“And, further, if I could bring it to pass among you, I should like to ask that you do not neglect the languages but, since it would not be difficult for you, that you have your preachers and some of your gifted boys learn Latin, Greek, and Hebrew well. I know for a fact that one who has to preach and expound the Scriptures and has no help from the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, but must do it entirely on the basis of his mother tongue, will make many a pretty mistake. For it has been my experience that the languages are extraordinarily helpful for a clear understanding of the divine Scriptures. This also was the feeling and opinion of St. Augustine; he held that there should be some people in the church who use Greek and Hebrew before they deal with the Word, because it was in these two languages that the Holy Spirit wrote the Old and New Testaments.” Martin Luther, The Adoration of the Sacrament, in Luther’s Works, vol. 36, p. 304. [Emphasis added]
Dr. Luther wrote this exhortation to the Bohemian Brethren in 1523. This quote appears at the end of a treatise on the proper adoration of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. In the paragraph before this quote Luther acknowledges the difficulty of understanding the meanings of words from different languages (Czech, German, and Latin.) Then he exhorts them to teach Latin, Hebrew, and Greek to young men so that they may have proper preachers in the future.
Luther also cited Augustine of Hippo to support this notion. As indicated in the footnote of the English translation (Ibid.), Luther, most likely, had the following passage in mind:
“An important antidote to the ignorance of literal signs is the knowledge of languages. Users of the Latin language–and it is these that I have now undertaken to instruct–need two others, Hebrew and Greek, for an understanding of the divine scriptures, so that recourse may be had to the original versions if any uncertainty arises from the infinite variety of Latin translators.” Augustine, On Christian Teaching II. XI., trans. R.P.H. Green (Oxford 1999), p. 38. [Emphasis added]
