March 1538.
Grace and peace in Christ. I have received your writing and the verbal advertisement of your skill, but I have not been able to answer as hastily as I would have liked, because of many unavoidable obstacles. Give me credit for that.
(2) Now that you have shown me how in the countries the Jews are now and then tearing down with their flesh and doctrine, and have already deceived some Christians into being circumcised, believing that the Messiah or Christ has not yet come, and that the law of the Jews must remain forever, and be accepted by all the Gentiles, (2c) I desire to know how this is to be done with the holy Scriptures; this time, until I have more time, I will give my advice and opinion by this letter.
1) The first part.
Whether Messiah had come.
(3) First of all, since the Jewish people are so hardened by their rabbis that it is difficult to win them over; for when they are referred to the Scriptures, they fall from the Scriptures to their rabbis, and say that they must believe their rabbis, just as you Christians (they say) believe your pope and decrees. This they answered me themselves, when I also once disputed with them, and led the Scriptures against them. Therefore, in order to strengthen the Christians, you should bring out the old argument, which Lyra and many others have used, and which the Jews still use today.
1) This superscription is from the Wittenberg edition.
*This writing appeared in March 1538 (on March 27 Luther sent it to Hausmann) at Wittenberg with Nickel Schirlentz. Then it is found in the editions: in the Wittenberg (1556), vol. V, p. 443b; in the Jena (1568), vol. VII, p. 31; in the Altenburg, vol. VII, p. 32; in the Leipzig, vol. XXI, p. 531, and in the Erlanger, vol. 31, p. 416. The good friend to whom this letter is attributed is, according to the testimony of Mathesius (Luthers Leben, St. Louiser Ausgabe, p. 62), Count Wolf Schlick zu Falrenau. We give the text according to the Erlangen edition, which brings the original print, comparing the Wittenberg and Jena editions. This writing was translated into Latin by Justus Jonas (1539). It is included in the Latin Wittenberg edition, Tom. VII, fol. 215b; we have also used this translation to correct readings.
The people of the world are not able to answer anything honestly from this, although they have disgracefully perverted much scripture about it, even contrary to their own oldest teachers, of which there is neither time nor space to speak now.
4 And this is the argument: The Jews are now 1500 years outside Jerusalem in misery, that they have neither temple, worship, priesthood nor principality; and therefore their law lies with Jerusalem and all the Jewish kingdom in ashes, so long ago. They cannot deny this, because their miserable status and experience, and the place that is still called Jerusalem, which lies desolate and without Judaism before the eyes of all the world, relegates them too well and too grossly. So they cannot keep Mosi's law, because only in Jerusalem, as they themselves must know and confess; because their priesthood, principality, temple, sacrifices, and what Moses has established for them and on them by divine command, they cannot have or hope for outside Jerusalem. That is one thing, and almost certain.
5. Now you shall ask: What is sin, and what is its name, because God has punished them so horribly that they have to live in misery for so long without priestly, princely, that is, without Moses' 1) foundation and rule, without sacrifice, and other ordinances of the law, especially without Jerusalem: For God's promise is there (as they also boast) that their law shall remain forever, and Jerusalem shall be God's own dwelling place, and both princes of the tribe of David and priests of the Levites shall always remain before God; as the prophets and Scriptures are full of such promise, as they know, and (as said) they boast; and has such a glorious, mighty, manifold promise been lacking now for fifteen hundred years, as they unfortunately well feel?
(6) Therefore, since it does not rhyme to blame God for not keeping His promise and lying fifteen hundred years, you should ask what is wrong, for God cannot lie or deceive. To this they will and must answer: it is the fault of their sins; if the same are atoned for
1) Wittenberger and Erlanger: "Mosisch".
God will keep his promise and send Messiah. Now stand firm (as I said) and ask: How are such sins called? For such terrible, long, horrible punishment indicates that they must have horrible, horrible sin upon them, the like of which has never been heard from the world. For so long a time God has never tormented any of the Gentiles, but has recently executed them; how then should he torment his own people for so long, and so torment them that they still know no end of it, nor can they know 2)?
(7) Now it is nothing for them to say that it is because of their sins, and yet they cannot name those sins; they would just as soon say that they have not committed any sin, because they are not guilty of any sin that they can name, and thus are unjustly punished by God. Therefore, you should press hard for them to name such sin. If they do not do so, you will have gained so much that they will deal with lies and nothing will be left to believe them.
(8) If they call it sin, mark them well, for this argument grieves them. And even if I were a Jew, and Abraham born of his womb, and also most diligently taught by Moses, I would truly know nothing to answer it, and would have to leave Mosaic Judaism and become what I would.
9 Some of their rabbis, to comfort and blind their poor people, answer thus: this sin is that their fathers worshipped the calf in the wilderness, such sin they shall now atone for, until 2c. Is this not terrible blindness? And what is this before those who read the Scriptures? For if this sin should be so great, why did God afterwards do so much good to the people of Israel, for and for such miracles through prophets, kings, also peasants and women, as the books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Kings 2c. testify? Which he would not have done if he had not graciously forgiven all sin, not to mention this one, which was punished at that time. Why did he not at that time, for the sake of such sin, just as much
2) "nor know" sehlt in the Wittenberger.
would have left his people, but, regardless of such sin, brought them into the Promised Land and done all good, exalted and honored above all the Gentiles? If he now keeps his Messiah back because of this sin, atoned for at that time, he might also have said at that time: I will not bring you into the land, nor honor you as highly as I have promised; for you have done such sin, which I will never forget, nor forgive.
(10) If at that time he did not let any sin hinder him from keeping his promise, as he had spoken to Abraham, as he 1) has never left his promise for the sake of men's sin: how should he now so long forgive his Messiah for the sake of such sin, whom he has so gloriously promised that David's throne and the priests' sacrifices shall not cease before him? Ah, many other sins happened at that time under Moses, than with BaalPeor, with many temptations of God 2c., on which they are severely punished, as Mosi's books show; why do they not bring them here either? Do you say, dear friend, to such Jews: it is a foolishness, which they themselves know, or should know.
11) For this reason the Messiah was not yet promised to David at that time, so that such a sin of the calf cannot apply here 2). Therefore let them name other sins, because of which they suffer such miserable misery. If they name one or several, then I ask very kindly, you will ascribe them to me quickly, then I will let an old fool and merciful Christian quickly make a stone knife, and become a Jew, and I shall not only have the limb, but also the nose and ears circumcised. But I know that they cannot name any.
12 For the Scripture says that before the Babylonian prison the Jews committed many more and greater sins than they can indicate in the Roman prison, and yet the Babylonian prison lasted no longer than seventy years, with prophets, princes, rulers, and rulers.
1) "he" is missing in the Wittenberger.
2) Wittenberger and Erlanger: "nothing here". Jenaer: not here. Jonas: Uue uou sto.
I will say later that I am firmly and almost comforted by the heat. But in this Roman prison he is none, and yet the terrible punishment is there before his eyes. Tell me, who can, what is the sin? Dear Jew, tell me, what is the name of the sin for which God is so long angry with you and does not send His Messiah?
13) On the other hand, if the Jews could call the sin that God calls it A or B, which they cannot do, their cause is not helped by it, they must still be understood in the lie. For Jeremiah 31:31-34 is written: "Behold, the days come, saith God, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt, which covenant they did not keep, and I had to force them. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the children of Israel after that time, saith the LORD; I will put my law in their hearts, and write it in their minds; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: and no man shall teach another, nor brother another, saying, Behold, know the LORD: but they shall all know me, both great and small, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more."
(14) There are many things in this beautiful saying, but because the Jews like to slip and flutter from one to the other when they feel that they are being hit, you should save all the other things for this time, and stand firm on the thing for which it is now introduced, namely, that the Jews say, "The future of the promised Messiah will be spoiled because of their sins. Against this God says here: "He wants to make a new, different covenant or law", not like Moses' covenant or law, and that nothing should hinder Him that they have sinned; yes, precisely because they have not kept the same covenant, He wants to make a different, new covenant that they can keep, and will not let their sin, or that they have not kept His previous covenant, move them, but will be gracious to them.
Finally, forgive the sin and remember it no more.
15 You must now rest on this piece and reproach the Jews. For how does it read, how does it rhyme? The Jews say that Messiah's future is hindered because they have not kept God's covenant, but have sinned against it; God says, No, I will not look upon such sin, and that they have not kept my covenant shall not hinder me, but my new covenant shall come all the more because they have not kept that covenant, that such sin may be forgiven and forgotten forever through the new covenant.
(16) Now is the time to ask, Who is the one who is the Jew or the one who is the Lord? For they are against each other. Jew says yes; God says no. But there is to be no question at all, but it is proved that the Jews lie, and their excuse is nothing, that Messiah should be deceived because of their sin; and God remains true that he will not let any sin hinder him, but has kept his promise and Messiah's future, and still keeps it, regardless of their sin, and that they have not kept his covenant.
(17) Here you may also hold up to the Jews the ninth chapter of Deuteronomy, or the fifth book of Moses, in which Moses, with a mighty sermon and many words, tells them how they do not take the promised land of Canaan because of their righteousness, because they are a stiff-necked, wicked, disobedient people, always angry with God, and until this very day, "as long as I have known you (v. 24), you have been disobedient to the Lord. 24.) you have been disobedient to the Lord", but because of this they take it that God wanted to punish the Gentiles who dwelt within, and for the sake of His promise, which He had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. As you will find further in the same chapter, whoever wants to read and remember it.
18 Therefore, Moses himself testified that the Jews were not brought into the land of Canaan because of their righteousness or repentance, but because of God's promise, which he had sworn to the patriarchs, and he did not let himself be hindered from keeping such an oath, although the Jews deserved by their sins that he should destroy them to the ground where he was.
Moses also indicates in his prayer in the same chapter, v. 27, that he has appeased God's anger with the single word that God should remember Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, who are now long dead, but their memory for the sake of the promise made to them, lived before God, and were able to do everything 2c.
19. If at that time God did not allow Himself to be hindered from keeping His promise and bringing it to the land because of the people's horrible sin, since the people's sin was obviously and clearly named and known, and everyone can read the Scriptures: How then, because of the sin of the people (which they themselves do not know, cannot name, nor know, nor does any scripture show, and no man can conceive), should he now so long delay, or not keep, such glorious mighty promises of Messiah, and become a liar because of the unconscious sin of the Jews?
(20) And how could the good king David come to believe that God's promise, sworn to him by God, should not be kept for the sake of the Jews' sins? because even his own sins, which he had committed and which are clearly mentioned and read in Scripture (as adultery, the murder of his pious servant Uriah, and blasphemy, 2c.), nothing prevented God's promises, which David repeated and praised at his deathbed, among his last words or testament: a firm and certain covenant was made by God to his house, as one reads in the 23rd chapter [v. 5] of the other part of Samuel, and thereby prophesies that the godless, unbelieving Jews shall be cut off and destroyed.
21. much more, how would the chief patriarch Abraham come to think that God's promise, which had been made to him so abundantly, long before no Jew had been born to Israel, let alone sinned, should not be kept to him for the sake of his descendants' sins, when he, holier than David, had not sinned after being called from Chaldea? The same may be said of Isaac and Jacob, to whom he also made and confirmed such a promise, and for this reason calls himself one God, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, throughout all the generations.
1836 "rl. S1, "SS-4SS. 50. Luther's letter Wider die Sabbather. W. XX, 2281-2283. - 1837
Scripture, and certainly for the sake of their disobedient children and descendants (as Moses calls them) could not have ceased to be their GOD, or become a liar; but the Jews, with such lazy excuse, make themselves liars and blasphemers.
22 Lastly, it is written in the first commandment that God will be angry with the disobedient children of Israel, to whom such a commandment is given, to the third and fourth generation. Zero are the Jews fifteen hundred years under the wrath of God, and there is still no end; in which years the account must give far more than three or four members, yet no Gentiles have ever been so long afflicted, who have never had any promise of God: how then should he forget promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and all the prophets so shamefully, and pardon them so long; nor yet indicate when the misery shall be ended? For the Scripture fully states that God would be and remain God to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their seed, and would not let David's throne fall or be missing, which has now fallen and been missing for fifteen hundred years, as they themselves must feel and grasp, if they could not see or hear it.
23. Since this is clear and evident that the Jews do not know how to name any sin, therefore God should forgive his promise for so long and thus be a liar in this; and whether they could name one or more, still become liars by God's word, since God convinces them that he will not abandon his promise to send from Messiah and to keep the Chair of David forever for the sake of their sin: it is evident from this that one of the two must be true: either Messiah must have come fifteen hundred years ago; or God must have lied (God forgive me for speaking so shamefully) and not kept His promise. And say it again, Messiah must have come fifteen hundred years ago, when the throne of David, the principality of Judah, the priesthood of Israel, the temple and Jerusalem were still standing, when the law of Moses and his established service of God still lasted, and the people still dwelt in regiment with one another at Jerusalem, before everything had so horribly disintegrated and perished.
is desolate; or, if not, God has lied. This cannot be denied by the Jews, who are otherwise still in their right mind; the stubborn may twist and turn, wrestle and wring, 1) with whatever plots they want or like, so their makeshift and escape speech is nothing against such public truth.
(24) Now that Messiah has come and God's promise has been kept and fulfilled, but they have not accepted or believed it, but have continued to lie to God with their unbelief, What wonder is it then that God's wrath destroyed them, together with Jerusalem, the temple, the law, the principality, the priesthood, laid them in ashes, scattered them among all the nations, and did not cease to afflict them as long as they punished and blasphemed the divine promise and fulfillment in their unbelief and disobedience? For they were to have accepted from Messiah the new covenant promised by Jeremiah, and to have received the Messiah; who was commanded to teach them aright of the throne of David, priesthood, law of Moses, temple, and all things; as Moses writes in the fifth book at the 18th chapter [v. 15.], "A prophet shall the LORD raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear." For God speaks [v. 18.]: "he will put his word in his mouth and speak to them".
(25) Here they might make such a plea, that God has several times withheld His help because of sin; as when He let them be afflicted in Egypt for so long, and afterwards in the wilderness made forty days into forty years because of their sin, and at last left them in the misery or prison of Babylon for seventy years. Yes, when they come with it, they come justly, and ye shall accept this, that ye may seize them again in manifest falsehood and deceitfulness, and so shall ye say:
(26) God punishes sinners and tries His beloved saints with calamity, but He does not make His promise a lie or a lack of it, for He is the Truth Himself, and it is essential that He cannot lie. And therefore, when he had afflicted the children of Israel in Egypt
1) "wingen" in all editions; probably as much as: winching.
and try them, he did not fail to keep his promise. Yes, that is probably more, before the children of Israel were created or born, also before Abraham had a child, God cared for them so diligently that he announced to Abraham, Gen. 15 Cap. [v. 13. ff.] 1) and promised that his seed, which he did not yet have, would be in misery for four hundred years, and after that he would go out with great possessions. He truly kept this promise, and after four hundred years he led them out of the Egyptian misery, even though there were enough sins, because they were strong enough against Mosi, as they themselves boast in 2 Mos. 14, 12: "Is it not that we said in Egypt, Arise, let us serve the Egyptians?"
27. The Jews have never had such a promise from their present misery; In addition, God gave the children of Israel patriarchs at that time who were great prophets, and sent Joseph before, who had to order the inn for them, so that they would be received honestly before the misery, and so God was always with them, and kept his prophecy and promise, so that they were sure how they would be led out of Egypt; as Joseph also said at his deathbed, and therefore ordered his bones to be taken out of Egypt.
But now, in their last Roman misery, there is none; there is no prophet, nor do they have any prophecy from the Scriptures as to how long such misery should last, and must, without a definite time, be so miserably afflicted, and go astray without prophets and God's word, which God has never done before, nor would do yet, if his Messiah had not come and his promises had not been fulfilled. For He promised that David's throne would not be missing, and that the sacrifice of the priesthood would not cease, and yet now, fifteen hundred years later, both David's throne and Mosiah's altar, along with Jerusalem, lie destroyed and desolate, and God is always silent, which He did neither in Egypt nor in the land of Israel.
1) Here the old editions have erroneously: "Genesis 16. Cap.", which the Erlangen edition has reprinted. Although Walch improved this error and added the verse number, the Erlangen edition still kept the wrong chapter and added Walch's verse number.
He has done this to another wretch, and neither will he nor can he do this, that he should leave his promise.
029 So also in the wilderness, when they had been afflicted forty years, he forgot not his promise which he had made unto Abraham, that his seed should come into the land of Canaan, and possess it by inheritance; but brought them in even as he had spoken. But he had not appointed a time in how many days he would bring them in; and if they had not sinned, they would have come in shortly; But when they sinned, he promised them, even in anger, that they should come in at the first in forty years, according to the number of the forty days which the spies had spent in visiting the land, and because of their murmuring they became forty years of the forty days, as the text saith: nevertheless he kept his promise, and after forty years they came in, as he was angry with them.
30. He did not abandon them, but performed many miracles, made clouds and pillars of fire serve them day and night, fed them with bread from heaven daily, gave them water from rocks, meat and birds; He did not let their clothes and shoes be torn, built a tabernacle, ordered the tribes of Israel, was with Moses, Aaron and other prophets, punished Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and such like many good deeds that they might take hold of, that God would be with them, and not forsake them for their sin, but would keep His promise faithfully above and against all their manifold wickednesses, and such their sin and wickednesses are called there, and are not unknown.
But now, in this last misery, there is none. There is no sin named which they can denounce; there is no prophet, there is no appointed time, there is no sign, no miracle, no public benefit by which they might feel God's grace, nor a certain place nor place of their misery (as Egypt and the wilderness were), but always sit on the shovel and shovel; today they nest here, tomorrow they are driven out and their nests are destroyed; and there is no prophet here who speaks: Flee thither, or hither, but must also be uncertain of the place of their misery, and hover in the wind, where it is
they blow away. Such things have never happened before, but Egypt, the desert and Babylon were certain places where they suffered misery, and always had God's word and prophets with them, also God's manifestation; but here it is too desolate, and has lasted too long, that David's throne lies desolate, and the law of Moses is omitted in the temple at Jerusalem, where it was established.
32 Thus, when they were driven into misery to Babylon, God did not forget His promise, nor did He forsake His people, but appointed for them a certain time, namely seventy years, and a certain place, namely Babylon, and made them certain that for seventy years they would return to Jerusalem, and that their principality and priesthood would remain. For this purpose he gave them excellent prophets, such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Daniel and his companions, by whom they were comforted and preserved in the meantime; also by great miracles and benefits, which he did through Daniel, he showed that he was with them and had not left them. For also the royal person of Jechonia was highly exalted with the king of Babylon, above all kings, so that the throne of David and the priesthood did not perish, 1) but also the persons remained until the end of the misery, had also long before through Isaiah called the king Cyrum, who should make them free, Isa. 45, 1. who also prophesied much of the same prison before, and did not conceal the sin, but (as also Jeremiah did) called it clear, that one knows well for what sin they were punished.
Therefore these three punishments or miseries, as in Egypt, in the desert, in Babylon, cannot rhyme with this last Roman miseries, because there sin is manifest, prophecy and promise are there, prophets and persons are there, both of the throne of David and the altar of Moses are certain time there. And summa, this cannot be called abandoning nor forgetting divine promise, where God thus holds and stands against his people, thus diligently seizes and assures them; just as this cannot be called "abandoning", since he took care of the children of Israel in Egypt before they were born.
1) Wittenberger: raid.
Abraham determined the time before he had a child. Read Jeremiah chapter 30 and 31 and you will find God lamenting as if he were a weeping mother that his people of Babylon are in misery, even before they came into misery, regardless of their sin, because of which they were to be driven into misery.
How could he in this misery so miserably forget or omit his promise, or make himself so strange, since they have no sin to speak of, and yet this promise of Messiah is the most glorious and powerful, to which all other prophecy, promise and the whole law is directed, that the other promises (as in Egypt, in the desert, at Babylon) are to be esteemed quite insignificant compared to this main promise of Messiah? Has God so firmly held on to the lesser promises there and then, and so warmly comforted the people in small miseries, determined time, shown Himself to be their faithful God with personalities and benefits and with all kinds of ways, and cared for them without ceasing: how is it possible? how is it believable? How does it make sense that in this terrible, long, great misery he should so completely fail to keep his glorious promise, which he made to David, "that his throne should remain eternal and firm", as David boasts in his last words in the 7th chapter of the 2nd book of Samuel, v. 13, and many more writings of the prophets, as Isaiah's, Jeremiah's, also do?
35 The Jews may say of sins, therefore they suffer what they will, for they lie; so God promised and swore not to their sin nor righteousness, but to David an everlasting throne. And even if he would not keep it for the Jews because of their sin, which they do not call sin, he would not lie to David or fail to keep it, to whom he had promised it, as he also sings in Psalm 89:3, v. 4, 5. Since David's throne now lies destroyed for fifteen hundred years, which, says God, shall not be destroyed nor fall, it is irrefutable that Messiah must have come fifteen hundred years ago,
2) Wittenberger: the minor. Jonas: minoribus.
3) In the editions, according to the Vulgate: in the "88th Psalm",
and the throne of his father David and possess it forever; or God would have to have become a liar in his most glorious promise for the sake of wicked people and disobedient Jews. God did not want this, nor will He ever want this; but the Jews lie to God, and deceive themselves, that they blame God: He did not keep David faithful, nor faith, because He did not send the Messiah, in whatever way they would like, and as they pretend 1) and portray it to Him.
(36) Such an argument I know indeed, that, where there are still sensible Jews, must move them, even the hardened, nevertheless, push them a little; for they can muster nothing lasting against it. If they are not moved or pushed, we have nevertheless confirmed our faith that their idle lies and false talk can do us no harm. And if they do not speak to you properly on this argument, but flutter off to the side on other theidings, as they are wont to do, let them go and depart; for you can tell by this that they deal in theidings and lies.
The other, 2)
37) If you write that the Jews boast that their law shall remain forever, and we Gentiles must become Jews, you should answer: First, if it is true that the Messiah has come, then they themselves know that their law is over; for Moses alone shall last until Messiah, as he says Deut. 18:15, that they should hear the prophet whom God will raise up after him. And such a saying also goes among their own teachers: Cum venerit Sanctus Sanctorum, cessabit unctio vestra, that is, when the Holy One of all saints comes, your anointing will cease. Anointing means the priesthood and kingdom, instituted by Moses upon them and among them. For Messiah shall establish a new and better thing for the people of Israel and the See of David.
38 Secondly. How does it rhyme that their law should last forever, when it is now five-
1) Wittenberger: paint.
2) Here the Wittenberg edition has the heading: "Das ander Theil. Whether Moses' law should remain forever."
ten hundred years, both with priesthood, temple, principality and worship, lies in ashes? I mean yes, that is, the law ceases, for they cannot keep Mosiah's anointing or laws apart from the land and Jerusalem, as they cannot deny and well know. And surely God would not have let such a law fall nor lie so long, where he would have kept it forever for and for. Therefore you shall say to them, that they themselves first begin to keep Mosiah's laws and become Jews. (For they are no longer Jews, because they do not keep their law.) When they have done this, we will quickly follow, and become Jews also. But they must have begun fifteen hundred years ago, when they were still in the land and in Jerusalem, when they still had temple, priesthood, and government, and must have remained there, or must have done so, so that it would not have fallen or ceased for fifteen hundred years, and thus would not have lost its eternity, and even now would not have become so miserably un-Jews and without Moses.
39 Or if they have neglected to do this and have not done so, let them still go into the land and go to Jerusalem and build a temple, a priesthood and a principality, and establish Moses with his law, so that they themselves may become Jews and possess the land. When this is done, they shall soon follow us, and shall become Jews also. If they do not do this, it is utterly ridiculous that they should try to persuade us Gentiles to keep their law, which has now been rotten for fifteen hundred years and is no longer a law; and we should keep what they themselves cannot keep or keep as long as they do not have Jerusalem and the land. But if they let them dream that they will keep it by and by, when Messiah comes, we will remain free in the meantime, and will not believe in their dream until it comes true.
40 From this, my dear friend, you should understand how the Jews deal with lame, lazy jokes, that their Mosiah's law should remain forever, when it has now lapsed for fifteen hundred years and has not remained, and they do not yet know how long it should remain. But we, Christians, know that it shall remain forever.
and is completely abolished by Messiah, even among the true Jews and David's descendants; but not among us Gentiles, to whom such a law of Moses was never given, commanded or imposed. For since God Himself has let it fall for fifteen hundred years, it is good to reckon that He has left it out of consideration, and no longer inquires about the obedience or service of this law; otherwise He would not have let it fall, or at least have determined the time, and assured and written with new promises, and with prophets and people, how long He would have let it fall (as said above about other things), which He has not done. Therefore the law of Moses is finished, and not an everlasting law has been established, but an everlasting law has been left.
41. But that the Jews fight with the word Leolam, when Moses says: Such and such laws, which he gives them, they shall keep Leolam, that is, forever, they themselves, the peelers, know very well that it is a pure alfenzen to ape the unlearned in the Hebrew language. Because before me or one, which understands also a little Hebrew, they would not be allowed to pretend such Alfenzen, they wanted to joke then, or cause a laughter. Moses himself writes in Ex 21, 5. f., that if a servant, after he has served, does not want to leave his master, but remains forever, the master of the house shall pierce his ear to the post of the door with an awl (as a sign that he wants to remain in the house forever), and shall remain the master's servant forever. Here the Jews know well that neither lord, servant nor house remain forever, but must die, pass away, and everything be changed: nor is it called here Moses Leolam, that is, forever; which they themselves interpret: for and for, and without certain end with the children of men. Such examples are probably more in the Scriptures of the Leolam.
42 But if I were Moses, I would give a good shilling to my disciples the Jews. For I would say, "I have often used not only Leolam, but also these words: Ledorotham, Bevothechem, Ledorothechem, Moschvothechem, that is, as long as you last or remain.
in your dwellings, which cannot be understood otherwise than: it shall be kept by you forever, as long as you tarry or remain in your dwellings. Now they have been driven out of their dwellings, that is, out of the land of their dwellings, for fifteen hundred years, and have not remained the people whom Moses made them, and have had no dwelling place of their own for fifteen hundred years, nor any promise, nor any appointed time, how long they should be in misery and uncertainty without their dwelling place. Therefore Moses took good care of himself, because he did not want his foundation and law to be eternal any longer than his people would remain and keep their dwelling place; therefore, for this reason, Leolam cannot be called eternal, as it is otherwise called, where it is freely called eternal, without qualification, as God's promises are, and he himself is also.
43 Thus we Germans also use the word "eternal" when we say, "Shall I suffer or do these things forever? that is, as long as I live. And under the papacy, many perpetual endowments are established for the dead, that is, as long as it can last. And feudal estates are conferred hereditarily and forever, that is, as long as the estates and heirs remain or last. But where God, who is truly eternal, speaks of eternal things without qualification, there it is also the truly eternal thing; for he is able to make it eternal, like David's throne, Messiah and the eternal blessing that it brought to us lost people. For it changeth not, as the dwellings of the Jews, or the fiefs of the Gentiles, which change as a garment is changed, Ps. 102:27.
44 For this reason the Scripture separates the human leolam or eternal from the divine leolam in such a way that it adds a non, that is, it should not become different. As when Daniel, in the 6th, v. 26, says of Messiah, "His power is eternal, which passeth not away, and his kingdom hath no end." Here the word "eternal" is written; but in order that it be understood not as a human but as a divine "eternal," it is accompanied by the non, not passing away, no end. As also David Ps. 110, 4. prophesies of the eternal priest, Messiah: "God has sworn," that would have been enough of such a Lord's oath; but so that it would not be a temporal oath, it would not be a human oath.
And if this priest is to be eternal, that he is not eternal in a Mosaic or human way, but that there is no end, and that he is truly eternal.
And Isaiah in the 9th chapter, v. 7, where he also speaks of Messiah (as the Jews like to confess): "His reign will be great, and there will be no end of peace on the throne of David and his kingdom" 2c. Here the prophet does not let it be enough that Messiah, the Prince of Peace (as he calls him). Kingdom become great, but "there shall be no end of peace"; as if he wanted to say: He shall not only be eternal, but also unhindered eternal. And who knows (for I am not highly learned in Hebrew) whether the closed meme [x], which in this place shows the Hebrews a great deal of knot, as they think, means just this, that this Messiah's kingdom should be so eternally great; that it is not an open meme, which would like to be temporally eternal, but a closed meme, since nothing else should now come to pass, but which must be truly eternal.
46 But if the Jews here pretend to keep the law of Moses, even until now, as with circumcision; item, that they do not eat some fish and flesh 2c. is not yet fallen because of this; nothing is said. For we speak of the whole law of Moses, which they are bound to keep; especially the right great parts and bodies, as of the priesthood, principality, temple, worship, Jerusalem, and all the land, upon which the law of Moses proceedeth, and which it hath instituted. For whoever wants to keep Mosi's law must keep it completely, or his keeping is nothing, especially in the main parts, and is just as if I asked about the pot, and they wanted to show me the broken pieces or small pieces of the shattered pot. As also Isaiah in the 30th chapter, v. 14, needs such a likeness against them, that they should become like a shattered pot 1) to such small pieces that one may not find a shard of it to make fire or to draw water.
47 So here too we ask: where is the whole law of the priesthood, the temple, the city?
1) In the issues: Pots. Jonas: lagena.
If the people of the country, and how a people should sit in the regiment, remained? then they show us their shattered pieces and small pieces from eating fish and meat 2c. Where 2) has a city or country ever been destroyed, from which slag, lumps 3) and pieces have not been found? Where does a house burn so completely that one would not find pieces, lime, stones, fires, nails, iron, glass, which remains in the ashes? Now if I asked about the house, and someone showed me a fire or two, or nails in the ashes, to persuade me that it was the house, then I asked: Dear, with what eyes should I look at him? Either I would have to take him for a mischievous boy, who mocked me on such a question; or, if I considered him to be without understanding, I would say: Oh, dear friend, such pieces may well indicate that there was a house here, but it is gone and no longer here.
(48) So the Jews, with the rest of their broken pieces and the dross from eating fish and meat, 2c. show us that they had the law of Moses, but it is no longer there, because the house, the government, the land, the city, the temple, and the whole right head and body of the law has been taken away and destroyed fifteen hundred years ago. If then they will not believe that their law is temporal and not eternal, let them take hold of it, as their land, Jerusalem, temple, Moshi's pen and laws are rent asunder, and they also are destroyed and scattered; let them call it an eternal thing. But we see that it has fallen fifteen hundred years, has ceased and come to an end, and will never rise again. For there is no prophet, no promise, that prophesies that it shall come again, as it was at Babylon and in Egypt; therefore the hope of the Jews is lost, because it has no foundation in the word of God.
49.4) Thus circumcision is not the law of Moses, but was given to Abraham long before; as our Lord also testifies in John 7, v. 22: "Circumcision is not from Moses, but from the fathers," as the Jews cannot deny. Nor is it
2) Wittenberger: How.
3) Grumpen----crumbs, lumps.
4) Here the Wittenberg edition has the superscription: "Of circumcision."
eternal, but had not existed before Abraham, and all was directed to the future Messiah, Abraham's seed; the same they should have heard. And circumcision is no further than to Abraham and his seed. For there are many examples in Scripture that God has accepted great kings and nations among the Gentiles, who are not compelled to be circumcised, much less to follow some of the laws of Moses. First of all, King Pharaoh and his princes and priests, no doubt also many of his people, who learned from Joseph to know the right God, as the 105th Psalm, v. 22, testifies of him, "so that he instructed his (the king's) princes in his own way, and taught his elders wisdom," and thus the Egyptians came to know God through Joseph, and yet were not burdened with circumcision, because they were not Abraham's seed; much less with Mosiah's law, which was not yet given.
50 After this Jonah was sent to Nineveh to preach repentance to them, and the text says: "The king with his princes and people have accepted faith in God and have become 1) devout, so that God will be gracious to them and turn away their punishment. These Ninevites came to grace even without circumcision and Mosiah's law, and received it through their faith and works. This is clearly shown by the prophet Jonah.
51 Thus also the wicked king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was so strongly converted by Daniel's preaching and God's punishment that he had a public sermon preached in his name and commanded that the God of Israel should be considered the right God, he would also be the right God [Dan. 4, 31. f.]. Behold, this king will also be a believer in God and devout, no doubt many others with him in his kingdom: yet he will not be circumcised and will not be bound by any law of Moses, which Daniel would not have failed to point out and interpret to him, if he had not known that Mosiah's law was placed on the Jews alone, and circumcision on Abraham and his seed alone, until the right Master, Messiah, came from his tribe.
1) "are" is missing in the Wittenberger.
52. after that the king Darms and Cores in Persia became believers just by the same Daniel and other Jews, who have indicated to him the prophecy of Isaiah at the 45th Cap. V. 1. ff. that God would call the same king Cores by name, and also his own king or anointed one, and that he would gloriously proclaim that he should build his city Jerusalem for him and that he should release his people full of Babylon 2c. As he did, and publicly proclaimed his confession through his country, as God of heaven had commanded him 2c., 2 Chron. 36, 23. and Ezra 1, 2. and yet he is not circumcised, nor forced under the law of Moses, nor anyone in his kingdom of Persia; which Daniel and his assistants would not have allowed to happen, where they considered the law of Moses and the circumcision of the tabernacles necessary to interpret to the Gentiles, who were not Abraham's seed nor Moses' people. For if they had been necessary to keep them, such kings would not have learned enough from Daniel, nor would they have become true believers in God, nor would they have been saved; that would have been Daniel's fault.
(53) So Job, his household and friends were abundantly gifted with the knowledge of God and the faith, and were not circumcised nor forced under the Law of Moses. And there will have been many more of these people in the countries around, as Hiram, the king of Tyre in the time of Solomon, and others, who are not mentioned in the Scriptures, but nevertheless believed in the true God of Abraham, and thus were saved. And it is a wonder to see how Moses, through so many laws, is completely silent about circumcision, after the exodus from Egypt, when his law is concerned, and drives much less law upon the Jews, his people, so vehemently and to excess; as if he should say: Circumcision is not my law. For even in Exodus 12:43 ff, when he speaks of the strangers who want to eat the paschal lamb with the Jews, he says nothing more, except that no one should eat the paschal lamb uncircumcised, but does not force the strangers, either to eat the paschal lamb or to be circumcised, unless they want to keep the paschal lamb. Therefore it is a new thing that the Jews have proselytes, fellow Jews, from the Gentiles.
and called circumcision. Moses does not force the Gentiles to any of his laws without their will, because he alone is given to the people, led out of Egypt, as a prophet until Messiah, who should become prophet, master and lord of all the world.
54. Because the circumcision and Moses' law was not necessary to put on the kings and Gentiles in Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and others 1) much more, who believed in the God of Abraham and were saved, uncircumcised and without the law of Moses, just at the time when it was highest and the people sat in regiment in Jerusalem and in the land: how then should we Gentiles owe zero to keep their circumcision and law, which is now forfeited, and they themselves cannot keep, because they have lost land, city, regiment, and all that Moses instituted, and have no promise that they shall ever get it again? From all this you can see how the Jews are afflicted with blindness, that they pretend to us Gentiles such unspoken lies and folly of their law, how it should be eternal and to be interpreted to all Gentiles, if it is fallen, and yet abandoned by God without all prophecy, finally and eternally; even before it was written, it never went further than it was given by God, except to Moses' people when he brought them out of Egypt, and to Abraham's seed until Messiah.
55: Now here you shall bring again for a conclusion the saying of Jeremiah Cap. 31:31, 32: "The days are coming, says God, when I will make a vain new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt, which they did not keep, and I had to force them, says the LORD. 2c. This saying causes the Jews great distress, because they wonder and struggle how to make their first covenant eternal; yet the text here clearly and brightly says that it should not be eternal, but that it should become another, new covenant. Let them now here 2) gau-
1) In the old edition of Walch and in the Erlangen edition: "andern". In the Wittenberg and Jena editions: "ander".
2) Jenaer: hin. Jonas: hic.
They may do as they please, but that their law may be renewed in Messiah's day, and be kept by all. Jeremiah does not say that the old covenant should be renewed, but that it should not be the same covenant that they received through Moses in the exodus from Egypt; it should not be that, but a different and new covenant. Now it is well known what covenant Moses made with them at that time; so it is also well known what it means that it shall not be the old covenant; for "not to be" does not mean to renew the old, but to put away the old and establish another new. You must stand firm on this saying, and give no heed to their talk, which they invent out of their heads. For it is said that it shall not be the old, former covenant, nor shall it be renewed; it shall be another, new covenant, and God will have the first covenant no more.
56. Now let us consider whom we should believe more cheaply: the faithful, true God, or the false, lying Jews? God says: Moses' covenant shall not be eternal, but shall end at Messiah's time; the Jews say: it shall be eternal and never end. So God must always be a liar with the Jews, and they still want to be surprised, 4) that they suffer such horrible misery, want to be right, and God shall be wrong.
57 But if they shall flutter here, and so blaspheme: If your JEsus himself said, "He is not come to abolish the law, neither one tittle, nor one letter," 2c., ye shall say, that they abide in the saying of Jeremiah, and give a right thorough answer. For since they believe not our JEsu, they can have no help with him; they shall answer Jeremiah, or resist him, with good appearance and thorough understanding. So it is also a lie, that they bring in our Jesus, that he spoke of the law of Moses, when he says: "The law shall not pass away" [Luc. 16, 17.], because our Lord Christ there speaks nothing, neither of the circumcision nor of the law of Moses or of the pen, as everybody can read, but
3) Wittenberger: by. Jonas: per.
4) So the Wittenbergers. Jenaer, Walch and Erlanger: "still astonish".
the ten commandments. And how should they leave our books unaltered and unpolluted, if all their study is nothing else than to pollute their own prophets and holy scriptures with lies and false poetry? But as for what our Lord Christ says about fulfilling the law, there is neither time nor space to act on it here; so the Jews cannot understand it either, and we would get away from the matter. The Christians should act on such words of Christ, because they understand it and know it well, praise God, what it is.
58.1) Lastly, we will also speak of the Ten Commandments, for the Jews may also call the Ten Commandments the Law of Moses, because it was given on Mount Sinai, when they were all Jews, or Abraham's children 2c. Here you shall answer: If the Ten Commandments are to be called the Law of Moses 2), then Moses was much too slow in coming, and also took far too few people before him, because the Ten Commandments went not only before Moses, but also before Abraham and all the patriarchs, and also over the whole world. For though Moses never came, nor Abraham born, yet the ten commandments should have reigned in all men from the beginning; as they did, and still do.
(59) For all creatures rightly take God for God and honor His name, just as the angels in heaven do. So we also, all who are men, owe to hear his word, to obey father and mother, not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to bear false witness, not to covet our neighbor's house or his own; which all the Gentiles bear witness to in their scriptures, laws and rulings (as you can see before your eyes), yet nothing of the circumcision nor of Moses' laws, which he gave to the Jews in the land of Canaan, is found in them.
(60) But this Moses did before all other writers, in that he revealed by his histories the beginning of all creatures, and how death came into the whole world by Adam's fall or sin; and after that, being a peculiar man in the sight of all other nations, he was the first to write.
1) Here the Wittenberg edition has the superscription: "Of the Ten Commandments."
2) "Law" is missing in the Wittenberg.
When God wants to make law and people (as he was commanded to do), he first introduces God himself, who as a common God of all nations gives the ten common commandments himself, also orally to this special people, which were previously planted in the hearts of all men with the creation, and decorates them finely in his time to his laws, also more orderly and finer than anyone else could order. The circumcision and Mosi's law, however, were not planted in the hearts of men, but were first put on their people by Abraham and Moses.
For we and all Gentiles must also keep the first commandment, that we have no other gods apart from the one God, as well as the Jews. But the part, so that he decorates this commandment and shows it only to the Jews, namely: "He who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of Dieus", we Gentiles do not have to and cannot use. For if I were to come before God and say: O Lord God, who brought me out of Egypt, out of your misery, 2c., I would come like a pig to the Jewish school, for God has not done such a work on me; therefore God would punish me as a liar, or I would have to make a fictitious God out of Him. Nor must I say and keep all the other things in the first commandment; I may also say: You are my God, the God of us all, and at the same time Creator, who indeed led the children of Israel out of Egypt, but not me, but led me out of my Egypt and my misery. So the first commandment remains common to both Jews and Gentiles. But the Jews are especially adorned and attracted with the exodus from Egypt, as each one according to his misery can and should call and praise the common God his God and helper.
62 I must make an analogy: If a prince or head of a household wanted to establish order in his country or house, and did so because God had helped him out of a great need, and wanted to show gratitude for it, as perhaps Naaman the Syrian did or could do; he would also begin to teach first of all about God, how one should worship him alone, 4) and how one should be grateful to him.
3) Wittenberger: ins. Jonas: hominum.
4) Jenaer: should.
as the right God, who can and will help all who trust and believe in him, regardless of the people; as the first commandment teaches, and also makes no distinction, but says: God punishes or helps all who hate or love him 2c. After that, the same prince or head of household continues with his national or household order.
(63) Therefore, the prince would not have imposed his national order on all other countries to which such help had not been given, nor would he have had the power to interpret it, even though he had first commanded to worship and honor the right God of all countries. In the same way, Moses, when he is to order his people, redeemed from Egypt, 1) first has God himself give his Ten Commandments, which are due to all the world; then he gives his people (but by God's command) his special national order, which is none of the business of other peoples. And just as Moses' people are obligated to obey his order, because God commanded them to do so, so also every country and house is obligated to keep the order of its ruler and master. For these are also the commands of God, who established all the regiments of the world.
64 Thus the third commandment of the Sabbath, which the Jews insist upon, is in itself a commandment common to all the world; but the ornamentation, that Moses may adorn it and appropriate it to his people, is laid upon no one but the Jews in particular; even as in the first commandment no one but the Jews in particular shall believe and confess that the common God of all the world brought them out of Egypt. For the actual meaning of the third commandment is that we should teach and hear the word of God during the day, so that we may sanctify both the day and ourselves. Just as Moses and the prophets were read and preached among the Jews on the Sabbath day from that time until this day. But where God's word is preached, it is necessary to celebrate and be quiet at the same hour or time, and to speak and listen to what God says and teaches us or speaks to us without any other business.
1) Wittenberger: his redeemed people from Egypt 2c.
65) Therefore, it is also entirely 2) due to the fact that one should sanctify the day, more than to the celebration. For God does not say, "You shall keep the holy day, or make it a Sabbath"; that is found in itself; but rather, "You shall keep the holiday or Sabbath holy, so that it is much more important to Him to keep it holy than to keep it holy. And if one thing should or could remain, it would be better that the celebration than the holy should remain, because the commandment is mostly concerned with the holy, and does not give the Sabbath for its own sake, but for the sake of the holy. The Jews, however, value the celebration, which God and Moses do not do, more highly for their own sake than for the sake of the sacred.
66) The fact that Moses calls the seventh day, and how God created the world in six days, so that they should work nothing, is a temporal decoration, so that Moses may show this commandment to his people especially at that time. For this was not written before, neither from Abraham nor from the times of the fathers of old, but is a temporal addition and decoration, placed only on this people brought out of Egypt, which was not to remain forever, any more than the whole Law of Moses. But the sanctification, that is, teaching and preaching God's word, which is the right, true and pure opinion of this commandment, has existed from the beginning and remains forever with all the world. Therefore the seventh day is of no concern to us Gentiles, nor is it of any concern to the Jews themselves any longer than until Messiah; although nature and necessity compel that whichever day or hour God's word is preached, that there, as I have said, one must be silent, celebrate, or keep the Sabbath. For God's word cannot be heard or taught if one is thinking of something else or is not silent.
67 Therefore also Isaiah Cap. 66, 23. speaks, that such a seventh day, or ornament of Moses, as I call it, shall cease in Messiah's time, when the right Holy One and God's word shall come abundantly: "It shall be," he speaks, "one Sabbath on another, a new moon on another," that is, it shall be a Sabbath only and no special seventh day, or
2) Wittenbergers..completely.
six days between them; for the Holy One, or God's Word, will go daily and abundantly, and all days will become Sabbaths.
68 But what the Jews say about this, and how they treat this text of Isaiah, I know very well; but I cannot now put it all into this letter, which I intend to do against the Jews, who so shamefully tear and pervert the prophets. But no Jew (that I may be brief) will tell me how it is possible that all flesh worships before the Lord at Jerusalem, all the moons and all the Sabbaths; as yet the text, most sharply and exactly translated according to their opinion, gives, because some men or flesh dwell so far from Jerusalem; that they may not come thither in twenty, thirty, a hundred Sabbaths, and they themselves, the Jews, have not worshipped at Jerusalem now fifteen hundred years, that is, twelve times fifteen hundred months (I will be silent of the Sabbaths). But now I cannot do it all in letter way.
69) So also of the first commandment's piece and ornament: "He who brought you out of the land of Egypt," Jeremiah also says in chapter 23, v. 5: "Behold, the time is coming, says the Lord, that I will establish for David a plant of righteousness, and he shall be a king who shall rule well, and establish justice and righteousness in the earth. 2c. And immediately afterwards v. 7. 8: "Behold, the time cometh, that it shall no more be said: As the LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel 1) out of the land of Egypt; but as the LORD liveth, which brought forth the seed of the house of Israel (note that it is not the whole house of Israel, but a seed thereof that is mentioned here), and brought them out of the land of the north, and out of all the countries whither I had driven them, that they should dwell in their own land."
Now in this saying there are many beautiful things to be dealt with; but, lest we come to the full of the matter, the Jews are at one with us (where they hold their old doctrine), that Jeremiah here speaks of the Messiah's time. Then he speaks out boldly that at the same time this piece, given in the first commandment of Moses, should be written on
1) "Israel" is missing in the German editions, except Walch. It is in the Latin.
when he says, "He who brought you out of Egypt." For there is the text that one should no longer swear by the GOD who brought them out of Egypt; but by the GOD who gathered them from all countries to the plant of David. If this part of the first commandment does not go further than Messiah, then Moses' law is not eternal, but ceases in Messiah and remains only the law of the ten commandments, which existed before Moses from the beginning of the world and among all the Gentiles, that one should have no more than one God, 2c., and thus, because of the ten commandments, there is no difference at all between Jews and Gentiles. For "God is not only the God of the Jews, but also the God of the Gentiles", as St. Paul says [Rom. 3, 29], and the 2) examples of the kings of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia 2c. prove above.
Item 71: In the fourth commandment, we Gentiles cannot say the part, "That thou mayest live long in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee," and yet all must keep the first part, namely, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. For Moses, or rather God Himself, is speaking here to the people of Israel, whom He leads out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, and also means in this commandment the same land' Canaan, which He gave them at that time, that they should live long in it and have good days, where they kept the fourth commandment, of the obedience of parents, and again here the common commandment, implanted in all Gentiles, is especially adorned and attracted to the Jews with the land of Canaan. But we Gentiles cannot say, nor believe, that God can suffer us to be brought out of Egypt or into the land of Canaan, where we shall prosper if we honor our father and mother, but must let it remain in the common mind that God wants to give each one happiness and salvation in his own land, who honors father and mother, as we also see that the lands and dominions, even the houses and hereditary estates, change or remain so strangely, according to which one has been obedient or disobedient, and has never been found to be otherwise, except that this is not the case.
2) Jenaer: "in the example ... proved." Jonas: exempla ostendunt.
well goes, nor good death dies, which dishonors father and mother.
(72) Therefore this fourth commandment cannot be eternal, that is, according to the blindness of the Jews, be put upon us Gentiles, that we should have the land of Canaan and live well in it, when they themselves must live outside the same land for fifteen hundred years in all unhappiness, as they despised, profaned and persecuted their fathers and prophets, and have not yet ceased to persecute them; therefore the punishment also does not cease. For they will not have the Messiah whom their fathers and prophets proclaimed and prophesied and commanded and commanded to receive, and remain disobedient children to their fathers.
(73) This is what I want to say about the ninth and tenth commandments, which forbid coveting another's wife and house. For with the Jews the letter of divorce had to be a right, which cannot be with us Gentiles; much less the treachery and intrigue to steal away one's wife and house, which with the Jews has been a great will of courage; as the prophet Malachias laments 2c. [Mal. 2, 14. ff.]
74 And so that I may find an end to this letter, I hope, my dear friend, that you have at least so much that you can protect yourselves against the Sabbath keepers and remain pure in your Christian faith. If you cannot convert the Jews, think that you are no better than all the prophets, who are always strangled and persecuted by this wicked people, for the sole glory of being called Abraham's seed. Although they know how many desperate, lost boys are still among themselves, that they would like to realize that something more is needed than to be Abraham's seed, where one wants to be God's child. Thus the law of Moses does not help them, because they have never kept it, as shown above in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, where God Himself says and complains, but such disobedience helps them much more. 2) To this end, they still keep it today.
1) Wittenberger: that. Jonas: hoc.
2) So the Wittenbergers; "enthelfen" - to deprive of help. In the Jena edition (probably a misprint): "enthilsft". In the old edition of Walch and in the Erlangen: "enthülft". Jonas did not translate this sentence.
They themselves do not, nor can they, as long as Jerusalem does not become the Jews' royal seat and priesthood.
75 Thus it is known, and they also confess it in part, that they no longer understand the law of Moses itself, especially in the third book and more places; how then can they keep it if they were at Jerusalem right now? And summa, because these fifteen hundred years in misery (since no end is yet certain nor can be) do not humble the Jews nor bring them to knowledge, you may despair of them with a good conscience. For it is impossible that God should let His people, if they were, remain so long without consolation and prophecy; He has never done it before, and also promised that He would do nothing without prior prophecy; as Amos [Cap. 3, v. 7] says: "God does nothing, He reveals it first to His prophets." For all states, all regiments, all works of men must go, stand and come to pass in the word of God,- that His people may know how they are to be with Him, how they are to do, what they are to suffer, what they are to wait for. He has done so from the beginning and continues to do so forever.
Because God did not do this to the Jews fifteen hundred years ago, and still lets them remain in misery forever, and neither speaks nor prophesies anything to them, it is obvious that He has abandoned them, and they may no longer be God's people, and the right Lord, Messiah, must have come fifteen hundred years ago. What more sin can there be for such an abominable plague and silence of God, than that they have not accepted and still do not accept the right seed of Abraham and David, the dear Lord Messiah? Did they, after all, before the misery of Babylon, commit much more horrible sins with the murder of prophets 2c. than they can report afterwards, and yet it is nothing that they have to suffer such misery for fifteen hundred years because of unconscious sin, which they cannot name, when they have not had to suffer for more than seventy years because of much more public, horrible, murderous, idolatrous sin?
3) So all the issues. Maybe: from?
Consolation unslept: if here in this misery not a fly with a wing hisses to them for consolation. If this does not mean abandoned by God, then the devil may also boast that he is not yet abandoned by God.
(77) For according to the reckoning, their present misery under the Roman Empire has lasted longer than their previous existence and rule in the land of Canaan. Calculate, whoever wants, from the exodus from Egypt to the last destruction of Jerusalem, since they are now inside, there are fifteen hundred and ten years. Not much less years have they now been in misery, and will last much longer, because neither until then nor henceforth have they had prophets nor wisdom.
have a statement as to when it should come to an end. But how can it be credible that God should leave his people longer out of regiment than in regiment; longer out of law, temple, worship, Jerusalem, priesthood, principality, lands, than they have been in?
This letter has grown under my hand, that I truly do not provide it myself, because the pen had to run so; because I have more thoughts of this matter, neither I could have brought so running into the pen. Please, take it well this time, because the matter is much too big that it should be put into a letter. Hiemit GOtt befehlt, Amen.