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Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
1The great name which he would make him in his seed, that was not to be understood only as to the kingdom of this world, for Abraham was only a stranger upon the earth, and must wander [up and down] from one place to another, and possessed no princedom or kingdom, as the great names of the Gentiles out of the sensual compacted tongues; for he was to be a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth in the promised seed and blessing, for Christ said also, his kingdom was not of this world. 24. But the great name which should be a blessing, wherein God would bless all nations, was the hierarchy of Christ in the Covenant, which would open itself in Abraham's seed. This was an eternal great name of a royal hierarchy of an enthroned Prince in divine power and omnipotence, which should rule over the curse; for God said, he would curse them that cursed him, viz. .the apostate revolted devils, and all wicked men, who would curse this holy seed and blessing; upon their head this seed should tread. 25. And here, under Abraham's great name and blessing, the person of Christ is wholly to be understood; for he said, In you all nations shall be blessed, and you shall be a blessing. Now all the families of the earth could not be blessed in the outward mortal man of
2Abraham; for Abraham died, and his children and grand-children were a long time strangers, servants and bond-men in strange countries; as in Egypt for three hundred years and upwards, and had no sceptre till under Moses; who also was no king, but a prince of God [which princedom] continued unto King Saul; where they would indeed have a king against God's command and will; whom notwithstanding God did afterwards reject, and set up David to be king (out of the prophetical spirit in the compacted mental tongue) under Christ's person, who should bring forth and manifest the great name, and eternal blessing. 26. But here now we are rightly to understand what the person of Christ should be, under this name and blessing; not wholly a stranger [or another person] which should not be out of Abraham's, and Adam's seed, as some do err concerning it, and install or set Christ only in the promised seed, viz. in Abraham's promised seed; wherewith the poor captive soul would be little benefited; also hereby the resurrection of the dead out of these our present bodies would be wholly nullified.
327. For if Christ were wholly another, then also another [or wholly a strange person] must be born in us out of Christ's seed and flesh, which would not be I [or my self], but wholly another man, as some do err; that we are so born of Christ, as the dew is out of the morning, which indeed is true, but my I-hood [or personality] which was created in Adam out of the divine ens, (viz. out of the good part of the ens of the earth, which came forth also out of the heavenly world's being, as to the good ens into a coagulation) must also be therewith joined, as the like is also to be understood in Abraham. 28. For God said, in you all nations shall be blessed. He said not, alone in me, but he said, I will bless you, and make of you a great nation, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, you yourself shall be it; that is, Christ should become Abraham, and Abraham Christ. 29. For the seed which disappeared in Adam and died to the mental life, into which God engrafted or incorporated the limit or aim of his Covenant, with the quickening Word, the same is that into which God would introduce his blessing, viz. the living divine heavenly ens, and would bless Abraham and Adam and their children in this requickened ens or disappeared seed, and make them truly alive. The living ens of the Word in the Covenant, and the Adamical disappeared ens in Abraham, should become one person and body; for the same are one kind of ens.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1The great name which he would make him in his seed, that was not to be understood only as to the kingdom of this world, for Abraham was only a stranger upon the earth, and must wander [up and down] from one place to another, and possessed no princedom or kingdom, as the great names of the Gentiles out of the sensual compacted tongues; for he was to be a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth in the promised seed and blessing, for Christ said also, his kingdom was not of this world. 24. But the great name which should be a blessing, wherein God would bless all nations, was the hierarchy of Christ in the Covenant, which would open itself in Abraham's seed. This was an eternal great name of a royal hierarchy of an enthroned Prince in divine power and omnipotence, which should rule over the curse; for God said, he would curse them that cursed him, viz. .the apostate revolted devils, and all wicked men, who would curse this holy seed and blessing; upon their head this seed should tread. 25. And here, under Abraham's great name and blessing, the person of Christ is wholly to be understood; for he said, In you all nations shall be blessed, and you shall be a blessing. Now all the families of the earth could not be blessed in the outward mortal man of
2Abraham; for Abraham died, and his children and grand-children were a long time strangers, servants and bond-men in strange countries; as in Egypt for three hundred years and upwards, and had no sceptre till under Moses; who also was no king, but a prince of God [which princedom] continued unto King Saul; where they would indeed have a king against God's command and will; whom notwithstanding God did afterwards reject, and set up David to be king (out of the prophetical spirit in the compacted mental tongue) under Christ's person, who should bring forth and manifest the great name, and eternal blessing. 26. But here now we are rightly to understand what the person of Christ should be, under this name and blessing; not wholly a stranger [or another person] which should not be out of Abraham's, and Adam's seed, as some do err concerning it, and install or set Christ only in the promised seed, viz. in Abraham's promised seed; wherewith the poor captive soul would be little benefited; also hereby the resurrection of the dead out of these our present bodies would be wholly nullified.
327. For if Christ were wholly another, then also another [or wholly a strange person] must be born in us out of Christ's seed and flesh, which would not be I [or my self], but wholly another man, as some do err; that we are so born of Christ, as the dew is out of the morning, which indeed is true, but my I-hood [or personality] which was created in Adam out of the divine ens, (viz. out of the good part of the ens of the earth, which came forth also out of the heavenly world's being, as to the good ens into a coagulation) must also be therewith joined, as the like is also to be understood in Abraham. 28. For God said, in you all nations shall be blessed. He said not, alone in me, but he said, I will bless you, and make of you a great nation, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, you yourself shall be it; that is, Christ should become Abraham, and Abraham Christ. 29. For the seed which disappeared in Adam and died to the mental life, into which God engrafted or incorporated the limit or aim of his Covenant, with the quickening Word, the same is that into which God would introduce his blessing, viz. the living divine heavenly ens, and would bless Abraham and Adam and their children in this requickened ens or disappeared seed, and make them truly alive. The living ens of the Word in the Covenant, and the Adamical disappeared ens in Abraham, should become one person and body; for the same are one kind of ens.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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