Post tenebras lux
Post tenebras lux is a Latin phrase translated as Light After Darkness. It is Post tenebras spero lucem ("After darkness, I hope for light") in the Vulgata version of Job 17:12[1].
The phrase was adopted as the Calvinist motto, and was subsequently adopted as the motto of the entire Protestant Reformation,[2] and also of John Calvin's adopted city of Geneva, Switzerland. As a mark of its role in the Calvinist movement, the motto is engraved on the Reformation Wall, in Geneva, and the Huguenot Monument, in Franschhoek, South Africa.
Post tenebras lux was formerly the state motto of Chile, before being replaced by the Spanish Por la razón o la fuerza ('By reason or by strength'). It is the motto of American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts and is one of the two mottos of Robert College, an American school in Istanbul, Turkey and also the motto of Beyoglu Anadolu Lisesi in Istanbul (former English High School For Girls). It is also the motto of Externado de Colombia University.
Other uses
It is also the ex-libris of the original Quixote editor, Juan de la Cuelfa.
References
- ^ Job 17:11–13:
11 dies mei transierunt cogitationes meae dissipatae sunt torquentes cor meum
12 noctem verterunt in diem et rursum post tenebras spero lucem
13 si sustinuero infernus domus mea est in tenebris stravi lectulum meum - ^ "History of the Reformation" (PDF). Retrieved 3 March 2007.