A German Luther Bible has allein, "alone," in Romans 3:28. The Greek New Testament does not. Here is what happened, and what St. Paul actually meant.
Short answer: Yes. In his 1522 German New Testament, Martin Luther added allein ("alone") to Romans 3:28, and in 1530 he acknowledged, "The letters s-o-l-a are not there," while defending the word as St. Paul's meaning. St. Paul wrote that we are justified by faith "apart from works of the law," meaning the Mosaic law, and the only verse in Scripture that says "faith alone" says "not by faith alone" (James 2:24). The Catholic Church teaches what St. Paul taught: we are justified freely by grace through faith that works through love.
Key verses on Romans 3:28
- "For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law." (Romans 3:28)
- "Does God belong to Jews alone? Does he not belong to Gentiles, too? Yes, also to Gentiles," (Romans 3:29)
- "See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." (James 2:24)
- "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." (Galatians 5:6)
- "if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Lutherans and Reformed Christians Believe
The facts are not in dispute. Luther translated the New Testament into German while hidden at the Wartburg Castle, and it appeared in September 1522. In Romans 3:28 he added allein, so that the verse reads "justified by faith alone." When Catholic critics objected, he answered in his 1530 Open Letter on Translating. He did not deny the facts: "I also know that in Rom. 3, the word 'solum' is not present in either Greek or Latin text." And: "The letters s-o-l-a are not there."
His defense had two parts. First, German idiom: "in speaking about two things, one which is affirmed, the other denied," German naturally adds allein to sharpen the contrast. Second, and more important to him, the meaning of the text: "However, I was not depending upon or following the nature of language when I inserted the word 'solum' (alone) in Rom. 3 as the text itself, and St. Paul's meaning, urgently necessitated and demanded it." Why? "He is dealing with the main point of Christian doctrine in this passage—namely that we are justified by faith in Christ without any works of the Law." He also claimed, "There was Ambrose, Augustine and many others who said it before me." (Quotations from the Gary Mann translation, Project Wittenberg.)
Lutherans today make the same case. A 2016 Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod article admits "There is not a Greek word in the verse that corresponds to alone in English," but reasons: "If we are saved by faith, and the works of the law have no place in our salvation, then we are saved by faith alone."
The confessions state the doctrine itself. The Augsburg Confession (1530): "This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight" (Article IV). The Westminster Confession: faith "is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified" (XI.2). That is the Protestant position at its strongest: not that works do not matter, but that they add nothing to the verdict by which God declares a sinner righteous.
What Catholics Actually Teach
The Catholic Church teaches that justification is God's work from first to last. "Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ" (CCC 1992). It "is at the same time the acceptance of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ" (CCC 1991). And no one can earn its beginning: "no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification" (CCC 2010).
The Council of Trent said the same about Romans 3:28 itself. We are "said to be justified by faith, because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation, and the root of all Justification," and "justified freely, because that none of those things which precede justification-whether faith or works-merit the grace itself of justification" (Session 6, ch. 8, 1547).
But justification is more than a verdict. It "is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man" (CCC 1989). With it, "faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts" (CCC 1991). It "establishes cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom" (CCC 1993). And a faith without love is not enough: "when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body" (CCC 1815).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That we earn salvation. "With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man" (CCC 2007).
- That good works are our own achievement. "the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful" (CCC 2008).
It all points to Christ. Every grace that justifies us was won by Jesus on the cross, and every good work done in grace is His work in us. "The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God" (CCC 2011). Catholics do not trust their works instead of Christ. We trust Christ, who makes faith living and loving.
The Biblical Case
1. "Apart from works of the law" means the Mosaic law
St. Paul wrote: "For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:28). No "alone." The real question is whether Luther's word says what St. Paul meant, and the context answers. The argument began a few verses earlier: "no human being will be justified in his sight by observing the law; for through the law comes consciousness of sin" (Romans 3:20). The very next words after verse 28 tell us which law he means: "Does God belong to Jews alone? Does he not belong to Gentiles, too? Yes, also to Gentiles, for God is one and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith" (Romans 3:29–30).
If "works of the law" meant any good deed at all, the question "Does God belong to Jews alone?" would make no sense. It makes perfect sense if the issue is the Law of Moses, with circumcision at its head, the law that marked Israel off from the nations. St. Paul makes the same point in Galatians, where the dispute is circumcision: "a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 2:16), and "every man who has himself circumcised" is "bound to observe the entire law" (Galatians 5:3). See our full answer: What Does "Works of the Law" Mean?
2. St. Paul did not set faith against love
Luther's "alone" excludes more than St. Paul excluded. When St. Paul tells us what does count, he names not faith by itself but faith of a certain kind: "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). Notice what the "only" in that verse is set against: circumcision. That is the same contrast as Romans 3:28–30.
And St. Paul says plainly that faith without love saves no one: "if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2). "All faith" without love is "nothing."
3. The same letter says God repays according to works
One chapter before Romans 3:28, St. Paul writes that God "will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works" (Romans 2:6–7). And: "For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified" (Romans 2:13). Many Protestant interpreters take these verses as a hypothetical standard no one meets, but St. Paul presents them as the rule of God's actual judgment on the day He judges people's hidden works (Romans 2:16). Works of the Mosaic law cannot justify; the obedience grace produces is rewarded with eternal life.
4. The only "faith alone" in the Bible says "not"
The phrase "faith alone" does appear in Scripture, once. St. James asks, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?" (James 2:14). He answers: "So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17). And he concludes: "See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone" (James 2:24).
So the word Luther added to Romans 3:28 is the word the Holy Spirit placed in James 2:24, with "not" in front of it. Luther felt the tension himself: in his 1522 preface to the New Testament he wrote that "St. James' epistle is really an epistle of straw" compared with the books he prized most (Luther's Works 35:362, as cited by Martin Foord in Themelios 45.2). He kept James in his Bible, and that sentence was dropped from editions of the preface after 1537. See Does James 2 Contradict Paul?
Objections Answered
(a) "Luther only made explicit what St. Paul meant. If works are excluded, faith is alone."
At its strongest: Luther said the word was demanded by "St. Paul's meaning," not by language alone. The WELS article puts the logic simply: "If we are saved by faith, and the works of the law have no place in our salvation, then we are saved by faith alone." St. Paul himself says God justifies the one who "does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly" (Romans 4:5).
Answer: The logic works only if "works of the law" means every good act, including love. It does not. St. Paul defines his terms in Romans 3:29–30 (Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised). Exclude the Mosaic law, and you are left with faith working through love. Romans 4:4–5 contrasts grace with a wage: "A worker's wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due" (Romans 4:4). The Catholic Church agrees: no one earns the first grace (CCC 2010). But the obedience grace produces is not a wage we bring to God; it is God's work in us (Philippians 2:12–13). And St. Paul still says eternal life is given "through perseverance in good works" (Romans 2:7).
(b) "Catholic Fathers said 'faith alone' long before Luther."
At its strongest: Luther named Ambrose and Augustine. Even the Catholic controversialist St. Robert Bellarmine, in his work on justification, listed earlier writers who used "faith alone" language: Origen, St. Hilary, St. Basil, Ambrosiaster, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Bernard and Theophylact (as summarized by Taylor Marshall). St. John Chrysostom, commenting on Romans 3:27, says God justified "without needing works, but looking for faith only" (Homily 7 on Romans).
Answer: Concede what is true: some Fathers did use "faith only" or "faith alone" phrases, and Catholics have no reason to hide them. Often they meant that a sinner is first justified without any prior works of his own, which the Catholic Church also teaches (Trent, ch. 8; CCC 2010). The question is what they excluded. In context St. Chrysostom has just said, "But what is the 'law of faith?' It is, being saved by grace," and the boasting he excludes is the Jews' boasting in the Law. "Faith only" means faith without the works of the Mosaic law, as St. Paul meant it. Nothing in the passage says faith without love, repentance, or obedience.
And St. Augustine, whom Luther claimed, read Romans 3:28 through Galatians 5:6. Lutherans also reject the error he names here, a faith that permits a bad life. But his answer shows what justifying faith is for him: "Unintelligent persons, however, with regard to the apostle's statement: 'We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law,' have thought him to mean that faith suffices to a man, even if he lead a bad life, and has no good works." St. Paul, he answers, "adds at once, 'but faith which works by love'" (On Grace and Free Will 18). For St. Augustine the faith that justifies is the faith that works by love, not a faith to which love is added afterward. A Father who said "faith alone" in the sense of "not the Law of Moses" is no witness for "faith alone" in the sense of "not love."
(c) "But Protestants don't teach a faith without love either. Westminster says faith 'worketh by love.'"
At its strongest: Reformed and Lutheran Christians deny that a true believer can have a dead faith. Westminster says faith "is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love" (XI.2). Works necessarily follow justification as fruit; they simply do not contribute to the verdict.
Answer: This is closer to the truth. But notice what it concedes: the faith that justifies must be a faith that works by love. That is Galatians 5:6, and that is Catholic teaching. The difference is whether love belongs to justification itself or only follows it. St. Paul answers: without love, "I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2). St. James answers: Abraham, who had believed for years, was "justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar" and "faith was completed by the works" (James 2:21–22). Trent says the same: "faith, unless hope and charity be added thereto, neither unites man perfectly with Christ, nor makes him a living member of His body" (Session 6, ch. 7).
(d) "Trent anathematized the gospel of grace."
At its strongest: Canon 9 reads: "If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema" (Session 6, canon 9). If St. Paul teaches justification by faith, Protestants argue, Trent cursed St. Paul.
Answer: Read the whole canon. Trent did not condemn justification by faith; it taught it (ch. 8). It condemned a defined sense of "faith alone": that "nothing else is required to co-operate" and that the sinner need not be "prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will." Scripture itself requires that cooperation, and credits it to God: "work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work" (Philippians 2:12–13). And Trent shut the opposite door too: nothing before justification, "whether faith or works," merits it (ch. 8). Trent's "no" to Luther's "alone" is the same "no" St. James spoke in James 2:24. For the full case, see Is Salvation by Faith Alone?
The Early Church Agrees
The earliest Christians held grace, faith, and love together, as the Catholic Church does.
- Pope St. Clement I (St. Clement of Rome) (Letter to the Corinthians, c. AD 96) sounds like St. Paul: we "are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men" (ch. 32). Then: "Shall we become slothful in well-doing, and cease from the practice of love?" (ch. 33). Two chapters earlier he sounds like St. James: "being justified by our works, and not our words" (ch. 30).
- The Didache (late 1st or early 2nd century): "for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if you be not made perfect in the last time" (ch. 16).
- St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Ephesians, c. AD 107): "For the beginning is faith, and the end is love." And: "The tree is made manifest by its fruit" (ch. 14).
- St. Polycarp of Smyrna (Epistle to the Philippians, early 2nd century) quotes Ephesians, "by grace you are saved, not of works" (ch. 1), and in the next chapter: "He who raised Him up from the dead will raise us up also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments" (ch. 2).
Conclusion
Luther added "alone" to Romans 3:28 and admitted it. But St. Paul's context is the Mosaic law, and his answer to "what counts" is "faith working through love." The Fathers who spoke of "faith only," read in context, meant faith without the works of the Law, not faith without love, and St. Augustine tied justifying faith to Galatians 5:6. The one place Scripture says "faith alone," it says "not by faith alone."
If you are Protestant, you already believe that we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by earning it. Let St. Paul finish his sentence, and let St. James have his say.
Come home. The faith St. Paul preached, which receives Christ's grace and works through love, has been taught without the added "alone" for two thousand years in the Catholic Church. Christ did not found many churches. He founded one, on St. Peter and the apostles (Matthew 16:18), and that Church is the Catholic Church. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). If you are a baptized Christian, you already share "a certain, although imperfect, communion" with her (CCC 838). Every truth you already hold is a call to the rest of the way. Christ is calling you into the Catholic Church.
Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
Do modern Lutheran Bibles still have "alone" in Romans 3:28? Yes. German Luther Bibles, including the current 2017 revision, still read allein ("alone") in Romans 3:28, following Luther's 1522 wording. English Protestant Bibles such as the KJV and ESV render the verse without "alone," because, as the WELS article admits, no Greek word in the verse corresponds to it.
Does the Catholic Church teach justification by faith? Yes. Trent teaches that faith is "the beginning of human salvation, the foundation, and the root of all Justification" (Session 6, ch. 8), and that justification is "the acceptance of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ" (CCC 1991). What she rejects is "faith alone" in the sense that excludes hope, love, and the cooperation of a will moved by grace.
Can Protestants who believe in faith alone be saved? Protestants are baptized brothers in Christ: the Catholic Church "accepts them with respect and affection as brothers" (CCC 818). But "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body," and "they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ," would refuse to enter her (CCC 846). Those who through no fault of their own do not know this "may achieve eternal salvation" (CCC 847), a hope, not a promise. And membership alone saves no one: "one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved" (CCC 837). Christ invites you into the fullness of the Catholic Church.
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Matthew 16:18; Romans 2:6–7, 13, 16; Romans 3:20, 28–30; Romans 4:4–5; 1 Corinthians 13:2; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 5:3, 6; Philippians 2:12–13; James 2:14–24.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 816, 818, 837, 838, 846, 847; 1815; 1987–1995; 2007–2011.
Church documents (papalencyclicals.net): Council of Trent, Session 6, Decree on Justification, chs. 7–8 and canon 9 (1547).
Church Fathers (newadvent.org): Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians 30, 32–33; Didache 16; Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians 14; Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians 1–2; John Chrysostom, Homily 7 on Romans; Augustine, On Grace and Free Will 18.
Protestant sources: Martin Luther, An Open Letter on Translating (1530), trans. Gary Mann, Project Wittenberg; Augsburg Confession, Article IV; Westminster Confession of Faith XI.2; James F. Pope, "Is Luther adding words?" (WELS, 2016).
History and secondary: "Luther Bible" (1522 September Testament; Wartburg); Taylor Marshall, "Did the Church Fathers teach Justification by Faith Alone?" (on Bellarmine, De justificatione 1.25); Martin Foord, "The 'Epistle of Straw': Reflections on Luther and the Epistle of James," Themelios 45.2 (2020).