Editing Book of Concord

{{Short description|Historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church}}
{{distinguish|Formula of Concord}}
{{Infobox book
|name = The Book of Concord
|image = Concordia, Dresden 1580 - fba.jpg
|caption = Title page from the 1580 German edition
|author = {{longitem|[[Jakob Andreae]] and [[Martin Chemnitz]] (compilers)}}
|country = Germany
|language = German
|subject = {{longitem|{{nowrap|[[Lutheranism]]<br/>Doctrine of the Lutheran Church}}}}
|published=1580
}}
{{Lutheranism |Concord |width=22.0em}}
'''''The Book of Concord''''' (1580) or '''''Concordia''''' (often referred to as the '''''Lutheran Confessions''''') is the historic [[Doctrine|doctrinal]] standard recognized as authoritative by many Lutheran church bodies since the 16th century. It consists of ten [[Creed|creedal]] documents and is also known as the [[creed|symbolical]] book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.<ref>F. Bente, ed. and trans., ''Concordia Triglotta'', (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), p. i.</ref>

''The Book of Concord'' was published in [[German language|German]] on June 25, 1580, in [[Dresden]], the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the ''[[Augsburg Confession]]'' to Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] at the [[Diet of Augsburg]]. The authoritative [[Ecclesiastical Latin|Latin]] edition was published in 1584 in [[Leipzig]].<ref>F. Bente, ed. and trans., ''Concordia Triglotta'', (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), p. 5.</ref>

Those who accept it as their doctrinal standard recognize it to be a faithful exposition of the [[Bible]]. The Holy Scriptures are set forth in ''The Book of Concord'' to be the [[sola scriptura|sole]], divine source and norm of all [[Christianity|Christian]] doctrine.<ref>Formula of Concord, Epitome, Rule and Norm, 1 (Bente, 777).</ref>

==Origin and arrangement==
''The Book of Concord'' was compiled by a group of theologians led by [[Jakob Andreae]] and [[Martin Chemnitz]] at the behest of their rulers, who desired an end to the religious controversies in their territories that arose among Lutherans after the death of [[Martin Luther]] in 1546.<ref>Robert Kolb ''et al.'', ''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 481-485.</ref> It was intended to replace German territorial collections of doctrinal statements, known as {{Lang|la|corpora doctrinæ}} ([[Body of Doctrine|bodies of doctrine]]) such as the ''Corpus doctrinæ Philippicum'' or ''Misnicum''. This aim is reflected by the compilers' not calling it a ''{{Lang|la|corpus doctrinæ}}'' although it technically is one.<ref>F. Bente writes in his ''Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', §1: "Book of Concord, or Concordia, is the title of the Lutheran ''corpus doctrinae'', i.e., of the symbols recognized and published under that name by the Lutheran Church" (F. Bente, ed. and trans., ''Concordia Triglotta'', St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 3). The German Wikipedia article [[:de:Konkordienbuch]] states: "In diesem Sinne kann es auch als Kanon oder Corpus doctrinae der lutherischen Kirche bezeichnet werden": "In this sense it can also be described as the ''canon'' or ''corpus doctrinæ'' of the Lutheran Church." The Kolb-Wengert edition of the Book of Concord states: "The authors of the Formula of Concord responded to objections from followers of Melanchthon who treasured the ''Corpus doctrinae Philippicum'', and therefore they did not use the term ''corpus doctrinae'' when they prepared the Formula for publication with the ancient [[creed]]s of the church, the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, and Luther's Smalcald Articles and Catechisms after the completion of the Formula in 1577" (Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds. and trans., ''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000, p. 2).</ref> The list of writings predating the ''[[Formula of Concord]]'' that would be included in ''The Book of Concord'' are listed and described in the "Rule and Norm" section of the ''Formula''.<ref>Theodore G. Tappert, trans and ed. ''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 503-506; Kolb, 526-529.</ref>

Following the preface written by Andreae and Chemnitz (1578–1580)<ref name=":0">Tappert, 3, footnote 1.</ref> the "Three [[Ecumenical Creeds]]" were placed at the beginning in order to show the identity of Lutheran teaching with that of the ancient Christian church.<ref>Tappert, 17; Kolb, 19.</ref> These creeds, the [[Apostles' Creed]], [[Nicene Creed]], and [[Athanasian Creed]], were formulated before the [[East-West Schism]] of 1054, but the Nicene Creed is the western version containing the [[filioque]].

The other documents come from the earliest years of the Lutheran Reformation (1529–1577). They are the ''[[Augsburg Confession]]'', the ''[[Apology of the Augsburg Confession]]'', both by [[Philipp Melanchthon]], the ''[[Luther's Small Catechism|Small]]'' and ''[[Luther's Large Catechism|Large Catechisms]]'' of Martin Luther, his ''[[Smalcald Articles]]'', Melanchthon's ''[[Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope]]'', and the ''[[Formula of Concord]]'', which was composed shortly before the publishing of the Book of Concord and intended for the same purpose: the pacification and unification of the growing Lutheran movement. The preface of the ''Book of Concord'' was considered to be the preface of the ''Formula of Concord'' as well.<ref name=":0"/>

The ''Augsburg Confession'' has singular importance {{blockquote|as the unanimous consensus and exposition of our Christian faith, particularly against the false worship, idolatry, and superstition of the papacy and against other sects, and as the symbol of our time, the first and unaltered Augsburg Confession, which was delivered to Emperor Charles V at Augsburg during the great Diet in the year 1530 ...<ref>Tappert, 465.</ref>}} A recent book on Lutheranism asserts, "To this day ... the Augsburg Confession ... remains the basic definition of what it means to be a 'Lutheran.{{'"}}<ref>Robert Kolb and Charles P. Arand, ''The Genius of Luther's Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church'', (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 16.</ref> ''The Apology'', the ''Smalcald Articles'', the ''Treatise'', and the ''Formula of Concord'' explain, defend, or serve as addenda to ''The Augsburg Confession.''<ref>Kolb, 8, note 9; 97-98; 287ff.; 319; 465; 504-505.</ref>

==Contents==
*Preface (1579)
*The Three [[Ecumenical creeds]].
**The [[Apostles' Creed]]
**The [[Nicene Creed]]
**The [[Athanasian Creed]]
*The [[Augsburg Confession]] of 1530
*The [[Apology of the Augsburg Confession]] (1531)
*The [[Smalcald Articles]] of [[Martin Luther]] (1537)
*[[Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope]] (1537)
*[[Luther's Small Catechism|The Small Catechism of Martin Luther]] (1529)
**Luther's Marriage Booklet (1529) and [[Baptism Booklet]] (1526) were included as part of the Small Catechism in a few of the 1580 editions of the German Book of Concord<ref>See ''The Book of Concord'', edited by Kolb and Wengert (2000) and the second edition of ''Concordia: The Lutheran Confesions'' (2006).</ref>
*[[Luther's Large Catechism|The Large Catechism of Martin Luther]] (1529)
*Epitome of the [[Formula of Concord]] (1577)
*The Solid or Thorough Declaration of the [[Formula of Concord]] (1577).
**The Catalog of Testimonies was added as an appendix in most of the 1580 editions.

==Context in Christendom==
The simple Latin title of the Book of Concord, ''Concordia'' ([[Latin]] for "an agreeing together"<ref>Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'', (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980), 402.</ref>), is fitting for the character of its contents: Christian statements of faith setting forth what is believed, taught, and confessed by the confessors "with one heart and voice." This follows [[Paul of Tarsus|St. Paul's]] directive: "that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor.%201:10;&version=50; 1 Cor. 1:10]; [[New King James Version|NKJV]]). The [[creed]]s and confessions that constitute the ''Book of Concord'' are not the private writings of their various authors:{{clarify|date=July 2022}}<ref>F. Bente, ''Historical Introduction to the Lutheran Confessions'', St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House: 1921, pp. 3, 23, 24, 46, 247; Edmund Schlink, ''Theology of the Lutheran Confessions'', Paul F. Koehneke and Herbert J. A. Bouman, trans., (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1961; reprint, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004), xvii–xviii.</ref>
{{blockquote|Inasmuch, however, as they are in complete agreement with Holy Scripture, and in this respect differ from all other particular symbols (i.e., [[Creed|denominational creeds and credal statements]]), the Lutheran confessions are truly ecumenical and catholic in character. They contain the truths believed universally by true Christians everywhere, explicitly by all consistent Christians, implicitly even by inconsistent and erring Christians. Christian truth, being one and the same the world over is none other than that which is found in the Lutheran confessions.{{dubious|date=July 2022}}<ref>Schlink, p. 3 words in  brackets added for clarity.</ref>}}

==Contemporary subscription==
{{see also|Confessional subscription}}
To this day the ''Book of Concord'' is doctrinally normative among traditional and conservative Lutheran churches, which require their pastors and other rostered church workers to pledge themselves unconditionally to the ''Book of Concord''.<ref>[[C. F. W. Walther]], ''[https://lutheranwatchman.weebly.com/uploads/3/0/7/2/30723175/walther_subscribe_unconditionally.pdf Why Should Our Pastors, Teachers and Professors Subscribe Unconditionally to the Symbolical Writings of Our Church]''</ref> They often identify themselves as "[[confessional Lutheran]]s". They consider the ''Book of Concord'' the ''norma normata'' (Latin, "the normed norm") in relation to the [[Bible]], which they consider the ''norma normans'' (Latin, "the norming norm"), i.e. the only source of Christian doctrine (God's authoritative word). In this view the ''Book of Concord'', on the topics that it addresses, is what the church authoritatively understands God's authoritative word to say. This is also called a "{{Lang|la|quia}}" (because) subscription to the Lutheran confessions, i.e. one subscribes ''because'' the ''Book of Concord'' is a faithful exposition of the Scriptures.

It implies that the subscriber has examined the Lutheran confessions in the light of the Scriptures in order to arrive at this position, which in the subscriber's view does not require the disclaimer implied in a "{{Lang|la|quatenus}}" (insofar as) subscription. One who subscribes the Lutheran confessions ''quatenus'', insofar as they are a faithful exposition of the Scriptures, believes that there might be contradictions of the Scriptures in them. In some cases this is the manner of subscription of some other Lutheran churches, {{which|date=January 2019}} which regard the ''Book of Concord'' as an important witness and guide to the historical teachings of the Lutheran Church although not necessarily doctrinally binding.

==English translations==
English translations of individual documents of ''The Book of Concord'', notably ''The Augsburg Confession'', were available since the 16th century.<ref>''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', Theodore G. Tappert, editor, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), v.</ref> The first complete English translation of ''The Book of Concord'' was the 1851 Henkel edition followed by a second edition in 1854. These volumes included historical introductions.

[[Henry Eyster Jacobs|Henry E. Jacobs]] and others published the next English version in 1882 with a revised "People's Edition" in 1911. The 1882 edition was accompanied by a companion volume that contained historical introductions and English translations of other documents illustrative of the history of ''The Book of Concord''.

The third complete English translation, which also included the German and Latin texts, was published in 1921 as a jubilee observance of the 400th anniversary of the Reformation (1917) called the ''Concordia Triglotta: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church, German-Latin English'' edited by Friederich Bente.<ref>''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), vii-viii.</ref> This edition introduced the practice of inserting in square brackets the translations of variant readings of either the Latin translation of the German or the German translation of the Latin text. A smaller edition with just the English text was also published.

The differences of the German translation of ''The Apology of the Augsburg Confession'' from the original Latin text were made apparent by Bente's insertion within square brackets of the variant readings of his English translation of the German text into the main body of his translation of the original Latin text. [[Justus Jonas]], who had originally translated the ''Apology'' from Latin into German, made use of both the quarto and the octavo editions. The other reason for the differences is the "looseness" of the Jonas translation that is more like a paraphrase than a translation.<ref>Roland F. Ziegler, "The New English Translation of ''The Book of Concord'' (Augsburg/Fortress 2000): Locking the Barn Door After ...," ''Concordia Theological Quarterly'', 66 (April 2002) 2:150.</ref>

With the appearance of the 1930 ''Bekenntnisschriften'' [[Textual criticism|critical text]], a new English version was deemed desirable. This was begun but left unfinished by John C. Mattes, who died in 1948. In 1959, the "Tappert" edition was produced, with Theodore G. Tappert as general editor and translator and with [[Jaroslav Pelikan]], Robert H. Fisher, and Arthur Carl Piepkorn as additional translators.<ref>''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), viii.</ref> This edition discontinued the practice of inserting translations of variant readings in square brackets.<ref>''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church''. Theodore G. Tappert, translator and editor, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), iii.</ref> However, it began the practice of providing the translations of both the German and Latin texts of the Augsburg Confession since both texts of that confession are considered authoritative. The manner of presentation was the translation of the German text on the top of the page, that of the Latin on the bottom.

An extensive revision of the Tappert edition was published in 2000, translated and edited by [[Robert Kolb]] and Timothy J. Wengert. As with the Tappert edition, the "Kolb-Wengert Edition" was translated by scholars from two different Lutheran denominations (Kolb of the [[Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod]] and Wengert of the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]]).<ref name="Concord 2000">''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 107-109.</ref> This edition provided the translations of both German and Latin texts of the Augsburg Confession on alternating pages. The translation team also included Eric Gritsch, Charles Arand, William Russell, James Schaaf, and Jane Strohl.

The Kolb-Wengert edition exhibits one of the difficulties in the translation of ''The Apology of the Augsburg Confession''. Two editions of ''The Apology'' were published in 1531, namely, the "[[quarto]] edition" and the "[[octavo]] edition", which are so designated based on the format in which they were printed.<ref name="Concord 2000"/> The quarto edition was printed with the first publication of ''The Augsburg Confession'' in April or May 1531; hence, the name "editio princeps" ["first edition"]. The octavo edition followed in September, 1531.<ref name="ReferenceA">''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 108.</ref>

The Kolb-Wengert translation of ''The Apology of the Augsburg Confession'' uses the later octavo edition text of 1531 rather than the earlier quarto edition text of 1531, with the variant readings of the quarto edition appearing in italics. The Tappert edition had used the quarto edition as the basis of its translation.<ref>''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 108-109.</ref> The editors and translators of the Kolb-Wengert edition decided to use the octavo edition as the main source for their translation because they believed the octavo edition was the official text of ''The Apology''. This is the position of the German scholar Christian Peters, who claimed the quarto edition was merely a stage on the way to a definitive text, i.e. the octavo edition.<ref>Christian Peters, ''Apologia Confessionis Augustanae. Untersuchungen zur Textgeschichte einer lutherischen Bekenntnisschrift'', (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1997); cf. Roland F. Ziegler, "The New English Translation of ''The Book of Concord'' (Augsburg/Fortress 2000): Locking the Barn Door After ...," ''Concordia Theological Quarterly'', 66 (April 2002) 2:150.</ref>

The octavo edition Latin text was utilized in a private Latin edition of ''The Book of Concord'' in 1580.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Scholars question whether or not this octavo edition text can be considered the text approved by the Lutheran Church in the 16th century.<ref>Roland F. Ziegler, "The New English Translation of ''The Book of Concord'' (Augsburg/Fortress 2000): Locking the Barn Door After ...," ''Concordia Theological Quarterly'', 66 (April 2002) 2:150-151.</ref> The official 1584 Latin ''Book of Concord'' has the quarto edition text as its text of ''The Apology of the Augsburg Confession''.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Another notable feature of the Kolb-Wengert edition is the setting off of "the [[filioque]]" of the [[Nicene Creed]] in square brackets.<ref>''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'', Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 23; cf. Roland F. Ziegler, "The New English Translation of ''The Book of Concord'' (Augsburg/Fortress 2000): Locking the Barn Door After ...," ''Concordia Theological Quarterly'', 66 (April 2002) 2:149-150.</ref>

The most recent English version of the Book of Concord was published in 2005 to commemorate the 425th anniversary of its publication and the 475th anniversary of the presentation of ''The Augsburg Confession.'' Entitled ''Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions—A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord'', it is a revision of the English text of the ''Concordia Triglotta'' and was edited by Paul T. McCain, Edward A. Engelbrecht, Robert C. Baker, and Gene E. Veith.<ref name="McCain">Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Paul McCain, ed., St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2005.</ref> A second edition followed in 2006.

==Editions available==
*''Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche''. Herausgegeben in Gedenkjahr der Augsburgischen Konfession 1930. 12th edition. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1998. {{ISBN|978-3-525-52101-4}} ([[Textual criticism|Critical text]] of the original German and Latin ''Book of Concord'')
*''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church''. Theodore G. Tappert, translator and editor. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959. {{ISBN|0-8006-0825-9}}. (First English translation of ''The Book of Concord'' texts as published in ''Die Bekenntnisschriften'') [Called "Tappert" or the "Tappert Edition" for short]
*''The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church''. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, editors. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2000. {{ISBN|0-8006-2740-7}}. (Second English translation of ''The Book of Concord'' texts as published in ''Die Bekenntnisschriften''.
*''Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions — A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord''. Paul Timothy McCain, general editor. second edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006. {{ISBN|0-7586-1343-1}}. (A modern language version of the English text of ''Concordia Triglotta'', St. Louis: CPH, 1921 interspersed with explanatory notes)
*''Concordia Triglotta: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church, German-Latin-English''. F. Bente, editor. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921. (This trilingual version has recently been reprinted by Concordia Publishing House.)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Index {{!}} Book of Concord |url=https://thebookofconcord.org/ |access-date=2022-07-28 |website=thebookofconcord.org |language=en-US}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*Bente, Friedrich. ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26909/26909.txt Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church]'' (1921). New reprint edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. {{ISBN|0-570-03262-8}}.
*Cook, Martin L. ''The Open Circle: Confessional Method in Theology''. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1991. xiv, 130 p. N.B.: Discusses the place of Confessionalism in Lutheranism and in other Protestant thought. {{ISBN|0-8006-2482-3}}
*Fagerberg, Holsten. ''A New Look at the Lutheran Confessions'' (1529–1537). Translated by Gene Lund. Paperback Edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1988. {{ISBN|0-570-04499-5}}.
*[[George Forell|Forell, George W.]] ''The Augsburg Confession: A Contemporary Commentary''. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1968. LOC 68–25798.
*''Formula of Concord, The: Quadricentennial Essays''. ''The Sixteenth Century Journal'' 8 (1977) no. 4. ISSN 0361-0160.
*Grane, Lief. ''The Augsburg Confession: A Commentary''. Translated by John H. Rasmussen. Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. {{ISBN|0-8066-2252-0}}.
*Kolb, Robert and Charles P. Arand. ''The Genius of Luther's Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church''. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-8010-3180-9}}.
*Kolb, Robert and James A. Nestingen, eds. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PS3nYNLtdLMC Sources and Contexts of The Book of Concord]''. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8006-3290-7}}.
* [[Robert Kolb]]: ''Die Konkordienformel. Eine Einführung in ihre Geschichte und Theologie'', [[Oberursler Hefte]] Ergänzungsband 8, Edition Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, {{ISBN|978-3-7675-7145-7}}
*Preus, Jacob A.O. ''The Second Martin: The Life and Theology of Martin Chemnitz''. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.
*Preus, Robert D. and Wilbert H. Rosin, eds. ''A Contemporary Look at the Formula of Concord''. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1978. {{ISBN|0-570-03271-7}}.
*Preus, Robert D. ''Getting Into the Theology of Concord''. Reprint. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.
*Preus, Robert D. ''Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism: Volume I''. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1972. {{ISBN|0-570-04545-2}}.
* Reu, Johann Michael. ''The Augsburg Confession''. Reprint. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995.
*Schlink, Edmund. ''Theology of the Lutheran Confessions''. Translated by P. Koehneke and H. Bouman. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1961. Reprint, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.
*Schmauk, Theodore. ''The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church''. Translated by C. Theodore Benze. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, Reprint 2005.
*''The Sixteenth Century Journal'' 11 (June 25, 1980) no. 3: 450th Anniversary Augsburg Confession. ISSN 0361-0160.
*Wengert, Timothy J. ''A Formula for Parish Practice: Using the Formula of Concord in Congregations''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2006. {{ISBN|0-8028-3026-9}}.
*Ziegler, Roland F., "[http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/zieglernewenglishtranslation.pdf The New Translation of the ''Book of Concord'': Closing the barn door after...], ''Concordia Theological Quarterly'' 66 (April 2002) 2:145-165.

==External links==
{{NIE Poster|Concord, Book of|Book of Concord}}
*[http://cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=l&word=LUTHERANCONFESSIONS Article on Lutheran Confessions in the ''Christian Cyclopedia'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110929165455/http://www.wlsessays.net/subject/C/Confessions%2C%2BLutheran Lutheran Scholarly and pastoral essays] on the Lutheran Confessions from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190108213222/http://www.wlsessays.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/933/BrugConcord.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y John F. Brug, Why Bible-Believing Lutherans Subscribe to the ''Book of Concord'' (classic example of a ''quia'' perspective)]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=wxlKAAAAMAAJ Concordia Triglotta], by Theodore Graebner from the October 1921 ''Theological Monthly''
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Concord, Book of|short=x}}

===English versions online===
*[https://thebookofconcord.org/ The Book of Concord ''Triglotta'' edition]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061125220021/http://www.lutheranlegacy.org/booktoc.asp?BookID=31 1851 Henkel ''Book of Concord'' first edition]
*[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011556152 Henkel ''Book of Concord'' second edition]
*[https://archive.org/details/thebookofconcord00unknuoft 1911 Jacobs "People's edition" ''Book of Concord'']
*[https://bookofconcord.org/pdf/TrigBOC.pdf 1921 Bente Concordia Triglotta English text]
*[https://yoel.info/sitemap.htm#Books_and_Articles 1921 Bente Concordia Triglotta PDF]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=CvKDx7gcH7kC&pg=PA3 1959 Tappert ''Book of Concord'' (Google books)]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=ig5PF6Tf07UC&pg=PA1 2000 Kolb-Wengert ''Book of Concord'' (Google books)]
* [https://librivox.org/group/376 ''The Book of Concord''] at [[LibriVox]] (public domain audiobooks)

{{Book of Concord}}
{{Lutheran history}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Book of Concord| ]]
[[Category:Christian statements of faith]]
[[Category:History of Lutheranism in Germany]]
[[Category:Lutheran texts]]
[[Category:German-language works]]
[[Category:Martin Luther]]
[[Category:1580 books]]
[[Category:16th-century Christian texts]]
[[Category:16th-century Lutheranism]]
[[Category:1580 in Christianity]]