New Testament household code

The house panel is a compilation of New Testament verses from the epistles of Paul and Peter, referring to the christian required behavior of various classes. These verses were composed by Luther in 1529, appended to his Small Catechism and printed together with it. Luther also coined the term house panel.

In connection to Luther then were also two places of the epistles of Paul, from which the house panel sayings come (Ephesians 5.22 to 6.5 and Colossians 3.18 to 4.1 ), even called the house panels.

History

Since the Small Catechism should be memorized by all Lutheran Christians and was regularly taught in schools and churches, learned the house panel from the 16th to the late 19th century a very large spread.

Luther chose the epistles sayings that relate to the following eleven items:

• Preachers and bishops,
• Authorities,
• Husband,
• Wife,
• Parents,
• Children,
• Home rule,
• Servants,
• Young people,
• Widows
• Total of all Christians

Soon after, these rankings were by an employee of Luther complemented by the " audience " (which is the church ) and the subjects to which corresponding sayings between the preachers and the government and between the government and the husband were inserted.

It can be seen in this structure, the Lutheran doctrine Three items again that divided the entire society in the areas of church, secular rule and House ( ecclesia, politia, oeconomia ). The subsequent insertions of " listeners " and subjects lifted the dreiständische structural principle even more pronounced. The stands of young people and the widowed, those of the over-and under orders fell out from the system somewhat, were attributed to the area of ​​the house.

In the verses cited by Luther the subordinate objects ( parish, subjects, wives, children, servants ) are exhorted to obedience above all things that had to be done unconditionally in all matters that are not directly related to the faith. The parent stands against ( preachers, authority, husband, parents, home rule ) should be encouraged to care, rigor, fairness and exemplary behavior. The Last Stand is the overarching state of mutual love, which is to connect all the Christians together.

The selected verses mainly come from two places in the letters of Paul to the Ephesians and to the Colossians (Ephesians 5.22 to 6.5 and Colossians 3.18 to 4.1 ), in which the tradition of the ancient Greek house teaching of the various booths of the house is mentioned. These passages of the Bible were soon now describes as House panels ( as today in the King James Bible ).

Indicative of the House panel Luther is that he (later supplemented by the municipality and the subjects ) by Bible verses with instructions for the preacher and for the authorities extended and that the House panel thus included not only the house, but the entire society.

Although the domestic table underlying tripartite image of society was, as Luther has written a own script to it and also in the context of the House panel not expressly speaks of only after the death of Luther ( 1546) rezipiert of wider circles of his supporters, but was then for the conservative Lutheranism influential until the end of the 19th century. Luther and his followers were convinced that the dreiständische division of society of the divine order of creation corresponded, although it is mentioned in the Bible itself at any point.

House panel sermons

Since the 50s of the 16th century are also printed sermons on the front panel before, usually at the end of sermon cycles over the catechism, although not all authors of the Catechism sermons were aware of the house panel. In the sermons on the House panel is the model that Luther had indicated by the compilation of sayings only carried out more accurately. (Note of course saw neither Luther nor his successors the duty of teaching the house panel and the three -stands- order as a "model" to, but rather as a kind of " ideal reality" that has been created by God already in creation, but was corrupted by man under the influence of the devil in many ways. )

Not only the duty to adhere to a prototypical way of life of the pastors, but also the obligation to correct doctrine emphasized - Opposite Luther receiver was in the preaching of the clergy - in the spirit of Lutheran orthodoxy. The sermons to the authorities now focused in the way the prince mirror directly to the rulers, while Luther had just called with his Paul saying to respect the authorities. Some writers of House panel sermons inflicting additional items, such as teachers and pupils or supplemented the state of young people by the state of the ancients. Very different were the sermons on the latest developments, the Christian love, from, the corresponded yes no limited social group.

The preacher illustrated the duties and violations of them with a variety of " Exempeln " that the Bible, especially the Old Testament, but also the ancient histories, and partly also of contemporary history were taken. The audience was also familiarized with religious cultural tradition.

Despite individual variations, the scheme of the house panel and the interpretations in the sermons remained throughout the 16th and 17th centuries through substantially constant, and if the Lutheran three levels model, which is the House panel list based on his Nebeneinanderordung still arranged hierarchically in the Middle Ages three estates, which also belong to the same time all the people in Luther, peculiarly modern anmutet ( because it is actually an order by function, while the surrounding society is still organized entirely stratified ), as it is precisely the House panel sermons are the most characteristic expression of the classic Lutheran conservatism that marked the German social History to the 20th century.