MIND ON FIRE: THE LIFE OF JACOB BOEHME
by Wayne Kraus
“His bodily appearance was somewhat mean; he was of small stature, had a low forehead but prominent temples, a rather aquiline nose, a scanty beard, grey eyes sparkling into heavenly blue, a feeble but genial voice. He was modest in his bearing, lowly in conduct, patient in suffering and gentle-hearted.” (Frankenberg)
Any biographical sketch of Jacob Boehme must be a brief one, since there is a paucity of reliable information about his outward life, though the productions of his inward life extend to many volumes. He was naturally meek, self-effacing and reflective. He lived the life of a quiet and pious tradesman until the contents of his volcanic mind irresistibly spilled over into the larger world, bringing him unwanted notoriety and adventure.
The best-known stories of his private life are from the biography by his good friend Abraham von Frankenberg. Frankenberg tells of a childhood visitation from a divine messenger, the discovery of a hidden treasure which later vanished, the "pewter dish" Illumination, as well as JB's miracle-working power, clairvoyance and ability to speak "all 72 languages." And though none of this is mentioned in his own writings, it is interesting that, three centuries before the Pentecostals, JB insisted that the charismata were not withdrawn from the church at the end of the Apostolic Age, but that the Holy Spirit still granted the gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, word of knowledge and healing.
He was born in 1575, probably on April 24th, at the village of Alt Seidenberg in Upper Lusatia, a mile from the city of Gorlitz. The name Boehme probably derives from nearby Bohemia. Though the village was poor, it had a schoolhouse where Jacob received a basic education. His father was a peasant landowner, an elder in the church, and had enough financial wherewithal to apprentice his son to a shoemaker. In 1599 he became a master cobbler, joined a guild, married a godly woman and bought a house in Gorlitz, where he became a prosperous tradesman.
Gorlitz c. 1600
In 1600, Martin Moller became Head Pastor of Gorlitz and founded a fraternity called “the Brotherhood of God’s True Servants,” of which Boehme became a member. This was his introduction to the movement known as Pietism. At a time when Reformation theology had ossified into dead dogma, and “saving faith” had been redefined as “correct doctrinal opinion,” the Pietists emphasized an inward experience of Jesus Christ and the outworking of holiness and charity in daily living. True salvation was understood as regeneration rather than mere justification.
As a Pietist Lutheran who admired the mystical writings of Tauler, a Kempis, Ruysbroeck, Suso and Bernard of Claveaux, Moller ran afoul of church authority, but under his preaching revival broke out in Gorlitz. Many were converted, and Jacob Boehme was awakened. It was at this time that he had his “pewter dish” experience. (See the Intro on the home page)
“And presently it came powerfully into my mind to set the same down in writing, for a memorial for myself; albeit I could very hardly apprehend the same in my external man, and express it with the pen; yet however I must begin to labour in these great Mysteries as a child that goeth to school: I saw it (as in a great deep) in the internal, for I had a thorough view of the universe as in a CHAOS, wherein all things are couched and wrapt up, but it was impossible for me to explicate and unfold the same. Yet it opened itself in me from time to time, as in a young plant: albeit the same was with me for the space of twelve years, and I was as it were pregnant, (or breeding of it) with all, and found a powerful driving and instigation within me, before I could bring it forth into an external form of writing; which afterward fell upon me as a sudden shower, which hitteth whatsoever it lighteth upon; just so it happened to me, whatsoever I could apprehend, and bring into the external [principle of my mind] the same I wrote down.”
Thus Boehme began his first book, Aurora.
In 1606, Moller died and was replaced by his polar opposite: Gregorius Richter, a drunken, worldly ecclesiastic of low intelligence and foul disposition, who would become Boehme’s chief persecutor.
In 1612 Boehme lent his still-unfinished Aurora to a nobleman named Karl von Endern who, without the author’s knowledge or consent had the book unbound and copied. Thus, unbeknownst to Boehme, his book began to circulate and his name came to be known among the intellectuals of Lusatia, Bohemia and Silesia.
A copy fell into the hands of the drunken Prelate of Gorlitz, who predictably flew into a rage, not because of the contents of the book, which were beyond his comprehension, but because a layman dared to encroach on his professional turf by writing a religious book. He denounced “the shoemaker” from the pulpit and demanded that the City Council expel Boehme from Gorlitz, lest God cause the ground to open up and swallow the whole town. Next day he was summoned before the Council, who found no fault in him. Nevertheless, intimidated by the besotted but powerful cleric, they banished Boehme from Gorlitz. He was not even allowed to stop and say goodbye to his family, but forced to walk straight from the courthouse to the city gates. He wandered the fields alone all day and spent the night no one knows where.
The Council must not have slept well that night, for next morning they repented and invited Boehme to return. They urged him “out of love for the city’s quiet” to hand his book over to Richter for immolation and desist from writing any more books. To this he agreed.
He applied himself to his trade and did not write again for seven years. He was heckled by children and louts in the street and rocks were thrown through his windows, but the persecution only increased his fame and curiosity about his book! Though declining business reduced his family to poverty, scholars and noblemen made pilgrimages to his house, sometimes staying for weeks, and leaving gifts of “corn and money.” Friends persistently urged him to ignore the Council’s decree and take up his pen again. He was understandably reluctant to comply.
“I saw this first book no more in three years; I supposed that it was dead and gone, till certain learned men sent me some copies of it, who exhorted me to proceed, and manifest my talent, to which the outward reason would by no means agree, because it had suffered so much already for it; moreover, the spirit of reason was very weak and timorous, for my high light was for a good while also withdrawn from me, and it did glow in me as a hidden fire; so that I felt nothing but anguish and perplexity within me; outwardly I found contempt, and inwardly a fiery instigation; yet I was not able to comprehend [that light] till the breath [or inspiration] of the Most High did help me to it again, and awakened new life in me, and then I obtained a better style in writing, also deeper and more grounded knowledge: I could bring everything better into the outward expression; which the book, treating of the threefold life through (or according to) the three principles, doth demonstrate; and the godly reader, whose heart is opened, shall see.”
From 1619 till his death in 1624 he produced a huge corpus of literature. The meridian light of Aurora had become the noonday sun of revelation seen in The Three Principles of the Divine Essence, The Threefold Life of Man, The Incarnation of Christ, Forty Questions of the Soul, The Signature of All Things, Mysterium Magnum and dozens of shorter books, tractates and epistles.
His books were assiduously copied by hand and widely distributed, but brought him no income other than occasional gifts from friends. He sold his business and made ends meet by selling woolen gloves in Prague, travelling dangerous roads through lands torn by the Thirty Years War. He also remained an attentive father, caretaker of an orphaned niece and kept up a busy correspondence with his many adherents and inquirers. He remained a busy man of affairs even while in the throes of divine ecstasy for days on end and when his fierce inspirations kept him writing deep into the night. Boehme was no cloistered mystic. He was a healthy and active man, fully engaged with reality.
It is nonetheless accurate to describe him as a mystic, since his revelations came straight form the Source, and not from books of lore.
“Thus now I have written, not from the instruction or knowledge received from men, not from the learning or reading of books; but I have written out of my own book which was opened in me, being the noble similitude of God, the book of the noble and precious image (understand God's own similitude or likeness) was bestowed upon me to read; and therein I have studied, as a child in the house of its mother, which beholdeth what the father doth, and in his child-like play doth imitate his father; I have no need of any other book.
“My book hath only three leaves, the same are the three principles of eternity, wherein I can find all whatsoever Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles have taught and spoken; I can find therein the foundation of the world and all mysteries; yet not I, but the spirit of God, doth it according to the measure, as He pleaseth.”
His books were circulated discreetly so as not to draw further attention from the religious authorities. But in 1623 friends published a print edition of two tractates under the title The Way to Christ. Its popularity renewed the attentions of Gregorius Richter, who published a pasquillo against Boehme, the contents of which reveal the character and intelligence of the churchman:
“There are as many blasphemies in this shoemaker's book as there are lines; it smells of shoemaker's pitch and filthy blacking. May this insufferable stench be far from us…. The Arian poison was not so deadly as this shoemaker's poison….The shoemaker is the Antichrist…. Jesus drank fine wine, but shoemakers drink whiskey...”
Our shoemaker was again summoned before the Council, who warned him that he might be tried for heresy by the Emperor and advised him to flee the country. He was offered a safe haven at the Electoral Court in Dresden, where he was examined by a panel of theologians and scientists, who pronounced him “a man of marvelously high mental gifts, who at present can be neither condemned nor approved.”
Boehme and Richter both died in 1624. No doubt Richter died as he had lived – in a rage – since one of his sons had recently become an adherent of Boehme.
While staying at the house of a nobleman in Silesia, Jacob was afflicted with a high fever and developed a gastric ailment, possibly as a result of drinking too much water. He was brought back to Gorlitz where he languished for two weeks. We will let Hans Martensen tell the end of the story:
He awaited death with composure. On Sunday, November 21st, shortly after midnight, or early in the morning, he called his son Tobias, and asked him if he did not hear that sweet and harmonious music. As Tobias heard nothing, he begged him to open the door that he might better hear it; then he asked what was the hour, and when he was told that it had just struck two, he said: “My time is not yet; three hours hence is my time.” After some silence he exclaimed: “Oh, thou strong God of Sabaoth, deliver me according to thy will!” and, immediately afterwards: “Thou crucified Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, and take me to thyself and thy kingdom!” A little later, he gave instructions where some of his manuscripts would be found, and expressed hope that the noble friend whom he had visited in Silesia would provide for his widow, but also assured her that she must speedily follow him (as indeed took place, for she died of the plague in the very next year). At six in the morning, he suddenly bade them farewell with a smile, and said, “Now I go hence into Paradise.”
Also see
THE LIFE AND DOCTRINE OF JACOB BOEHME
by Franz Hartmann
Selections from Apology: Balthazar Tylcken
I know well that I can do Nothing in my own Might or Strength. But Faith, which can receive where there is Nothing, can do it: If I cast my Will into God’s Will, then GOD believeth in My Will; and then I can receive, for nothing is Impossible to Faith: I can receive to myself the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ; if My Will willeth, yet I cannot do it, but God’s Will in Mine.
I know Nothing, also desire to know nothing, nor have I at any time sought any skill or knowledge; for I am a child in knowledge, and a Nothing; I would also fain know Nothing, that I might in knowledge, be dead and a Nothing, that God in the Spirit of Christ, may be my knowing, willing, and doing, that I may run in his knowing and willing, and that not I, but he; that I may be only his Instrument, and he the Hand and the Labour.
My high knowledge maketh me not happy or saved; for I know not my Self; it is not Mine, but God’s Spirit knoweth it in ME; he allures Me therewith to himself; when he departeth or withdraweth, then I know Nothing.
Now I believe, that I shall arise in HIS and MY Flesh and Eternally Live in him, his Life for mine, his Spirit for mine, and all whatsoever I am, for him; He, God, I, Man, and in him God and Man; and he in me God and Man.
2:171, 2:270, 2:295, 1:587