Sárospataki Füzetek 13. (2009)
2009 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - I. John Hesselink: Kálvin a jelen és az eljövendő élethez való helyes viszonyulásról
The Gifts of Prophecy... Bible studies seem to lie in Zurich, where in 1525 the Prophezei had been instituted.? The name of this institution is derived from 1 Corinthians 14:29-32. According to Huldrich Zwingli every preacher has the task of a prophet. Knowledge of the biblical languages was deemed necessary to expound and apply the Scriptures prophetically.8 Earlier he had already tried to motivate younger people to study the biblical languages.« In German the word Offenbarung is used for ‘preaching’. In the third edition of Zurich translation of the Bible (1524) the Greek words JipocprjTeúew and jipocpr|0eia. were translated not as ‘weissagen’ and ‘weyssagung’ (as Luther did earlier)10 but throughout 1 Corinthians 14 as ‘propheten’ (as verb) and ‘prophecy’. As a marginal note explains: to prophecy ‘is here, not to predict as when a future event is foretold, but to open up and explain the meaning of the divine Scripture.’11 Prophecy became the equivalent of biblical exposition. And the institution, called Prophezei, gradually evolved into the theological faculty of Zurich. In 1525, the first year of the Prophezei, Zwingli published his Von dem Predigtamt. It is written as a public letter, answering the question, raised by a lay preacher (and shared by the Anabaptists): why should lay people not be permitted to expound the word of God in public? They answer: Jesus himself said that God has hidden his wisdom from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children (Mat. 11:25). Did n°t God give his Spirit in the same way to the Germans as he did to the Latin and Greek speaking people?!’ (‘Gott ^ Heinrich Buliinger, “Wie vnd wenn man Zűriych angehept die Biblisch Lection in dryen sprachen läsen,” in Fritz Büsser, Die Prophezei. Humanismus und Reformation in Zurich (Bern e.a.: Verlag Peter Lang, 1994), 7-9; Gottfried W. Locher, Die Zwinglische Reformation im Rahmen der europäischen Kirchengeschichte (Göttingen - Zürich : Vandenhoeck-Ruprecht, 1979), 161-163; Traudel Himmighöfer, Die Zürcher Bibel bis zum Tode Zwinglis (1531). Darstellung und Bibliographie [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz 154] (Mainz, 1995), 213-35. 8 Cf. Locher, Die Zwinglische Reformation im Rahmen der europäischen Kirchengeschichte, 16if; W.P. Stephens, The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), 39t, i37f, 278. « Zwingli, Quo pacto ingenui adolescentes formandi sint (1523): ‘Das mag aber dann kommlich unnd geschicklich geschehen, wann er die spraachen als Ebreisch und Griechisch erberlich kann; dann on die eine mag das alt testament, on die ander das nüw gar kümmerlich reyn und luter verstanden werden’ (Zwingli Werke 5,436,1.5-9). 10 The translation ‘weissagen’ became tainted as used by radical anabaptists and spiritualists. For example, in 1539 David Joris, who regarded himself as called to be a prophet, addressed his Prophecie oder Weyssaging to the Estate of Holland with on the one hand a call for tolerance, and a warning for God’s vengeance as imminent on the other hand (cf. Miijam van Veen, "’Prophecie oder Weyssaging”. Een onbekend geschrift van David Joris’, in Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Kerkgeschiedenis 4 (2001), 3-8). 11 Himmighöfer, Die Zürcher Bibel bis zum Tode Zwinglis (1531), 181. The source of the quoted note must be Erasmus, who had explained likewise: ‘Hoc loco Paulus prophetiam vocat non praedicationem futurorum, sed interpretationem diuinae Scripturae’. His only gloss added is: ‘Quemadmodum et Plato discernit vates a prophetis. Vates arrepti numine nec ipsi quid loquantur intelligunt, ea prudentes interpretantur caeteris’ (Erasmus, Annotationes in Novum Testamentum ad 1 Cor. 14.1 in: Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami recognita et adnotatione critica instructa notisque illustrata 6/8 (Amsterdam e.a.l.: Elsevier, 2003), 266,11. 985-988). Nampalaki Fiizclck 43
