Translated from Latin.
1. grace and peace from the Lord. The conversion of the Jews is almost everywhere in the whole world very infamous (infamus), not only among the Christians, but also among the Jews, in that they say it occurs
No one with an honest heart had converted from Judaism to Christianity, but whoever had done so had not been able to remain with the Jews because of a bad reputation due to a disgraceful deed, but those who had done so testified with experience,
*With this letter, Jonas sent to Andreas Rem, a citizen of Augsburg, the Latin translation he had made of the previous writing. The same is found in the Latin Wittenberg edition, Tom. The year 1524, which is found in the Latin Wittenberg and the old edition of Walch at the end of this letter, will not be correct, because De Wette, Vol. II, 450, mentions a single edition of the Latin translation published in octavo in Wittenberg in 1523. We have taken this letter from the old edition of Walch.
**) This letter was added to Luther's De Jesu Christo, vero Judaeo et semine Abrahae, libellus, Viteb. 1523. 8. published in Latin by J. Jonas and is found in the Latin Wittenberg edition, Dow. VII, toi. 165 k. Otherwise still in Vermoorten, Analecta sacra superioris aevi, p. 221; in Strobel-Ranner, p. 95 and in De Wette, vol. II, p. 450. We here translated according to De Wette.
1824 De Wette N, 45o f. 48 6. Letter to Bernhard, a converted Jew. W. XX, 2267-2269. 1825
They were in the habit either of eating again what they had eaten, or of leaving the Jewish religion for some fictitious reason. Strange is the story that is said to have happened under the emperor Sigismund, when a court Jew petitioned the emperor with many requests that he be allowed to become a Christian. Finally he was accepted and baptized, but then he was led into temptation, although before the time and beyond his ability. For as soon as he had received baptism, the emperor ordered a double fire to be built, calling one the Jewish fire and the other the Christian fire, and commanded the baptized Jew to choose in which one he would rather be burned? For now (he said) you are baptized and holy, you will hardly become better in the future. Then this wretched man, as a testimony to his faith, which was either falsely pretended or even weak, chose the Jewish fire, jumped into it as a Jew, and let himself be burned as a Jew. The story of the will of a baptized Jew in Cologne, along with many others, is well-known enough.
2. But I believe that the cause of this evil rumor is not the stubbornness and malice of the Jews, but rather their gross ineptitude and ass-like ignorance; But then also the exceedingly vicious and impudent life of the popes, priests, monks and schools, since they have not inspired a spark of light or fire in the Jews, neither by doctrine nor by Christian conduct, but by everything that can only be repugnant to them, by darkness and error of their human statutes and by the example of their exceedingly evil life, they have turned away their hearts and consciences and made the Christian name alone known to them, so that one can rightly point to them the saying of Christ, Matth. 23:15: "Woe to you, scholars of Christ and Pharisees, who wander over land and water to make a fellow Jew; and when he is made a Jew, you make him a child of hell, more double than you are." Namely, they accuse the
Jews, that they convert in a fictitious way, but they do not punish themselves, that they convert the same in a fictitious and godless way, yes, seduce from one error into another, which is once again so harmful. What honor, I pray you, would that be, indeed what madness would that be of a teacher, who would lecture only the most pernicious doctrines to a boy of good hope and docile head, and then teach him only the most disgraceful conduct in life, and yet afterwards wash his hands of him and say that the boy had not accepted the good from him? In this way, a whore mistress would teach a girl fornication and then accuse her of not behaving like a virgin. That the conversion and teaching of the Jews by our Sophists and Pharisees is completely the same, your own experience also bears witness to this.
But because the golden light of the gospel now rises and shines brightly, there is hope that many of the Jews will be converted sincerely and honestly and be drawn out of the world 1) to Christ, as you and some others, who are the remnant of the seed of Abraham, who will be helped by grace. For he who began it will also accomplish it, and will not let his word come back to him empty. Therefore I have deemed it good to send this booklet to you, for the substantiation and fortification of your faith in Christ, whom [Christ] you have recently learned from the Gospel, and upon whom you have now also been baptized in the Spirit and born of God. And I desire that by thy example and work he [Christ] may be known among other Jews also, that they who are ordained beforehand may be called and come to their King David, who feeds and saves them, but whom our priests and Pharisees, who are ordained that this judgment should come upon them, reject with indescribable fury. Fare well in the Lord, and pray for me.
1) In the Wittenberg: ex animo - from the heart.