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Vile_Servant
Guest
“Unless ye do penance, ye shall likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5)
What do Non-Catholics believe and practice with respect to penance?
What do Non-Catholics believe and practice with respect to penance?
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TriuneUnity
Guest
Which translation of Luke 13:5 are you using? The Greek word does not mean penance… it means repent (metanoeô - to change one’s mind or purpose). I understand that the Vulgate is the only to have mistranslated it as do penance.
We do not practice penance for the purposes of making ourselves right with God, as our works cannot do so. Of course, acts that are in keeping with repentance are fine.
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Cominghome89
Guest
Merrian Webster definition of penance: an act of self-abasement, mortification, or devotion performed to show sorrow or repentance for sin
Like most Protestant protests, we seem to have a simple misunderstanding of words going on here. You deny that we must do penance, but acts of repentance is more proper? What is the difference, and how do you see this as a mistranslation?
Like most Protestant protests, we seem to have a simple misunderstanding of words going on here. You deny that we must do penance, but acts of repentance is more proper? What is the difference, and how do you see this as a mistranslation?
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The_Geographer
Guest
From the NAB… Interesting translation that Douay Rheims
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TriuneUnity
Guest
It is a mistranslation because works of penance are not in view here, but rather, repentance or a change of mind about one’s sins.
The difference is that acts in keeping with repentance are works that are done in response to a realization of one’s sins and as a response to what God grants us through the gospel. Penance, on the other hand, has traditionally been seen as actions which make us right with God or that atone for some temporal or eternal debt.
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gurneyhalleck1
Guest
Luther’s proper translation of “be penitent” rather than “do penance” during his study of the NT was one of the key moments that made him see the Gospel differently. The translation is technically as Triune says, a change, turn-around, re-thinking.
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Vile_Servant
Guest
The Protestant reformer John Calvin said that repentance "may be justly defined to be “a true conversion of our life to God, proceeding from a serious fear of God, and consisting in the **mortification of the flesh **and of the old man, and in the vivification of the Spirit.” He further said that “it will be useful to amplify and explain the definition we have given; in which there are three points to be particularly considered.” "In the first place, when we call repentance “a conversion of the life to God, we require a transformation, not only in the external actions, but in the soul itself; which, after having put off the old nature, should produce the fruits of actions corresponding to its renovation. . . .In the second place, we represented repentance as proceeding from a serious fear of God. For before the mind of a sinner can be inclined to repentance, it must be excited by the knowledge of the Divine judgment.
“It remains for us, in the third place, to explain our position, that repentance consists of two parts—the mortification of the flesh and the vivification of the spirit. . . . Both these branches of repentance effects our participation of Christ. For if we truly partake of his death, our old man is crucified by its power, and the body of sin expires, so that the corruption of our former nature loses all its vigor. . . .If we are partakers of his resurrection, we are raised by it to a newness of life, which corresponds with the righteousness of God.”
[Quotes from A Compend of the Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin edited by Hugh T. Kerr, The Westminster Press-Philadelphia 1939.]
“It remains for us, in the third place, to explain our position, that repentance consists of two parts—the mortification of the flesh and the vivification of the spirit. . . . Both these branches of repentance effects our participation of Christ. For if we truly partake of his death, our old man is crucified by its power, and the body of sin expires, so that the corruption of our former nature loses all its vigor. . . .If we are partakers of his resurrection, we are raised by it to a newness of life, which corresponds with the righteousness of God.”
[Quotes from A Compend of the Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin edited by Hugh T. Kerr, The Westminster Press-Philadelphia 1939.]
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