# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1861_S278
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

278 "Art Thou a Master in Israel, and Knowest Not These Things?"

...more souls might be won for the Lord Christ, without their envying him the fame of scriptural learning, of eloquence, and of zeal. In Apollos, on the other hand, there appears a wondrous modesty and compliance, in that he, however distinguished he was by eloquence and however well versed in Scripture, nevertheless let himself be instructed by laypeople (as they call them), by a craftsman (for Aquila was a tentmaker/carpetmaker), indeed even by a woman, and by people previously unknown to him. And how is it, moreover, that these critiques of sermons are, so to speak, sanctified by a law in the church, since St. Paul says that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, 1 Cor. 14:32? For with these words he teaches that God does not grant the gifts of his Spirit to prophets or interpreters of Scripture so that they might become puffed up, eccentric, or self-willed, listening to no one and wanting to be wise all by themselves, but rather so that they gladly submit their teachings and gifts to other prophets or teachers of the church for judgment, listen modestly to others, and show themselves compliant toward anyone who brings forward something more correct. —

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(Submitted by A. W.)
"Art Thou a Master in Israel, and Knowest Not These Things?"

On this saying of Christ, Jacob Andreä — that godly, learned theologian so uncommonly active on behalf of the Lutheran church, "chief author and promoter of the Formula of Concord" — says, among other things, in a sermon delivered at Leipzig and printed in 1579, the following, which might well be worth taking to heart in America too:

.....: "But this should be said to all doctors of Holy Scripture. I do not, however, speak of doctors at the universities. Every parson in the village is a doctor; for 'doctor' means a teacher. Art thou a doctor at the academy of Jerusalem, and knowest not this?

From this it is to be learned, first, that no one should be entrusted with the teaching office unless the man is fit for it. For on the Last Day those will have to answer for it who set fools over the villages and preside so wretchedly over poor people. If the parsons can do nothing and know nothing, what then are they to teach others? On the Last Day, too, our Lord God will require the blood of all those who were led astray from the hands of those people who advanced them to it. And in case someone wished to be advanced, and he knows that he is unfit for it, he ought to be sensible enough to say: I will not do it. Am I to undertake a trade that I cannot practice? If I were a tailor, I would not gladly ruin someone's cloth in making a pair of trousers — let alone that I should ruin and lead astray the soul of the humblest peasant. I would rather remain a stable boy, or would rather become a swineherd, than presume to teach others and be unable to do it.