Читать книгу Calvin's Interpretation of 'The Lord's Prayer'. A Rhetorical Approach - Professor J.H. Mazaheri - Страница 11

Luther had divided the “Prayer” into seven requests, explaining that “the first, second, and third petitions deal with the highest benefits that we receive from Him,”1 whereas “In the other four petitions we meet the needs that apply to our own daily life and to this poor, weak, and temporal existence” (Luther, The Sermon on the Mount 146). The Sixth Petition being, “Lead us not into temptation,” is clearly distinguished from the seventh, “But deliver us from evil.” The former, Luther points out, “is brought on by the fact that we are living on earth, amid all sorts of temptation and trouble, with attacks from every side. (…) We ask Him, therefore, to sustain us in the midst of this danger and need so that it does not overcome and destroy us” (Luther, The Sermon on the Mount 147). On the other hand, the Seventh Petition, clarifies the German theologian, “is that He would ultimately deliver us completely from all evil, and when the time comes for us to pass out of this life, that He would bestow upon us a gracious and blessed hour of death” (Luther, The Sermon on the Mount 147).

We note that Luther’s understanding is close to that of Augustine, who provides the following reason for the number seven: “The sevenfold number of these petitions also seems to me to correspond to that sevenfold number out of which the whole sermon before us has had its rise.”2 It is a vague explanation though, because neither the Beatitudes, nor the entire Sermon on the Mount could be easily divided into seven. Augustine and Luther subconsciously wanted the petitions to be sevenfold because of the sacredness attached to number Seven. The examples abound in the Bible. A very important one is when “Peter came and said to him: ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times” (Mat 18: 21–22). Jesus is alluding to the First Book of Moses, where the Lord declares: “Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance” (Gen 4: 15).

But according to Calvin, there are only Six Petitions in the “Lord’s Prayer”. As early as the first Latin edition (1536) and the first French edition (1541) of the Institutes, he shows in the following explication his difference from Luther and Augustine on this particular point:

Ceste oraison ou reigle de prier contient six requestes. Car j’ay raison de n’accorder point avec ceux qui la divisent en sept articles, d’autant que l’Evangéliste parlant en ceste forme: Ne nous induy point en tentation, mais délivre-nous du maling, lie ces deux membres ensemble pour en faire une seule demande. Comme s’il disoit: Ne permets point que nous soyons vaincuz de tentation, ains plustost donne secours à nostre fragilité, et délivre-nous, de peur que nous ne succombions. Et de fait les anciens Docteurs accordent à ceste exposition. Dont il est facile de iuger que ce qui est adiousté en sainct Matthieu, et qu’aucuns ont prins pour une septième requeste, n’est qu’une explication de la sixième et se doit à icelle raporter. (Institution III, xx, 35, 377–78)3

One of these “anciens Docteurs”, to whom Calvin might refer, is Gregory of Nyssa, who, in his homilies on the “Lord’s Prayer”, offers the following interpretation:

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. What, my brethren, do these words mean? It seems to me that the Lord calls the evil one by many different names according to the distinction between the evil actions. He names him variously devil, Beelzebub, Mammon, prince of this world, murderer of man, evil one, father of lies, and other such things. Perhaps, therefore, here again one of the names devised for him is ‘temptation,’ and the juxtaposition of clauses confirms this assumption. For after saying, Lead us not into temptation, He adds that we should be delivered from evil, as if both words meant the same. For if a man who does not enter into temptation is quite removed from evil, and if one who has fallen into temptation is necessarily mixed up with evil, then temptation and the evil one mean one and the same thing.4

Now, Origen, who influenced Gregory of Nyssa, had already had the same understanding of the the last Petition, as is shown in his exegesis of the “Lord’s Prayer”. Thus, he considers the two parts of the sentence as having basically the same content.5

As far as the structural content of the “Prayer” is concerned, Augustine divides it into two distinct parts, the first one consisting of three petitions, and the second of four, stating that “the distinction among these seven petitions is to be considered and commended.” He adds, that whereas “those three things will remain consummated and thoroughly completed in that life which is promised us,” the other four “seem to me to belong to this temporal life” (Augustine, Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount II, 45). Luther’s explanation of the second part is basically the same, but regarding the first part he highlights the “benefits we receive from Him,” rather than alluding to the world to come, which is the main point in Augustine’s interpretation. Calvin, however, divides the Petitions into two equal parts (three and three), stating that, although “l’oraison soit telle, qu’en chacune partie d’icelle nous devons regarder l’honneur de Dieu principalement,” “les trois premières requestes sont spécialement destinées pour désirer la gloire de Dieu, laquelle seule en icelles nous devons considérer, sans avoir aucun esgard à nous-mesmes,” but “Les trois autres contiennent spécialement les choses que devons demander pour noz nécessitez” (Institution III, xx, 35, 378).6 As we see, he attaches more importance to the glory of God than Luther and Augustine, making it the dominant theme of the entire prayer. We must constantly, in anything we do, glorify God, he insists. Even though he admits that we also have material needs, the spiritual part matters more, which pertains to the “glory of God”. He refers to Moses and Paul to better illustrate his idea, which concludes his introduction on prayer:

Comme on voit en l’exemple de Moyse et de sainct Paul, ausquels il n’a point fait mal, en destournant leur affection d’eux-mesmes, de désirer par un zèle véhément et enflambé leur perdition, afin que mesmes avec leur dommage, si besoin estoit, la gloire de Dieu fust exaltée et son règne multiplié (Ex. 32, 32; Rom. 9, 3). D’autrepart quand nous demandons nostre pain quotidien nous estre donné, combien que nous demandions chose concernante nous et nostre profit, toutesfois nous devons premièrement en cela chercher la gloire de Dieu, tellement que si cela ne devoit tourner à icelle gloire, nous n’en voulussions faire requeste, ne le désirer ou vouloir avoir. (Institution III, xx, 35, 378–79)7

I assume that Augustine and Luther would have agreed with Calvin, but the fact is that they did not so much think of stressing the “glory of God” as the French Reformer did, since they did not mention it as he did with regard to the last petitions. Calvin, here, is closer to Bucer than he is to Luther.8 Now, let us quickly examine his biblical references on this issue. The one from the Old Testament refers to the episode of the Golden Calf, “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come from the mountain” (Exodus 32:1), where he had received from God the two “Tablets of the Covenant” (Exodus 31:18), and asked Aaron to “make gods” for them (Exodus 32: 1–24). Then Moses, after having ordered his faithful followers, i.e. “all the sons of Levi,” to punish the sinners—thousands of their own relatives and friends—by killing them, and doing this in the name of God, in other words for the “glory of God” and without caring about people’s lives, he “returned to the Lord and said, ‘Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they made for themselves gods of gold. But now if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written” (Exodus 32: 31–32). He could have said, “Thy Will be done,” because “His glory” matters more than anything else, much more than his own life—“if not blot me out of your Book” has no other meaning. It is also more important than that of his fellow humans. That is why he commanded, as the leader of his people, that the Golden Calf worshippers be killed by the Lord’s followers.

Calvin’s other reference is to Paul. The latter writes to the Romans about God’s “Election of Israel”: “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh…” (Rom 9:1–3). We see that not even his own life, but only God’s glory is important to him, that which is also revealed through his “true” children—for “not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants” (Rom 9:7), and “it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants” (Rom 9:8). The love of Christ is then everything, says Paul, and one’s life, including his own, is worth nothing. We must go back to the previous chapter to fully understand this passage about the Glory. There we read the following:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Rom 8:18–21)

The life after this one is what we have to consider. We live this one according to the other. Therefore, the “glory” of God alone remains as the common denominator throughout the Lord’s Prayer. We must die to this world and not think of anything else. Calvin mainly remains faithful to Paul’s theology. He greatly respects Augustine and Paul, but his main teacher is Paul.