In his 1530 preface (WA Deutsche
Bibel 7, in Martin Luther, D. Martin Luther’s Werke. Kritische
Gesammtausgabe [Wimar, 1883-], 406-408), Luther took the
self-evident prophecy (or revelation), or one needing no interpretation, to be
the superior. In this category, he placed the prophets’ revelations of the
coming of Christ. The second, inferior, type of prophecy is one requiring
interpretation such as Daniel’s dream), with the prophet himself providing it.
The third, very inferior, type of prophecy is one which is not self-evident and
for which the prophet does not provide any interpretation. In this last
category, he placed the Apocalypse. (Irena Backus, Reformation Readings of
the Apocalypse: Geneva, Zurich, and Wittenberg [Oxford Studies in
Historical Theology; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000], 151 n. 24)
