Last trumpet and resurrection

Use in the book

Its exact place in the two routes matters. The universal Stone has already been prepared and can then be joined to selected materials through philosophical fermentation. Khunrath says that in this condition it exalts silver and gold to more-than-perfection in an instant, without the preceding reduction into first matter required in the earlier route. Only after stating that distinction does he introduce the comparison with the last-day change into incorruptibility.

The analogy therefore does not attach indiscriminately to every dissolution, putrefaction or regeneration. It helps characterize a sudden transformation by the completed universal agent. Reading it as a demand that all metallurgical operations be instantaneous would erase the carefully stated sequence; reading it as proof that raw Magnesia can already transmute would contradict the later rejection of precisely that boast.

The comparison runs across the page turn. Page 101 begins the symbolic reference; p. 102 names the Last Day, last trumpets and Paul's teaching, then returns to silver and gold as regenerated and more-than-perfect metals able to communicate from their perfection. The theological aside does not replace the technical assertion. It interprets the asserted natural-artful event through a scriptural pattern while preserving both subjects.

This is a useful limit on the general word “regeneration.” Khunrath uses several figurative and technical descriptions of change, and they need not name an identical route at every occurrence. The resurrection passage has its own local subject: the completed universal Stone's momentary perfecting action in fermentation.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 99The universal route yields the glorified Great Stone
2. 1599 p. 101The completed Stone is said to perfect metals without the earlier preliminary reduction
3. 1599 p. 101The symbolic last-day comparison begins at the end of the page
4. 1599 p. 102The last trumpets and incorruptibility complete the comparison before the return to metals
5. 1599 p. 102 · marginKhunrath cites 1 Corinthians 15:51–52

Translation in this edition

Translate Vnuerweßligkeit as “incorruptibility” or “incorruption,” keeping its theological sense distinct from ordinary resistance to a particular laboratory treatment. The marginal citation is primary; the broader identification as resurrection imagery is the natural reading of the named Last Day and Pauline reference.