Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt and the Supremacy of Scripture

Abstract Karlstadt’s interpretation of Scripture focused on the Bible as the source of God’s law, especially for worship and a godly society. While Karlstadt was influenced by Erasmus’s spiritualized interpretation of the book of Hebrews, his spiritualism never denied the necessity of the external word. Karlstadt adopted a spiritual understanding of this presence and read the references in 1 Corinthians 10 to participation in Christ through the sacrament as a spiritual fellowship, not a partaking of Christ’s body. He later diverged from the view of Huldrych Zwingli in his reading of the Words of Institution. Karlstadt read this story and others typologically, influenced especially by the typological reading of Christ in the letter to the Hebrews. In his reading of the Last Supper, Karlstadt’s emphasis was on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, which was prefigured by Old Testament sacrifices and the words of the prophets.