Tres linguae sacrae

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The Christian concept of tres linguae sacrae (“three holy languages”), tres linguae sapientales (“three languages ​​of wisdom”) or tres linguae praecipuae (“three outstanding languages”) denotes the Hebrew , Greek and Latin languages ​​and guides from the titulus INRI on the cross of Christ , of which the Gospel of John ( Joh 19.20  EU ) reports that Pontius Pilate had it written in three languages.

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As early as the 4th century, the Doctor of the Church Hilarius von Poitiers (315–367) recommended the three languages ​​as those through which God's will, the announcement of his kingdom and the inscription on the cross of the world had been transmitted ( Tractatus super psalmos: Instructio psalmorum 15 = CSEL 22, 13).

A little later, the Christian poet Prudentius (348 – after 405) emphasizes the irony of fate resulting from the command of Pontius Pilate to put a trilingual inscription on the cross of Christ; Christianity was able to prevail despite the crucifixion of Jesus and is now sung about in Hebrew, Greek and Latin:

“ … Aut quae non scriptorum armaria Christi
laude referta novis celebrant miracula libris?
Hebraeus pangit stilus, Attica copia pangit,
pangit et Ausoniae facundia tertia linguae.
Pilatus iubet ignorans: I, scriba, tripictis
digere versiculis quae sit subfixa potestas,
fronte crucis titulus sit triplex, triplici lingua
agnoscat Juadea legens et Graecia norit
et venerata Deum percenseat aurea Roma. "

“... Or which bookcases of the writers,
filled with praise of Christ, do not extol his miracles in new books?
The Hebrews' stylus poems it, it writes the verbose abundance of the Greeks,
and thirdly it writes the eloquence of the Ausonian (= Latin) language.
Unknowingly, Pilate orders: “Go, scribe,
tell in three lines what power is nailed to the cross;
on the face of the cross there should be a triple inscription, in triple language
Judaea should read and acknowledge it and Greece should know it
and the God-honoring golden Rome should consider it. "

- Prudentius : Apotheosis 11, 377-385.

Around the same time, the Doctor of the Church Augustine (354-430) understood Hebrew as a symbol for the law of the Jews , Greek as that of the wisdom of the Gentiles, and Latin as that of the Roman Empire :

“ Hae quippe tres linguae ibi prae caeteris eminebant: Hebraea, propter Judaeos in Dei Lege gloriantes; Graeca, propter Gentium sapientes; Latina, propter Romanos multis ac pene omnibus jam tunc gentibus imperantes. "

“There these three languages ​​stood out from the others: the Hebrew because of the Jews who boasted of God's law ; the Greek, because of the wise men of the people ; the Latin one because of the Romans who ruled over many and almost all peoples at that time. "

- Augustine of Hippo : In Iohannis evangelium tractatus 117, 4 = CCSL 36, 653; PL 35, 1946.

This concept was picked up in the Middle Ages by the doctor of the church Isidore of Seville (approx. 560–636), who was the first to give the three languages ​​the epithet sacrae :

“ Tres autem sunt linguae sacrae: Hebraea, Graeca, Latina, quae toto orbe maxime excellunt. His namque tribus linguis super crucem Domini a Pilato fuit causa ejus scripta. "

“But there are three holy languages: Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, which are the most outstanding in the world. Because in these three languages ​​at the top of the cross of the Lord was written Pilate's reason for condemnation.

- Isidore of Seville : Etymologiae 9, 1, 3.

Hrabanus Maurus (approx. 780–856) was one of the other scholars who propagated the concept .

In this way the so-called Christian Hebraism of the Middle Ages was supported, the recourse to the original Hebrew language of the Holy Scriptures in the philological endeavor to interpret it. For example, Hebrew was considered the lingua sacra par excellence: some scholars of modern times have the title of professor linguae sacrae , that is, of Hebrew. The Tübingen professor for Hebrew language Michael Beringer enhanced the concept in his Oratio de sancta lingua Hebraea (Tübingen 1599) by claiming that Hebrew was the oldest language of Adam and Eve and was spoken by God, that the Messiah would speak this language; therefore the study of Hebrew is also an important instrument of mission to the Jews .

While Greek was ranked second as the language of the New Testament , Latin, although it was not originally the language of the Holy Scriptures, was included in the canon as a third language, not only because of its mention in the Gospel of John, but also because of the Status that the Latin translation of the Bible and Latin as the language of the liturgy had attained in the Middle Ages.

Opposite terms

Opposite terms to lingua sacra are lingua vernacula , lingua vulgaris , lingua barbara or barbarica , lingua rustica . What is meant is the respective national or national language. Their use as literary language was suppressed or hindered by the concept of the three holy languages ​​up to the Renaissance.

Exams

After the renewal of Hebrew studies by Johannes Reuchlin , the triad of examina Hebraicum , Graecum , Latinum as well as the examination in Biblical Greek in schools and higher education in German-speaking countries can be traced back to the concept of the three holy languages .

Facilities

One of the first institutions for the study of the three holy languages ​​was the Collegium Trilingue in Leuven , founded in 1517 at the instigation of the Luxembourg humanist Jérôme de Busleyden (Latin: Hieronymus Buslidius) . The theological-propaedeutic seminar Ambrosianum in Tübingen is currently an institution of this type.

literature

  • Walter Berschin : Early Byzantine Italy and the Maritime Lands of the West. In: Greek Letters and the Latin Middle Ages. From Jerome to Nicholas of Cusa. Translated by Jerold C. Frakes. Revised and expanded edition. The Catholic University of America Press. Excerpt from: myriobiblos.gr ; German first: Greco-Latin Middle Ages. From Hieronymus to Nikolaus von Kues. Bern / Munich 1980.
  • Klaus Gantert: Accommodation and inscribed commentary. Investigations into the transmission strategy of the Heliand poet. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen, 1998 (ScriptOralia, Vol. 111), pp. 46-47, ISBN 3823354213 . Google books
  • Andreas Gardt: History of Linguistics in Germany. From the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1999, pp. 13-14, ISBN 3-110-15788-8 . Google books
  • Raphaela Gasser: Propter lamentabilem vocem hominis. On the theory of the vernacular in Old High German times. Diss. Phil. Zurich 1970, pp. 7ff.
  • David Howlett: 'Tres linguae sacrae' and threefold play in Insular Latin. In: Peritia. Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland 16 (2002) pp. 94-115.
  • Tony Hunt: Teaching and Learning Latin in 13th-Century England. I: Texts. DS Brewer, Cambridge 1991, p. 289. Excerpts online
  • Hartmut Lehmann, Anne-Charlott Trepp: In times of crisis. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1999 (publications by the Max Planck Institute for History, Vol. 152), pp. 301-302, ISBN 3-525-35468-1 . Google books
  • Robert E. McNally: The "tres linguae sacrae" in Early Irish Bible Exegesis. In: Theological Studies 19 (1958) pp. 395-403. ( PDF )
  • Friedrich Paulsen : History of the taught instruction in German schools and universities from the end of the Middle Ages to the present. With special consideration for classical teaching . 2 vol., Veit / Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig 1885.
  • Irven Michael Resnick: Lingua Dei, lingua hominis. Sacred Language and Medieval texts. In: Viator 21 (1990) pp. 51-74.
  • Michael Richter: Concept and evolution of the tres linguae sacrae. In: Ernst Bremer (ed.), Language of Religion - Language of the People. Medieval Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Fink, Munich, 2006, pp. 15-24, ISBN 978-3-7705-4281-9 .
  • Jan Ziolkowski: "Tres linguae sacrae" / Christian Hebraism. In: Fritz Graf (ed.): Introduction to Latin Philology . Teubner, Stuttgart [a. a.] 1997 (Introduction to Classical Studies), p. 309, ISBN 3-519-07434-6 . Google books