Offering box

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Offering box in Sankt Martin, Flintsbach am Inn
Offering box on the outside wall of a pastorate in Lübeck

An offering box or offering box is a container in the interior or on the outer wall of a church for the collection of donations .

The tradition of collecting boxes for alms in houses of God goes back to the Jerusalem temple and Jewish synagogues ( 2 Kings 12.10  LUT , 2 Chr 24.8–11  LUT ). Since Martin Luther translated γαζοφυλάκιον gazophylákion with “ divine box ” in ancient Greek in corresponding passages in the New Testament ( Mk 12.41–44  LUT , Lk 21.1–4  LUT , Joh 8.20  LUT ) , this term is used in the early modern period otherwise referred to the storage location of the municipal assets, used in some places synonymously with "sacrificial stock".

The word stock refers to the fact that the containers were originally made from hollowed-out tree trunks or stumps . The term is also used for sacrificial boxes that are made of other materials such as metals or stone or that are permanently built into the masonry of the church.

Historically, Pope Innocent III was the first to set up sacrificial sticks . in the Bull Quia maior 1213 to finance the Fifth Crusade . This aroused displeasure in many places, among other things, Walther von der Vogelweide criticized this practice in the sayings of the Unmutstons as a pretext for the expansion of the Lateran .

If there are sacrificial boxes in churches, they usually exist in addition to the collections held in church services with the bell bag and often also have a different collection purpose: while collections often benefit a certain project or aid organization (which is then announced in advance), monetary donations are made the offertory often for general concerns of the parish used or for longer-term purposes such as collecting church renovation, organ-building or social projects. In some, especially Protestant, congregations, the offering box or donation boxes attached to the church exit can also be used to take the collections of the worshipers at the end of the service. In many churches, the offering box also serves as a cash register for the literature stand: the church visitors are then asked to put the price for the picture postcards , church guides and other sales literature offered for sale into the offering box.

  • Wooden offering box, Sentlambert, Slovenia

  • Wooden offering box, Eichlberg pilgrimage church, Hemau

  • Stone offering box, St. Johannes, Wachenzell

  • Offering box with three-bolt lock

literature

  • Rainer Auts: Offering box and collecting box: the donation campaigns of the voluntary welfare organization from the First World War to the sixties. Schöningh, Paderborn [a. a.] 2001, ISBN 3-506-79610-0 .
  • Ev.-Luth. Church in Oldenburg: Welcome to our churches: a guide . Bischöflich Münstersches Officialat, Vechta 2017, DNB 1132237300 , p. 27.
  • Niklot Klüssendorf: Gelt, folded like this in a bell bag: the Protestant church sacrifice of the early modern period in the light of the offering box from Rohr (Thuringia) (= Central German Research. Vol. 110). Böhlau, Weimar / Cologne / Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-412-06393-2 .
  • Martin Langenberg: Offering box and collecting box: a first look at the donation vessel collection of Dr. Heinrich Loosen. In: Novaesium. Neuss yearbook for art, culture and history. 2014, ISSN  0077-7862 , pp. 161-171.
  • Marion Martin (Ed.): When the money sounds in the box ...: from the offering box to online donation. An exhibition by the Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Kassel, in conjunction with the Evangelische Kreditgenossenschaft eG, Kassel; November 12, 2005 to February 5, 2006. Cemetery and Monument Working Group, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-924447-31-4 .

Web links

Commons : Sacrificial Canes  - collection of images, videos, and audio files
Wiktionary: offering box  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ God's box, m.. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 8 : Glibber – Gräzist - (IV, 1st section, part 5). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1958, Sp. 1264-1265 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  2. ↑ Wilhelm Thomas: The god box . In: Quatember 1955, p. 31 ( online version of the text )
  3. ↑ floor, m.. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 19 : Stob – Strollen - (X, 3rd division). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1957, Sp. 10–45 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  4. ↑ a b R. Schrod .: offering box. In: Wetzer and Welte ’s Church Lexicon or Encyclopedia of Catholic Theology and its auxiliary sciences. Second edition ed. by Joseph Hergenröther , continued by Franz Kaulen . Volume 9: Naama to Pignatelli. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1895, DNB 948388447 , Sp. 925 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  5. ↑ Offering box . In: Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon . 5th edition. Volume 2, F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1911, p.  312 .
  6. ↑ Karl Schwarzel: Instructions for a complete pastoral theology. Rieger, Augsburg 1800, p. 37 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  7. ^ Theodor Nolte: Pope Innocent III. and Walther von der Vogelweide. In: Thomas Frenz (Hrsg.): Pope Innozenz III., Switch maker of the history of Europe. Steiner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07433-3 , pp. 69–91, here p. 80 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  8. ↑ Helene Luise Köppel : A heretical song? , accessed November 12, 2018
  9. ↑ Offering box . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 15, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, pp.  75–76 .