Who are some underappreciated figures from the Reformation?

Johannes Bugenhagen—probably hardly anyone has heard of Bugenhagen. He was Luther’s pastor. Luther wasn’t alone. We always think of him as being alone, but he wasn’t. He had a band of brothers at Wittenberg, and in that company of pastors of which he was a part, one was Bugenhagen. Luther called him “my pastor.” So, anybody who had the ability to pastor Martin Luther had to be great.

My other favorite Reformer, partly because I love his name, is Johannes Oecolampadius. His name literally means “house lamp,” but he was a brilliant language scholar. He wrote a Hebrew grammar. He wrote a commentary on Isaiah that became the model for Luther, for Calvin, and for all the Old Testament work of a whole century of scholars. Every time we pick up our English Bible, we know that a boatload of scholars made that possible. Some of them gave their blood for us to have an English Bible. Oecolampadius was one of those guys. He died young, but he filled his life as much as he could. And what a great name!

This transcript is from a live Ask Ligonier event with Stephen Nichols, and has been lightly edited for readability. To ask Ligonier a biblical or theological question, email ask@ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.