Anna Jansz and the Sheep and Goats parable (part 1)

The Ausbund

As victims of persecution and ostracism themselves, Anabaptists could identify with the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matt 25:31-46). Like Jesus’ parable, Anna’s moving testament to her son focuses on where the kingdom is found—among the poor and those despised by the world—and how a person of faith should act in order to be a member of that kingdom:

See, my son, this way has no retreats; there are no roundabout or crooked little paths; whosoever departs to the right or to the left, inherits death: Behold, this is the way which is found by so few, and walked by a still far smaller number; for there are some who well perceive that this is the way to life; but it is too severe for them; it pains their flesh . . . . But where you hear of a poor, simple, cast-off little flock (Luke 12:32), which is despised and rejected, by the world, join them; for where you hear of the cross, there is Christ; from there do not depart. Flee the shadow of this world; become united with God; fear Him alone, keep His commandments, observe all His words, to do them; write them upon the table of your heart, bind them upon your forehead . . . . Whatever you do, do it all to the praise of His name. Honor the Lord in the works of your hands, and let the light of the Gospel shine through you. Love your neighbor. Deal with an open; warm heart thy bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, and suffer not to have anything twofold; for there are always some who lack (Matt. 26:11). Whatever the Lord grants you from the sweat of your face, above what you need, communicate to those of whom you know that they love the Lord (Genesis 3:19; Ps. 112:9); and suffer nothing to remain in your possession until the morrow, and the Lord shall bless the work of your hands, and give you His blessing for an inheritance (Deut. 28:12) (http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/martyrs062.htm#453).

Another development in the tradition occurred in the 1670 edition of Het Offer des Heeren: the testament was reworked by an anonymous poet into a song of fourteen stanzas. Finally, an even more expanded version of the song—in German with twenty-two stanzas—was published in the 1583 German Ausbund, the oldest Anabaptist hymnal (first published in 1564). The hymn shows how the tradition developed—it even gives the incorrect year for her martyrdom—into a martyrology that domesticated the apocalyptic elements and helped edify the faithful and foster their “sense of history and identity” (Snyder and Hecht 1996: 342).   

The song is the 18^th Hymn in the Ausbund, and it is sung to the tune of “Come Here to Me, says God’s Son.” The next post will discuss the developments of that song and elements in it.

Anna Jansz's execution

Reprise:  Anna Jansz on her way to execution: Jan Luiken (1685)

During 1538-1539, followers of David Joris, including Anna Jansz, underwent a significant persecution. Over a hundred of them suffered martyrdom, including Joris’s own mother (Nyhof). Arent Jansz apparently died in England in 1538—perhaps suffering martyrdom in Thomas Cromwell’s persecution that year—and Anna Jansz returned home with Isaiah, her fifteen-month-old son, and a female companion (Snyder and Hecht 1996: 338-339, 341). The two women—after singing a hymn in public—were recognized as Anabaptists, reported to the authorities, and subsequently arrested. Anna and her travelling companion were put on trial in Rotterdam, convicted—Anna’s connections with Joris most likely contributed to the guilty verdict—and sentenced to death on January 23, 1539, a sentence that was carried out the very next day:

Anna’s last ordeal belongs to the most moving scenes in martyr literature. On her way to the execution with her son in her arms the distraught mother offered her fortune to any of the spectators willing to adopt her son. A local baker responded, promising to raise the child as his own. According to a postscript in the Martyrs’ Mirror the baker kept his pledge and was rewarded with divine favour. He was able to add two breweries to his possessions and his adopted son Isaiah rose to become mayor of Rotterdam. The man who had betrayed Anna met a very different fate. He drowned when a bridge collapsed as he crossed to witness Anna’s execution. His descendants lived in abject poverty (Snyder and Hecht 1996: 341). 

Although she was a follower of David Joris, the Mennonites not only preserved the traditions of Anna but also, it appears, enhanced the traditions to portray her as a model martyr. Anna’s inclusion in this tradition is somewhat surprising, because Menno Simons—who became the most influential Anabaptist leader in the Netherlands, and his followers became known as Mennonites—bitterly opposed Joris. This process began when Anna’s moving testament to her infant son—who never adopted her faith—was first published as a tract in 1539, the year of her death, and found in a number of other works, including the first edition of the Dutch martyr book, Het Offer des Heeren (The Sacrifice of the Lord; 1562). Most famously, it is found in the massive (1290 pages) Martyrs’ Mirror, by the Mennonite Tieleman Jansz van Braght, a book that compiles stories of martyrdom since the beginning of Christianity. The second edition of this work became even more famous, since it contained 104 etchings by the Dutch poet and artist, Jan Luiken, once of which immortalizes Anna as she hands her son over to the baker as she is taken to be executed (see above).

Photo repository

The Rich Man and Lazarus;
 The workshop of Domenico Fetti

I just stumbled across the URL where all 256 of the photos/images I have used on this blog are stored (a small number are repeated). 

If you want to browse through all the images quickly you can go here, and they are all on one page. 

Of course, it's much more fun to read the blog posts associated with each of those pictures!

Anna Jansz of Rotterdam (Anneken Jans; ca. 1509-1539)

Anna Jansz on her way to execution: Jan Luiken (1685)

The Honors Seminar is going extremely well, and I will write about it a little later this week. The demands of the semester are pretty significant right now, but, because of the class, I have been able to complete the section on Domenica Fetti (last weekend), and I am working now on both George Herbert and some Islamic receptions of the parables. I am especially enjoying seeing some of the receptions of the parables that my students have discovered.

I do also want to write about John Calvin's reception of the parables in his commentary on the Gospels, but first let me talk (for a couple weeks) about Anna Jansz of Rotterdam.

Anna Jansz was born in an upper-class family in Briel, a Dutch city located on the island of Putten (near Rotterdam and The Hague). She married a physician, Arent Jans, and they soon converted to Anabaptism. Anabaptists (literally “rebaptizer”) believed that infant baptism is not biblical; the only true baptism documented in the New Testament, they argued, is of an adult who has undergone a conversion, made a personal pledge of faith, and committed to a holy life of discipleship. Anabaptists based their community of faith on what they believed to be the beliefs and practices of the earliest Christian congregations as found in the New Testament. Anabaptists also committed other acts of civil disobedience, such as refusing to take oaths (cf. Matt 5:34; James 5:12) and believing in the separation of church and state. Anabaptists thus were considered enemies of the state and church and were often hunted down, fined, imprisoned, and/or executed, by both Catholics and Protestants (both of whom believed in a state church). Although most Anabaptists were pacifists, some early Anabaptists were militants whose apocalyptic expectations included working for the overthrow of the current corrupt world order. Such militant Anabaptists were elected to power in Münster in 1534 and transformed the city by expelling the “godless” and inviting other believers to join them to create a “New Jerusalem.” This transformation, and the war over the city that resulted in thousands of deaths, led to deep suspicion of Anabaptists, as well as polemical attacks and persecution (Bradstock and Rowland 2002: 84).

Anna and Arent Jansz became Anabaptists in early 1534. They were baptized by Meynaart van Emden an early leader in the Dutch Anabaptist movement, but soon (June 1534) fled to England, along with a number of other local Anabaptists, because of persecution. The fact that Meynaart belonged to a pro-Münster, more militant and apocalyptic faction of Anabaptists may have contributed to the tenuous situation of the Anabaptists in Briel and elsewhere.

Anna certainly shared in this apocalyptic fervor. Her hymn, “I can hear the Trumpet Sounding” (Ick hoorde die Basuyne blasen) is filled with apocalyptic fervor, and it apparently revels in the vengeance that God will soon deliver upon the godless. It uses Ezekiel 9 to urge the faithful to endure persecutions and to persevere, since the faithful will be vindicated and rewarded by God (cf. the eleventh and twelfth stanzas). This hymn first was published in 1539 along with a letter by David Joris of Delft—an Anabaptist leader with a significant number of followers—and it later appeared in a collection of hymns published by Joris (I will need to come back and document/footnote this detail). 

Anna admired and supported David Joris—rumors of a personal relationship between them prompted a confrontation between Joris and Arent Jansz, and Anna soon joined her husband in London (Nyhof). A letter she wrote to Joris in 1536 or 1538 also echoes apocalyptic themes of imminent judgment, cleansing, and purification and delights in the “revealing” of the cross and the beginning of the “conflict” that is imminent. She also seems to long for her own martyrdom: “I hope that the Lord will answer my prayer and deliver me from this earthly tabernacle of my dwelling so that I may put off the dress of mourning and that I may receive the glorious jewellery (sic) of triumph of my Lord . . .” (Snyder and Hecht 1996: 343-344).


The next post will discuss the persecution and martyrdom of Anna Jansz, which eventually led to the 18^th Hymn in the Ausbund. That hymn will be the major focus of the reception of the parables section of the book for Anna Jansz.

Martin Luther and the Parables (conclusion)

1534 edition of Luther's Bible

Luther did not avoid tackling some of the more problematic parables, such as the Unjust Manager (Luke 16:1-9). [The following sermon is taken from volume IV:292-301 of The Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House in 1983]. Luther notes that the parable relates the story of how a steward cheated his master: he artfully but deceitfully deprived his master of his property (294).
The key point, for Luther, is that Jesus does not praise the dishonest actions; he praises him for his shrewdness:


He does not praise the thing in itself as good, but blames him for previously squandering his master’s goods, and afterwards shrewdly appropriating his property. This however the Lord commends, namely, that he did not forget himself, praising nought but his cunning and shrewdness. Just as when a flirt draws the whole world after her, and I say: she is a clever flirt, she knows her business. The Lord further concludes, that just as the steward is wise and shrewd in his transactions, so should we also be in obtaining eternal life . . . . As the unjust man acts shrewdly, though wrongly and like a rogue, so we also should act shrewdly but righteously in godliness. This is the proper understanding of this parable (294-5).

A second difficulty of interpretation arises, because Jesus then commands his followers to “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth” (Luke 16:9), which some of Luther’s “adversaries” (in the Roman Catholic Church) interpret as meaning that doing “works” are necessary for salvation, whereas Luther argued that salvation came through faith alone. Luther responds

If they thus attack us we must answer. Above all things it must be remembered that there is indeed no doubt whatever, that faith and love are the only source, as you have ever learned, that through faith we become inwardly pious, and we outwardly prove our faith by our works of love. . . . If I am to make for myself friends by means of mammon, I must first be godly. For compare these two statements: A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and again, a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. From which judge for yourself: if I am to do good and give away mammon, I must indeed be first good at heart, for God looketh upon the heart, and as he finds the heart, so he estimates our works. This I say, that men should not cram works into the heart, but let the heart first be good through faith, that the works may flow forth, otherwise you do no one any good; for if you have before given a person anything, it did not come from the heart. Hence the conclusion is, that I must first be good before I can do good. You cannot build from without inward, you do not commence at the roof, but at the foundation. Therefore faith must first be present (296).

The “works” are the outward signs of one’s inner faith, and faith comes first. Works do not make some good; instead their bear witness to the genuineness of one’s faith (297). We do not earn salvation by doing good works; we must first believe, and good works will follow (299).

In a similar way, in his sermon on the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Luther has to explain why Luke here, as in other places, “makes the impression as though righteousness came by works” (337).  [The following sermon is taken from volume IV:337-347 of The Sermons of Martin Luther].   

Consequently it sounds as though Luke everywhere taught that righteousness came by works; as you have recently heard: Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven; and, make unto yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. And here it appears as though the publican had obtained his goodness by praying and smiting his breast. So this Gospel appears as though we should become good or pious by our works.

Now you have heard that a man, before he can do anything good, must by all means first be good. For the truth must always stand: “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit;” and again, “An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.” Thus a man must first be good, before he can do good (338).

Note: I have also finished writing the sections on John Calvin and John Maldonatus on the parables, and I will share insights from those two sections on the blog as well. I haven't decided yet what to post next, though.