A postil or postill ( la, postilla; german: Postille) was originally a term for
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
commentaries. It is derived from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''post illa verba textus'' ("after these words from Scripture"),
referring to biblical readings. The word first occurs in the chronicle (with reference to examples of 1228 and 1238) of
Nicolas Trivetus, but later it came to mean only
homiletic exposition, and thus became synonymous with the
homily
A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ex ...
in distinction from the thematic sermon. Finally, after the middle of the fourteenth century, it was applied to an annual cycle of homilies.
Early Lutheran postils
From the time of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
, who published the first part of his postil under the title ''Enarrationes epistolarum et evangeliorum quas postillas vocant'' (Wittenberg, 1521), every annual cycle of sermons on the lessons, whether consisting of homilies or formal sermons, is termed a ''postil''. A few of the most famous
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...
postils are those of M. Luther (''Kirchenpostille'', Wittenberg, 1527; ''Hauspostille'', 1542, 1549),
P. Melanchthon (''Evangelien-Postille'', Germ., Nuremberg, 1549; Lat., Hanover, 1594),
M. Chemnitz (''Evangelien-Postille'', Magdeburg, 1594),
L. Osiander (''Bauern-Postille'', Tübingen, 1597), and
J. Arndt (''Evangelien-Postille'', Leipzig, 1616).
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Catholic postils
By 1530 postils were commonly used in Catholic preaching, at least in Germany. The two (in Latin) by Thomas Stapleton proved popular. Frymire has tabulated the development from 1520 (Catholic and Lutheran).
Later postils
The term postil fell into disuse during the period of Pietism
Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life, including a social concern for the needy an ...
and the Enlightenment, but was revived by Claus Harms (''Winter-Postille'', Kiel, 1812; ''Sommer-Postille'', 1815). It has again become common through W. Löhe (''Evangelien-Postille'', Frommel 1848; ''Epistel-Postille'', 1858), and M. Stuttgart (''Herzpostille'', Bremen, 1882, 1890; ''Hauspostille'', 1887–88; ''Pilgerpostille'', 1890).[
Reformed Churches, which disregard a regular series of lessons, have no postils; in the ]Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
the term has been kept, especially through Leonard Goffiné (''Hand-Postill oder christ-catholische Unterrichtungen von allen Sonn- and Feyr-Tagen des gantzen Jahrs'' (Mainz, 1690; popular, illustrated ed., reissued twenty-one times by H. Herder, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1875–1908; Eng. transl., T. Noethen, New York, n.d.).[
]
See also
* Homiliarium
* Marginalia
Notes
References
*
*
;Attribution
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{{Lutheran Divine Service
History of Lutheranism
Homiletics