{"id":284,"date":"2017-07-10T18:24:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T17:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/illuminating-objects\/?page_id=284"},"modified":"2017-09-01T12:49:55","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T11:49:55","slug":"god-mercy-sinner-i","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/illuminating-objects\/illuminating-objects-home\/german-miniature-picture-bibles\/god-mercy-sinner-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Biblical Figures and Themes"},"content":{"rendered":"

In making their picture books, Christina and Magdalena K\u00fcsel compressed the Old and New Testaments into a selection of prints representing tales from each book of the Bible. A German text, probably printed separately from the engravings as letterpress, identifies the scene along with the book and chapter of the Bible from which it derives. There are 132 prints in the Old Testament and 131 prints in the New.<\/p>\n

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\n\u2018God Have Mercy On Me, Sinner That I Am\u2019 (Luther)<\/h3>\n

\n Man is predestined to sin. The men and women of the Old Testament were not saints to be worshipped and revered. Luther insisted on their human failings, their need for forgiveness from God, and if they were protected and sustained by God it was not because of their own merits, but because of the will of God and consequently the strength of their faith. Thus the histories of the Old Testament became manifestations of Luther\u2019s doctrine of salvation not through good works, but through faith alone:\u00a0sola fide<\/em>. There is nothing heroic in the K\u00fcsels\u2019 treatments of the biblical figures. Images of murder, grief and sorrow abound, for example: The Death of Eli (I Samuel IV); the Murder of Abel (Genesis IV); and Anger of the Lord against Israel (II Samuel XXIV). The drama of divine retribution is depicted in the Death of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus X).<\/p>\n