From the Last Judgment

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Hendrik Goltzius : The Last Judgment and the Works of Mercy . Engraving for the parable quoted above on both sides, 1577, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The figurative speech of the Last Judgment , also a parable of the judgment of the Son of Man over the peoples , is a special asset in the Gospel according to Matthew ( Mt 25 : 31-46  EU ). It thematizes the Last Judgment and forms the conclusion of a lengthy speech by Jesus, which is handed down in the 24th and 25th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew and is mainly referred to as an "end-time speech" or " eschatological speech " because of the final parable of the Last Judgment .

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When the Son of Man comes again, he will gather all the peoples and place them on his left and right side respectively. Then the king will first invite those on his right into the kingdom of God . The reason he will cite is that they had mercy on him when he needed help.

“Because I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and homeless and you took me in; I was naked and you gave me clothes; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me. "

- Matthew 25 : 35-36  EU

When asked when they saw him in such distress, the king will reply that what you do to another person is ultimately done to him.

"What you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me."

- Matthew 25.40  EU

In a corresponding manner, he will then send away those on his left, as they did not help him in the emergency. When asked when they saw him in the above-mentioned emergency situations, the answer is analogous that they should have shown this mercy on behalf of those in need.

Interpretation and background

The Bible passage is made up of traditional pictorial elements. The king corresponds to God, the sheep and goats to the members of God's people, and the separation that takes place between the two corresponds to judgment. The metaphor used is the image of the shepherd who divides his flock into sheep and goats (i.e. goats ). The animals that graze together during the day are separated at night because the goats need a warmer place than the sheep. The sheep, which have a white skin, are placed on his right hand and are symbolic of the righteous in this parable. The goats, which in Palestine have a black-brown or even black fur, are placed on his left and symbolize the bad people.

The picture is based on Ezekiel 34.17-22  EU . The judge is the king who seems to be closely connected or identical to the Son of Man mentioned above, who in turn is equated with Jesus Christ in tradition . The king's judgment is based on the standard of active charity and mercy for those in need. Indirectly, everyone speaks their own judgment through their actions towards other people in need.

In other places in the Gospel of Matthew, the “lowly” and “brothers” denote disciples of Jesus, congregation members or missionaries (compare eg Mt 10.42  EU or Mt 12.48-50  EU ). Therefore, some interpreters apply the motif of "least brothers" mentioned in verses 40 and 45 only to Christians and Christian missionaries who are persecuted. In the light of the love of neighbor called for by Jesus in other parables and logia, which should even extend to the enemy (compare Mt 5,43-48  EU ), this restriction to afflicted Christians seems rather improbable. Furthermore, a different word is used in Greek for the “least of all” in Mt. 10:42 than in verses 40 and 45.

reception

The image of the apocalyptic divorce between the sheep and the goats finds diverse reception in Christian literature , art and music . The hymn Dies irae , composed in the 14th century, takes up the motif and in turn became the basis for numerous artistic arrangements.

Latin
Inter oves locum praesta,
Et ab haedis me sequestra,
Statuens in parte dextra.
Re-seal
With the sheep give me pasture,
Part me from the goats,
Stand me on the right side.
Literal translation
Give me a place among the sheep
and separate me from the goats
by putting me on my right side

On the dies irae is based, for example, the chorale Es ist sich die Zeit (1582, EG 149) by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt (1532–1599) and takes up the image of judgment in the parable. The chorale was created as an arrangement of a song by Johannes Magdeburg (approx. 1530–1565). the Bremen cantor Laurentius Laurentii (1660–1722) drafts a downright emphatic-moral re-poem for this melody with Wenn there of the Most High Son .

The baroque poet Siegmund von Birken (1626–1681) adopted the motif in his poem On the Other Sunday of Advent .

A particularly colorful and dramatic illustration of the image of the sheep and the goats designs Christoph Graupner († 1760) cantata " O Lord, the righteous wait your " (1742, GWV 1167/42) with the text of Johann Conrad Lichtenberg , the father Georg Christoph Lichtenbergs . It says:

Oh Lord, the pious are waiting for you.
Come on, release your company!
The sheep sigh in suffering
You want to separate them from goats.
Lord Jesus, notice their groans.
The times are, ah! very sad
the world can no longer stand like this
Faith is very rare
and there is no one who practices love.
The goats flock
is big and struggles to go the broad way.
The sheep are their mockery,
they respect God
in their great sense for nothing.
they laugh
of the great world judgment,
when believers have hope
in the realm of light
to take a portion of the inheritance.
Oh lord look
come to shame the goats
let them see
how much you love your sheep
The Lord will appear soon
then he calls his own
to yourself in heaven's hall
The world and its laughter
will he put an end
their reward is eternal agony.
Tremors, cheeky worldly minds,
the Lord is great, whom you oppose here.
The inheritance of his goods
stands there in God's womb
only open to joy
who lives here according to Jesus' will.
Who doesn't do that
he has no part to hope for in God.
When sheep stand by his right
if they inherit a heavenly good that is eternal,
goats must go to ruin,
go to hell torture and torture.
And that will most certainly happen

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Stuttgart Explanatory Bible. ISBN 3-438-01121-2 , 2nd edition 1992, German Bible Society Stuttgart, pp. 1215f
  2. ↑ The Bible with Explanations. ISBN 3-7461-0069-0 , 3rd edition 1993, Evangelische Haupt-Bibelgesellschaft , Berlin
  3. ↑ http://www.hymnary.org/text/wenn_dort_des_allerhoechsten_sohn
  4. ↑ http://blog-sylvia-mackert.blogspot.de/2011/12/adventsgedicht-poeme-cest-lavent-en.html
  5. ↑ http://tudigit.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/sml/Musikhandschriften/text_zu_mus_ms_450_52_ach_herr_die_frommen_warten_deiner_v_02.pdf