7
It is also worth of diligent observation that examples concerning the relics of
saints are described in such a way in the Word of God that they furnish, as
though pointing a finger at the fountain, explanations and refutations of the
things which are set in opposition by the papalists. Thus Elisha (2 Kings
13:14-19), when He was about to die, prophesies about the victory of the
Israelites over the Syrians, if they are converted to the Lord. And when Elisha
had died and been buried, and in the same year bands of Moabite soldiers broke
into the land of Israel, God, in order to confirm the truth of Elisha’s
prophecy with a special and extraordinary miracle, raised a dead man to life by
contact with his bones when he was already dead. (And that is that Sirach says,
Ecclus. 48;13: “When he was dead, Elisha’s body prophesied.”) Why should not
God be able by His power to do these things when he wants to through the bones
of which He declares (Ps. 34:20) that they are entrusted to His keeping?
However, Scripture does not say
that the dead man was brought to the tomb of Elisha with the aim and purpose
that he might be brought back to life by contact with his bones, as though it
had been at that time the custom among the people of God to run to the
sepulchers of the prophets or saints in order to seek grace and power among the
bones of the dead by means of vows and invocations. But the text says that the
man was by an unexpected emergency cast into the sepulcher of Elisha when they
wanted to bury him and, because the brigands came upon them, did not have time
to make a grave. Therefore, lest the unburied corpse should be exposed to the
caprice of the enemies, they opened the cover of the sepulcher that was
nearest, which was that of Elisha, and did not lay the dead person in it (for
they did not have time for that), but threw in the corpse. When it had fallen
to the bottom, it touched the bones of Elisha and came back to life, in order
that God might by this miracle remind the Israelites of the prophet Elisha,
that they should not fear hostile incursions if only they would cling to the
Lord.
Because that miracle was indeed
outstanding and amazing, and the papalists have from miracles built up all
their cults of relics, which we have described a little earlier (for from miracles
they argue for the institution of these cults), we shall see whether Scripture
did or commanded to be done on the basis of this outstanding miracle of the
bones of Elisha what the papalists do in the cult of their relics. For if
Scripture does the same thing on the basis of the miracle of the bones of
Elisha, that deduction of the papalists from miracles to cult will have
validity; but if not, then one will be able rightly and safely to reject it, no
matter by whom it is made.
Now, also after that miracle took
place, we do not read that the bones of Elisha were taken out of the tomb,
elevated to a high place, carried about; they were not set forth out of the
tomb, elevated to a high place, carried about; they were not set forth to be
kissed, touched, viewed; they were not honored with candles, not adorned with
silk, not adored with invocation for the purpose of obtaining help, not set
forth for a special cult. Neither was a pilgrimage instituted to these bones
for the purpose of there seeking the grace and power of God; indulgences were
not promised; these relics were not laid on the sick and on the dead; people
did not swear by them; faith and hope were not placed in them, etc. We read
absolutely no such thing in Scripture about the relics of Elisha, also after
that outstanding and amazing miracle through his bones had taken place. But the
bones of the prophets were left in their tombs, or sepulchers, as also Christ
declares (Matt. 23:29). Neither did the Jews go to these tombs of the just for
the purpose of adoration or invocation. They worshiped in the temple.
They did indeed “build the tombs
of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous” (Matt. 23:29),
thereby declaring their reverence for the holy prophets, whom they confessed to
have been unjustly killed. But this zeal of theirs is not commended to a very high degree by Christ, but rather, as
also Chrysostom interprets, this is gravely criticized in them, that they are
praisers and admirers of the dead prophets while they despite and persecute the
living and present ones, who rebuke their sins and teach the Word of God
purely, and that they neglect the poor saints who live here, and withhold much
for the sake of ostentation in building the monuments. For Chrysostom adds also
this interpretation.
These things are manifest, and are
surely the kind of things by which this whole controversy about the relics of
the saints can at once be defined, and the whole cult of the papalists in this
matter refuted. For also Sirach (Ecclus. 48:12 ff.) describing the miracles of
Elisha during his life and after his death, does not set down as their purpose
and use even one of the points which we have noted about the cult of the
papalists, but the confirmation of the prophecies of Elisha, and that the people
might be converted from their sins to the God whom Elisha had taught. Sirach
indeed praises the memory and relics of the saints and prophets reverently, but
he does not add those superstitions about which the papalists contend; he
leaves the bones in their sepulchers in the hope of a glorious resurrection,
and regards them reverently (Ecclus. 46:12 and 49:10): “May their memory be
blessed, and may their bones sprout forth or return to life, and may their name
remain forever, their glory enduring to coming generations.”
8
Furthermore, there is found in Scripture also the example of the remains of
Joseph, which were preserved and carried away. Consideration of this will
furnish material for a true explanation and refutation of the things which the
papalists argue about transferring and preserving the relics of the saints. For
the body of the dead Joseph was neither consigned to burial in Egypt nor placed
in a tomb, but placed with spices into an ark or chest made of precious wood,
and preserved until the departure of the Israelites from Egypt.
Was this done in order to
institute such a cult as has been described above in the chief points of the
papalist veneration of relics? By no means! But Joseph, to testify to his faith
in the promise of God, commanded that his body should not be entombed in Egypt,
but should be kept until the time of visitation, that they might carry his
bones with them into the land of promise, in order that those who came later
might through this, as by a glorious pledge, be encouraged amid pressures and
persecutions and not grow uncertain about their exodus from Egypt and about the
Promised Land, which they were to inherit. For this reason also the others of
the 12 patriarchs did not treat the set of Joseph as an example to follow, neither
do we read that later prophets and righteous persons imitated this.
There is indeed no doubt that the
children of Israel preserved the bones or relics of Joseph reverently, as
Sirach shows with the word epeskepeesan, which means to preserve
something so diligently as if it were guarded and protected with some kind of
covering. However, we read nothing about them showing these relics of Joseph
the superstitious veneration we have described above. The old translation of
Ecclus. 49:15 reads that the bones of Joseph were visited and that they
prophesied after his death. Some twist this as though the Israelites had
instituted a pilgrimage to the bones of Joseph and had run to them as to an
oracle. But the Greek texts says epeskepeesan, which has already been explained.
The following words [in the Vulgate] the Greek text does not have at all, but
copyists, against the true meaning of the text, transferred from 48:13 what is
there said about the bones of Elisha to the bones of Joseph.
Furthermore, the sacred history
speaks of the transported relics of Joseph also in Ex. 13:19, but not in the
way or with the purpose, nor for the cause, nor with the opinion with which the
carrying about of relics is performed among the papalists. Without doubt the Israelites
carried these relics of Joseph away reverently from Egypt into the Promised
Land, but they rendered no such thing to them as we have shown above that the
papalists do to their relics. Neither did they take refuge to the relics of
Joseph for the sake of obtaining aid, as the Tridentine decree speaks, when Pharaoh
pursued them, they when they were attacked by fiery serpents, and when they
were oppressed on all sides by enemies. And when they had carried these relics
into the Promised Land, they did not elevate them (as the papalists speak), nor
institute pilgrimages and cults for them, but placed them beneath the ground
and buried them (Joshua 24:32). Nor do we read that afterward such assemblies
and cults as the papalists celebrate as their relics were ever instituted at
the sepulcher of either Joseph or of the other patriarchs and prophets. Indeed,
Epiphanius quotes against the Antidicomarionites a statement of Scripture from
the Septuagint translation in which those are condemned who observe a cult of
the dead. And in Cyril, Bk. 10, Contra Julianum, there is quoted a
statement from Isaiah: “They sleep outside graves and caves on account of
sleeplessness.” Yet Jerome praises this in a certain Constantia, who was
accustomed to spend nights in vigils in the tombs of Hilarion. And some do not
scruple to interpret in this way even the patch in Ecclus. 49:15 about the
bones of Joseph prophesying.
9
Likewise, there is found in Scripture also the example of the bones or relics
of dead persons transferred from one sepculcher to another, in order that we
might understand that Scripture furnishes a certain rule also in this dispute
about the transfer of relics. By no means, however, is such a transfer
undertaken in Scripture described as having been made for the reasons, in the
manner, and for the purpose for which it is done among the papalists. But
because the citizens of Jabesh-gilead had buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan
in a grove in Jabesh (1 Sam. 31:11-13), therefore David later transferred their
bones into the land of Benjamin and put them into the paternal sepulcher of
Saul (2 Sam. 21:12-14). You hear that the reason was political, because at that
time great families had their own special sepulchers. And Barzillai, an aged
man, refused the dignity of the royal palace in order that he could be buried
near the sepulcher of his parents (2 Sam. 19:31 ff.). Another illustrious
example is found in 2 Kings 23:16-18. For when Josiah was destroying the tombs
which were in the high places of Jeroboam, he pulled the bones out of the
sepulchers and burned them on the altar. However, when he understood that not
far off there was the sepulcher of a man of God and prophet, Josiah, commanded:
“Let him be; let no man move his bones.” And the text adds: “So they let his
bones alone.” On the contrary, however, a divine punishment is described thus,
Jer. 8:1 ff.: “Their bones shall be brought out of their tombs.” Baruch
2:24-25: “The bones of our fathers are taken from their place and cast forth.”
10
From what we have until now recited it is clear that, if we want to have sacred
Scripture as canon and rule for our teaching and worship, the papalist
veneration of relics can lawfully and rightly be rejected, since it lacks
testimonies and examples of Scripture and is not in agreement with them.
However, according to Scripture the sacred relics of the godly are rightly
honored when we think about them to the earth, the great mother, according to
the statement of God: “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return” [Gen. 3:19].
And there is the hope of the resurrection and glorification we reverently let
them rest (Is. 57:2) and sleep in the dust (Dan. 12:2), until those who are in
the graves hear the voice of the Son of God, by which they are raised to life
(John 5:25).
In this way we commend the relics
of the saints to God Himself (Ps. 34:20), in order that they may be, as a
certain oration of Tatian to the Greeks elegantly says, deposited in the
storehouse, locked chamber, or bedroom of a very rich Lord. And Cyril, Contra
Julianum, Bk. 10, describes the true honor of relics in the church as follows:
“Anyone,” says he, “may see the relics of the dead with us, not naked, and
negligently cast forth into the earth, but well arranged. For they are somehow
concealed in the bosom of their mother, in the depths of the earth, as also
Prudentius elegantly sings:
Now receive him, O earth, to
cherish him;
Receive him in your tender bosom;
I give up a person’s members to you for safekeeping.
And consign the noble fragments to you. (Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the
Council of Trent, 4 vols. [trans. Fred Kramer; St. Louis, Miss.: Concordia
Publishing House, 2021], 4:26-30)
