Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society
The Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society was founded in Schleswig in 1815 . To this day, as a Bible Society in the area of the Schleswig and Holstein district of the Northern Church, it does not serve to print its own Bibles, but above all to distribute Bibles printed elsewhere as well as Bible educational campaigns. From 1980 to 2012 she was a member of the association “ North Elbian Bible Societies e. V. ". She is involved in the general assembly of the German Bible Society .
Prehistory: The Schleswig Bible
The widow of the Duchess Maria Elisabeth von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf arranged for a full Bible to be printed in Schleswig in 1664 . The Luther Bible , which was printed in no more than 100 copies , was particularly popular. It mainly served the members and guests of the palace in front of Husum , where Maria Elisabeth had withdrawn. Several copies got into the Protestant parishes of Schleswig-Holstein , but because of the tiresome warfare ( Danish-Lower Saxon War 1623–1629; Danish-Swedish War 1658–1660) many churches in the country had been robbed of their books and especially their Bible . The text of the Bible follows the Luther Bible from 1545 and was printed by Johann Holwein, a princely book printer in Schleswig.
history
Beginnings
The first impetus for founding a Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society came from the visit of the Foreign Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), Pastor Carl Friedrich Adolf Steinkopf (1773-1859), to Emkendorf . War was raging on the European continent when Pastor Steinkopf set out on his first trip from London to mainland Europe in the autumn of 1812 . Napoleon was on the march to Moscow and had closed the European ports to all ships from England with the continental block since November 1806.
In order to carry out his mission for the establishment of Bible societies on the continent, Steinkopf traveled with a Swedish passport from Harwich to Gothenburg and then through Denmark to Germany. His goal was to alleviate the current Bible distress and to win people in all places who would make this hardship their own cause. As a former secretary of the Basel Christianity Society , which also opposed the rationalist efforts of the Enlightenment , Pastor Steinkopf knew the addresses of Christians who shared not only his convictions but also his mission with open-mindedness.
The meeting Steinkopf with Fritz and Julia von Reventlow and the Landgrave Carl von Hessen was of great importance for the spiritual and personal basis of the biblical concern in Schleswig-Holstein .
Founding years
The years 1814 and 1815 play an important role in the founding history of the North German Bible Societies. After peace had returned to Europe on May 31, 1814 through the Treaties of Paris and Tsar Alexander I and King Friedrich Wilhelm III. had traveled to London to thank England for the help it had given in the liberation struggle , new aspects also emerged for the founding of Bible societies, especially since the rulers had met with representatives of the BFBS in England. Bible societies had already been established in Lübeck (1814), Hamburg-Altona (1814), Bremen (1815), Mecklenburg-Schwerin (January 9, 1816). The last major Bible Society founded in 1815 was that in the city of Schleswig for the two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . Both duchies were ruled by the Danish king in personal union as a duke, with Schleswig being an imperial and royal fief of Denmark and Holstein until 1806 of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . Both territories thus belonged to the sphere of influence of the Danish king ( Danish state as a whole ), but had different legal structures. Holstein was linguistically German, while in Schleswig German, Danish and North Frisian were widespread, with Danish and Frisian having been replaced by German as the colloquial language in large parts of southern Schleswig in modern times.
General Superintendent Adler
What prompted General Superintendent Adler to bring up the idea of a Bible Society in March 1815? Since the foreign troops remained in Schleswig-Holstein until the final peace agreement with Prussia and Russia , which did not take place until February 8, 1815, the residents suffered heavily from the occupation. All experiences of the war and occupation years were meant to feed the dissatisfaction with Denmark and the hope for Germany. As was once the Roman-German Empire, Holstein had belonged to the German Confederation from 1815 , but not Schleswig, which remained a Danish fief. The Schleswig-Holstein Biblical Society undoubtedly served the national German-oriented Schleswig-Holstein idea, which was repeatedly expressed in the prefaces of the first annual reports.
The Lutheran clergy in the duchies was split into two theological camps. The Lutheran orthodoxy , which was shaped by pietism, was opposed to the representatives of the rational faith. This was especially true for the general superintendent Adler from Schleswig, who was seen by many as the father of rationalism in the country. Adler was an orientalist and theologian. He had held a chair for the Syrian language at the University of Copenhagen, had then become German court preacher in Copenhagen and finally general superintendent for Schleswig, and in 1806 also for Holstein. Adler was certainly a progressive theologian, but by no means a revolutionary. Through a publication in the Schleswiger Wochenblatt, he invited to a meeting on the Sunday of Latare, March 5, 1815, in order to found a Bible Society based on the model of the English Bible Society and the two German Societies in Lübeck and Hamburg. Although he did not mention the Danish Bible Society, the fact that there had been a Bible Society in Copenhagen since May 22nd, 1814, played a not insignificant role, as one wanted to strive for a certain independence in the religious field as well.
The first annual reports
From the first annual report of 1817:
“It was agreed that the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, and thereby the promotion of a pious Christian spirit in our fatherland, should be the sole purpose of this society; that only Bibles according to the introduced church translation would have to be distributed by society without further comments and explanations; that every friend of the Word of God in the duchies could become a member of this society; that the smallest annual contribution of a member should be a species thaler, but every gift, even the smallest, should be accepted with thanks for the purpose of society; and that the management is to be transferred to an administrative committee serving completely free of charge. "
Interest in the Bible Society grew, as can be seen from the ever-increasing membership. The royal governor, Landgrave Carl von Hessen, and Landgravine Louise had registered as the first members. In addition, "the then Prince and current Duke of Holstein-Beck and his wife and the other members present in Gottorf and Schleswig joined". In the first year the Bible Society had 356 members, including many church provosts, pastors and members of the nobility such as von Ahlefeld, von Baudissin, von Brockdorff, von Bülow, von Krogh, von Moltke, von Qualen, von Rantzau, von Rumohr . The name “ Harms , Preacher in Kiel” also appears among the pastors .
The Bible Society saw its primary task in the procurement and dissemination of inexpensive Bibles and in the support of local auxiliary Bible societies and Bible associations that were founded in the provosts and parishes in the duchies.
In the first year, the Bible Society distributed 3,266 scriptures, German and Danish house Bibles, German school Bibles and 215 copies of Jesus Sirach , an apocryphal script that enjoyed a certain popularity in Schleswig-Holstein for several years.
In August 1818 Frederik VI. the Georg Wilhelm Pfingstens deaf-mute institute, which was moved from Kiel to Schleswig-Friedrichsberg in 1810, was given the privilege of running a printing company. It received express permission to print “a German Lutheran Bible without annotations with stereotype plates ”.
In the meantime, after a year, the number of members of the Bible Society had grown to 415, and the 85 Bible Societies and eleven auxiliary Bible societies in the two duchies regularly reported their considerable Bible sales to Schleswig. Due to the demand, the Canstein Bible Institute received almost as many editions of the apocryphal Jesus Sirach (612) as the New Testaments (620). According to the Schleswig-Holsteiners' wish, the Proverbs of Solomon with Jesus Sirach as an appendix to the New Testament should be delivered. Could those biblical combinations be a reflection of the enlightened piety that was particularly widespread in northern German cities?
Just four years after it was founded, the administrative committee found that the Schleswig-Holstein State Bible Society had gained so much strength that “Bible lovers can confidently abandon themselves to the hope that, God willing, it will not just perish easily again go, but through what she has already done she will bring salvation to our fatherland for a long time to come in more than one respect ”.
aims
For the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society, following the English example, there was “a threefold goal”, namely the satisfaction of the need for locality, the need for the country and the need for the world. Here we find the first beginnings of a “world Bible aid”, after all, it was also the era that was marked by missionary zeal in Europe. 1,000 Bibles alone were sent to the Russian Bible Society in St. Petersburg . As the biblical holdings in the library show, there were very good relationships with the Russian Bible Society (1813 to 1826) sponsored by the tsar, which in 1820 alone comprised 289 Bible societies and distributed the Bible in 41 languages for the multiethnic state of Russia .
In the first six years, 24,123 Bibles and Testaments were distributed. Bible shipments to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, went to those German fellow believers whose ancestors had founded the first German city in North America, Germantown , just outside Philadelphia, in 1683 , and who had dedicated themselves to pietism .
One of the main tasks of the State Bible Society was to look after auxiliary Bible societies, some of which were older than the State Bible Society. These should identify and satisfy the need for Bibles. A number of them published annual printed reports on their activities. What is striking is that places that later became of great importance for the regional church , such as Breklum , Kropp , Hademarschen , showed a special liveliness even then; a sign that later founding natures like Christian Jensen (mission) and Johannes Paulsen (diakonia) could already count on a community to help.
Jubilee and quarrel
On May 14th, 1826, celebrated on May 14th, 1826, the celebration of the introduction of Christianity by Ansgar in northern Albingia and Scandinavia , 1000 years ago, was especially dedicated to the spread of the Bible through the Bible Society and the Bible Clubs. In the apocryphal dispute sparked by the British and Foreign Bible Society , the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society decided in agreement with the other continental Bible societies, the establishment of which the BFBS had originally initiated, to continue to print and distribute Bibles with apocrypha . The break with the English parent company regarding the financial support of Bibles with Apocrypha was unfortunately complete.
Further developments in the 19th century
In the eleven provosts of the Duchy of Schleswig, 45 auxiliary Bible societies were still active in 1826 and 26 auxiliary Bible societies were still active in the eleven provosts of the Duchy of Holstein. Between 1819 and 1829 64,750 Bibles were printed in Schleswig. From 1815 to 1830, 80,000 copies of the Bible were distributed.
In 1832 it was noted with satisfaction that in many places the collections for the Christian slaves in Turkey that were no longer available were now being used for the Bible cause.
In the 22nd annual report of 1838, an essential contribution appears “On the history of the wonderful work of spreading the Bible”. The epoch of the American temperance societies also begins, which demanded total abstinence as a guiding principle instead of mere moderation. This relentless struggle against the "idol of brandy" was also supported by the local Bible societies, as several appeals against this "idol" appeared in the annual reports.
The Christian social upheaval of the 19th century also made itself felt through the writings of the Bible Society. In the 25th annual report of 1841 we read an article: "What did Christ do for women, and what should women do for Christ?"
The idea of mission that was spreading in the regional church meant that some Bible clubs focused their activities entirely on the interests of external mission. And again the concerns of the abstinence associations are expressed in the scriptures of the Bible Society. It is no longer the paganism of the Enlightenment, but the devil who is in the brandy, who is the enemy of the land.
With the retirement of old Bible Club pastors, several local clubs are dissolved. At the same time, the Bible Societies must come to terms with Pope Gregory XVI's encyclical " Inter praecipuas " published in 1844 . deal, who once again condemned the work of all Bible societies by referring to 2 Pet 3:16 EU , which speaks of ignorant and frivolous who confuse the Scriptures. Just a year later, in the 30th report of 1846, measures were reported that the Greek Orthodox Patriarch published in a synodal letter in which he forbade his believers from attending schools where the Bible was read. The Armenian patriarch also hurled the " anathema " from the patriarchal throne at all Bible readers. In contrast, according to Bishop Gobat , the Eastern churches had not issued any bans on reading the Bible.
A certain local “biblical fatigue” is reflected in the reports of the 1840s. The plight of the Gentiles in distant lands found more resonance than the local dissemination of the Bible. Some of the ancient venerable Bible societies have been declared unnecessary. The Bible matter had lost its novelty and was in many cases left to the community poor. The hymn book had largely supplanted the Bible as literature for edification.
In 1845, Süderdithmarschen flatly rejected Bible and mission associations. Their time is over, there is no shortage of the Bible. The tasks previously performed by associations should in future be the concern of the municipalities.
The 33rd annual report from 1849 reflects the war unrest of the Schleswig-Holstein uprising against Denmark in 1848, so that the promotion of the Bible cause no longer really flourished. Unprecedented national contradictions between German and Danish-minded people within the two duchies arose. The annual reports of 1850 and 1852 confirm the deep melancholy and loud complaint about the political developments that led to the split in the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society. In 1864, after the Austro-Prussian victory in the German-Danish War, the joint national Bible society was brought back to life.
In 1867 the topic of " Traubibeln " was discussed at the Conference of the Bible Societies on the occasion of the Kirchentag in Kiel . The issue of Traubibeln meant a rethink. Instead of thinking about how to sell as many Bibles as possible to as many poor people as possible cheaply or for free, the introduction of the Traubibel was replaced by the desire to give all Protestant married couples a Bible in their hands when they marry.
In the first 60 years since it was founded, the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society has submitted 172,840 Bibles and New Testaments (39th report, 1876). Nevertheless, it is noted with dismay that "the word of God is being forgotten and disdained, also in our province ... and the more materialism and the hunt for earthly enjoyment is rampant". The Bible society finds itself in a new socio-political climate.
The influence of the Bible Society on church and society decreased steadily, so that the 41st report from 1885 begins with the words: “The State Bible Society is only a small brook among the associations that have set themselves the task of bringing the water of life over God Land to lead. "In fact, since 1870 so many Christian works such as the Heidenmission (Breklum), Inner Mission (Neumünster, Rickling), Gustav-Adolf-Werk , Diakonie (Altona, Flensburg, Kropp, Rickling), seminars for preachers for America ( Breklum, Kropp), evangelism , Blue Cross and others. a., grown up to independence that the Bible Society was no longer considered as a supervisor of this work. The number of local Bible clubs had also decreased.
The wealth of the Bible Society had risen to 76,704 marks in 1889. A remarkable change took place in the business when printing was completely abandoned because the old stereotype plates were no longer usable. All German Bibles and New Testaments were obtained from Halle . Additional distribution took place through the supply of the Imperial Navy with Bibles and New Testaments, so that in the meantime 208,062 Bibles had been distributed by the Society. The last printed report (42nd and 44th) for the years 1885 to 1889 closes with words that characterize the realistic situation of that time:
“Nowadays, when we are surrounded by a rich abundance of endeavors to elevate the religious and moral life, the Bible Society can no longer count on finding the same interest as in the first decades of its existence; in a way it does not need it now as it did then, insofar as it is now financially sound; But she still needs interest and encouragement in her work and asks for it. The supply of all people's groups with Holy Scriptures always remains a task in the Protestant church area, the solution of which must not be set aside, Holy Scripture is and remains the book of books. "
Developments in the 20th Century
On December 18, 1901, the general assembly decided to have the State Bible Society registered as a legal entity under the BGB at the local court. After that, the burden of the work rested on the manager. According to § 2 of the statutes of 1901, the task of the Bible Society was outlined as follows: "The purpose of the association is to disseminate the Holy Scriptures and thereby promote a pious Christian spirit in our closer fatherland." With that, the Bible Society broke away from missionary efforts in the German colonies at that time and the responsibility of a world Bible aid.
In 1933, after long deliberations, the members of the Bible Society approved a grant of 1,500 RM for the printing of Pastor Johannes Jessen's Low German New Testament. The Reformation Festival in 1934, which also marked the 400th anniversary of the Lutheran Full Bible from 1534, was celebrated as a Bible festival in the Friedrichsberg Church.
The Schleswig senior pastor Meyer, who had been secretary of the Bible Society since 1934, tried to bring the Bible Societies of the North Elbe region together as early as the 1930s, but he did not succeed. In April 1966, the new version of the previous statute was unanimously adopted, which states: “The task of the Bible Society is to spread the Holy Scriptures in our country and in the world. The work is considered a service of the church. It pursues exclusively and directly charitable purposes; The intention to make a profit is excluded. ”The collaboration with the“ Evangelical Bible Works in West Germany ”and with the“ Working Group of the North Elbian Bible Societies ”under the direction of Pastor E. Fisch, Lübeck, led to participation in the Bible missionary work in Togo and Dahomé (today Benin ). The Bible Society also supported the extensive Bible campaign in Jeypurland , India for several years .
Since the late 1960s, there has been a responsible interest in the worldwide distribution of the Bible, be it through the Evangelical Bible Works, the World Bible Aid or through the initiatives of the regional mission society. An "order of the working group of the North Elbe Bible Societies" was adopted in 1975. The working group should be the negotiating partner of the five North Elbian Bible Societies with the North Elbian Church .
On June 13, 1979 the board decided to found the association “Nordelbisches Bibelwerk e. V. “After lengthy negotiations with the Lauenburg-Ratzeburg Biblical Society , the association was given the final name“ Nordelbische Bibelgesellschaft e. V. “As part of this sponsoring association, the North Elbian Bible Center was founded in 1993 in the house of the monastery provost of the aristocratic St. John's Monastery in Schleswig and opened the following year. It was in the sponsorship of this association from 1993 to 2012 and was taken over in 2013 as the " Biblical Center Schleswig " in the sponsorship of the Northern Church . The Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society has always made a considerable amount available from its financial resources to run this Bible Center.
The considerable collection of historical German and foreign-language Bibles has been cataloged by the theological collaborator of the Bible Society Otto FA Meinardus since 1984. He put together two sets of approx. 20 Bibles each worth exhibiting, each of which can be offered in six showcases in northern Elbe for Bible exhibitions at Bible Weeks. In the anniversary year of 1990 he wrote:
“New tasks and challenges arise for the Bible society in a secularized environment. In a society characterized by indifference and ignorance of the Holy Scriptures, it remains the noble task of the Bible Society to lead people to an understanding acceptance of the Word of God through the distribution of Bibles, but also through seminars, discussion groups and sermons. "
Developments in the 21st Century
The Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society celebrated its 200th anniversary on September 5, 2015 in the Schleswig Bible Center . The opening of an exhibition with handwritten civic Bibles marked the start of the anniversary celebrations. Five Bibles handwritten by Schleswig-Holstein residents were shown. These are the Flensburg and Dithmarsch Bibles, the Kiel Citizens Bibles, the Angeliter Psalter and the New Testament from Garding.
swell
- Gottfried Ernst Hoffmann: 150 Years Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society. In: Yearbook. Vol. 8, Witten / Berlin 1965, pp. 26-50
- Otto FA Meinardus : Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society in the past and present. In: The Bible in our country. 175 years of the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society. Schleswig 1990, pp. 9-33
- Peter Godzik (Ed.): History of the North Elbian Bible Societies. 2004 ( online at pkgodzik.de ; PDF, 411 kB)
literature
- Wilhelm Gundert: History of the German Bible Societies in the 19th Century (Texts and Works on the Bible 3) , Bielefeld: Luther 1987, pp. 35, 140 ff., 171, 178, 181 f., 184, 203, 206, 208 f. , 259, 274, 315.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.die-bibel.de/ueber-uns/regionale-bibelgesellschaft/
- ^ Otto FA Meinardus : Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society in Past and Present. In: The Bible in our country. 175 years of the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society. Schleswig 1990, p. 16
- ^ Hermann Barth : Joy extends life. Useful, funny, witty: the wisdom of Jesus Sirach. (Texts for the soul, edition chrismon), Hansisches Druck- und Verlagshaus, Frankfurt am Main 2010, pp. 56–63, 199–203.
- ↑ http://wiki.wolhynien.net/index.php/Predigerseminar_Kropp
- ^ Otto FA Meinardus : Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society in Past and Present. In: The Bible in our country. 175 years of the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society. Schleswig 1990, p. 30
- ↑ http://www.bibelzentrum-schleswig.de/
- ^ Otto FA Meinardus : Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society in Past and Present. In: The Bible in our country. 175 years of the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society. Schleswig 1990, p. 33
- ^ Report by Simone Viere