Jakob Böhme, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
It carries no authority of my own over them, and I have never asked for any. What I say is that the letter of Scripture, without the Spirit of God, is a husk and a dead word, and that the learned in arts are then learned only in the letter and not in God.1 That is why they wrangle about Christ's honour and doctrine and dispute about the cup of Christ; a man in whom the Living Word is awakened does not contend so.1
But the same holds for me. I know nothing of your knowledge, I have never learned it, and I would gladly know nothing at all, so that God in the Spirit of Christ may be my knowing, willing and doing, and I only the instrument while he is the hand and the labour.2 A man who claimed authority over another by his knowledge would have taken the hand for his own.
Here lies the test. Knowledge does not make us happy. The devil knows more than we, and what does it avail him?2 The Spirit of Christ is not in contention and reproaching, only a painted looking-glass without life.2 So I do not set the cobbler's gift against the doctor's degree; I set the Spirit against the strife. Where there are a thousand men learned in God, each with his own gift, they are one in the root of Christ and desire only the love of God in him, and no member quarrels with another about the food.3
The doctor is not shut out of this, nor am I raised above him. The ploughman is as near to the kingdom of God as the doctor, if he reads the brotherly A. B. C. in himself.4 I carry the Letters in me, heaven and earth and all things, and God himself lies in man; should man not dare to read in the book which he himself is?5 If I have Christ's Spirit, what need have I of more books?
And before I dispute against what is without me, I must learn what is in me.6 Let the learned read that book too, and we shall not need an authority to settle between us.
What he writes was not learned but given: the gate was opened, and in a quarter of an hour he saw more than a university could teach. He wrote the Aurora as a memorial for himself, and he was silent when the council ordered it until the spirit drove him again. Scripture is true, but it is understood only by the spirit that wrote it; the letter without the spirit is Babel, a church of stone in which the doctors quarrel over opinions while the living temple is the reborn heart.
He brings no new faith and founds no sect. He stays in the Lutheran church of his baptism and asks only that his reader be born again before he judge.78910
without the Spirit of God wee have but the Husk and the Dead Word... the Learned in Arts are but Learned in the Letter, and not Learned in God, otherwise they would not contend and wrangle about Christs honour and Doctrine, nor so dispute about the Cup of Christ.The Threefold Life of Man
I know Nothing, also desire to know nothing... that God in the Spirit of Christ, may be my knowing, willing, and doing... that I may be only the Instrument, and he the Hand and the Labour.The Second Apology to Balthasar Tilke, of Predestination and the Incarnation, with the letter-preface to J. D. K
Though there were a Thousand men Learned in God... yet they would all be but one in the Roote of Christ... why then should one Member contend with the other about the food?The Threefold Life of Man
the Plowman is as Learned and neere to the Kingdome of God, as the Doctor, if he Reade the Brotherly A. B. C. IN himselfe.The Second Apology to Balthasar Tilke, of Predestination and the Incarnation, with the letter-preface to J. D. K
God himselfe, lyeth in Man; Should he not then dare to Reade in that Book which he HIMSELF is?The Second Apology to Balthasar Tilke, of Predestination and the Incarnation, with the letter-preface to J. D. K
If I have Christs Spirit, what need I then more Books? Shall I contend and dispute against that which is without me? before I learne to know what is in me?The Second Apology to Balthasar Tilke, of Predestination and the Incarnation, with the letter-preface to J. D. K
Also I purposed, to Will nothing, but what I apprehended in his Will and Light; he should be my Will and Deed: which indeed was not possible for me to Doe, and yet I stood in the Earnest purpose and resolution, and in very earnest strife and Battle against my self. 24. And what thereupon came to pass, none may well know but God and my ownsoul: for I would rather lose my Life, then Depart from that. 25.The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
What need you spread abroad such a reproachfull Libel among the People, and Judge my written unprinted Writings, which I wrote only for a Memoriall to my self, which are come to Light without my will; and to condemn me in such a vaine frivolous and altogether Diabolicall manner. 430.The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
But I will not build upon their Grounds, but as a laborious carefull servant, I will digg away the Earth from the Root, that thereby men may see the whole Tree with its Root, Stock, Branches, Twiggs and Fruits: And may see that also my writing is no new thing, But that their Philosophie and my Philosophie are one Body, one Tree, bearing one and the same sort of fruit. 16.Aurora, the Day-Spring
He alwaies Imagineth with himself, that God dwelleth onely above the Azure Heaven of the Stars, and ruleth as it were, with some Spirit which goeth forth from him into this world; and that his Body is not present here upon the Earth, nor in the Earth. 61.Aurora, the Day-Spring
The claim that made him a heretic to the Görlitz clergy and a prophet to his readers, and the question every critic has put to him since: new revelation or old, and by what test.