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The Myth of Luther’s “Snow-Covered Dung Hills”

The Myth of Luther’s “Snow-Covered Dung Hills”

Last updated on: June 13, 2026 at 1:04 pm by Dave Armstrong

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The Myth of Luther’s “Snow-Covered Dung Hills” 2026-06-13T13:04:53-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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: copyright Lux Veritatis, 2025.

His words are in blockquotes below, time-stamped to the video, so you can find each one.

*****

Many of us in Christian circles have heard the famous saying that Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, supposedly expressed about a person who is saved in the Protestant sense being a “snow-covered dung hill.” It seems as if everyone assumes that this was from Luther, but oddly enough, none seem to be able to verify it from a documented source in his writings. It’s become both a slogan and, I contend, a myth.

Renowned Luther scholar Eric Gritsch, one of the translators of Luther’s Works, was once asked about this, and he replied that it did exist somewhere in one of Luther’s statements in the book that compiled his conversations at the dinner table, called Table Talk, but he couldn’t give an exact reference. I know that the Table Talk in German is at least four times longer than what we have available in English. So perhaps it lies in that work somewhere, waiting to be found. Being a curious sort myself, I determined in 2005 to seek and find the saying and determine if it was from Luther or else falsely attributed to him. It was fun and I love to try to solve mysteries.

It’s true that one can find Luther writing things very similar. For example, “Our righteousness is dung in the sight of God. Now, if God chooses to adorn dung, he can do so.” That’s from Disputation Concerning Justification in 1536, found in the 55-volume, Luther’s Works in Volume 34, page 184. Psalm 51, so I thought, might offer a clue as to what Luther meant, if indeed he made this remark. 51:5 reads in RSV: “I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my

mother conceive me.”

Then in 51:7, King David writes, “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” I looked to see how Luther dealt with this Psalm in his commentary on it from 1538, found in volume 12 of Luther’s Works. On page 367, he states, “If you look at a Christian without the righteousness and purity of Christ as he is in himself, even though he be most holy, you will find not only no cleanness, but what I might call diabolical blackness.” And then a little later, he writes, “How then can he be washed so as to make him whiter than snow?” He had already provided the answer a little earlier in his text:

We have obtained baptism which is most pure. We have obtained the word which is most pure. And in the word and baptism, we have by faith obtained the blood of Christ which is surely most pure. According to this purity, the Christian is rightly said to be purer than snow. Even though the defilements of spirit and flesh cling to him, these are concealed and covered by the cleanness and purity of Christ.

On page 327, Luther had referred to the “remnants of sin in the flesh” as “dung.” Thus, one might say that we have all the elements — though not quite –, of the purported saying in this work alone. Luther’s comments on snow in the same commentary clearly fulfill the second component of the saying. I would

contend, then, that Luther broadly or roughly expressed the same thought, but not in one concise instance of a memorable saying, at least not in this

instance and not exactly. The Old Testament, by the way, uses the word dung 26 times in RSV, mostly literally and never as a description of human

beings. In the New Testament, a literal dung hill appears once, in Luke 4:30, and the Apostle Paul writes that for the sake of Christ he “suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse” (Philippians 3:8). Refuse in the King James version appears as “dung.”

A similar sentiment is found in Isaiah 64:6 (incorrectly stated as 64:4 in the video): “We have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” The King James version has, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” So, it’s close, but it’s not referring to human beings as dung. Therefore, it’s difficult to find biblical support for this saying, whoever came up with it.

I revisited the topic in May 2019 after discovering a fascinating source called, Proverbial Language in English Drama Exclusive of Shakespeare: 1495 to 1616: An Index, written by Robert William Dent and published by the University of California Press in 1984. On page 307 in appendix A, we find the entry quote, “a dung hill covered with snow, etc.” Two of the listed references come close to what we are looking for. The first was from a 1610 book, A Treatise on the First Psalm, by Matthew Stonum. He wrote, “These their virtues are done by the wicked first for a show as hypocrites like a dung hill covered with snow.” The second comes from 1616 in a book by Thomas Adams called, Soul Sickness: “These are but devils and angels feathers, stinking dung hills covered with white snow.”

Both men were Calvinist Anglicans and I found their books in either Internet Archive or Google Books, so that I could consult the context. What’s interesting is that both of these references were strictly referring to the pretense of hypocrites: blistering condemnations of hypocrisy similar to Jesus’ excoriation of the Pharisees, rather than related to the doctrine of imputed justification, as Luther conceived it and as the reference today is commonly understood. Thus, if these two passages were the source, their intent and meaning and context have been considerably modified.

Whether this explains the origin of the supposed quotation from Luther remains speculative and hypothetical, but I haven’t found a better explanation thus far, or even any explanation at all solidly documented, and not for lack of trying. This theory seems possible and even plausible to me. In this scenario,

these excerpts from seven decades after Luther’s death were for whatever reason superimposed onto Luther’s theology by Calvinists. And over time, folks falsely assumed that Luther was the source.

For further details and documentation, see my two articles on this topic linked [below].

*****

My Related Articles

Luther’s “Snow-Covered Dunghill” (Myth?) (Oct. 2005)

Calvinist Origin of Luther’s (?) “Snow-Covered Dunghill”? (May 2019)

My Related Books

Martin Luther: Catholic Critical Analysis and Praise (April 2008, 264 pages; available in paperback or for only $2.99 as an e-book)

The “Catholic” Luther : An Ecumenical Collection of His “Traditional” Utterances (Dec. 2014, 166 pages; available only as an e-book, for $3.99; see details at the link)

My Related Web Pages
*

Martin Luther: a Catholic Critique & Appraisal

Lutheranism: Catholic Critique

Videos in The Martin Luther Series on Lux Veritatis

Did Martin Luther Support the DEATH PENALTY for Heretics? [Lux Veritatis, 5-1-25]

13 Reasons Luther Was Excommunicated from the Catholic Church [Lux Veritatis, 5-2-25]

The MYTH of Luther’s “Snow-Covered Dung Hills” [Lux Veritatis, 5-3-25]

Civil War Chaos: Luther vs. Other Protestant Leaders, Etc. [Lux Veritatis, 5-4-25]

Martin Luther’s Belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception [Lux Veritatis, 5-5-25]

Luther & the Myth of a Supposed Catholic Ban of the Bible [Lux Veritatis, 5-6-25]

Was Martin Luther an Extreme “Faith Alone” Antinomian? [Lux Veritatis, 5-8-25]

***

Photo Credit: copyright Lux Veritatis, 2025.

Summary: My theory about a Calvinist origin of this supposed mysterious “quotation” from Luther remains speculative and hypothetical. But I haven’t found a better explanation thus far.

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