Over the Lord's prison

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About the Lord's Prison is a sonnet by Andreas Gryphius . It was first printed in 1637 in Lissa , Poland , one of the 31 sonnets from Lissa , the poet's first collection of sonnets . It is the second of the five spiritual sonnets that open the collection, after “To GOTT the Holy Spirit” and before “To Heyland, who was picked up on Creutz” .

Print in the edition of 1657
Print in the edition of 1657

Origin and tradition

Gryphius wrote the Lissa sonnets from 1634 in Gdansk while attending the academic high school there and then on the estate of his patron Georg Schönborner (1579–1637) near Freystadt in Lower Silesia . Later he kept fine-tuning them. Thus, “Über des Herr's Prison” was added to four additional editions during his lifetime, heavily revised in 1643 and since then the fourth of the spiritual sonnets, after “ About the Birth of Jesus ” and before “About the Lord's Corpse”, less changed in 1650 first authorized complete edition of the works in 1657 and the final edition in 1663. The Lissa version was first reprinted by Victor Manheimer in 1904, then in 1963 by Marian Szyrocki in a complete edition of the German-language works for which he and Hugh Powell were responsible, the 1663 version in 2012 by Thomas Borgstedt. The following texts come from Szyrocki's and Borgstedt's editions.

text

About the LORD JESUS ​​prisoners. (1637)

The same as in the garden, the devil died
Into the structured network / completely blind and deliberate /
Which brings her misdeeds to vns hereditary /
So is caught in the garden / but without guilt /
Our vice = hung tightly on his neck /
The Hãd / by which power made the Weltgebäw /
The bright deity Glantz will be in the black night
Pickled in a barrel; so wanted to shine with vns
The Funsternuts Printz; soon the dull spirit
Would have been waved out of the body by the hand of death /
If not by Christ's bond tearing his bond.
If you hadn't made yourself a servant to me, my heart;
And your freedom has no regard for my soul;
So I have to be forever thrown into service = home;

Over the Lord's prisoners. (1663)

How did the devil die in the garden
Power in his hunter's thread and hard chains
Which brings their misdeeds to us;
In this way the guilt is absorbed even in the garden.
Frey falls into the rope / through the cunning of the fierce snakes.
The hand / by which force / the work of the world came about /
The bright deity Glantz is in the black night
In a fetter we can achieve freedom.
The king becomes a servant / the mad servants crowd
Strikes at the heir. He presents himself /
So that he doesn't tear something out of the band and Kärcker.
Help / who by eating the dinner house turned around /
Who you bound also to the Starcken:
That I should free myself from sins / commit myself to your dignity.

interpretation

shape

Like all sonnets in Lissa, the poem is written in Alexandrians , in 1637 with the unusual rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA for the quartets and CCD BBD for the trio , 1663 with the conventional rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA for the quartets and CCD EED for the trio. The verses with the “A” and “D” rhymes are thirteen syllable, the rhymes are feminine , the verses with the “B”, “C” and “E” rhymes are twelve syllable, therefore here according to the editions of Szyrocki and Borgstedt indented, the rhymes masculine . The blurring of the structure due to the adoption of the quartet rhyme "B" in the first trio in the 1637 version may have been a reason for the radical revision in 1643.

The interpretation is based on the 1663 version.

The stanzas

In the first quartet, the “garden ” of paradise (verse 1 ) is contrasted with the “garden” of Gethsemane (verse 4). In paradise Adam and Eve got caught in the “hunter's thread” of the devil, dependent on him, and brought original sin by “inheriting their wrongdoing to us” . In Gethsemane Jesus, “the guilt itself”, was captured, as the Gospel of John according to the Luther Bible of 1545 reports: “Since Jhesus had spoken such things / he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron / there was a garden / in front of Jhesus vnd his disciples <...> But Dje flocked and the Oberheubtman / and the servants of the Jews named Jhesum / and bound jn. "With the reference to the garden" Gryphius makes multiple references: guilt of man - innocence of Christ; Self-fault - capture through treason; Original sin as being in chains - chains of Christ without sin; Sinfulness of the world - Christ's act of redemption, initiated with imprisonment ”. The word “garden” clearly marks the juxtaposition at the beginning and at the end.

In the second quartet, the structure and content of the first are continued and increased. The structuring role of "garden" is now taken over by the word "freedom" in verse 5 and verse 8. This already gives the poem a positive tone - in 1637 "freedom" did not appear until verse 13. The abundance of antitheses corresponds to the theology of the Passion , in which the Son of God is almighty at the same time and submits to prison, torture and death: "Freyheit" - "knit", "The bright deity Glantz" - "the black night", "Fessel" "-" Freedom ". While in the first quartet three verses (1 to 3) are dedicated to the Fall and one verse (4) to the event in Gethsemane, in the second quartet, conversely, one verse (5) to the fall, three verses (6 to 8) to the event of redemption.

The first trio pointedly antithetical "The king becomes a servant". He makes himself the “heir” (verse 10) of what is burdensome to “inherit” (verse 3) in order to acquire the “freedom” (verses 5 and 8) to make us “free” (verse 11) . With "the mad knechte Schaar", which strikes "on the heirs", Gryphius alludes to the parable of the evil vine gardeners, of the "house father / who plants a vineyard", at harvest time sends his servants to fetch the fruits from the killing of the servants and, in the end, even the son of the father of the house: “But when the wine growers saw the son / they spoke to one another / This is the inheritance / compt / Let us kill us / and bring our inheritance to us. And they named jn / and pushed jn out of the vineyard / and killed jn ”. The parable is a prediction of Jesus' suffering. “The event that is undoubtedly real from the point of view of salvation history is interpreted with the help of a text assigned to the literary- fictional genre ' parable ' within the Bible .”

The last verses of the second quartet “In fetter us to gain freedom” and of the first trio “So that he was not free / out of band and Kärcker” had given the reason Jesus for his voluntary surrender to the Passion. The final note can therefore address Jesus:

Help / who by eating the dinner house turned around /
Who you bound also defended the Starcken.

In the Bible for the 17th century, “service house” is consistently linked to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt , according to the Luther Bible of 1545 in the book Exodus “I am the Lord / your God / who I brought you from Egypt / from the service house "And in the book of Deuteronomy " I am the LORD your God / who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of service ". The Exodus ended Israel's enslavement in the “house of service” Egypt. The Passion destroys the "service house" of enslavement through original sin. Christ can - the last antithesis of the poem - defend himself "bound" "the starck", the devil. He has the power to bring bliss to those who overcome sin. This is what the last line asks:

That I should free myself from sins / commit myself to your service.

To the whole

The poem dispenses with all narrative moments like the Judas kiss and Peter's attack on Malchus . According to Wolfram Mauser , it is a matter of "demonstrating the absurdity of being imprisoned and thus at the same time the deeper meaning of this absurdity, which lies in the fact that the king makes himself a servant". That is why Gryphius may have chosen the title “prisoner” instead of “prisoner”. From a stylistic and compositional point of view, start the poem with a parable. Its paradoxical core is worked out more sharply and epigrammatically over several stages . But it should not be concluded from the paradoxical escalation that humans find antithetical formulations here on the basis of an “antithetical attitude towards life”. From the stylistic device of antithetics in the 17th century one could not infer an antithetical feeling for life or the world. Gryphius wants nothing more than to make a theological-salvation-historical statement that is binding for all people. The antithetical style figures would meet the paradox of Christ as liberator and prisoner, employer and servant, king and servant. "The knowledge of an apparently paradoxical principle of the doctrine of salvation (Christ is liberator, employer and king) has nothing to do with what will later be referred to as a 'feeling for life'."

Thomas Vogel similarly writes that the arrest of Jesus is "not told in the sense of a paraphrase of the biblical text, but placed as a salvation-historical event at the center of interpretation and prayer".

Gryphius' ode, “Deß HErren Gefängnüß”, which happened at the same time, was completely different . There the Gethsemane event is broadly depicted.

The ode "The Lords Prisoners."

ODEN, / The Fourth Book

Although it was written at the time of the Lissa sonnets, the ode has only come down to us in the authorized complete edition of 1657, as the sixth of nineteen odes in a cycle with the title

“ANDREAE GRYPHII / tears / about the suffering / Jesus Christ. / Or his / ODEN, / The Fourth Book “.

During Gryphius' lifetime the cycle was reprinted in the last edition of 1663. A reprint (1964) of the 1657 version can be found in the above-mentioned complete edition of the German-language works for which Marian Szyrocki and Hugh Powell were responsible. The texts of the preface and the poem are taken from it. In the preface Gryphius writes:

“As far as the way of writing is concerned / it is the worst / and as much as possible / bound to the words of the most sacred story / Because I was looking for nothing here but devotion / I wanted to use familiar melodies and the meanest ways to speak . "

The odes therefore adhere closely to the wording of the Holy Scriptures and are adapted to the common melodies of Protestant song usage. In the preface Gryphius develops a poetics of the sacred song . "Against every radical-orthodox poetic iconoclasm " he claims that spiritual poetry is willed by God and offers a wealth of witnesses:

“For I do not at all consider opinion / which bans all flowers of beauty and adornment of poetry from God's church / regards the psalms themselves nothing other than poems / some of which are excessively high and with the most beautiful ways of speaking / expressing heavenly secrets. <...> The most excellent feats of the Most High / are not so well described by the ancients as sung about / the holy sister of the great lawgiver needs both a drumstick and a tongue / since the Tyrañ drowned in the red sea / Moses himself knows this wonderful salvation no better than to strike out in such a way, and his last prophecy consists in his last song. Debora / Hanna / Judit are more known than too much. <...> What do I say about the unsullied virgin of the most holy mother of our Savior / who rejoices God her Savior in this wise way / because that one would object that not all such positions could be understood / channeled as much as nothing: I want to say / that the high song is not holy / because I do not understand it? That the last faces of Ezekiel are not excellent / because they are too dark for me! The Job to verwerffen / because it full of heavy spells? that the secret revelation / whose / the Amen / the warhaffig witnesses saw / is of no use / because even the most learned commentators have become children about it <?> "

text

VI.
The Lord Prisoners
On the melody: What my god will:

001 0Look soul look / the heavenly sun
0000is found here by light.
0000The father's lust / the angel's delight Frey
0000is bound / the
0000bond of love / friendship creates a pledge /
0000becomes the traitor's sign:
0000peace teaches / and revolt disturbs / lets
0000murderers compare.

002 0In that He still wakes the disciples /
0000If his traitor has come: Who
0000has already discovered Him to the priests:
0000And accepted with confidence /
0000What hardship and courage / What body and blood Conspired
0000to war = service:
0000He brought them late to this place /
0000The JESUS To meet him.

003 0The Supreme Son / who has now discovered
0000the progress of his pain /
0000He gives the hand of sinners to himself /
0000And asks with gentle heart /
0000Who are you looking for? They said: to find
0000Sol JESUS ​​here.
0000It's me / says He: your army will soon fall and your strength will
0000have to wane.

004 0He asks one more thing / says who you are looking for?
0000They scream: The Nazarene.
0000It is He who said: and grant his escape
0000:
0000Which He makes more beautiful assures / that this night
0000not one of them all
0000A hair in danger /
0000Sol fall from the head.

005 0Immediately Judas offered him the kiss /
0000As previously thought;
0000Oh! said he / ah is that the greeting
0000that you tend to admit?
0000Do you have to betray the Son of Man with
0000a kiss as a reward ?
0000On top of that, the power / the world will be done away with
0000O grim acts of outrage!

006 0LORD / LORD / asks Peter / shall I not
0000now dare to face difficulties and life?
0000And Malchu's ear / because he speaks this /
0000is struck away from him.
0000Give yourself to rest / he screams to him
0000/
0000Who lets himself be tied in front of us / Who turns to the heavy in an accident /
0000He will find the heavy = death.

007 0Is it not with me that I speak to
0000the Father now for protection /
0000That He
0000breaks the fierce defiance of enemies through a thousand angels?
0000It's up to me / otherwise there would be
0000twelve legions here /
0000But no. The script / as far as I'm concerned
0000Sol go right on.

008 0He stirred vnd heals dess priest servant
0000Vnd the killer says Hauffen:
0000How come you now ohn agree Law /
0000With military Spiß vnd gelauffen /
0000DC as one seeks to escape
0000vices murder / blame vnd cover /
0000Since you previously into the temple Thor
0000The Never reach out your hand?

009 0I taught every day without shyness /
0000There was no
0000difficulty to be felt: Now my friend Unfaithful and
0000Finsternüß must lead you.
0000But your hour / as it is now known
0000/ needs it to deceive.
0000They lead him / to Caiphas /
0000the disciple succumb to strength.

010 0Everyone flees, trembles, and hesitates!
0000A young man only covered
0000with bad canvas dared to do it /
0000And followed him in horror:
0000But when the crowd became aware of his /
0000him / he was caught / wanted to catch /
0000His robe remained in their hand /
0000And he escaped naked.

011 0Through this bond we are free
0000from Sathan's tight knit:
0000Now the light net breaks in two /
0000You can no longer move any yarn.
0000The pain from the world is held
0000in sin and lust = Keten:
0000JESUS ​​gives release and means from us just
0000step out of prison.

comment

Like all nineteen of the cycle, the ode is divided into stanzas according to the character of the song. Bach created the melody of “Was mein Gott wil” for the cantata Was mein Gott wants, das g'scheh allzeit, BWV 111 . The narrative stanzas 2 to 10 are preceded by a contemplative stanza in preparation for the event, with the antithesis "freedom" - "bound". The narrative draws on the passion accounts of all four Gospels as follows (after the 2017 revision of the Luther Bible):

  • Verse 2: ( Mt 26,47-48  LUT ) “And while he was still speaking, behold, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great company with swords and with staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. And the traitor had given them a sign, saying, It is whoever I will kiss; seize him. ”Matth. 26, 47-48
  • Verse 3 to 4: ( Joh 18,4-9  LUT ) “Now that Jesus knew everything that was to happen to him, he went out and said to them: Whom are you looking for? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. He said to them: It's me! But Judas, who betrayed him, also stood with them. When Jesus said to them, "It's me!" They fell back and fell to the ground. Then he asked her again: Who are you looking for? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered: I told you, it is me. If you are looking for me, let this go! This was to fulfill the word he said: I have not lost any of those you gave me. "
  • Verse 5 to 6: ( Lk 22,47-49  ESV ) “But while he was still speaking, behold, a crowd came; and one of the twelve, the one named Judas, went before them and came near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? But when those around him saw what was about to happen, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? "
  • Verse 6: ( Joh 18,10  LUT ) “Now Simon Peter had a sword and drew it and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. And the servant's name was Malchus. "
  • Verse 6 to 7 ( Mt 26,52-54  LUT ) “Then Jesus said to him: Put your sword in its place! For whoever takes the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think I couldn't ask my father and he would send me more than twelve legions of angels at once? But how would Scripture then be fulfilled so that it must happen that way? "
  • Verse 8 to 9: ( Lk 22,51-53 LUT ) “There Jesus said : Stop  ! Not further! And he touched his ear and healed him. And Jesus said to the chief priests and captains of the temple, and to the elders who had come to him, “You come out with swords and staves as against a robber? I have been with you in the temple every day and you have not laid hands on me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. "
  • Stanza 9 ( Mt 26,57  LUT ) "But those who had taken Jesus led him to the high priest Caiaphas, where the scribes and the elders had gathered."
  • Verse 10 ( Mk 14,50-52  LUT ) “Then everyone left him and fled. And a young man followed him, who was dressed in a linen robe on his bare skin; and they reached out for him. But he let go of the robe and fled naked. "

Gryphius wants to achieve a complete plot with this compilation . The ode is concluded again, as it had begun, with a contemplative stanza that interprets what has just been reported from a believing perspective.

Overall, the “Fourth Book” is a lyrical-epic passion cycle, which is compiled as completely as possible from the Gospels, but also “in the introductory and / or leading contemplation or prayer stanzas, which either an individual believer or the community as a contact or have the subject of speech, become interpretative - and thus reformulate the Lutheran approach to the biblical text ”.

literature

References and comments

  1. The pictures come from a 1658 title edition of the 1657 edition.
  2. Szyrocki 1963.
  3. ^ Borgstedt 2012. Thomas Borgstedt is a Germanist and since 2002 President of the International Andreas Gryphius Society. Internet source.
  4. Szyrocki 1963, pp. 5-6.
  5. Borgstedt 2012, pp. 10-11.
  6. Leighton 1988.
  7. According to the 2017 revision: Joh 18,1-12  LUT .
  8. Mauser 1976, p. 82.
  9. Based on the Gospel of Matthew of the Luther Bible of 1545. In the 2017 revision: Mt 21 : 33-39  EU .
  10. Vogel 2016, p. 623. Vogel comments that with this reference to the internal biblical use of fiction , Gryphius invalidates the view that poetry is religiously and morally and ethically worthless.
  11. In the revision of 2017 Ex 20,2  LUT and Dtn 5,6  LUT replaced by "bondage".
  12. Mauser 1976, pp. 82-83. Wolfram Mauser, * 1928 in Faistenau , Austria, was professor for modern German literary history at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg from 1964 until his retirement in 1993 . Internet source .
  13. Vogel 2016, p. 622.
  14. A print from 1652 is missing; Szyrocki 1964, p. XI.
  15. Szyrocki 1964, pp. 116-119.
  16. a b Szyrocki 1964, p. 98.
  17. Jeßing 2016, p: 115. According to Thomas Vogel, he also takes this point of view in the sonnet, see above and Vogel 2016, p. 623.
  18. mother of the prophet Samuel ; she sang the song of thanksgiving 1 Sam 2,1-11  LUT
  19. Jeßing 2016, p. 119.