HEMMINGSEN, NIELS (1513–1600)
Context. Educated in Wittenberg under Martin *
Luther and Philipp *
Melanchthon, Hemmingsen became the leading Danish churchman and biblical scholar of his time. His exegetical work reveals his concurrent engagement with ethics and dogmatics and the influence of the Wittenberg humanistic approach to biblical studies, coupled with a concern for pastoral care. His work on pastoral theology,
Pastor (145–50), taught that the pastor’s first duty is to feed God’s flock his Word, from the books of Moses, the prophets, the apostles and Evangelists, delivering their teaching for the repentance and forgiveness of sins of God’s people. His careful treatment of the language and content of the texts made his biblical commentaries and postils useful tools for pastors.
Life and Work. Hemmingsen, a native of the island Lolland, began his university studies in Wittenberg in 1537 after preparatory training in Roskilde and Lund, where he learned Greek. He returned to Copenhagen in 1542 to accept a position as instructor of Greek, assuming a chair in dialectics in 1545 and in theology in 1553. His leadership helped shape Danish higher learning before and after his removal from office in 1579 because of his spiritualizing (“crypto-Calvinistic”) views of the Lord’s Supper. He spent the remainder of his days at the monastery at Roskilde, continuing to publish and serve as royal advisor. His work on scholarly method, the second half of which treated exegetical-homiletical method (1555, at least five subsequent editions to 1578), was a pioneering contribution to the formulation of rules for academic biblical studies. His postil on the traditional Gospel lessons for the church year appeared in 1561 and 1562 (at least six subsequent editions to 1585). His commentary on Romans (1562) was followed over the next decade by individual volumes on all the New Testament epistles, which were brought together in
Commentaria in Omnes Epistolas Apostolorum (1571–1572, subsequent editions 1579, 1586). He also composed extended commentaries on
Psalm 25 and
Psalm 84 (1567, 1569) and on John’s Gospel (1590–1591). All his exegetical works were published in Latin; some were subsequently translated into Danish, German and English during the sixteenth century.
Interpretive Principles. Hemmingsen ascribed to Scripture the sole authority in the church for determining public teaching. Following Melanchthon’s example, the Danish theologian did not include a topic on Scripture in his dogmatic textbook, the
Syntagma, but did treat its authority under “the certainty of the church’s teaching” (1578, 259–71). Philosophical demonstrations, though a good gift of God, cannot assure readers of Scripture’s truth, for they provide only the light of human reason and senses, whereas the teaching that the church derives from Scripture has the light of God. The Holy Spirit gives assurance that Scripture is true through external signs, such as miracles, the fulfillment of prophecies, the ongoing consensus of teaching in the true church and the endurance of the church under persecution. The internal sign of the reliability and authority of Scripture is experienced in the believer’s receiving the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the heart (
2 Cor 1:22;
5:5;
Eph 1:13–14). Hemmingsen ascribed authority also to the ancient creeds, Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian, because they are digests of Scripture. Writings of the ancient church Fathers must be evaluated against the Word of Christ to determine whether they may be used or must be rejected as false.
Hemmingsen’s canon was that of his Wittenberg instructors. He distinguished the homologoumena from the antilegoumena, noting that for many Fathers, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, James and Jude (and “according to some” also Hebrews) lay “outside the canon.” In spite of this historical judgment, Hemmingsen treated these letters in his commentary on New Testament epistles in the same manner as he treated the other apostolic letters.
Hemmingsen’s
De Methodo divides Scripture’s message into history and doctrine, doctrine into content (law and gospel) and signs (ceremonies and sacraments). God’s teaching became clearer at progressive stages of revelation, Moses expressing in aphorisms what the prophets explain fully, the prophets predicting what the apostles articulate fully. Hemmingsen’s commentaries emphasized the Old Testament foreshadowings and background of New Testament events. His expositions of the psalms interpreted them christologically. He regarded God’s provision of redemption for sinners in Christ as the heart of the message of all biblical writers (1578, on “Spiritus et Litera,” 201–9). The prophetic and apostolic writings are “the springs from which flow the Savior,” whose benefits, bestowed on the basis of God’s eternal plan through his universal grace, the church brings to those who are justified through faith (1571–1572, 5, 9). The
analogia fidei, as taught in Wittenberg, is to guide all interpretation, according to the distinction of law and gospel, which Hemmingsen believed is found in God’s discourse after the fall with Adam and Eve and throughout his revelation thereafter.
Interpreters must command the original languages so that they can understand the text’s original sense. They must pay attention to the order and relationship among parts of a writing. Interpretation leads to proclamation of God’s truth and rejection of false teaching. This is accomplished through the uses of grammatical, dialectical and rhetorical analysis. Dialectical analysis examines the doctrine, authority, certainty, necessity and utility of a specific work. It identifies its principal question, or argument. Standard tools of analysis that Melanchthon developed out of the Aristotelian and humanist traditions aided Hemmingsen’s assessment of the biblical writers. Sermons fall into two categories, didactic and hortatory. The former treats topics or persons (as examples); the latter may persuade, rebuke or console.
The Copenhagen professor again formulated rules for biblical interpretation in a preface to his summary of Christian teaching for pastors, his
Enchiridion (1557) (A1a-C2a). Much of the material in
De Methodo was repeated, but Hemmingsen expanded his hermeneutical discussion with treatments of how to draw parallel passages together and how to evaluate seeming contradictions within Scripture. If the exact definition of terms in the contradicting passages, their precise contexts, concerns, purposes and modes of expression, as well as the times in which they are set, are examined, readers will see that the contradictions are only apparent (B1b–B8a). Hemmingsen recasts the order of Melanchthon’s
loci communes, summarizing biblical teaching as gospel or promises in an initial section (treating God’s covenant of grace and Christ’s spiritual rule) and as law in three additional sections, regarding Christian living, the rule of the church and the societal walks of life.
In practice Hemmingsen’s treatment of biblical texts reflects the rhetorical/dialectical training and the theological orientation of his Wittenberg instructors, especially Melanchthon. He consistently employed the distinction of law and gospel and the Lutheran dogmatic categories within this distinction. The law disciplines the outer person and crushes the inner person with the accusation of sinfulness. The preaching of the gospel brings the forgiveness of sins to the repentant and results in the performance of good works. This takes place within the ongoing conflict between God and Satan (see the prefaces of the
Commentarius … Epistolas and the
Postilla). Sixteenth-century preachers were engaging in the same struggle against sin that those who proclaimed God’s Word had fought against the devil since Adam. Hemmingsen connected this preaching closely to the proper forms of worship in which it was set in the experience of the church.
In his commentaries, from the first in the 1560s to that on John in 1590 and 1591, Hemmingsen followed his method, introducing each epistle with a summary of its “argumentum,” including descriptions of its author; the occasion for writing; its scope, “question,” “status,” “material principle” or purpose; and its rhetorical structure. The chief idea of each chapter and a comment on its order and parts preceded the text’s “exegesis” and “observation regarding the teachings” of the chapter. (This was among the first uses of the word
exegesis in this modern sense, according to Hagen, 183–84.) His comments guided readers through the organization of the epistles and their individual chapters, relating elements of the line of reasoning of the apostles to each other. Exegesis and doctrine were not presented in separate sections but were combined in extensive narrative glosses for each verse, occasionally with grammatical or philological treatment of a Greek word or phrase. Though he urged theological students to learn Hebrew, he did not comment on Hebrew vocabulary or syntax, not even in the commentaries on psalms. Hemmingsen did not formulate topics (
loci communes) on each chapter, as did some contemporaries, but he did occasionally set forth the “members” or “articles” of the teaching of a passage, especially in his commentary on John, or offer readers theses on the doctrinal implications of a pericope. He frequently relied on biblical cross-references for interpretation. The voices of ancient church Fathers echo through his commentaries, providing explication or (rarely) a foil for his own construal of the text. He graced his comments with appropriate citations from ancient non-Christian authors as well. Although he consulted contemporary commentators, he did not enter into open criticism or appreciation of their interpretations.
Hemmingsen’s postil provides an
enarratio that summarizes and organizes the content of the traditional Gospel lesson for each Sunday or festival. It then sets before the reader two to four topics (
loci) that could form the chief thoughts for proclamation to the people. These sermon studies do not therefore present complete sermons, as did many contemporary postils, but only guidelines for study of the text and preparation of the homily. While not devoid of linguistic analysis and cross-references to enrich and reinforce the texts at hand, these notes tend more to offer direction for application to the lives of hearers.
Grounding his proclamation in the text, Hemmingsen included admonition to repentance, bestowal of the forgiveness of sins through the work of Christ and instruction for Christian living in his sermon notes.
Significance. Hemmingsen’s influence was not limited to his profound impact on the clergy of the kingdom of Denmark. His works were published in Germany and England and found widespread acceptance in his generation there. K. Hagen’s suggestion of Hemmingsen’s importance for the history of hermeneutics must be heeded. He was a significant representative of Wittenberg biblical interpretation in the period of confessionalization.
Bibliography.
Works. Commentaria nes Epistolas Apostolorum … (Leipzig: Ernst Vögelin, 1571–1572);
Commentariorum in Sacrosanctum Domini Nostri Iesu Christi Euangelium Secundum Iohannem … (2 vols.; Basel: Conrad Waldkirch, 1590–1591);
Commentarius in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos (Leipzig: Ernst Vögelin, 1562);
De Methodis Libri Duo … Posterior Uerò Ecclesiasten Siue Methodum Theologicam Interpretandi, Concionandique Continent (1555; Wittenberg: Johannes Crato, 1559);
Enchiridion Theologicum Praecipua Verae Religionis Capita Breviter et Simplicter Explicate Continens (Wittenberg: Johannes Crato, 1557);
Enarratio: Psalmi Octuagesimi quarti … (Copenhagen: Matthias Vinitor, 1569);
Enarratio Psalmi Vigisimi Quinta … (Wittenberg: Schwertel, 1567);
Pastor: Sive Pastoris Optimus Vivendi Agendique Modus (Leipzig: Ernst Vögelin, c. 1565);
Postilla Seu Enarratio Evangeliorum, quae in Dominicis Diebus, et in Festis Sanctorum … Proponuntur … (Baltser Kaus: Christoph Barth, 1561);
Syntagma: Institutionum Christianarum, Perspicuis Assertionibus ex Doctrina Prophetica et Apostolica Congestis … (Geneva: Eustathius Vignon, 1578).
Studies. K. Barnekow,
Niels Hemmingsens Teologiska Åskådning (Lund: Gleerup, 1940); K. Hagen,
“De Exegetica Methodo: Niels Hemmingsen’s
De Methodis 1555,” in
The Bible in the Sixteenth Century, ed. D. Steinmetz (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1990) 181–96; J. C. V. Johansen, “Preacher and Audience: Scandinavia,” in
Preachers and People in the Reformation and Early Modern Period (Cologne: Brill Academic Publishers, 2001) 297–325; M. Jakubowski-Tiessen, “Niels Hemmingsen,” in
Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart Bd. 3, ed. H. D. Betz, et al. (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000) 1623; E. Madsen, “Er Calvin Niels Hemmingsens eksegetiske Forbillede?”
Dansk Teologisk Tidsskrift 4 (1941) 1–10.
R. Kolb
