The Reformer had lectured on this Epistle of St. Paul's in 1519 and again in
1523. It was his favorite among all the Biblical books. In his table talks the
saying is recorded: "The Epistle to the Galatians is my epistle. To it I am as
it were in wedlock. It is my Katherine." Much later when a friend of his
was preparing an edition of all his Latin works, he remarked to his home
circle: "If I had my way about it they would republish only those of my
books which have doctrine. My Galatians, for instance. "The lectures which
are preserved in the works herewith submitted to the American public
were delivered in 1531. They were taken down by George Roerer, who
held something of a deanship at Wittenberg University and who was one of
Luther's aids in the translation of the Bible. Roerer took down Luther's
lectures and this manuscript has been preserved to the present day, in a
copy which contains also additions by Veit Dietrich and by Cruciger, friends
of Roerer's, who with him attended Luther's lectures. In other words, these
three men took down the lectures which Luther addressed to his students
in the course of Galatians, and Roerer prepared the manuscript for the
printer. A German translation by Justus Menius appeared in the
Wittenberg Edition of Luther's writings, published in 1539.

The importance of this Commentary on Galatians for the history of
Protestantism is very great. It presents like no other of Luther's writings
the central thought of Christianity, the justification of the sinner for the
sake of Christ's merits alone. We have permitted in the final revision of
the manuscript many a passage to stand which seemed weak and
ineffectual when compared with the trumpet tones of the Latin original.
But the essence of Luther's lectures is there. May the reader accept with
indulgence where in this translation we have gone too far in modernizing
Luther's expression--making him "talk American."