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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.
124. For Esdra, when he dictated the lost Bible 1, in the knowledge of the spirit of God, to his scribes, saw this very well; and therefore the Holy Spirit does so set it down: and we see very exactly, how Esdra wrote the histories of Abraham in the vision of the spirit; for the whole history of Abraham is delineated under Christ's person, and is an image or type of Christ. 1 Note. -Esdra dictated the Bible that was lost. 2 Esdra xiv. 25. Abraham saw in the spirit this priest of Salem; and when Abraham offered sacrifice, then this priest was in the offering, and offered to God; for he was to make reconciliation for the world with an offering; therefore he was a priest of God. 26. He brought Abraham's will-offering, viz. his prayer and desire in faith, into the holy ens of God, and in the same ens, viz. in the divine essentiality, heavenly bread and wine was brought to Abraham's soul, that it might eat at God's table, till this priest became Abraham; that is, did manifest himself in Abraham with the heavenly corporiety, viz. with the soul's food in the right bread and wine. The Thirty-Ninth Chapter How God appeared to Abraham in a Vision, and established the Covenant with him in his Seed; and how Abraham's faith laid hold of the Covenant, which God accounted unto him for Righteousness; and how God commanded him to offer Sacrifice: and what is thereby to be understood
21. MOSES says, After these things it came to pass, that the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, and said, Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, and exceeding great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless; and the steward of my house has a son, this Eliezer of Damascus ? And Abraham said further: To me you have given no seed; and, lot this son of my servant will be mine heir. And, behold, the Lord said unto him, He shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he commanded him to go forth, and said, Look towards the heaven, and number the stars, can you number them? And he said unto him, Even so shall your seed be. Abraham believed God, and that was counted to him for righteousness (Gen. xv. 1-6).
32. In this portion of Scripture lies the root of the Christian faith, for God said to Abraham, that he was his shield and reward, that he would give him the seed out of his loins: God would be Abraham's reward; and give him a son of his own, whose seed should be as the stars in heaven, which are innumerable; and his steward's son should not be heir, viz. the animal human-seed, full of the Serpent's ens, shall not inherit, but God's reward, God's ens. He would give in his reward into his seed, viz. into the power of his loins, which should be a seed, like unto the stars of heaven. He looked upon the seed in the Covenant, viz. upon the eternal kingdom, which should be as the stars in heaven, so pure, bright, clear and innumerable; and this Abraham believed, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. 3. Believing here is this much, viz. he received and laid hold of the Word; he took it into his desire, viz. into the human ens. The aim in the Covenant in the formed compounded word, viz. in Abraham's nature and property, received the speaking Word of God, viz. the promise; and both these were formed into one, and in this one Abraham's faith was right; for God counted the Word, which Abraham received into his faith's desire, unto him for righteousness, for propriety, and for justification.
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.
124. For Esdra, when he dictated the lost Bible 1, in the knowledge of the spirit of God, to his scribes, saw this very well; and therefore the Holy Spirit does so set it down: and we see very exactly, how Esdra wrote the histories of Abraham in the vision of the spirit; for the whole history of Abraham is delineated under Christ's person, and is an image or type of Christ. 1 Note. -Esdra dictated the Bible that was lost. 2 Esdra xiv. 25. Abraham saw in the spirit this priest of Salem; and when Abraham offered sacrifice, then this priest was in the offering, and offered to God; for he was to make reconciliation for the world with an offering; therefore he was a priest of God. 26. He brought Abraham's will-offering, viz. his prayer and desire in faith, into the holy ens of God, and in the same ens, viz. in the divine essentiality, heavenly bread and wine was brought to Abraham's soul, that it might eat at God's table, till this priest became Abraham; that is, did manifest himself in Abraham with the heavenly corporiety, viz. with the soul's food in the right bread and wine. The Thirty-Ninth Chapter How God appeared to Abraham in a Vision, and established the Covenant with him in his Seed; and how Abraham's faith laid hold of the Covenant, which God accounted unto him for Righteousness; and how God commanded him to offer Sacrifice: and what is thereby to be understood
21. MOSES says, After these things it came to pass, that the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, and said, Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, and exceeding great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless; and the steward of my house has a son, this Eliezer of Damascus ? And Abraham said further: To me you have given no seed; and, lot this son of my servant will be mine heir. And, behold, the Lord said unto him, He shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he commanded him to go forth, and said, Look towards the heaven, and number the stars, can you number them? And he said unto him, Even so shall your seed be. Abraham believed God, and that was counted to him for righteousness (Gen. xv. 1-6).
32. In this portion of Scripture lies the root of the Christian faith, for God said to Abraham, that he was his shield and reward, that he would give him the seed out of his loins: God would be Abraham's reward; and give him a son of his own, whose seed should be as the stars in heaven, which are innumerable; and his steward's son should not be heir, viz. the animal human-seed, full of the Serpent's ens, shall not inherit, but God's reward, God's ens. He would give in his reward into his seed, viz. into the power of his loins, which should be a seed, like unto the stars of heaven. He looked upon the seed in the Covenant, viz. upon the eternal kingdom, which should be as the stars in heaven, so pure, bright, clear and innumerable; and this Abraham believed, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. 3. Believing here is this much, viz. he received and laid hold of the Word; he took it into his desire, viz. into the human ens. The aim in the Covenant in the formed compounded word, viz. in Abraham's nature and property, received the speaking Word of God, viz. the promise; and both these were formed into one, and in this one Abraham's faith was right; for God counted the Word, which Abraham received into his faith's desire, unto him for righteousness, for propriety, and for justification.
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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