Dirk Philips

[redoyja]

Has anyone here actually read the writings of Dirk Philips? I've been asked to share about him in church service, just to see what we can learn from him. I find him to be a learned man, who really knew the scriptures. Every paragraph he wrote seems to have multiple Bible references.

One thing I notice is his insistence on the truth and trying to get everyone on board with the exact same understanding of truth. For example, there was very little grace for those who saw the Ban or shunning differently from him.

Do you have a positive, negative, or neutral opinion of him?

[Robert]

I wish I could help, but I am unfamiliar with him.

[Neto]

I thought I posted this, but now it's not there....

I have the Hand Book, by Dietrick Philip, but it is translated from Dutch to German then to English, and like the older Complete Writings (Menno Simons) by Funk (An English translation of the German translation), I find id difficult to read. (I have the direct Dutch to English translation of Menno.)

I've read a bit in the Hand Book, but not nearly all of it.

[Neto]

Firs, I realize that having not looked at the book carefully when I wrote before, that I misspelled 'Dietrich' (with a 'k' instead of with an 'h'). I should also acknowledge that I do not know why he is sometimes referred to by the name that is on the book I have instead of Dirk Philips, as you have it, and also as he is named in the GAMEO resource. But I am confident that it is one and the same person.

Just a couple of quotes, perhaps touching on some main 'doctrines':
The Scripture as the sole authority for belief:
pg 250, in the section titled True Knowledge of God:

The first characteristic is that nothing but God's word is believed, for faith comes by hearing of the word of God.., and not from the doctrine of men; for faith looks to God alone, and believes him faithful and true in all his words and promises, and all carnal men deceitful..; hence faith judges not by the word of men, however plausible and good it might appear to be, but by God's word alone.
The second characteristic is that faith believes all God's words, and makes no exceptions;....

The section following this is titled "The Tabernacle of Moses", and here Dirk deals with a theory that the figures of the Hebrew Tabernacle (the Holy of Holies, and the other courts within the temple) can be used to divide Christians into different classes.

... namely, that by the tabernacle they make a distinction between Christians. Some they place into the court, some into the holy place, and some into the holiest of all. For these they have found two names, viz, those they place into the court and into the holy place they call the children of Esau, those whom they place into the holiest of all they call the children of Jacob. The children of Esau they call warriors, carnal and firstborn children of God; the children of Jacob they call conquerors, spiritual and newborn children of God.

In this way these false teachers were "making a place" within the family of God for those who claim belief in God, but were willing and eager to take up the sword of the world. (I had not heard this idea before, or rather, this use of the tabernacle and its different areas, to "admit" violent men into the Kingdom. I don't think I had read this far in the book before, or do not remember. I'm sort of skimming this afternoon.)

[Neto]

I continued reading the GAMEO article about Dirk Philips
https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Dirk_ ... 1504-1568)
and saw that according to that source he was considered "the voice of the Dutch Mennonite church" (my wording) after Menno's death.

So I'll just add here that as far as I can recall, I had never heard of him before I came to Holmes County (from my own Dutch Mennonite background). He is, however, mentioned several times in the book "The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia (1789-1910)", by Peter M. Friesen. But I had not read that volume until in recent years (2018), when I was given it by my parents when they moved into a retirement home. I don't know when my Dad bought a copy, but it was only first translated into English in 1978.

Anyway, the book "credits" Dirk as the one who "drove" Menno to the strict view of the ban he finally adopted in his old age. (Mennonite Brotherhood..., pg 18, 31.) This controversy eventually lead to the fracturing of the Doopsgezinde (Dutch 'anabaptism') into 5 factions, who ended by excommunicating one another. Visual signs of "faithfulness" came to the forefront, things like beards - long or short, buttons or hooks and eyes, pockets and collars - these things received inordinate attention. Perhaps this is the reason I first encountered (and purchased) Dirk's The Handbook right here in Berlin, Ohio, not in my own "cultural setting", within the MB church. My ignorance of Dirk Philips is probably not surprising, considering the emphasis on 'brotherhood' on which the MB group was founded, guiding it as it continued to develop in the 165 years since its beginning in January of 1860.

[redoyja]

His writings were really popular with the Amish, many bringing copies of his handbook when they emmigrated to America. Dirk wrote quite a bit about the ban and shunning and the right way to do it, which is probably why the Amish esteemed it like they did or do.
Also somewhere I read that later when the Dutch anabaptists dropped their strict positions on the ban, they stopped using and quoting Dirk Philips as extensively.

[Neto]

I'm curious what approach you took for your talk, or is that still in the future?

[barnhart]

I ended up with a random book from my grandfather's collection after he died, mostly because I wanted something he had written his name in. It turned out to be "Hand Book of Christian doctrine and religion" by Dietrich Philip, translated from German by A. B. Kolb, published by John F. Funk and later republished by Pathway Publishing.

It begins with a summary of doctrine, much like a modern statement of faith and then settles into a format of general essays. There is one essay dedicated to "The Evangelical Ban and Shunning", but I haven't read it yet.

[barnhart]

Note: I imagine I have the same book as Neto.

[redoyja]

I'm curious what approach you took for your talk, or is that still in the future?

I just gave a basic biography of Dirk Philips and tried to show where he was coming from, and the role he played in the church. Everyone knows Menno Simons. Dirk Philips may have been almost as influential. According to some historians, Philips writings lack the compasion and love that Simons writings have. I mentioned a bit about the radical arm of Anabaptism that drew him in ( the man who baptised him was executed after arrest in Amsterdam along with others for running through the streets with drawn swords procaiming the day of the Lord)
But I spent some time discussing his inflexibility in dealing with others who interpreted scripture differently or had different applications than he did. How was that a good thing? How was it a negative?
Also i talked a bit about his brother Obbe Philips who ordained Dirk, Menno and others, who later left the anabaptist movement. Obbe lamented for leading people astray in this movement that was filled with false pride and dissension.