These are the ten sacred commandments
These are the holy ten commandments is a hymn by Martin Luther . It belongs to the series of his catechism songs and paraphrases the Ten Commandments ( Ex 20 : 1–17 LUT ). Luther associated it with the a popular quiet that goes back to the 12th century. It is contained in the Evangelical Hymnbook (No. 231, rubric Divine Service - Confession ).
Emergence
Song versions of the Ten Commandments have been around since the 12th or 13th century, including one by Heinrich Laufenberg . However, Luther did not use any of them, but instead created a completely new text. The fact that this already happened in the course of his first song creation in 1524 and that the 12-stanza These are the sacred ten commandments was followed in the same year by the 5-stanza ten-commandment song Mensch, Sie haben leben blessedly followed, shows how important the topic is to him was. In the Small Catechism (1529), after the morning prayer, he recommends: "Then went to your work with joy and sang a song, like the ten commandments, or what your devotions give".
It was not about praise, plea and thanks to God or about publicly professing the (new) faith, but about memorizing and appropriating the basic beliefs in an easily recognizable form - also a central concern of the Reformation . In the same year, the catechism hymns We all believe in one God (Credo) and Jesus Christ, our Savior, who turned away the wrath of God from us (Last Supper), later then our Father in heaven (Our Father) and Christ, our Lord, came to Jordan (baptism).
Form and content
The twelve stanzas each consist of four masculine rhyming lines, of which the first three have eight syllables and the fourth, with a noticeable difference (except in stanza 5), has only seven syllables. Each stanza closes with the Kyrieleis , which answers the teaching with a plea to God for mercy.
The first of the twelve stanzas represents the divine origin of the commandments. The two final stanzas give them a specifically Lutheran interpretation that is linked to Paul : God's commandment leads to the knowledge of sin and only in this way to a life of gratitude and loving obedience, in which the commandments again provide guidance. The Christian remains dependent on the mediation of Christ, without whom it is "lost with our deeds".
The stanzas 2 to 10 each rewrite one of the commandments, whereby the originally second, the ban on images , is omitted according to ancient church tradition and verse 10 summarizes commandments 9 and 10. Economical concretisations be added in all verses of each bid paraphrase, the United supplemented regularly by their positive counterparts messenger. The two last lines of stanza 10 give the summary with the golden rule that Jesus himself formulated in the Sermon on the Mount ( Mt 7,12 LUT ).
Text in the Evangelical Hymnal
1. These are the holy ten commandments |
5. You shall honor and be obedient to |
9. You shall not be a false witness, you shall |
Melody and musical arrangements
The old pilgrimage melody “In God's name we go” (EG 498), which Luther chose, remained associated with the text, although there were a few alternative suggestions. It was alienated from its originally ecclesiastical character by increasing the key note three times .
Johann Sebastian Bach's arrangements (organ chorals BWV 635, 678 and 679, opening chorus of cantata 77 ) testify to the presence of the song in Lutheran catechesis of the 18th century .
literature
- Gerhard Hahn: 231 - These are the holy ten commandments . In: Martin Evang, Ilsabe Seibt (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch . No. 20 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-50343-0 , p. 18–22 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- Wilhelm Lucke: The two songs about the ten commandments . In: D. Martin Luther's works. Critical Complete Edition , Volume 35, Weimar 1923, pp. 135–141
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Original text
- ↑ According to the old church tradition, the ban on images is outdated by the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. The Calvinist Reformation decided otherwise.
- ↑ according to the old Lutheran church