that it did not take away sin and death. Rather, they recognized that it indicated and promised a future offering for sin, just as Isaiah and later John the Baptist interpreted the ancient offerings. Therefore, when they offered sacrifices, they called to mind the future savior and awakened their faith and invocation through this remembrance.
Thus, the saints had drawn the Law to the promise and rightly understood it. They held a distinction between eternal and temporal goods. They especially embraced what was eternal, while also thanking God for the temporal. That God had taken a certain dwelling and a certain place for the Church and a certain people wherein He desired to reveal Himself and give testimony to His Word is a great, lofty gift. And these same saints were already, through the promise, which is the voice of the Gospel, full heirs of grace, the Holy Spirit, and eternal salvation, as afterward were the apostles and all God’s children according to the apostles’ preaching.
Moreover, the prophets also chastised all blasphemy, and especially idolatry, which came forth out of the darkness—namely, that the people did not rightly understand the Law and promise and established their own worship, even though the one mediator was the promised savior. But because the kings, priests, and people did not possess a proper understanding of the Law and promise and did not want their error and idolatry to be rebuked, they persecuted the true prophets with murder and every manner of persecution. For this reason, God allowed manifold punishments, war, and destruction to come upon them. Nevertheless, He preserved His Church.
From all this it is clear what the Old Testament is, that is, the entire Law of Moses, together with the promise of the land and the preservation of the governance among this people, and how the Law was to be kept. And if it was not kept in faith, according to the promise and spiritual obedience, then it was sin and heathenish before God, which He also punished. St. Paul speaks of this in 2 Corinthians 3: “Moses put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not completely look upon the Law. For their mind is blinded, and this covering remains on them until this day when they read the Old Testament.” Thus, St. Paul explains what the covering signified: namely, human, fleshly understanding, which they brought to the Law, in that they thought the promise was only temporal. Also, they thought they could keep the Law and that they were righteous before God through external works, that they merited the forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of calves, and so on. And there are many such statements in the prophets where they chastise this blindness, which would take too long to recount here.
Paul also teaches the right understanding of the Law in Romans 7, namely, that it is a terrifying judgment against all human flesh, inner and external, whereby the human heart is terrified and killed, and says, “The Law is spiritual,” that is, it does not speak of external worldly governance, like the imperial law, but rather it punishes sin in the heart, and it requires the knowledge of God and total heartfelt obedience towards God. It is not merely an abomination that you arrange protection and peace only for yourself in this temporal life, rather it is God’s voice concerning His eternal will, what is right and wrong, punishing sin, and teaching us how the obedience should be which must begin in us, and testifies that the Church shall afterward, in eternal life, praise God in this perfect obedience, and so on. In this way, all the saints, before and after Moses, have understood and begun to keep the Law—Adam, Noah, Abraham, Tobias, John the Baptist, Paul, and so on, which would be lengthy to discuss. Nevertheless, this has been sufficiently stated for the diligent as a reminder, lest they think that the people under Moses were without grace, the Holy Spirit, etc.
Furthermore, the New Testament is the fulfillment of the promise concerning the savior, that is, the birth, suffering, and resurrection of Christ, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the office of the preaching of this great redemption, and the beginning of the eternal kingdom, wherein sin and death are completely destroyed, which kingdom the apostles saw when Christ ascended into heaven.
This great redemption was darkly shown in the promise to the first fathers, then afterwards explained through the prophets, but it began and happened publicly after Christ’s resurrection. Thus, there is one and the same grace given through the promise to the fathers and through the Gospel—or New Testament—yet with this difference, that in the Gospel this right redemption is more clearly revealed and is spread out into all the world.
And because the New Testament began an external existence through the preaching office and a new birth through the Holy Spirit, this preaching is not bound to the ceremonies and the civil law of Moses. The common voice, however, certainly remains, and the eternal judgment of God against sin, namely, the Ten Commandments, which continually chastise all human sin. And God desires that this verdict, together with the threat of temporal and eternal punishment, be carried forth into all the world in the preaching of repentance, as Paul preaches with such a voice in Romans 1. Therefore, from all the histories, from the beginning to the end of divine Scripture, one should draw out the statements and examples wherein this teaching is continually preached, as the prophets and apostles have done. Indeed, each person in all the world should recognize God’s wrath against sin in his own chastisements, and thus flee to the savior, seek grace, and receive it through faith. In this way then he becomes free from the Law, that is, from the wrath of God.
Thus we, born of Gentiles, should know that we are grafted into the olive tree. For before the apostolic preaching, Israel alone had the great honor of knowing and preaching the promise. But afterwards, it was preached throughout all the world through the apostles and imparted to all peoples. Law and punishment remain over all, whether they are preached or not, but this grace cannot be where the voice of the Gospel is not. But wherever the Gospel is, there are God’s people, grace, and blessing, and those who believe in it become branches of the olive tree. And to these, the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation are promised, for the sake of the savior, according to the Gospel.
Although now, since the resurrection of Christ, the Church is a scattered people, as Daniel calls it, God still grants temporal gifts and dwellings to the Church, so that His Gospel is not extinguished, even though it is not bound to a particular place. He also bestows on all the saints various kinds of temporal aid, as can be seen from the examples in all the stories from the beginning, in Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and as Christ says, “Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all other goods shall be given to you in addition.” Thus Psalm 34, “Those who fear Him shall lack nothing,” and 1 Timothy 4, “the fear and love of God has the promise for temporal and eternal life.”
These and many more similar promises, even of temporal gifts, are attached to the Gospel and the Ten Commandments for three chief reasons. The first is that we learn and believe that temporal goods are God’s work and gifts, which He wondrously distributes according to His will. But the world thinks God has nothing to do with these, that these goods are like a heap of grass, to which anyone can run and grab as much as he can. We ought not to think in this way but rather know that God has also these goods in His hand, and that He can and desires to give of them to His children, according to His counsel and our prayer. The second reason is that He might comfort us, so that the Church may also endure in this temporal life. The third reason is that He wants us to exercise faith and invocation even in temporal needs, so that it may be strengthened in the expectation of eternal goods. Therefore, as it was previously said of the Law and its threats, so in contrast one should everywhere take note of the comforting promises which adhere to faith and good works, so that we may thereby be comforted unto faith and good works, and also in various needs.
This is said of the Gospel, of the Ten Commandments, and of the promises and threats that are attached to them. For this teaching remains common to the whole human race from the beginning to the end.