作者：猞猁 在 驴鸣镇 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
一直以来有一个传言,声称加尔文曾说过这样的话
“Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?”
有一次我看到这个网页还在重复这种说法，更牛的是它竟有鼻子有眼的说这句话出现在加尔文的创世记注释中，（John Calvin, citing Ps. 93:1 in his Commentary on Genesis）
Rosen, Edward (1960)指出以上的“加尔文语录”不见于今天能找到的任何加尔文著作（当然更不可能在Commentary on Genesis或Institutes里面），但另一位学者Joseph Ratner却持有不同意见，他还举出加尔文“反科学”的一个例子，据余创豪先生的一篇题为《天主教与新教对歌白尼、伽里略之态度》的文章引述，Ratner在一篇发表在Journal of the History of Ideas的论文中指出：加尔文曾经批评哲学家以自然科学解释彩虹的成因。证据是加尔文的如下一段话：
「如果任何在哲学上一知半解的人，抱着嘲笑我们单纯信仰的见解，以为多种颜色是阳光在云的另一边折射出来的自然现象，那么我们一定马上承认它，但是我们会嘲笑他的愚蠢：他没有承认上帝是主、是自然的主宰，上帝按着其旨意，采用任何东西去宣扬其荣耀。」
Ratner的这篇论文是英文的，因此以上这段加尔文的citation 应该是余创豪君翻成汉语的，这就给寻找这段话的出处造成了困难，因为Ratner, J的这篇论文没有网上版，余君的文章也没提到这段话出自加尔文哪部作品。本来我以为应该在加尔文的圣经注释系列中找，虽然加尔文至少两次提到了彩虹问题,一次是在创世记9章13节,另一次是在以西结书1章28节，但都没有这段话。（令人奇怪的是加尔文在这两处明确承认彩虹的确只是阳光被水反射所产生的现象、并非独立的实体；他还相信彩虹在挪亚洪水之前就存在了）。
最后确认，这段话出自《基督教原理》第四卷. 第十四章 “论圣礼” Section18. Sacraments in the wider sense
现有的网上汉译是这样的：
十八、圣礼这个名称，照上面所说，是用以指神所给予人的一切表记，以证实他的应许为可靠。这种表记，他有时用自然的事物，有时用神迹来表明。前一类的例子有如：他赐亚当和夏娃生命树，作为不死的保证，只要他们吃生命树上的果子，他们就准知可以不死（创2： 9，16，17）；又如他“把虹放在云彩中，”作为对挪亚和他的后裔的表记，以后“不再有洪水毁坏地了”（创9：11-17）。这些东西对亚当和挪亚就是圣礼。这并不是说，那不能将不死给本身的树，能将不死给他们；也不是说，那由日光在云上反射而成的虹，能有制止洪水的功效；而是说，它们有由上帝的话所加上的记号，使它们成为他立约的表记和印信。树与虹以前就都存在了，但它们一印上神的话，就有了新的样式，不再是以前的东西了。好叫人不能以为这是空话，那虹直到如今就对我们继续见证神和挪亚所立的约，因为我们一看见虹，就想到神必不再用洪水毁灭世界的应许。所以，倘若有肤浅的哲学家讥笑我们的信仰简陋，说这种光彩不过是日光反射对方云层的自然结果，我们就当立刻承认这一层；但是我们要笑这人愚笨，不认识神为管理自然的主宰，按照自己的意旨运用万物来增加他自己的荣耀。倘若他曾以同样的印记加于太阳，星辰，土和石头上，它们对我们也就成为圣礼了。为什么同一块白银未铸造以前的价值，不如铸造以后的价值贵重呢？理由乃是，它原是未曾加上什么的，但一经印上公共的记号，它就变成了钱币，有了一种新价值，那为神所造之物虽然本来不过是物质，难道神不能用他的话来在它们上面盖上印，使之成为圣礼吗？
The term sacrament, in the view we have hitherto taken of it, includes, generally, all the signs which God ever commanded men to use, that he might make them sure and confident of the truth of his promises. These he was pleased sometimes to place in natural objects--sometimes to exhibit in miracles. Of the former class we have an example, in his giving the tree of life to Adam and Eve, as an earnest of immortality, that they might feel confident of the promise as often as they ate of the fruit. Another example was, when he gave the bow in the cloud to Noah and his posterity, as a memorial that he would not again destroy the earth by a flood. These were to Adam and Noah as sacraments: not that the tree could give Adam and Eve the immortality which it could not give to itself; or the bow (which is only a reflection of the solar rays on the opposite clouds) could have the effect of confining the waters; but they had a mark engraven on them by the word of God, to be proofs and seals of his covenant. The tree was previously a tree, and the bow a bow; but when they were inscribed with the word of God, a new form was given to them: they began to be what they previously were not. Lest any one suppose that these things were said in vain, the bow is even in the present day a witness to us of the covenant which God made with Noah, (Calv. in Gen. 9: 6.) As often as we look upon it, we read this promise from God, that the earth will never be destroyed by a flood. Wherefore, if any philosophizer, to deride the simplicity of our faith, shall contend that the variety of colours arises naturally from the rays reflected by the opposite cloud, let us admit the fact; but, at the same time, deride his stupidity in not recognising God as the Lord and governor of nature, who, at his pleasure, makes all the elements subservient to his glory. If he had impressed memorials of this description on the sun, the star, the earth, and stones, they would all have been to us as sacraments. For why is the shapeless and the coined silver not of the same value, seeing they are the same metal? Just because the former has nothing but its own nature, whereas the latter, impressed with the public stamp, becomes money, and receives a new value. And shall the Lord not be able to stamp his creatures with his word, that things which were formerly bare elements may become sacraments?
作者：猞猁 在 驴鸣镇 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
加尔文和彩虹的一段公案
