Luther: The Word of God and the Primacy of the Gospel over Tradition (Leipzig Disputation, 1519)

For Luther the Word of God is the starting point of theology: the eternal Word, the second Person of the Trinity, God's power in creation, the incarnate Lord, the Scripture that bears witness to him, and the preaching through which believers hear the Word. At the Leipzig Disputation of 1519, Eck forced Luther to declare that the authority of the Bible is above that of popes and councils, which had erred, and accused him of being a Hussite. To Catholics who said that the Church had created Scripture and the canon, Luther replied that the Church established the canon, but the Gospel established the Church. He therefore defended the primacy of the Gospel to which Scripture bears witness, and allowed himself freedom with the canon: according to González, Luther was not a biblicist.