Andreas Eössi

Andreas Eössi († around 1600) was a Transylvanian religious writer and founder of the Sabbath-keeping movement of the Sabbathers .

life and work

Eössi came from the Transylvanian nobility and owned several estates. His ancestral home was Hammersdorf (Hungarian: Szenterzsébet , Sankt Elisabeth) near Sibiu . Little is known about his early years. During the reign of Prince Johannis Sigismund in 1567, he joined Unitarianism and later also took over the nonadorantist positions of Franz David's . Eössi also came into contact with the German theologian Matthias Vehe-Glirius and translated parts of his work into Hungarian . He had already celebrated the Sabbath with his family before 1565 and finally became one of the co-founders of the Transylvanian Sabbathers in 1588 . Although not a trained theologian, he wrote religious prose and poetry , including a Sabbatarian prosaic catechism and a collection of songs, thus laying the foundation for the Sabbatarian denomination. After the death of his wife and children, he adopted Simon Péchi , who would later become Chancellor of Transylvania and succeed him as the leader of the Sabbathers. For a few years already partially paralyzed and tied to the bed, Eössi died around 1600.

In his writings, Eössi argued, among other things, that the New Testament was not granted legal status and could therefore not replace the Old Testament . He rejected the formulation of a new covenant . Accordingly, he spoke out in favor of celebrating the Sabbath and observing the commandments mentioned in the Torah , as Jesus had also done. As a Unitarian, however, Eössi did not see Jesus as godlike.

literature

• Ladislaus Martin Pákozdy: The Transylvanian Sabbatism . Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-17-001314-9 .