From the grain of wheat
The figurative speech about the grain of wheat is a parable of Jesus . It is in the Gospel according to John in chapter 12.
Context and content
The figurative speech represents Jesus' response to the request of some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem to worship in the temple, who wanted to get to know him personally. Jesus answered this question brought to him with the announcement of his glorification ( Jn 12.23 EU ). This is immediately followed by the figurative word of the wheat grain:
“Verily, verily, I say to you: If the grain of wheat does not fall into the earth and die, it remains alone; but when it dies, it bears a lot of fruit. "
On this verse Jesus concluded few words of explanation on where he explained that the one who loves his life will lose it, while the one that his life in this world hates the eternal life is obtained . This gives rise to an invitation to follow Christ .
Explanations
The Greeks probably refer to so-called God - fearing people , that is, people from pagan peoples who have found faith in the one God and sometimes also obey the Jewish laws. Although they were allowed to pray in the forecourt of the temple, they were forbidden, among other things, to eat the Passover lamb .
Jesus sees in the impending influx of Gentile peoples (which is expressed in the request of these Greeks) a sign that the time has come for his glorification (verse 23), since his death and resurrection , together with the sending of the Holy Spirit that forms the basis for this influx. For these pagan peoples, access to Jesus (and thus to the Father) is only possible through his death. This is necessary to gather the worldwide Church.
According to the understanding of the ancients, it is necessary that the seed perish in the earth so that an ear with many grains can grow (compare also the parable of the fourfold arable field ).
reception
In his cantata Oh, dear Christians, be confident (BWV 114), Johann Sebastian Bach set the text after Johannes Gigas in the 4th chorale to music in 1724 :
- No fruit that the grain of wheat brings,
- It then falls into the earth;
- Our earthly body must also
- To dust and ashes
- Before he comes to the glory
- You, Lord Christ,
- we are ready '
- Through your walk to the father.
The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky used the parable as an epigraph in his novel The Brothers Karamazov , published in 1880 . 1971 wrote Lothar Zenetti that of Johann Lauer man set to music song " The grain of wheat must die " ( GL 210). The song " Korn, das in die Erde " by Jürgen Henkys (1978, based on the English song " Now the green blade rises " by John Macleod Campbell Crum ) is also based on this Bible word.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Stuttgart Explanatory Bible. ISBN 3-438-01121-2 , 2nd edition 1992, German Bible Society Stuttgart, p. 1354
- ↑ The Bible with Explanations. ISBN 3-7461-0069-0 , 3rd edition 1993, Evangelische Haupt-Bibelgesellschaft , Berlin
- ↑ Evangelisches Gesangbuch, ISBN 3-583-12000-0 , song number 98