Howling and chattering teeth

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Detail from Michelangelo's depiction of the Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel (around 1540)

Howling and chattering of teeth (according to Luther ) or howling and gnashing of teeth ( standard translation ), Greek ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων , is a formulaic phrase that two of the evangelists ascribe to Jesus Christ . It is encountered a total of seven times in the New Testament as a description of the torments of those condemned in hell .

The literary criticism assumes its origin in the lodge tradition , where it appeared only once in a speech by Jesus about the Last Judgment ; In five other places - always in the context of parables - it was accordingly inserted editorially by Matthew . It is one of only a few concrete descriptions of hell in the Bible and has therefore received some attention and diverse, sometimes contradicting interpretations in exegetical literature . While howling and gnashing of teeth were often understood literally as physical punishment in patristic and scholastic theology and in the early modern period , in more recent theology it is described more as a metaphorical expression of despair, self-reproach or exposure. Nonetheless, philosophers critical of religion such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Bertrand Russell have read the phrase as evidence of the punitive, relentless character of the Christian message. As a phrase , mostly used as a joke, the phrase is also common in everyday German.

Historical-critical classification

Editorial history

The phrase "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" occurs six times in the Gospel of Matthew (8.12 EU , 13.42 EU , 13.50 EU , 22.13 EU , 24.51 EU , 25.30 EU ) and once in the Gospel of Luke ( 13.28 EU ). According to the two-source theory , correspondences between Matthew and Luke, which, as here, cannot be traced back to the older Gospel of Mark used by both, are an indication of their dependence on a hypothetical second source, the source Q of the Logia . In Luke the logion about howling and gnashing of teeth appears in the context of the speech about the field (Lk 13:28), followed by a second logion, namely Jesus' prophecy about the eschatological migration of peoples to the feast at the table of the Lord (Lk 13:29), in which Jesus paraphrases Mi 4,1-3  U. Matthew also uses the logion in question once in this connection, but in the reverse order, following the prophecy about the feast, namely in the speech given by the centurion of Capernaum to those who followed him (Matt. 8: 11-12). This is what Matthew says:

“I tell you: many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but those for whom the kingdom was destined will be cast out into utter darkness; there they will howl and grind their teeth. "

And in contrast to Luke:

“You will howl and gnash your teeth when you see that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets are in the kingdom of God, but that you yourself are excluded. And people will come from east and west and north and south and sit at table in the kingdom of God. "

There is a broad consensus in research that both of them adopted the logion in this connection from the source of logic Q, but not about which order is the more original or in which context they were in Q. In the other places where it is used in Matthew, the logion appears in parables and not in connection with the prophecy about the feast, namely in the parables of the weeds under the wheat , of the fishing net , of the wedding feast , of the faithful and the wicked servant and of the entrusted Talents . The warning against howling and gnashing of teeth follows in five places immediately after the "throwing out" (βάλλω or ἐκβάλλω) of the unrepentant into hell, which is described in three of the places as "extreme darkness" (τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον) , twice as "fiery furnace" (εἰς τὴν κάμινον τοῦ πυρός).

The synopsis of the relevant passages in Matthew and Luke shows that in Matthew, overall, an increased use of apocalyptic imagery can be determined. The Matthean editors thus represent a clear break with contemporary eschatological literature, in which the torment of the damned is taken for granted, but hardly ever specifically described. The further one moves away from the word of Jesus in the history of the text, the theologian Dale Allison comments on the fascination for Matthew with eschatology, the "more hell" one gets to read.

History of tradition

Κλαυθμός (howling) is the history of tradition since Homer closely with the dirge connected. The Septuagint uses it to translate Hebrew בְּכִי (bəchi) z. B. Jer 3,21  EU also in the sense of repentance and sorrow ( Hi 30,31  EU ), as an expression of the inner need to be forsaken by God.

The grinding of teeth can be found in the Old Testament e.g. B. in Ps 35,16  EU , Ps 37,12  EU , Klgl 2,16  EU and often as an expression of the hateful attitude of sinners towards the righteous. For example, in Psalm 112 it says to the consolation of the merciful and benevolent: “The wicked sees it with displeasure, he will grind his teeth and perish. The desires of the wicked are nullified ”( Psalm 112,10  EU ). The connection was so clear that the gnashing of teeth among Jews literally stood for godlessness. In addition, βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων can be found in Hippocrates as a description of the symptom of chills ; Karl-Heinrich Rengstorf, however, postulates in his entry in the ThWNT that the use of the phrase in Matthew should be viewed independently of general Greek as well as Old Testament language usage. The formulaic combination of both terms in Matthew thus describes the situation of those who have received the call to the kingdom of God , but are ultimately excluded because they carelessly rejected the goodness of God: God's full self-revelation results in a deadly horror and desperate repentance in them that shake the whole body.

Translations

In the Vulgate , ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων is rendered as fletus et stridor dentium , which, according to Heinrich Ludolf Ahrens ' judgment, is “entirely correct”. Ahrens, however, considers Luther's “chattering of teeth” to be a mistranslation, since what is meant here is “the dogged rage of the inmates of hell”, not “a fear characterized by the chattering of teeth ”. For etymologically precise he considers the numerous Old and Middle High German-English translations stridor with grimman (NHG. "Grim") or pleonastic compound grisgramen (see. Curmudgeon ) play. The standard translation and the Schlachter Bible are semantically closer to this meaning with their translation “teeth grinding”.

Interpretation history

Patristic

The concept of hell and the torments associated with it, which are described as “howling and chattering teeth”, do not play a central role in the New Testament and were hardly reflected in the early Church. The apocryphal revelation of Peter (around 135) is the oldest Christian document that describes hell as a place of physical pain. In the following, the howling and chattering of teeth were sometimes used as evidence of the physical resurrection of the dead , for example in the case of the church father Hieronymus († 420), as well as Tertullian († around 230): “What should the weeping and gnashing of teeth happen with, if not with the eyes and Teeth? Namely even after one has fallen into hell death and thrown out into utter darkness, which is the special torment for the eyes. ”This interpretation was initially controversial. Origen († 254) , for example, interpreted the biblical descriptions of hell as a metaphor for possible torments of conscience at the end of life; it was not until 543 that his teachings were condemned as heresy by Justinian I.

middle Ages

Charon drives sinners on his boat (illustration by Gustave Doré to Dante's Inferno, 1857)

Attempts to interpret the chattering of teeth as a physical reaction of the lost to the coldness of the "utter darkness", the Catholic theologian Olaf Rölver, in consensus with today's research, in view of the traditional-historical connections, rejects as "completely absurd" ( Christian existence between the courts of God , 2010). However, it is precisely these that have found expression in numerous depictions of hell throughout the history of theology. The problem arose, however, of how to imagine a coexistence of cold, darkness and fire in hell. For example, Beda Venerabilis (†  735 ) interpreted the passage as meaning that one of the torments of hell was having to endure alternating heat and cold, as did Honorius Augustodunensis († 1151), who made up the first two of the nine different torments of hell, and Otto von Freising († 1158), who also explains that the omnipotence of God allows the fire to be deprived of the property of lighting. But the idea may well be much older; For example, the Pre-New Testament Book of Enoch describes the place of damnation as “hot as fire and cold as snow”.

Skull of Adam on Mount Golgotha ​​(detail of a crucifixion group with Saints Nicholas and Francis. Painting by Fra Angelico around 1435)

As an alternative interpretation, Thomas Aquinas († 1274) stated that howling and chattering of teeth as otherworldly punishments correspond to transgressions in this world, the chattering of teeth is a punishment for gluttony and howling for greed . A similar idea of ​​the retribution of like for like can already be found in Chrysostom († 407), who warns that the sinner will lose his laughter : with the same teeth with which he still laughs in this world, he will be in hell have to rattle. This thought can already be found in the Gospel of Luke: “Woe to you who are now full; because you will starve. Woe to you who are laughing now; for you will complain and weep. ”( Lk 6.25  EU ) and finds its iconographic equivalent in the human skull as a symbol of vanitas and memento mori , ie the allegorical representation of a“ laughing ”death.

In Dante's Inferno (the first part of the Divine Comedy , written around 1310), chattering of teeth initially appears as an expression of the horror of the naked and exhausted souls of the damned at the words of Charon , who picks them up with his boat on the bank of the Acheron and gives them their eternity Heralds damnation and hell as eternal darkness, in heat and freezing cold. Later , the traitors frozen in the ice of the cocytus , especially the traitors to the relatives, frozen to the abdomen in the first sub-district of this last circle of hell, "sound the stork with their teeth", namely the rattling sound of its beak.

Modern times

In this illustration from Der Verdambten fewrige Immerwehrende Höllgfäncknuß by Jeremias Drexel († 1638), which is part of the third chapter The other hellish Peyn. Eternal howling and wailing is preceded, the devil holds the damned the score after which they have to howl. Eternal refrain: Vavava / Ah ahah ah .

Martin Luther († 1546), when asked by Magister Veit , explained "what the chattering of teeth would be" in one of his table speeches:

“It would be the extreme pain that will follow a bad conscience , that is, despair; of course, know that one must be separated from God forever. Because a bad conscience fears for all creatures. No one has ever killed a leaf on the tree, but nevertheless is afraid and feels a frightened and trembling heart for him. If one is despondent, it is shocking for every creature, even who is good. "

On the occasion of the peasant wars , Luther warned the princes unequivocally in a letter “against the peasants” in 1525: “Hellish fire, trembling and the chattering of teeth in hell will forever be their reward where they do not repent.” Before and after Luther the howling counted and The chattering of teeth in countless sermons like fire and brimstone became the basic inventory of the motifs with which hell was made vivid. In Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20 (1724), the 10th sentence admonishes the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus :

"... O human child,
Stop it quickly
To love sin and the world
That not the pain
Where there are howls and gnaws
May sadden you forever! ... "

In the eighteenth century, preachers like Jonathan Edwards continued to warn against the torment of eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. Franz Xaver Mahl saw in his "Instruction in the Christian Catholic Religion" (1854) in the biblical word only a hint of unimaginable torments after human measurement:

“When Jesus speaks of the torments of Hell, he is speaking in terms which indicate both a terrible multitude and a terrible severity and diversity of the torments in Hell. So what do the damned suffer in Hell? […] Jesus also speaks of ' howling and chattering teeth ' in the uttermost darkness; there will therefore be such pervasive torments, such pains, such torments that compel the damned not to cry, or whimper, or scream strongly, no, they will howl! - The expression about her pain is no longer compared with a human voice, but with the voice of animals; Dogs howl, wolves howl, jackals and hyenas howl; - they will howl , what torments it must be! The chattering of teeth indicates an unbearable cold; if one is thoroughly gripped by the frost, then the two rows of teeth collide; so even when a feverish chill grabs you; there is a chattering of teeth , says Jesus; enough, it is a torture that lets us infer from its effect on its bitterness. "

His also Catholic contemporary Markus Adam Nickel († 1869) paraphrased the howling of the damned in a similarly vivid way :

“The howling and the chattering of teeth are the expression of anger and impotent rage - oh, in hell a howling wails from one end to the other, and it screams that it wants to soften the marrow and bone, the wailing voices: 'Woe, woe that we were born! How has the short time betrayed us! How did death creep up on us! O our sorrow! O our need, which now lasts forever! O end without end, o dying above all dying; die every hour, and yet can never die out! O grief! O sigh! O cry! '"

In the course of the Enlightenment, however, such representations increasingly lost their credibility, and descriptions of Hell such as howling and the chattering of teeth were increasingly understood metaphorically . In his "spiritual" interpretation of heaven and hell, which was enormously influential in the 18th and 19th centuries , Emanuel Swedenborg († 1772) tried to fathom the "spiritual meaning" of the biblical words, and devoted a separate chapter to the chatter of teeth. The chattering of teeth should therefore be understood as “the restless arguing and fighting of wrong people among themselves; and therefore those who are in falsities, also connected with looking down on others, with resentment, mockery, scornful laughter, blasphemy, which then break out into various brawls, because everyone fights for his falsities and calls it truth. These bickering and fighting now sound like the clapping of teeth, heard outside of those hells. "

In contemporary Catholic theology

The current meaning of the talk of howling and chattering teeth can only be assessed against the background of the modern understanding of hell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church does not define hell as a place of torment, but as a “state of final self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed”. He does not regard the statements in the New Testament linked to the concept of hell as a threat of cruel vengeance, but as a "reminder to man to use his freedom responsibly in view of his eternal fate"; the catechism does not describe physical pain as the worst agony of hell, but rather the "eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can find life and happiness". Immediately following the biblical phrase about "howling and gnashing of teeth" he makes it clear that no one is destined for hell and that it is God's will that no one "perishes".

Neither the catechism nor the Second Vatican Council interprets the specific phrase about howling and the chattering of teeth ; a literal interpretation is neither suggested nor explicitly contradicted. Even if the formulations of the Catholic Church leave a certain scope for interpretation, a literal understanding of the phrase no longer plays a role for many contemporary theologians. The Protestant theologian Wolfgang Schenk interprets it abstractly as "the Mt [Matthean] definition of the state opposite to individual immortality in the final world time [...] it is clearly an expression of despair." The Catholic theologian Hans Küng also interprets the phrase in a pure manner metaphorical:

"Darkness, howling, gnashing of teeth, fire, these are all harsh images for the threatening possibility that a person can completely miss the meaning of life."

Joseph Ratzinger relativizes the importance of the phrase about howling and gnashing of teeth when he rejects its designation as Jesus' "favorite expression" in an interview with Peter Seewald :

“I wouldn't exactly call it a favorite phrase. This is something that occurs in Jesus' boundary words. 'Howling and gnashing of teeth' actually represents the threat, the endangerment, and ultimately the failed person. It is a situation that describes a world of people who have fallen into drugs and orgiastic ecstasies, those who, at the moment of falling out of anesthesia, die total contradiction of their life becomes clear. Hell is usually represented as fire, as burning. But teeth grinding actually occurs when you are cold. Here for the fallen person, in his howling and complaining and the shouting of protest, the image of an exposure to the cold emerges into which one has entered with the rejection of love. In a world that is completely disconnected from God and thus from love, it becomes freezing - up to the grinding of teeth. "

In criticism of religion

Sharp criticism of the doctrine of hell has been exercised in recent and recent times not least by philosophers critical of religion . In Friedrich Nietzsche's fourth part of Also sprach Zarathustra (1883–1885) it says in the speech “of the higher man”:

“What has been the greatest sin here on earth so far? Wasn't it the word of him who said: 'Woe to those who laugh here!'
Didn't he find reasons to laugh on earth himself? So he looked badly. A child still finds reasons here.
He - did not love enough: otherwise he would have loved us too, the laughing ones! But he hated and mocked us, he promised us howling and chattering teeth.
Do you have to curse when you don't love? That - thinks bad taste. But so did he, this unconditional one. It came from the mob.
And he just didn't love enough himself: otherwise he would have been less angry about not being loved. "

Bertrand Russell cited the phrase in his lecture Why I am not a Christian (1927) as evidence that the teaching of Jesus is by no means only humane, but also has vengeful and cruel features:

“He keeps talking about howling and grinding his teeth. It occurs in verse after verse, and therefore it is quite evident to the reader that the idea of ​​howling and gnashing of teeth gave him some pleasure. "

literature

  • Claudio Ettl: "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there". Matthew and the judgment . In: Bibel heute 146, 2001. pp. 59–61.
  • Olaf Rölver: Christian existence between the courts of God. Studies on the eschatology of the Gospel of Matthew . V & R unipress Verlag, Göttingen 2010 (= Bonn Biblical Contributions 163). ISBN 3-89971-767-8
  • Benedikt Schwank OSB: "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there". Use and non-use of this "image for self-reproach" by the Synoptics. In: Biblische Zeitschrift , new series 16/1, 1972. pp. 121–122.
  • Herbert Vorgrimler : History of Hell . 2nd, improved edition. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1994. ISBN 3-7705-2848-4

Web links

Wiktionary: howling and chattering teeth  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the Luther Bible 1546 howl and zap
  2. ↑ Olaf Rölver: Christian existence between the courts of God . P. 532.
  3. ↑ Ulrich Luz considers the position with Luke to be original, S. Ulrich Luz: The Gospel according to Matthew. Volume 2. 4th edition. Benziger, Zurich / Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2007. p. 13 .; Siegfried Schulz, on the other hand, assumes this in his reconstruction of the source of the sayings for the Matthias sequence. Siegfried Schulz: Q - The source of the evangelists' sayings . Volume 1. Theologischer Verlag, Zurich 1972. pp. 323-324.
  4. ^ David C. Sim: Apocalyptic Eschatology in the Gospel of Matthew . Cambridge University Press, 1996. p. 140.
  5. ^ Dale C. Allison: Jesus and Gehenna . In: Jan Roskovec et al. (Ed.): Testimony and Interpretation: Early Christology in its Judeo-Hellenistic Milieu: Studies in Honor of Petr Pokorný . Continuum, London and New York 2004. p. 118.
  6. ↑ Olaf Rölver: Christian existence between the courts of God. Pp. 532-33.
  7. ↑ Bettina von Kienle: Feuermale: Studies on the word field dimension "fire" in the Synoptics, in the pseudophilonic Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum and in the 4th Esra . Athenaeum Hain Hanstein, 1993. p. 137.
  8. ↑ Karl-Heinrich Rengstorf: Art. Κλαυθμός , in: Theological Dictionary for the New Testament (ThWNT) 3, Stuttgart 1950, p. 725 f .; Ders .: Art. Βρυγμός , in: Theological Dictionary for the New Testament (ThWNT) 1, Stuttgart 1957, p. 725 f., P. 639 f.
  9. ^ Heinrich Ludolf Ahrens: Contributions to the Greek and Latin etymology . 1st issue, BG Teubner, Leipzig 1879. pp. 197-199.
  10. ^ A b Mareike Hartmann: Hell scenarios: An analysis of the understanding of hell in different epochs based on depictions of hell. Lit-Verlag, Münster, 2005. Page 16.
  11. ↑ Ceterum unde erit fletus et dentium frendor nisi ex oculis et ex dentibus, occiso scilicet etiam corpore in Gehennam et detruso in tenebras exteriores, quae oculorum propria tormenta sunt? Tertullian: De resurrectione carnis 35. Translation after Karl Adam Heinrich Kellner: Tertullian's all writings. Cologne 1882.
  12. ↑ Olaf Rölver: Christian existence between the courts of God , p. 533. Likewise Karl-Heinrich Rengstorf: Art. Κλαυθμός , in: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (ThWNT) 3, Stuttgart 1950, p. 725f ,; Ders .: Art. Βρυγμός , in: Theological Dictionary for the New Testament (ThWNT) 1, Stuttgart 1957, p. 725 f., P. 639 f.
  13. ↑ Herbert Vorgrimler: History of Hell . P. 20.
  14. ↑ Ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium. Fletus de ardore, stridor dentium solet excitari de frigore. Ubi duplex ostenditur Gehenna: id est nimii frigoris, et intolerabilis esse fervoris. Cui beati Iob sententia consentit dicentis: Ad calorem nimium transibunt from aquis nivium. Beda Venerabilis: In Lucae Evangelium Expositio lib. iv cap xxiii 55.
  15. ↑ Prima ignis, qui sie semel accensus est, ut si totum mare influeret, non exstingueretur. Secunda poena est intolerabile frigus, de quo dicitur: Si igneus mons immitteretur in glaciem verteretur. De his duabus dicitur: Ulic erit fletus et stridor dentium quia fumus excitat fletum oculorum, frigus stridorem dentium. Honorius Augustodensis: Elucidarium III, 4.
  16. ↑ Adolf Hofmeister (ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 45: Ottonis episcopi Frisingensis Chronica sive Historia de duabus civitatibus. Hanover 1912, pp. 424–425 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
  17. ↑ Herbert Vorgrimler: History of Hell , p. 197.
  18. ^ Eduard Schweizer: The Gospel according to Matthew. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981. P. 139.
  19. ↑ Vel stridebunt dentes qui hic de edacitate gaudebant, flebunt oculi qui hic per concupiscentias vagabantur. Per utrumque autem veram impiorum resurrectionem designat. Thomas Aquinas: Catena aurea in Lucam cap. XIII, lect. 5.
  20. ↑ Homily on the Statues XX, 23.
  21. ^ François Bovon: The Gospel according to Luke . Volume III / 2. Benziger, Zurich, Düsseldorf et al. 1996. p. 436.
  22. ↑ Ingvild Sælid Gilhus: Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins: Laughter in the History of Religion . Routledge, London 1997. p. 63.
  23. ↑ Non isperate mai veder lo cielo: / i 'vegno per menarvi a l'altra riva / ne le tenebre etterne, in caldo e' n gelo ; If 3.85 ff .; Ma quell'anime, ch'eran lasse e nude, / cangiar colore e dibattero i denti ; If 3.100 f.
  24. ↑ mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna ; If 32.36.
  25. ↑ WA TR 6, p. 582.
  26. ↑ Martin Luther: A letter from the hard book against the farmers (1525). WA 18, p. 401.
  27. ↑ http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~wfb/cantatas/20.html
  28. ^ So in the sermon The Eternity of Hell Torments : Do but consider what it is to suffer extreme torment forever and ever: to suffer it day and night from one year to another, from one age to another, and from one thousand ages to another (and so adding age to age, and thousands to thousands), in pain, in wailing and lamenting, groaning and shrieking, and gnashing your teeth - with your souls full of dreadful grief and amazement, with your bodies and every member full of racking torture ... Quoted from: The Works of Jonathan Edwards, AM William Ball, London 1834. Vol. II, p. 88.
  29. ↑ Dr. Franz Xaver Mahl's, dean, city pastor and k. District school inspector in Passau, instruction in the Christian Catholic religion , Volume V: Doctrine of Christian justice, or complete instruction on what a Catholic Christian must avoid and do. Published by G. Joseph Manz, Regensburg 1854. P. 809.
  30. ↑ Markus Adam Nickel: The evangelical pericopes on Sundays and feasts of the Lord: exegetically-homiletically edited. Volume 18. JD Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main 1854. Volume 18, p. 316.
  31. ↑ Stridor autem dentium est continua disceptatio et pugna falsorum inter se, proinde illorum qui in falsis sunt, conjuncta quoque cum contemptu aliorum, inimicitia, irrisione, subsannatione, blasphematione quae quoque erumpunt in dilaniationes varii gener pugno fisque, enim dilaniationes varii gener suis quisque, etim . Hae disceptationes et pugnae extra illa inferna audiuntur sicut stridores dentium: et quoque in stridores dentium vertuntur cum vera e caelo illuc influunt. Emanuel Swedenborg: De coelo et ejus mirabilibus et de inferno . London 1758. p. 253. Translation from
  32. ↑ Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Vatican website, paragraphs 1033-1037.
  33. ↑ Herbert Vorgrimler: History of Hell . P. 332.
  34. ^ Charles Steven Seymour: A theodicy of hell Springer, 2000. p. 82.
  35. ↑ Wolfgang Schenk: The language of Matthew: The text constituents in their macro and microstructural relations . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1987. p. 322.
  36. ^ Hans Küng: Credo. The Apostles' Creed - Contemporaries Explained. Piper, Munich 1995, p. 230 f.
  37. ↑ Peter Seewald and Joseph Ratzinger: God and the world - faith and life in our time. DVA, Munich 2000. p. 170.
  38. ^ Friedrich Nietzsche: Thus spoke Zarathustra . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1968. p. 361. (= Volume VI by Giorgio Colli, Mazzino Montinari: Nietzsche. Works. Critical Complete Edition . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1967 ff.) ( Online : Za-IV 16)
  39. ↑ Bertrand Russell: Why I am not a Christian. Translated from English by Marion Steipe. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968, p. 30. Engl .: He goes on about the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It comes in one verse after another, and it is quite manifest to the reader that there is a certain pleasure in contemplating the wailing and gnashing of teeth, or else it would not occur so often. Bertrand Russell: Why I am not a Christian . In: Why I am not a Christian, and other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects . Simon and Schuster, New York 1957. p. 18.
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