Abstract

This paper poses the question of whether and how Luther understood the tension between the literal meaning of Biblical texts and their Christological interpretation, and what meaning his interpretation of the Old Testament has today. Th e main theses of Luther’s hermeneutics are presented and his lecture on Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is compared with a modern historical-critical exegesis of the text. Luther’s Christological interpretation comes from the literal sense of the Scripture. From a Christian point of view and in the light of the New Testament, both literal senses, the historical and spiritual, coincide. Luther’s lecture combines the exegesis of the text with the preaching of the gospel for his reader or receiver. His interpretation is, in fact, an existential one. Despite all the diff erences between Luther’s interpretation and modern Biblical exegesis, both are linked by critical analysis of the Biblical texts in their original languages and an emphasis on the fundamental role of the receiver, all the while moving between the historical literal meaning and the existential interpretation of the (modern) reader.