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... Zwingli foundational work appeared one year before Calvin finished and published his own commentary on 1 Corinthians (1546). 4. Sermons presented as prophecy In 1557 a collection of sermons by Calvin was published in Geneva. The title is rather long: Sermons by John Calvin on the Ten commandments of the Law, given by God to Moses, also called the Decalogue, with a curious subtitle advertising: [Sermons] collected ‘on the field’ and word by word during his preaching, while he preached on Deuteronomy, without anything being added or taken away since. It is remarkable that well known words from a Bible text, found in Deuteronomy 4:2, 13:1, and Revelations 22:18-19 and often quoted in defense of the authority of God’s Word, were now used to advertize Calvin’s sermons! Where these sermons regarded as prophetic? There surely was a market for this publication since a reprint appeared in three consecutive years.23 The publisher was Conrad Badius, the same one who had published Vergerio’s experience of reformed Geneva. In 1558 he also published the collection Plusieurs sermons, to which he added the very first known transcription of a congregation, the introduction to the Gospel of John. Badius wrote a preface to the Sermons on the Ten Commandments in which he accounted for this edition of sermons and its subtitle. Prophecy, he wrote, is a great gift of the Spirit and how lucky we are in Geneva to have re- cieved this gift in abundance. Through this edition the faithful in France, who have no freedom of religion, can share in the gift of the Word as preached in Geneva. ‘Among the great gifts with which God has adorned his Church in all ages, one of the most useful and necessaiy gifts is prophecy, that is to understand w^ell and expound purely to the people of God Holy Scripture according to its true and simple meaning and to know how to accommodate it properly to the present times and with regard to the people we are dealing with’.2! In the first place preaching is exposition of Scripture, secondly ‘accommodation’, which is not the same as application. The Word is ‘adapted’ to the circumstances of the people and the present (not bend to fit our interest). Calvin had taught, as quoted above: ‘prophesying [...] also includes the knowledge of making it apply (accommodandae scientiam) to the needs of the hour, and that can only be obtained by revelation and the special influence of God.’2s 23 Sermons de lean Calvin sur les dix commandements de la Loy, donnée de Dieu par Moyse, autrement appelez le Decalogue, recueillis sur le champs et mot á mot de ses predications, lors qu’ilpreschoit le Deuteronome, sans que depuis y ait esté rien adjousté ne diminué (Génévé: Conrad Badius, 1557). Reprints in 1558 and 1559 (Rodolphe Peter - Jean-Frangois Gilmont, Bibliotheca Calviniana 2 (Génévé, 1994), 57/10 ; 58/10 ; 59/6). Further abbreviated as BC. 2i Calvin, Sermons sur les dix commandements: ‘Entre les dons excellens desquels Dieu a enrichi son Eglise de tout temps, un des plus utiles et necessaires est celuy de Prophetie, qui est de scavoir bien et purement exposer au peuple de Dieu la saincte escriture selon son vray et natúréi sens, et de la scavoir accommoder proprement au temps ou on est, et selon les personnes esquelles on a affaire’ (a.ii). 25 CO 49: 519. Siirospiilaki telek 47
