Whew! So far, this has been a week of close battles unparalleled in Lent Madness history. On Monday Mechtild of Magdeburg defeated Odo of Cluny 52% to 48%. On Tuesday Raymond Nonnatus bested Moses the Black 51% to 49%. And yesterday Augustine of Canterbury snuck past Scholastica 51% to 49%.
This heart-pumping saintly action is enough to make you want to do some yoga. Or deep breathing exercises. Or drink some chamomile tea. Something calming! But instead, the battles just keep coming. Today it's the scrappy Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky taking on the heavyweight Martin Luther. Is an upset in the making? Another tight race? Or will a blowout break the string of hotly contested, halo-busting battles?
Note that yesterday's battle was not without controversy. The following was posted by the Supreme Executive Committee:
The SEC noticed an irregular surge of votes for Scholastica around midnight. Well over 6,000 votes were found to be cast irregularly in an attack using bots around the world. We have removed what we believe to be the correct amount of votes, and will continue to monitor this race. One person, one vote. If you break this rule, your votes will be removed and you will be cast off into the outer darkness of Lent Madness.
We are confident in the final result. But remember, Big Lent is watching.
Joseph Schereschewsky
SIJ Schereschewsky was a cleric, missionary, and renowned translator of the prayer book and Bible. He knew 13 languages, and spent the last twenty years of his life typing out his translations with the fingers he still could move. (Sources vary on whether it was one or two fingers. Either way--that sounds hard.)
First off, his last name is pronounced “Share-es-shev-ski”. Think of Duke men’s basketball’s famous head coach from that OTHER bracket game for reference.
Schereschewsky’s translation of the Bible into Mandarin was so well-done that it became the standard translation that is still in use today. It took him from 1862-1875, so all that time was clearly justified. But he didn’t stop there. He believed that people couldn’t be truly faithful without also being educated, so he founded St. John’s University at Shanghai, and then went to work translating everything also into Wenli--another Chinese dialect. It was the Wenli manuscript that he meticulously typed out using two fingers, after Parkinson’s disease left him entirely paralyzed. The disease had caused him to resign his seat as the bishop of Shanghai, but he was determined that it should not stop his ministry. He produced over 2,000 pages just by sitting in his chair, and hen-pecking.
His contemporary biographer describes him thus: "paralysed in every limb, and with his powers of speech partly gone, sitting for nearly twenty-five years in the same chair, slowly and painfully typing out with two fingers his Mandarin translation of the Old Testament and Easy Wen-li translation of the whole Bible."
Schereschewsky grew up Jewish, and until his conversion, intended to be a rabbi. This affinity for Judaism didn’t disappear after his ordination; while in China, a small group of Kaifeng Jews--a tiny minority of Jews who emigrated to central China from Persia in the Middle Ages, came to visit him. This began a friendship, and Shereschewsky gave their community the Hebrew Scriptures that he translated into Mandarin. The community termed it “The Two-Finger Bible” because of Schereschewsky’s disability. This also contributes to the longevity of his biblical translation. Because he knew Hebrew, and understood midrash and rabbinic ideas, modern scholar Irene Eder notes that his version “can be regarded as the only Chinese Old Testament to reflect not only the traditional Jewish text but to also included elements of the Jewish exegetical tradition.”
Regarding his work, he said, “I have sat in this chair for over twenty years. It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I was best fitted.”
Martin Luther
Martin Luther’s life was filled with quirky meanderings. The path of his life bemused even him, “I am the son of a peasant…and the grandson and the great grandson. My father wanted to make me into a burgomaster. He went to Mansfeld and became a miner. I became a baccalaureate and a master. Then I became a monk and put off the brown beret. My father didn’t like it, and then I got into the pope’s hair and married an apostate nun. Who could have read that in the stars?” (Table Talk).
When he discovered that the people living around Wittenberg were not properly schooled in the basics of the faith, he wrote the Small Catechism, proposing this learning regimen “Children should be taught the habit of reciting [the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Our Father] daily... Until they recite them they should be given nothing to eat or drink.”
Luther took his faith and work seriously, but he also loved life: “Tomorrow I have to lecture on the drunkenness of Noah, so I should drink enough this evening to be able to talk about that wickedness as one who knows by experience.”
“Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.”
And, scholars throughout history have been amused, occasionally appalled, by his scatological humor and insults: “Almost every night when I wake up the devil is there and wants to dispute with me. I have come to this conclusion: When the argument that the Christian is without the law and above the law doesn’t help, I instantly chase him away with a fart.” (Table Talk)
“Perhaps you want me to die of unrelieved boredom while you keep on talking.” (Luther’s Works)
And, some things haven’t changed even 500 years after Luther so pointedly highlighted time-wasting meetings: “If you who are assembled in a council are so frivolous and irresponsible as to waste time and money on unnecessary questions, when it is the business of a council to deal only with the important and necessary matters, we should not only refuse to obey you, but consider you insane or criminals.” (Luther’s Works).
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326 comments on “Joseph Schereschewsky vs. Martin Luther”
Most people stricken with paralysis would give up. I have to vote for someone who kept on even though battling a horrific illness. What an inspiration!
I hope that Luther's remark about making children recite actually means simply that they should do the recitations before breakfast.
Both of these extraordinarily energetic men translated the Word, stood up for learning, and planted churches. I still have to go with Bishop Samuel, over the issue of respect for our Jewish parents in faith, and because of the great damage of schism. I know Luther did not intend to break away, but break away he did, and set up the long and bitter tradition of Protestantism -- "when there is conflict, anathematize and disfellowship your rivals, and declare yourself and your followers the true heirs of the primitive church."
For Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky and Martin Luther
Tune: Down Ampney, Hymnal ’82, 516, Come Down O Love Divine
Come Holy Guide in time
To help us to divine
‘twixt saint whose name can’t be spelled and one easy.
Faithful in many ways
Each gave to all his days
The service found within his heart and fingers.
Sam took the humble way;
Sought truth without dismay.
In Scripture found new life, fresh truth and wisdom.
Used every gift he bore,
Gave ‘til he had no more,
Found Grace within a body fully broken.
Martin sure nailed Rome’s gaffes
Which wanted none to ask
The difference ‘twixt Christ’s teachings and their practice.
His jokes were often crude!
(To Henry 8 quite rude!)
Still he shook up the world, ‘twas for the better.
And so whome’re we choose
Christ’s servants cannot lose.
They each have given what they had to offer.
We all have those we like
For golden halo bright!
Whoever wins the Reign of God won’t suffer.
Very good, Diana!
You never fail us!
Excellent! Especially the last line; both Scott and Tim always remind us that all these saints already have the true Golden Halo.
Also, "Come Down, O Love Divine" is one of my favorite hymns and hymn tunes.
Voting Luther for two reasons: 1) A Mighty Fortress is my favorite hymn 2) S.knowing 17 languages makes me think he needs a life. (I know it is my jealousy of people who pick up languages easily.
BTW to the SEC, if I was a conspiracy theorist I would claim you are fixing the voting. Next we will be hearing about who votes are being discounted due to hanging chads. LOL
Meow woof says the dog cat
I want a coffee mug that says Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky.
We're gonna need a bigger mug.
Luther might suggest a beer mug!
SIJS Baptism is in the register of Trinity, Pittsburgh but some years ago, The Living Church claimed a Baptism for him
elsewhere. I have never been able to solve that mystery... Can anyone help?
Great to hear from a fellow Deputy, George.
And very cool about his baptism in the parish register.
Does anyone else have Tom Lehrer running through their head? Schereschewsky's name would fit perfectly in this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXlfXirQF3A
Although I am not suggesting that translating the Bible is plagiarism.
Hahaha! Well, at least that got "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" out of my head!
Didn't before, but it is now. (Running through my head, that is.)
You are welcome.
OMG, yes!
[…] sound defeat in 2013. Show mercy upon him, a sinner, as he competes in 2017. Vote Martin Luther at LentMadness.org today! #HereIVote #Reformation500 #Reformation2017 #Reformation […]
Throughout my life, Luther and his contribution to the development of the church was appreciated and we are all products of his reformation, but today contest is on what is written here in this text, and that is what these two should be judge on, not our own previous knowledge. It is clear that Sam has to beat Luther. I must say it is an "unfair competition" but so can be life when Human is the exam writer, the examiner and the test corrector. Accomplishment against Humor????????
Joseph - as I head off to a long meeting! I can't resist the two-finger typing and his dedication overall.
Luther's thoughts on meetings almost got my vote, but it's the other quotes that didn't get in--the anti-Semitic ones--that make me unable to vote for him. Also, Father Sam is awesome. The story about the Hebrew Bible translation for the Kaifeng Jews would probably have swayed me no matter who his opponent might be.
Hey, hey! Wait a minute! Who's to say the 6K votes for Scholastica was not a saintly inspired storm of ballits? I hope you guys did not annoy you know Who. I AM just sayin'...
Ballots, not ballits!
Let's just beer-it!
Your bio today of Luther made him sound like a bum. Let's not forget that he translated the Bible into the language of the common people and loudly chastised the Roman Catholic Church for its practice of selling indulgence to get into heaven. He put forth the concept of grace and, despite his somewhat surly behavior he was a devoted husband and father. You clearly steered today's vote in favor of the other guy.
How will you fit Joseph's name on the winning mug?
2 lines.
Thanks to Sofie, Ann Cooper, Anthony, and Diana. An Anti-Semite vs. a Jew; no contest. Many years ago there was a quiz show from Hartford featuring "Mr. Sherry," who was Bp. Schereschevsy's son. Does anyone else remember?
The show was called What in the World. It was on channel 3.
Well, I'm sticking with Luther, although I am impressed with the Jewish cast to Father S's thinking. I cannot imagine a better prayer/rebuke to the regime in power right now than Luther's: "we should not only refuse to obey you, but consider you insane or criminals.” Luther had a strong and earthy sense of humor, which infused his disputation. And yes, he had a medieval peasant's sometimes brutal and always physical view of order and authority. But perhaps he is the man to fight a brutal golfer; if Luther could fart him out of power, I for one would give thanks.
After being a Lutheran for 69 years before joining the Episcopal church, I thought for sure I'd vote for Luther - but his statement about abusing children to make them learn and justifying drinking by teasing the devil just ended that desire. A man who spent the last years of his life typing bible translations with two fingers is much more saintly.
Luther: "... Until they recite them they should be given nothing to eat or drink.”As a pediatric nurse, I witnessed a father who would not feed his child until she had recited her alphabet (she was 2 years old) and counted to 100. Needless to say, the child was near starvation and the father was charged with abuse. So Luther's remarks, whether meant literally or 'humorously' did not set well with me. Cross him off my list altogether!
Luther's humor is an acquired taste. And many of his comments (including that on denying children nourishment) are deliberate overstatement, not to be taken literally. Even so, his faults are many, his sins were egregious -- but he said so himself. He clung to God's promise of grace on behalf of Jesus Christ alone, because he knew himself to be a lost, sinful creature. On another day I would vote for Joseph Schereschevsy; but today, here I vote, I can do no other! Father Martin, feet of clay and all.
This should be the year for Luther. We're celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation - thanks be to God.
Martin Luther's significance to Christianity is indisputable, but right now I need some of Joseph Schereschewsky's steady patience and faith.
Peasants and Jews did not enjoy Luther's humor
Joseph gets my vote. How does one say thirteen lingual? His commitment, determination in spite of physical diasabilty, and the bridge he provided with the Jewish community is impressive to say the least. The irony of the choices today as mentioned in previous posts occurred to me right away. Off to yoga now (not) to recuperate from yesterday's lent madness drama.
This an updated, edited retread of something I posted for the Martin Luther - Martin Luther King Lent Madness matchup of 2013. I present to you The 95 Lent Madness Theses (Round 2). Even if you do vote against Luther (I forgive you), I hope you find some of its resources educational if not humorous. #HereIVote #Reformation500 https://2pennyblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/95-lent-madness-theses-round-2/
Well done, Lou! I read all 95, and I commend them to other LM voters! I especially enjoyed the animated Luther Polka (I saw him tap dance, moon walk and can-can, too!). Did I miss any mention of Garrison Keillor? Splendid advocacy effort!
Luther, for standing up to the excesses of the pope and for risking all to assure us of God's love and forgiveness. The indulgence business was questionable at best, and a scam at worst. He gave us all the freedom to think and to free ourselves from the thought that we might buy our salvation, when Christ had already paid the price.
Come on, folks. It's Martin Luther. No one has had more influence on Christianity except, you know, Jesus (. . . and Paul, and maybe a couple of others . . .) But MARTIN LUTHER for heaven's sake!
How can Luther possibly be losing !?!? Those great quotes make me admire him even more, particularly the ones about farting at the devil and getting drunk in order to be able to preach about drunkenness. However, the one about starving your children until they learn their lessons is less appealing.
While both were translators, we need saints who transcend the borders of our faiths to reach out in friendship - like Joseph.
Your text today was such a DISSERVICE to Luther. Your focus was off-target and COMPLETELY irresponsible. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Breathe deeply, Allen, and repeat, "It's only Lent MADNESS, it's only Lent MADNESS.."
And this round is about Quirks & Quotes.