Parable of the wise and foolish virgins

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The so-called parable of the wise and foolish virgins told by Jesus of Nazareth ( Matthew 25 : 1–13  EU ) deals as a parable with the preparation for the kingdom of God and the soteriological consequences of it.

The parable is often read in the Catholic Church during Holy Mass on the feast day of holy virgins , such as St. Cecilia . In the reading order of the regular form, it also belongs to the 32nd  Sunday in the annual cycle of the reading year A.

In the Lutheran reading order, it is read as the Sunday Gospel on the last Sunday of the church year ( eternity Sunday ).

Three of the five foolish virgins show their grief (Magdeburg Cathedral)
Three of the five wise virgins show their joy ( Magdeburg Cathedral )

text

Peter von Cornelius , oil on canvas, 1813–19, Düsseldorf , Kunstmuseum The wise and the foolish virgins

The parable belongs to the special property of the Gospel of Matthew.

Text after the standard translation :

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were clever. The foolish took their lamps with them, but no oil, but the wise took, besides the lamps, oil in jugs. When the bridegroom did not come for a long time, they all became tired and fell asleep. In the middle of the night one suddenly heard loud shouts: The bridegroom is coming! Go to meet him! Then the virgins all got up and adjusted their lamps. But the foolish said to the wise: Give us some of your oil, or our lamps will go out. The wise replied to them: Then there is neither enough for us nor for you; go to the dealers and buy what you need. While they were still on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom came; the virgins who were ready went with him into the wedding hall and the door was locked. Later the other virgins also came and shouted: Lord, Lord, open up for us! But he answered them, Amen, I say to you, I do not know you. So be vigilant! Because you know neither the day nor the hour. "

- Matthew 25 : 1-13  EU

Interpretations

Listener to Jesus

Sleeping virgins with oil lamp, by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow (detail)

The tradition of rabbinic parables played an essential role in the understanding of the audience at the time . Such parables for scriptural interpretation can often be found in the Talmud and Midrash and they were popular and typical of rabbinic Judaism as early as the Old Testament . These parables contained stylized elements from everyday life, which regularly corresponded to the same spiritual motifs, so that the audience could associate accordingly. The king or host meant God, the wise and the foolish corresponded to righteous and sinners, the festive dress represented a righteous life before God, water or bread meant the Torah , oil meant good deeds (also as an act of atonement), and feast meant one Israel was a close relationship, field or vineyard.

For example, a rabbinical parable that uses similar motifs is the parable of the wise and foolish guests:

Rabbi Eliezer said (in Proverbs of the Fathers , chapter 2):

“Repent the day before you die. The pupils said to Rabbi Eliezer: Do a person know on what day he will die? He replied: So he must repent all the more today, maybe he will die tomorrow, so it turns out that he spends all his days in penance. Likewise, Solomon said in his wisdom: "At all times may your clothes be white, and your head never lack oil" (Ecclesiastes 9: 8) "

Rabbi Jochanan Ben Zakkai :

“Like a king who invited his guests without setting a specific time for them. The wise adorned themselves and sat at the king's door, saying: Is something missing in the king's house? The fools, on the other hand, went off to work, saying: Is there a meal without preparation? When the king suddenly asked for his servants, the wise entered adorned, while the fools entered in their filth. Then the king rejoiced at the wise and was angry with the foolish, and said, Let these people who have adorned themselves at meal sit and eat and drink; but let those who have not adorned themselves at meal stand and watch as it is said: Behold, my servants will drink, but you shall be thirsty. See, my servants will rejoice with joy, but you must cry out with heartache. (Isa. 65,13f, Babylonian Talmud, treatise Shabbat. Sheet 153 front side) "

Another rabbinical parable contrasts clever and foolish guests invited to a feast. The wise guests went home while their lamps were still on, the foolish ones got drunk and began to quarrel and kill each other. The Mishnah tells (mTaan 4, 8) what Rabban Simon ben Gamaliel reports: Of the solidarity of the girls who danced in the vineyards in front of the eyes of possible bridegrooms, but all in borrowed clothes so as not to shame those who do not have beautiful clothes possessed. This was one of the two happy days of the year.

Church fathers

The parable was heavily allegorized by the Church Fathers , although the interpretations were very different. Here are some that Thomas Aquinas collected in the Catena aurea :

  • Virgos: The Church Father Jerome states that some interpret virgins literally as virgins, with some being physically and spiritually virgins, while others are only physically and spiritually married. He himself relates the parable to all of humanity. Hilary of Poitiers interprets the lamps as the light of the bright souls that shine in the sacrament of baptism . Augustine of Hippo relates the ten virgins to the five senses , which can be used foolishly and wisely.
  • Oil: With Hilarius, oil means good works, with Chrysostom charity, alms and every help given to those in need, with Origen the word of doctrine with which the vessels of the soul are filled.

middle Ages

Tympanum of the Gallus Gate of Basel Minster

The parable was one of the most popular parables in the Middle Ages . According to the interpretation of the glossa ordinaria , the wise virgins, who have supplied themselves with oil for their oil lamps in time, symbolize the Christian soul, which virtuously turns to God in five ways; the foolish virgins who have oil lamps but no oil symbolize five types of carnal lust and damnation.

In the visual arts of Europe, the parable of the ten virgins was depicted in many places, especially in the images of Gothic cathedrals . Often the representation was on the west portal, together with allegorical representations of Ecclesia and the synagogue .

Modern interpretations

Anita Rée The clever and the foolish virgins , mural in the school Uferstrasse Hamburg 1929, destroyed in 1942

Joachim Jeremias writes that Jesus did not tell of the eschatological coming of a Messiah, but simply of a wedding. Not the virgins, but the wedding is compared with the kingdom of God. The suddenness is the core moment that is at stake; he should startle and ask to stay awake for upcoming changes. Luise Schottroff directs her attention to the virgins, which means around 12-year-old girls who are expected to present themselves as marriageable. The parable shows the harsh reality of a patriarchal society: girls who do not meet social expectations are excluded from those who do. That could challenge a rethink.

Some interpreters who continue to advocate an allegorical interpretation cite the parable as an example of how Matthew relates women (and not just men) to the future kingdom of God. Some interpreters, who take up the impulses of the revival movements , emphasize that midnight in the parable does not precede the judgment, but rather the wedding, which can be interpreted as the rapture of the believers and their eschatological union with Jesus Christ. The dispensationalist John F. Walvoord (1910–2002) specifically sees anti-Semitism in this : the judgment of the Jews (with positive and negative outcome) after the time of the great tribulation is described before Jesus returns with his bride, the church to enter the millennium. Eckhart Tolle criticizes the interpretation of the parable, which he considers fundamentally wrong. This parable does not speak of the end of the world, but of the end of psychological time. It indicates going beyond the ego mind and the possibility of living in a whole new state of consciousness. The unconscious (foolish) virgins do not have enough consciousness (oil) to remain present (to keep their lamps burning). You miss the now (the groom) and cannot find enlightenment (wedding feast).

Christian iconography

From the 6th century
Our women choir in Memmingen

In religious art, the parable is already in the catacomb represented and Coptic frescoes of the 4th century (Cyriaka Catacombs, Rome). The motif appears as an early illumination in the Codex Rossanensis, a Greek gospel book illuminated around 550. In the 12th century, with the beginning of the Gothic period, the theme appeared as sculptural decoration on French cathedral portals, but only marginally there in archivolts and door post reliefs. The virgins at the portal systems in the German-speaking area play a more prominent role. At the Galluspforte (12th century) of the Basel Minster they occupy the lintel, they take on monumental form in the figure portals and paradise porches of the 13th century (Bremen, around 1230; Magdeburg, around 1240/60; Strasbourg, after 1276; Freiburg, around 1300). Since the Magdeburg cycle, the figures have given the Gothic sculptor the opportunity to express the affects of sadness and bliss in all drama. The virgin cycle is assigned either to the Mary theme (Mary as the mystical bride of Christ) or to the Last Judgment . Wall paintings of the theme can be found in the choir arch. In Scandinavia, the motif of the wise virgins found its way into pews and choir stalls, for example on the Swedish island of Gotland in the medieval churches of Gothem and Stenkyrka . The stained glass shows the virgins in the Elisabeth Church in Marburg, 13th century, and in 1953 by Charles Crodel in the course of the reconstruction of the Frankfurt Katharinenkirche . The large altar mosaic by Otto Habel (1961) in the St. Eberhard Cathedral in Stuttgart shows the virgins on the right and left side of a monumental representation of Christ. In Christian art throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods, however, the subject hardly played a role.

Sculpture cycles

Foolish virgins with seducers (Strasbourg Cathedral)
Christ with the wise virgins (Strasbourg Cathedral)

Church music

The parable forms the basis for the chorale by Philipp Nicolai Wachet, calls us the voice ( GL 554 or EG 147) and the Bach cantata of the same name ( BWV 140 ) based on it. It is also included in the second stanza of the chorale, which was revised by Otto Riethmüller , Der Morgenstern ist aufgedrungen (EG 69).

literature

→ see also the sections in the relevant commentaries (especially Luz, Gnilka) and the works on biblical parables

  • Joachim Jeremias : The parables of Jesus . Short edition. 9th edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, ISBN 3-525-33498-2 , ( Kleine Vandenhoeck series 1500), pp. 34f., 116f.
  • Armand Puig i Tárrech: La parabole des dix vièrges. Mt. 25, 1-13 . Biblical Institute Press, Rome et al. 1983, ISBN 88-7653-102-5 , ( Analecta Biblica 102), ( Collectania Sant Pacia 28).
  • Susanne Schmid-Grether: Like a deep well full of water ... New Testament parables re-read and understood against the Jewish background . JCFV, Wetzikon 1998, ISBN 3-9521622-1-3 , pp. 85-92: 5.4 Parable of the ten girls .
  • Luise Schottroff : The parables of Jesus. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2005, ISBN 3-579-05200-4 , pp. 44-53.
  • Regine Körkel-Hinkfoth: The parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Mt. 25, 1-13) in the fine arts and in spiritual drama. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1994. (Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 1992). ISBN 3-631-46174-7 .
  • Ruben Zimmermann : The wedding ritual in the parable of the virgin. Social historical background to Mt 25.1-13. In: New Testament Studies 48.1 (2002), pp. 48-70 doi : 10.1017 / S0028688502000048

See also

Web links

Commons : Parable of the wise and foolish virgins  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Another heading: The closed door , Schottroff, p. 44.
  2. ↑ Susanne Schmid-Grether, Like a deep well full of water ... New Testament parables reread and understood on the Jewish background , Wetzikon, 1998
  3. ↑ Craig Blomberg : The Parables of Jesus
  4. ^ Text in Schottroff: parables , p. 45.
  5. ↑ See for example Émile Mâle: Die Gotik. The French cathedral as a total work of art. Stuttgart, Zurich: Belser, 2nd edition 1994, p. 190
  6. ↑ Jeremias: Parables , p. 35.116.
  7. ↑ Schofftroff: Door , p. 44ff.
  8. ^ DM Scholer: Women (Gospels) in IVP Dictionary of the New Testament
  9. ↑ so Fritz Rienecker : The Gospel of Matthew (Wuppertaler Studienbibel) and Friedrich Eichler: The Rapture shortly before the great tribulation: in a generally understandable form biblically and philologically founded , 1924 (quoted by Rienecker)
  10. ↑ John Walvoord: The New Testament Explained and Explained , Volume 4, 1983
  11. ↑ Eckhart Tolle: Jetzt - Die Kraft der Gegenwart , 2002, 6 ed., Pp. 133-134.