An Exposition of Genesis

The success of the Protestant Reformation depended vitally upon the industry, piety, and learning of the first generation of Reformers. Among them, none worked or prayed or studied harder than Iohannes Oecolampadius, the great Reformer of Basel, Switzerland. This volume presents his lectures on Genesis 1-3, translated for the first time into English. These lectures take us back to the heady early days of the Reformation, where we find Oecolampadius skillfully negotiating the dense thicket of perplexing questions that had long surrounded the story of Creation and Fall, boldly reforming the ancient traditions of Christian exegesis by the application of the Reformed conviction that sinners are justified before God by faith alone. He also did what only a learned humanist scholar like him could do, bringing to his aid the insights he had gained through his study of the Hebrew text of Scripture as interpreted in rabbinic Judaism and through his wide reading in the sermons and commentaries of the eastern Church Fathers. In these lectures, delivered only months before his untimely death, Oecolampadius poured out his very life for the sake of the Reformation in Basel and the formation of the citys first generation of Reformed pastors.