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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.
148. Benjamin is a ravening wolf: in the morning he will devour the prey, but in the evening he will divide the spoil (Gen. xlix. 27). Benjamin was Joseph's nearest own dear brother, and yet the spirit says of him: he is a ravening wolf who in the morning would devour the prey. In this testament of Benjamin is couched the most hidden secret figure of the whole Scripture, and yet in its type, in the unfolding in the effect and work, it is the most manifest and open figure, which is clear in the fulfilling, so that men may see it with bodily eyes, and yet in their reason are quite blind concerning it. 49. This figure is fulfilled, and yet is in action, and shall be yet also further fulfilled: it is very secret, and yet as manifest as a sunshiny day, and yet is not understood. But it is known to the Magi and Wisemen, who indeed have written much concerning it, but it has not been yet rightly explicated, while the time of the evening (when Benjamin's spoil shall be divided) was far off; but now it is near. Therefore we shall offer somewhat concerning it, and hint the sense and meaning for those of our society to consider of , and yet remain as it were dumb to the unwise, seeing they sit in the dark, and open their jaws only after the spoil.
250. The two brethren, Joseph and Benjamin, are the image or type of Christendom, and of a Christian man, which in their figure is twofold, viz. the Adamical man in his nature is signified by Benjamin, and the new man out of the Covenant in the spirit of Christ is signified by Joseph; and the figure represents how Christ has assumed the Adamical man, and that this man is half Adamical and half heavenly, and that entirely in one person which cannot be divided. 51. So also in this image or type he prefigures Christendom, and how they would receive Christ and become Christians, viz. that in them Christ, and also the evil wolf Adam, would govern; that is, when they would receive the faith, they would be so ravenous raving and zealous as a wolf; and would draw the heathen to them with power and compulsion, and yet would devour them; that is, whosoever will not above all hold the same opinion with them, they would presently fall on to condemn that other opinion, and persecute it with wars and the sword; as a raging lion or wolf bites and devours, thus in zeal they would devour round about them with excommunication and the sword; and that therefore, not because they are zealous in the spirit of Christ, but from the wolf of the evil Adam, which would always set itself in spiritual and worldly states and polities above the spirit of Christ.
352. Thus their zeal would be only from the devouring wolf, men being more zealous under the name of Christ for temporal goods, fat livings, good days and worldly honour, than for love, truth and salvation. They will not be zealous in the power of Christ's love, but in the power of the devouring wolf; also in the zeal of their accustomed exercises and worship, wherein yet they would but play the hypocrites before God, they themselves would devour one another as covetous greedy wolves; and so outwardly the wolf would govern. But yet inwardly, in the true children, Christ would govern: Outwardly Benjamin, viz. the natural Adam, which indeed is also a Christian, but it is first, after his resurrection, when he is quit of the wolf; and inwardly Joseph, who is hidden under the wolf. 53. And now the spirit of Jacob in the Covenant of God points at the time, showing how it would be; viz. in the first time of Christianity they would be zealous, and hunger after God in the spirit of Christ, and yet must hide themselves from their enemies, as [from] a wolf that men hunt as an enemy.
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.
148. Benjamin is a ravening wolf: in the morning he will devour the prey, but in the evening he will divide the spoil (Gen. xlix. 27). Benjamin was Joseph's nearest own dear brother, and yet the spirit says of him: he is a ravening wolf who in the morning would devour the prey. In this testament of Benjamin is couched the most hidden secret figure of the whole Scripture, and yet in its type, in the unfolding in the effect and work, it is the most manifest and open figure, which is clear in the fulfilling, so that men may see it with bodily eyes, and yet in their reason are quite blind concerning it. 49. This figure is fulfilled, and yet is in action, and shall be yet also further fulfilled: it is very secret, and yet as manifest as a sunshiny day, and yet is not understood. But it is known to the Magi and Wisemen, who indeed have written much concerning it, but it has not been yet rightly explicated, while the time of the evening (when Benjamin's spoil shall be divided) was far off; but now it is near. Therefore we shall offer somewhat concerning it, and hint the sense and meaning for those of our society to consider of , and yet remain as it were dumb to the unwise, seeing they sit in the dark, and open their jaws only after the spoil.
250. The two brethren, Joseph and Benjamin, are the image or type of Christendom, and of a Christian man, which in their figure is twofold, viz. the Adamical man in his nature is signified by Benjamin, and the new man out of the Covenant in the spirit of Christ is signified by Joseph; and the figure represents how Christ has assumed the Adamical man, and that this man is half Adamical and half heavenly, and that entirely in one person which cannot be divided. 51. So also in this image or type he prefigures Christendom, and how they would receive Christ and become Christians, viz. that in them Christ, and also the evil wolf Adam, would govern; that is, when they would receive the faith, they would be so ravenous raving and zealous as a wolf; and would draw the heathen to them with power and compulsion, and yet would devour them; that is, whosoever will not above all hold the same opinion with them, they would presently fall on to condemn that other opinion, and persecute it with wars and the sword; as a raging lion or wolf bites and devours, thus in zeal they would devour round about them with excommunication and the sword; and that therefore, not because they are zealous in the spirit of Christ, but from the wolf of the evil Adam, which would always set itself in spiritual and worldly states and polities above the spirit of Christ.
352. Thus their zeal would be only from the devouring wolf, men being more zealous under the name of Christ for temporal goods, fat livings, good days and worldly honour, than for love, truth and salvation. They will not be zealous in the power of Christ's love, but in the power of the devouring wolf; also in the zeal of their accustomed exercises and worship, wherein yet they would but play the hypocrites before God, they themselves would devour one another as covetous greedy wolves; and so outwardly the wolf would govern. But yet inwardly, in the true children, Christ would govern: Outwardly Benjamin, viz. the natural Adam, which indeed is also a Christian, but it is first, after his resurrection, when he is quit of the wolf; and inwardly Joseph, who is hidden under the wolf. 53. And now the spirit of Jacob in the Covenant of God points at the time, showing how it would be; viz. in the first time of Christianity they would be zealous, and hunger after God in the spirit of Christ, and yet must hide themselves from their enemies, as [from] a wolf that men hunt as an enemy.
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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