God's box
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The divine chest , which emerged from the Oblationarium , was a storage place for the assets of a church community in the Middle Ages . The god box was also used to store important property documents from private individuals. A so-called Denarius Dei was then enclosed with the document. Since the end of the Middle Ages, God's box has increasingly only referred to the assets of a community in a figurative sense.
Development of meaning after Martin Luther
In his translation of the Bible, Martin Luther used the word God's chest as a translation of the ancient Greek word γαζοφυλάκιον gazophylákion , which means treasury .
It occurs above all in the story of the poor widow who can only give two “ mites ” as alms ( Mk 12,41-44 LUT ). There it is first of all an indication of the location within the Jerusalem temple , but then also the name for a facility for throwing in monetary donations, which is now known as the offering box. So the box of God got the additional meaning of the offering box . In another place ( Mt 27,6 LUT , since 2017 "temple treasure") the divine box designates the temple treasure (Hebrew / Greek korban = sacrifice).
Luther's box of God was set up in churches to collect money for the poor instead of paying for the forgiveness of sins. In Hamburg this development of the divine box was driven by Johannes Bugenhagen, Luther's companion, so the divine box was considered Hamburg's first "social authority".
Extended meaning
A designation derived from the original meaning as the Lutheran God Chest meant a number of associations that were dedicated to supporting Lutheran Christians in the diaspora . The SELK diaspora organization was founded as early as 1900 and has since been renamed “Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church - Gods Box - e. V. "carries.
Individual evidence
- ↑ God's box, m.. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 8 : Glibber – Gräzist - (IV, 1st section, part 5). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1958, Sp. 1264-1265 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ↑ Wilhelm Thomas: The god box . In: Quatember 1955, p. 31 ( online version of the text )
- ↑ Walter Grundmann: The Gospel according to Mark . 5th edition. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1971, p. 258 . There it says: “Jesus is sitting in the temple, in the women's courtyard opposite the treasury hall, which is accessible to all temple visitors and in which the 13 trombone-shaped cash containers for statutory and voluntary contributions were. The expression γαζοφυλακεῖον denotes the treasury. […] [Jesus] sees money […] being thrown in. If one speaks again of the treasury, the word is probably related to the money box in the treasury. "
- ^ Günter Wasserberg, Sabine Henning: Make new out of old. In: Hamburg Reformation. Ev.-luth. Church in Hamburg and the surrounding area, accessed on November 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Daniel Kaiser: 5 facts about Martin Luther and the Reformation. In: NDR. October 31, 2017, archived from the original on October 9, 2018 ; accessed on November 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Lutheran God's Chest . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 12, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, p. 876 .
- ↑ Walter Caspari : The historical basis of the current Protestant community life, presented in outline from the sources. A. Deichert, Leipzig 1908, p. 275 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Internet presentation “Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church –Gotteskasten– e. V. "