Written in 1542; issued in early 1543.
I had resolved to write nothing more either about the Jews or against them; but because I have learned that the wretched, hopeless people do not cease to lure us, that is, the Christians, to themselves, I have let this booklet go out, so that I may be found among those who have resisted such poisonous activity of the Jews and have warned the Christians to beware of the Jews. I would not have thought that a Christian should allow himself to be fooled by the Jews, to step into their misery and sorrow. But the devil is the god of the world; and where God's word is not, he has made good, not only with the weak, but also with the strong. God help us, amen.
Preface. 1)
1. grace and peace in the Lord. Dear Lord and good friend! I have received a writing in which a Jew is conversing with a Christian, who takes it upon himself to pervert the sayings of the Scriptures (which we have for our faith, concerning our Lord Christ and Mary his mother), and to interpret them far differently, that he may think to overthrow the foundation of our faith.
002 To this I give you and to him this answer; It is not my purpose to quarrel with the Jews, or to be displeased with them.
1) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and the Jena.
*This writing, which Luther still wrote in 1542, was published at the beginning of 1543 by Hans Luft in Wittenberg under the title: "Von den Juden und ihren Lügen. D. M. Luth." and soon after under the same title with the addition: "Printed for the other time and done more with it." In 1544 and 1613 this writing was printed again in Frankfurt. In the collections: Wittenberger (1556), vol. V, p. 454; Jenaer (1562), vol. VIII, p. 49; Altenburger, vol. VIII, p. 208; Leipziger, vol. XI, p. 544 and Erlanger, vol. 32, p. 99. All collective editions provide the text of the enlarged edition. What is "more to it" in the same is limited to a few, about a dozen sentences. Justus Jonas translated this writing into Latin. This translation is found in the Latin Wittenberg edition, Tom. VII, col. 166. We give the text according to the Erlangen edition, which brings the second above original print, comparing the Wittenberg and the Jena, also the Latin,
learn how they interpret or understand the Scriptures; I know all this well beforehand. Much less do I deal with it, that I want to convert the Jews; because that is impossible. And the two excellent men, Lyra and Burgensis, described to us a hundred and two hundred years ago, among others, the Jews' impolite interpretations faithfully, and they have truly published them. It still does not help with the Jews everywhere, and they have become worse and worse.
(3) Also, because they have become so hard and sluggish 1) that they do not want to get out of the terrible plague, that they are now over fourteen hundred years in misery, and still cannot attain an end or a definite time by such vehement eternal calling and crying out to God (as they think); if (I say) the blows do not help, then it is good to reckon that our talking and interpreting will help much less. Therefore be content as a Christian, and do not quarrel with the Jews, but if you must or want to speak to them, speak no more than this:
4 Do you hear, Jew, do you also know that Jerusalem and your dominion, together with the temple and the priesthood, have now been destroyed over 1460 years? For this year, when we Christians write of the birth of Christ in 1542,2) it is just 1468 years, and so we are entering the 1500th year that Vespasianus and Titus destroyed Jerusalem and drove the Jews out of it. With this nut let the Jews bite and argue as long as they want.
For such cruel wrath of God shows all too well that they must surely err and go wrong; such a child may well grasp. For it is not necessary to think so cruelly of God, that he should have his own people so long, so cruelly, so unmercifully
1) i.e. indifferent to blows.
2) Jenaer: "1542" and immediately following: "1468"; likewise § 153 and § 154, only that there by a printing error (in § 153) "1568" and (in § 155) "1586" stands. In the Wittenberg "1543" and "1469"; in § 153 by the same misprint "1569". In the Erlangen edition, the numbers of the Wittenberg edition are found here, but in § 153 and § 154, those of the Jena edition; but instead of "1586", "1568" is set. - Luther assumes that Jerusalem was destroyed in the 74th year after the birth of Christ. Cf. Chronicon Lutheri, Wittenberg edition, vol. 12, p. 437b.
punish and be silent about it, comfort neither with words nor with works, tune neither time nor end. Who would believe in such a God, hope in him or love him? Therefore this wrathful work, that the Jews, certainly rejected by God, are no longer his people, he is also no longer their God; and goes according to the saying of Hosea in the 1st, v. 9: "LoAmmi; you are not my people; so I am not your God." Yes, it goes to them, alas, thus, and all too much and terribly. They may interpret as they like, so we see the work before our eyes; that does not suit us.
And if there were a spark of reason or understanding in them, they would truly have to think to themselves: Oh Lord God, it does not stand and go right with us, the misery is too great, too long, too hard, God has forgotten us etc. I am not a Jew, but I seriously do not like to think of such cruel wrath of God against this people; for I am afraid that it will go through my life and limb. What will become of the eternal wrath in hell against false Christians and all unbelievers? Well, the Jews may hold our Lord JEsum for what they will, we see that [it] goes so, as he says Luc. 21, 20. 22. 23.: "When you see Jerusalem besieged with an army, then notice that her desolation has come. For these are the days of vengeance, and there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people."
7. summa, as I said, do not dispute much with Jews about the articles of our faith; they have been brought up from youth with poison and resentment against our Lord, so that there is no hope until they come to the point where their misery finally wears them down and forces them to confess that Messiah has come and is our Jesus; otherwise it is much too early, even in vain, to dispute with them how God is threefold, God is man, Mary is God's mother. For no reason nor human heart allows such a thing, how much less such a bitter, poisonous, blind heart of the Jews! What God Himself does not improve with such cruel blows, we will leave unimproved with words and works (as said). Moses could not make Pharaoh better neither with plagues, nor with miracles, nor with supplications,
1864 Erl. 32, 1VS-IV1. 51. L.'s writing of the Jews and their lies. W. XX, 2316-2318. 1865
He had to let him drown in the sea [Ex 14:28].
(8) So now, to strengthen our faith, let us deal with the Jews in some gross folly in their faith and interpretation of the Scriptures, because they so poisonously blaspheme our faith; if it comes to the correction of any Jew, that he may be ashamed, it is all the better. We do not speak now to the Jews, but of the Jews and of their doings, that our Germans may also know.
The first reason and glory of the Jews against the Christians, that they are Abraham's seed. 1)
(9) They have a reason, they insist on it and defy it out of measure, that is, they are born from the highest people on earth, from Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and from the twelve patriarchs, and so on from the holy people of Israel, as St. Paul also confesses Romans 9:5. Paul Rom. 9, 5. also confesses, and says: Quorum patres, that is: They are from the fathers, from whom Christ etc.; and he himself, Christ, Joh. 4, 22.: "To the Jews comes salvation." Hence they boast themselves the noblest, yea, noblest alone on earth. We "goyim", Gentiles, are not men in their eyes, but hardly worthy to be esteemed by them. For we are not of high and noble blood, tribe, birth and origin. This is an argument, and one of their defiance and glory, truly in my opinion the noblest and strongest.
Therefore God must suffer in their schools, prayers, songs, teachings and whole life, then they come and stand before him and plague him (that I speak thus humanly of God) quite well, then he must hear how they boast, and praise God that he has set them apart from the Gentiles, and let them be born of the holy fathers, and chosen them to be his own holy people etc. And there is no measure nor end to the boasting of blood and bodily birth from the fathers.
(11) To the end that their frenzied, mad and foolish nonsense is perfect, they praise and thank God first of all for the fact that they have made men...
1) This superscription is in the Wittenberg edition, and the first sentence of it also in the Jena edition.
The first is that they are created men and not animals; the second is that they are Israel and not Gentiles; the third is that they are created men and not women. Such folly they have not from Israel, but from the goyim. For so the histories write that the Greek Plato did such praise and thanksgiving daily to God; otherwise such hope and blasphemy shall be called praise to God. For he also praised his gods for these three things, that he was a man and not a beast, a man and not a woman, a Greek and not an un-Greek or Barbarian; this is a fool's glory and a blasphemer's thanks. 2) Just as the whales let themselves think that they alone are men, all the world is vain unmen, ducks or mice against them.
Now no one can take away the glory of the blood and tribe of Israel. In the Old Testament they lost many a battle in war over it (no Jew understands this); all the prophets chastised them for it (for it is a hopeful, carnal presumption, without spirit and faith), but were also murdered and persecuted over it. St. John Baptist punished them severely for it, saying, "Only do not boast that you are Abraham's seed: "I tell you, God is able to make children out of these stones of Abraham" [Matth. 3, 9.], and did not call them children of Israel, but serpent spawn. O, that was too close to the noble blood and tribe of Israel, and said he had the devil. So our Lord also calls them serpent-breeders; item John 8:39, 44: "If you are Abraham's children, do Abraham's works; you are the devil's children, he is your father." This they could not suffer, that they should not be Abraham's children, but the devil's; even as they cannot yet suffer it. For if they should deliver up this glory and ground, all their things that are written upon it should fall, and be changed.
013 And I hold that if their Messiah (whom they hope) should come, and take up this their cause and their glory, they should
2) The meaning of this will probably be: This is the thanks of a man, who is a Barbarus in relation to God, that is, a blasphemer. - For the matter compare the "Interpretation of the First Book of Moses", Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. I, 312, § 64.
They would crucify and blaspheme seven times worse than they have done to ours, and would also say that he is not the true Messiah, but a false devil. For they have pictured their Messiah with themselves, so that he should strengthen and exalt such carnal, hopeful conceit from the nobility of blood and tribe, that is, so much so that he should help them blaspheme God and scornfully despise his creatures, even the women, who are also men and images of God, as well as we, and our flesh and blood, mother, sister, daughter, housewives etc., because they (according to the above-mentioned triple praise) do not consider Sarah (as a woman) as noble as Abraham (as a man). Perhaps they want to honor themselves by the fact that they are half noble, as born of a noble father, and half ignoble, as born of an ignoble mother. But let the foolishness and the smokiness go.
Laying such ground and fame from because of their nobility and blood. 1)
We want to speak of such a reason and glory, and prove conclusively (not to the Jews, for they did not suffer it from Moses, nor from their Messiah himself, as has been said) before God and the world that such a reason is completely void and condemned, and take Moses, Genesis 17:14, which they should believe if they were true Israelites. Since God instituted circumcision, He speaks among other words thus: "Whose child is not circumcised, his soul shall be cut off from his people. With these words, God condemns everything born of flesh, no matter how noble, high or low-born it may be, for He does not exclude Abraham's own seed, which was not only noble and high-born from Noah, but was also pronounced holy, Genesis 15:6. 15, 6. and now Abram became Abraham, Gen. 17, 5. Nor shall any of his children be counted among God's people, but shall be called cut off, that God will not be his God, unless it is also circumcised by birth and taken into the covenant of God.
1) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
. (15) In the sight of the world it is true that one man is nobler than another by reason of his birth, just as one is wiser than another by reason of his reason, one is stronger and more beautiful than another by reason of his body, one is richer and more powerful than another by reason of his goods, and one is better than another by reason of his virtue. For this miserable, sinful, deadly life must have such differences and inequalities, and cannot do without them for the body's need and to maintain the regiments. But to come before God and boast that it is so noble, high and rich in the sight of other men is a devilish hope; yet before Him all birth according to the flesh is condemned at the same time in the aforementioned saying, where His covenant and word does not come to the rescue again, and makes a new, different birth, and thus separates it from the old, first birth. If then the Jews in their prayer before God boast and boast that they are the noble blood, tribe and children of the holy fathers, for which reason he should look upon them and be gracious to them, but condemn the Gentiles as the ignoble and not of their blood: Dear, what will such a prayer obtain? If the Jews were as holy as their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob themselves, yes, if they were angels in heaven, they would be plunged into the abyss of hell for the sake of such prayer, let alone be brought back to Jerusalem from their misery.
(16) For what does such a devilishly hopeful prayer do other than to prove God false in His word, when He says, "What is born and not circumcised shall not only be base and worthless, but also condemned and not of my people, and I will not be sem-God. Against this the Jews rage with their blasphemous prayer, as if they wanted to say: No, no, O Lord God, this is not true, but you must hear us, because we are born of noble blood of the holy fathers and because of such noble birth set us over all the world as lords and in heaven, or you do not keep your word and do us wrong, because you swore to our fathers to have their seed as your people forever. Just as with us Christians a king, prince, lord,
1868 Erl. SS, 1VS-I0S. 51. L.'s writing of the Jews and their lies. W. XL. 2S2I-2323. 1869
rich, beautiful, wise, pious, virtuous man wanted to pray before God thus: Lord God, behold how great a king and lord I am; behold how rich, wise and pious I am; behold how beautiful a man or woman I am in the sight of others, and be gracious to me, help me and make me blessed for these things. For other people are not worthy, because they are not so beautiful, rich, wise, pious, noble and highborn as I am. What should such a prayer deserve? It would deserve thunder and lightning to strike from heaven above, and brimstone and hellish fire to strike from below; that would also be right; for flesh and blood shall not boast before God, or, as Moses says, what is born, even of holy fathers and of Abraham himself, shall be condemned before God, and shall not boast of God, as St. Paul, Romans 3:27, John 3:6 also say.
17 The Pharisee in our Gospel also prayed such a prayer, boasting of his good deeds. "I am not like other people" [Luc. 18, 11.], and his prayer was decorated in such a way that he did it with thanksgiving, and made himself believe that he was God's son in his bosom; nor did the thunder and lightning strike him from heaven into the abyss of hell, as Christ there judges in v. 14 and says: "Let that tax collector be just, and this one condemned. Oh, what will we poor filthy sacks, maggots, stink and filth before Him who is God and Creator of heaven and earth, who made us from filth and from nothing, and because of our nature, birth and being, we are still filth and nothing before His eyes, without which His grace and abundant mercy will let us be and have us.
18. Abraham, who was nobler than the Jews, namely, as said, born of the noblest patriarch Noah, who was then the supreme and oldest lord, priest and father of the whole world, together with the other nine following patriarchs, all of whom Abraham saw, heard and lived with, some of whom also survived Abraham long after (as Shem, Salah, Eber), that Abraham certainly lacked nothing in the nobility of blood or birth: nor did it help him that he should be numbered among God's people, but
He has become idolatrous and would have remained damned if God's word had not called him; as Joshua says Cap. 24, 2. from the mouth of God: "Your fathers once lived beyond the water, Thara, Abraham's 1) and Nahor's father, and served other gods; but I brought your father Abraham over" etc.
19. after that, having been called and sanctified by the word of God and his faith, Gen 15:6, nor does he boast of his birth or virtue when he speaks to God, Gen 18:27.He does not say, "Behold, how noble I am born of Noah and of the holy fathers, and of thy holy people; nor how holy and righteous I am toward other people; but thus saith he, "O Lord, I speak unto thee, though I be ashes and ashes." Yes, this is how a creature should talk to its Creator, and not forget what it is and is esteemed before Him. For so he said of Adam, and of all his children, Genesis 3:19: "Thou art ashes or ashes, and shalt return to the ground," as death convinces us of all these things with a mighty experience before our eyes, if it should otherwise help against the loose, vain, sorrowful hope.
20. Now behold how fine the children of Abraha the Jews are, how well they have taken after their father, yes, how fine a people of God they are, before whom they boast of their fleshly birth and [of] noble blood of the fathers, and despise all other people, when in all this he holds them as much as dung and ashes and damned birth as all other Gentiles; nor shall God be their liar, they must 2) be right, and with such blasphemous, damned prayer want to rob God of His grace and have Jerusalem again.
21) Furthermore, if the Jews were seven times more blind (if it is possible), they will have to see that Esau or Edom is as noble by birth as Jacob, because he is not only the son of the same father Isaac and Rebekah mother 3), but also the firstborn son, which firstborn is the highest nobility at that time among the
1) Thus the Wittenbergers and the Jenaers; Erlanger: "Abrahams Vater".
2) Wittenberger: mügen.
3) i.e. of the same mother, Rebekah, son.
1870 Erl. 32, 108-111. I. Luther's Writings Against the Jews. W. XX. 2S2S-SSS6. 1871
other children was. What did the same birth, even the first birth, do for him, so that he was far more noble than Jacob? Nevertheless he is not counted among God's people, since he was called Abraham his grandfather, Sarah his grandmother, as well as Jacob, and, as I said, much more than Jacob; again, Abraham himself and Sarah had to consider him for their nephew, Isaac, his son, and Rebekah's son, in addition for the first and noblest son, but Jacob for the least. Here tell me, what did the bodily birth or nobility of blood from Abraham help?
22 And if one would pretend here that Esau had become evil, therefore he would have lost the honor etc. To this is answered first of all: We are now talking about whether the birth of the blood itself is valid before God, so that one can be or become God's people through it? If it is not valid, why do the Jews praise it so highly before other children of men? but if it is valid, why does God not hold over it, so that it does not fail? For if God considers bodily birth sufficient for those to be His people who are born of holy fathers, He should not let them become wicked, lest He lose His people and become ungodly. But if he lets them become evil, then it is certain that he does not respect the birth, that it should make or bring him a people.
(23) Secondly, Esau was not rejected from among God's people because he became evil afterwards, nor did Jacob come to be counted among God's people because of his good life afterwards; but since they were both still in their mother's womb, they were separated by God's word, Jacob being called and Esau not, according to the saying, "The greater shall be under the lesser" (Rom. 9:12).And it did or did not help that they were both under one mother's heart, nourished with the same milk and blood by the same one mother Rebekah, and were born of her at the same time; so that it must be said that flesh, blood, milk, womb, mother, be they all the same, could not benefit Esau, nor hinder Jacob from the grace of becoming God's children or people,
But the word and the calling, if birth respects nothing, separates all things here.
(24) So Ishmael can also say that he is still the true natural son of Abraham, but what does the physical birth help him here? He must still leave the house and inheritance of Abraham to Isaac, his brother. Say: Ishmael is of Agar, Isaac of Sarah; this does no more than strengthen our cause. For that Isaac was born of Sarah was of God's word, and not of flesh and blood, because Sarah, now obsolete, could not of course bear children; yet, speaking of birth, Ishmael is Abraham's flesh and blood and natural son: nor does such holy father's blood and flesh help him anything, but harms him, because he has nothing more than flesh and blood of Abraham, and not in addition also God's word, and prevents Isaac nothing, that he comes from the blood of Abraham, which in Ishmael is nothing, because he has God's word, which separates him from his brother Ishmael, who is nevertheless of the same Abraham's flesh and blood.
(25) And what shall we say much? I want to be as noble (in the eyes of God) as no Jew, yes, even as noble as Abraham himself, as David, as all the holy prophets and apostles; I do not want to thank them for considering me as noble (in the eyes of God) as themselves. And if God does not consider my nobility and birth as good as Isaac's, Abraham's, David's and all the saints', then I will say that he does me wrong and is not a right judge. For I will not be deprived of this, nor will Abraham, David, the prophets, the apostles, nor any angel in heaven, deprive me of boasting that Noah was my right natural grandfather (by bodily birth or flesh and blood), and that his wife (who she was) was my right natural grandmother; for we are all descended from the one Noah, after the flood; from Cain we did not come, which lineage in the flood, and very much from fathers, brothers-in-law, friends of Noah, all finally destroyed.
26°. Item, I boast that Japheth, the firstborn son of Noah, is also my rightful son.
He is my natural grandfather and his wife (whoever she was) is my natural grandmother. For we Gentiles are all descended from him, as Moses says, Gen 10:5. And so Shem, the other son of Noah, with all his descendants, has nothing to claim against his older brother Japheth by birth. Yes, where birth is to apply, then Japheth with his descendants, as the firstborn son and right heir, has to plead against Shem, his younger brother, together with his descendants, who are called Jews or Ishmaelites, or Edomites. Now what does the bodily firstborn help good Japheth and our grandfather? Nothing everywhere. Shem keeps the precedence; not because of the birth (otherwise it would have to be Japheth), but that about the birth God's word and calling is here divorced.
(27) So I will count from the beginning of the world how we are all descended from Adam and Eve, then from Seth, Enos, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; for they are our grandfathers as well as the Jews, and all come from them with the same honor, nobility and glory as the Jews, and are their flesh and blood as well as Abraham with all his seed. For we have been in the same holy fathers' loins as they, just as well as they, and there is no difference of birth or flesh and blood here, as all reason must say. Because of this, the blind Jews are gross fools, and neither are the Gentiles more senseless, that they praise their bodily birth so highly before God, when they are nothing better than all the Gentiles, because we are all of the same birth, flesh and blood, according to the very first, best, holiest grandfathers, and neither can reproach the other with something special, nor move it up, which does not also affect him.
28 But that we come from here. David, who throws us all finely and mightily into one heap, Psalm 51:7, where he speaks:
1) Wittenberger: blind. Also Jonas is missing here: "blind".
2) Thus the Wittenbergers. Jenaer, Walch and Erlanger: "bessers". Jonas: meliores.
"Behold, I was conceived in sins, and my mother bore me in sins" etc. Go now, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, born of Adam or Abraham, of Enoch or David, and boast before God of your beautiful nobility, your high tribe, your ancient lineage; here you will find that we are all carried and born in sins, of father and of mother, excluding no one who is called a man. But what does "born in sins" mean other than born in God's wrath and condemnation, that by nature or birth we cannot be God's people or children, and our birth, fame and nobility, honor and prize is not, nor can be, other than that we (where there will be no more than bodily birth) are badly condemned sinners, God's enemies and in all disgraces? There you, Jew, have your glory, and we Gentiles as well with you as you with us. Now pray more that God will look upon your nobility, tribe, flesh and blood.
29 But I have said this to strengthen our faith, because the Jews will not let them take away this hope and glory of their nobility and blood, as it was said above, they are obdurate; but ours must beware of them, lest they be deceived by the obdurate, condemned people (who punish God with lies, proudly despising all the world). For the Jews would very much like to draw us Christians to their faith, and do so wherever they can. And if God is to have mercy on them, the Jews, they must first remove such blasphemous prayers and songs of their glory and hope from their schools and from their hearts and mouths; for such prayers continually increase and heap up God's wrath upon them. But they will not do this, no matter how deeply they humble themselves, without what individual persons may do, whom God will especially show and deliver from their horrible ruin.
The other reason and glory of the Jews against the Christians is circumcision. 3)
(30) The other glory and nobility, that the Jews rise up and make all men proud and noble.
3) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
is that they have circumcision from Abraham. Help God, how we Gentiles have to suffer in their schools, prayers, songs and teachings! How ugly we poor people stink before their noses that we are uncircumcised! Yes, God Himself has to let Himself be miserably 1) mangled here (that I speak thus); then they come before Him with unspeakable arrogance and therefore throb: "Praised be You, King of the world, who set us apart from all nations and sanctified us through the covenant of the Holy Spirit.And many other such words, all and all directed, that God alone should look upon them before all the world as circumcised according to his command, and condemn all other men, as they do and desire.
(31) They insist on this glory or nobility as much as they insist on bodily birth, and think that if Moses himself came at the same time with Elijah and their Messiah, and wanted to take away such glory from them, or forbid such prayer and teaching, they would consider all these three to be the worst three devils in hell, and would not know how to sufficiently curse and condemn them, let alone believe them. For they have decided among themselves that Moses and Elijah and Messiah should confirm the circumcision, but rather to strengthen and praise such arrogance and pride in the circumcision, to consider all the Gentiles (as they do) as vile filth and stench, because they are not circumcised. For, just as they pretend, think and wish, so Moses, Elijah and Messiah must do; they want to be right, where God Himself would do differently, as they think, so He would have to do wrong.
32 Now behold the wretched, blind, senseless people. First of all, I will leave it at that (which I also said above about the bodily birth): If circumcision is enough to make a people of God, or to sanctify and set them apart before God from all other peoples, then it should follow that whoever is circumcised could
1) "gotzjämmerlich" instead of: gottesjämmerlich, i.e. very miserable. Jonas: crudeliter.
not be wicked nor condemned, nor would God have to impose it if He considered circumcision to be such holiness and power; just as we Christians say: He who believes cannot be wicked nor condemned as long as faith remains. For God holds faith so precious, delicious and powerful that it surely makes holy, and does not let him perish nor become evil who has it and keeps it; such, I say, I now let go.
Secondly, one sees here how the Jews only anger God more and more with this prayer. For they stand there and lie to God with a blasphemous, shameful, impudent lie, and are 2) so blind and foolish that they do not see the text of Genesis 17:10, nor the whole of Scripture, which condemns this lie so powerfully and clearly. For Moses says in Genesis 17 that Abraham was commanded to circumcise not only his son Isaac (who was not yet born at that time), but also everything that was born in his house, son or servant, even the purchased ones. And all were circumcised in one day with Abraham himself, Ishmael also, who was thirteen years old at the same time, as the text says. And so the covenant or commandment of circumcision covers all the seed and descendants of Abraham, Ishmael in particular, as the first-circumcised seed of Abraham. And thus Ishmael is not only equal to his brother Isaac, but, where it should be valid before God, circumcised a year earlier, and therefore would boast of circumcision higher than Isaac, and therefore the Ishmaelites would be "better counted"" than the Israelites, because their father Ishmael had the circumcision before the"" Isaac (that is, Israel's father) was born.
(34) Why do the Jews lie so shamefully in their prayers and sermons before God, as if circumcision were theirs alone, by which they must be set apart from all other peoples and be the holy people of God? They should be a little ashamed (where they could be ashamed) before the Ishmaelites, Edomites, and other more peoples, if they remembered that they are always a small group and
2) In the Wittenberg missing: are.
were scarcely a handful of people compared with other nations, who, being Abraham's seed and circumcised, undoubtedly inherited their father Abraham's commandment to their descendants; but the circumcision inherited by the one son Isaac is very small compared with the circumcision inherited by the other sons. For it is written that Ishmael son of Abraham became a great nation, begotten of twelve princes. Item, the six sons of Kethurah, Gen. 25, 16, possessed much greater lands than Israel, who undoubtedly kept the circumcision of their fathers afterward.
35 Since circumcision is common to so many peoples from Abraham (whose seed they all are, as well as Isaac and Jacob) according to the commandment of God, Gen 17:10, and in which there is no difference between them and the children of Israel, what do the Jews do when they praise and thank God in their prayers that He has separated them from all peoples through circumcision, sanctified them, and made them His own people? This is what they do, they blaspheme and punish God in His commandment and words, who says Genesis 17, circumcision shall not be commanded to Isaac and his descendants alone, but to all the seed of Abraham, and admits to the Jews (because of circumcision) no separation against Ishmael, Edom, Midian, Ephah, Epher etc. which are told Genesis 25, 4. They are all circumcised and heirs of circumcision, as well as Israel.
036 Now what profit is it to Ishmael that he is circumcised? How does it help Edom that he is circumcised, who was also born of Isaac, who was separated, and not of Ishmael? How does it help Midian and his brothers, born of Kethurah, that they are circumcised? Yet they are not God's people because neither birth from Abraham's blood nor circumcision helps them. If circumcision does not help these to be God's people, how can it help the Jews? Because one kind of circumcision, commanded by one kind of God, from one kind of father, blood and flesh or origin, is common to all. Ulld
1) Wittenberger: sanctify. Jonas: in populum elegerit.
There is sincere equality here, and no distinction or inequality between them all, as far as circumcision and birth are concerned.
37. Therefore, it is not a clever nor masterful, but a crude, foolish, foolish lie, when the Jews boast of their circumcision before God, as if God should look upon them for it and be gracious to them, when they should reasonably know from the Scriptures, that they alone are not circumcised according to God's command, and therefore cannot be a special people of God, but something more, different and greater must belong to them, since the Ishmaelites, Edomites, Midianites: and other Abrahamic seeds may take no less comfort in this glory, even before God Himself. For they are like them in all respects, that is, in birth and circumcision, as has been said.
38 But whether the Jews would pretend that the Ishmaelites and Edomites etc. did not keep the circumcision as perfect as the Jews, who, in addition to cutting off the foreskin of the child, tear off the skin of its tail with sharp fingernails, 2) as one reads in their books, and thereby hurt the child beyond measure, without and above God's command, so that the father, who should rejoice in the circumcision, stands there and hears the child crying, his eyes go over, and passes through the heart. To this it is well to reply that such an addition was invented by themselves, yes, inspired by the wicked devil, against God's commandment, since Moses says, Deut. 4, 2. and 12, 32: "Thou shalt neither add nor subtract from the words of the Lord." And with such devilish additions they corrupt their circumcision, so that before God no people keeps the circumcision less than they themselves, because they hang and practice their damned addition against God's word with such free disobedience.
Now let us see what Moses himself thinks of circumcision. Deut. 10, 16. He thus says: "Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stiff-necked" etc. What is this, dear Moses? Shall it not be enough that they are circumcised bodily? Are they
2) In the old editions: "Fingernegelin".
But they are set apart by holy circumcision and are a holy people of God before all nations? and you rebuke them stiff-necked against God, nullifying their holy circumcision and desecrating the holy circumcised people of God. Thou shouldest speak these things in their synagogues: if they had not stones, they would cast thee out into the land with mire and earth, if thou wert worth ten Moses.
40. he also scolds them, Deut. 26, 41: "Until their uncircumcised heart is ashamed" etc. Go on, Moses, do you know to whom you are speaking? You are talking to a noble, chosen, holy, circumcised people of God; and you may say that they have uncircumcised hearts? that is much worse than if they had sevenfold uncircumcised flesh. For an uncircumcised heart cannot have God, and the circumcision of the flesh is of no avail. But a circumcised heart alone can make a people of God, if bodily circumcision is not there, or cannot be there, as the children of Israel were in the wilderness forty years.
41 Jeremiah also rebukes them in Cap. 4:4: "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskin of your heart, O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, lest my wrath go out like a fire that no one can quench." O Jeremiah, you shameful heretic, you deceiver and false prophet, may you say to the holy circumcised people of God that they should circumcise themselves to the Lord? Do you think that they are circumcised in the flesh before the devil? just as if God did not think anything of their holy bodily circumcision. Thou dreadest the wrath of God upon them as an everlasting fire, if they do not circumcise their hearts, when they do not remember such circumcision of the heart in their prayers, nor praise or thank God for it with any letter. And you make their holy circumcision of the body so utterly unfit that it is also guilty of the eternal wrath of God and eternal fire? I advise you not to come to her school, all the devils should tear you apart and devour you.
Item Jer. 6, 10: "Their ears are uncircumcised and cannot hear. So, dear Jeremiah, do it roughly and uncleanly enough with the noble, chosen, holy, circumcised people of God. Shall you say,
that such holy people have uncircumcised ears? and, what is even worse, that they cannot hear? What is this said, for so much: they are not God's people? For whoever cannot hear God or His word, nor suffer, is not God's people. If he is not God's people, he is the devil's people, and helps neither circumcision, nor shingling, nor scraping. Stop, for God's sake, Jeremiah! Shall you despise and condemn the holy circumcision so horribly that you set apart the chosen, circumcised, holy people full of God and hand them over to the devil as the exiled and damned? Praise God that He has set them apart by circumcision, both from the devil and from all nations, and made them His own holy people. O that is blasphemavit, crucify, crucify him!
43 Jeremiah Cap. 9:25, 26: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will visit all, whether circumcised or foreskin, even Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all that dwell in the east of the wilderness. For all the Gentiles have uncircumcised foreskin, but all the house of Israel have uncircumcised heart" etc.
44. Where is the hopeful glory of circumcision, by which the Jews want to be a separate people and holy before other Gentiles? Here God's word pushes them into one heap with the Gentiles and uncircumcised, and wants to punish them at the same time. Name the best part, the noble royal tribe of Judah, and then the whole house of Israel. And the most serious of all, he says, "The Gentiles are uncircumcised according to the flesh, but Judah, Edom and Israel, who are circumcised according to the flesh, are much worse than the Gentiles, because they have an uncircumcised heart, which is much worse than having uncircumcised flesh, as was said above.
(45) These and similar sayings make it clear that the Jews' pride and glory in circumcision against the uncircumcised Gentiles is nothing, and deserves nothing but wrath in the sight of God, since it alone exists. They have (he says) an uncircumcised heart. The Jews, however, do not respect such a foreskin of the heart, but nevertheless think that God should reject their arrogant circumcision.
1880 Erl. ss, iis-isi. 51. L. 's writing of the Jews and their lies. W. xx, 2336-2339. 1881
in the flesh, and to hear and behold the glory of it against all the Gentiles who cannot boast of circumcision. Do not the blind wretched people see that in these sayings God so clearly and brightly judges their uncircumcised heart, and thus condemns their fleshly circumcision, with their glory and prayer. They continue to do so, like the nonsensical, and make the foreskin of their heart thicker the longer with such arrogant glory before God and contempt of all other peoples, and want to be badly God's people alone through such vain hopeful circumcision of the flesh, until their heart's foreskin has become thicker than an iron mountain, which can no longer hear, see, or feel their own revealed scripture, which they read daily with blind eyes, on which such thick skin has grown, as no oak bark is.
(46) If God is to hear and accept their prayer and praise, they must indeed first remove such blasphemous, shameful, false, lying praise and arrogance from their schools, mouths and hearts; otherwise they do nothing but make their thing worse and worse and arouse God's wrath against them. For he who wants to pray before God must not come forward with arrogance and lies, praising himself alone and despising all others, wanting only to be called God's people, cursing all the others, 1) as they do. David says Psalm 5:6, 7: "Thou art not a god to whom wickedness pleases; he that is wicked abideth not before thee. The glorious do not stand before your eyes. Thou art hostile to all evildoers; thou destroyest liars. The Lord hath abhorred of the bloodthirsty and the false," but so it is said (as there follows v. 8.), "I will enter into thy house upon thy great goodness, and worship against thy holy temple in thy 2) fear."
(47) This psalm applies to all people, whether circumcised or not, especially to the Jews, to whom it was primarily given and made (as well as to all other Scriptures), and is also masterfully depicted in it above all other Gentiles. For it is they who
1) Wittenberger: despise. Jonas: execretur.
2) Wittenberger: der. Jonas: tuo.
They have always been godless, have practiced idolatry, false doctrine and have had uncircumcised hearts, as Moses himself and all the prophets cry out and complain about them; nevertheless, they have always wanted to please God and have slain all the prophets over it. They are the wicked, stiff-necked people, who have not let themselves be converted from evil to good works by any preaching, reproaching, or teaching of the prophets; as the Scriptures testify everywhere; yet they want to be God's servants and stand before Him. They are the glory preachers, the hopeful pranksters, who to this day can do nothing more than boast of their tribe and blood, praise themselves alone, and despise and curse all the world in their schools, prayers and teachings; nor do they think they can stand before God's eyes as the dearest children.
(48) They are the true liars and bloodhounds, who have not only perverted and falsified the whole of Scripture with their lying glosses, from the beginning until now, without ceasing. And all the anxious sighing and longing and hoping of their hearts is that one day they would deal with us Gentiles as they dealt with the Gentiles in Persia at the time of Esther. [Oh how they love the book of Esther, which is so finely tuned to their bloodthirsty, vengeful, murderous desire and hope: no more bloodthirsty and vengeful people has the sun ever shone upon than those who let themselves think that they are therefore God's people, that they should and must murder and strangle the heathen. And the most noble thing they expect from their Messiah is that he should murder and kill the whole world by their sword, as they proved in the beginning to us Christians all over the world, and would still like to do, where they could, have tried it often, and have been beaten on the snouts.
49. but (of which perhaps hereafter) we return to their false lying boast of circumcision: they know well, the shameful liars, that they are not God's people alone, even if they had circumcision alone before all peoples, even that the foreskin does not prevent them from being God's people; nor do they wilfully come before God, lying and boasting of being God's people alone through bodily circumcision, notwithstanding
of the heart circumcision; for against it stand mighty examples of the Scriptures. First of all Job, whom they bring from Nahor, to whom and to his heirs God did not impose circumcision, nor does his book indicate that very few of the great saints in Israel were like him and his people. And [2 Kings 5:17] Naaman of Syria, even through the prophet Elishaeum, was not made to be circumcised, yet he became holy and God's child, no doubt many with him.
50. item, there stands the whole prophet Jonah, who converts Nineveh to God and preserves it, with kings, princes, lords, lands and people, and yet not circumcised. Thus Daniel converted the great kings and countries of Babylon and Persia, as Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrum, Darium etc., and yet they remained Gentiles, uncircumcised, and did not become Jews. As also before Joseph teaches the king Pharao, his princes and people, as the Psalm 105, 22. 1) testifies, and let them nevertheless uncircumcised. This, I say, is what the desperate, hardened liars know, nor do they exalt circumcision as if no one could be God's people who is not circumcised. And they cause heartache when they deceive a Christian into being circumcised, and then come before God and boast in their prayers (as if it were deliciously well done) that they have brought us to be God's people through circumcision; they disgrace, despise and curse the foreskin as an ugly abomination that will not let us be God's people, but their circumcision alone will do it.
(51) What then shall God do to such prayer and praise of theirs, which they bring forth with such gross blasphemous lies, contrary to all Scripture (as heard)? Yes, he will hear them and bring them back to the land. So I mean, if they were in heaven, only such glory, prayer, praise and lies of the circumcision should plunge them into the abyss of the hell of the moment. But I have also written about this against the Sabbath keepers 3).
1) Here the Erlangen edition again reprinted Walch's false Bible quotation "Ps. 105, 23.", in addition to twenty-seven others which are found in this writing.
2) "her" is missing in the Wittenberger.
3) No. 50 in this volume.
Therefore, dear Christian, beware of such damned people, whom God has let sink into such deep abominations and lies that it must all be vain lies, blasphemy and wickedness with them, whatever they do and speak, however good it may be.
52.4) And sayest thou, What is the use of circumcision? or, Why hath God commanded it so severely? Answer: Let the Jews take care of it, what do we Gentiles ask for it? It is not imposed on us, as you have heard, nor are we allowed to follow it anywhere, but we can still be God's people, like those in Nineveh, in Babylon, in Persia, in Egypt. So no one can prove that God ever commanded a prophet or a Jew to circumcise the Gentiles. Therefore, let them leave us satisfied with their lies and idolatry, and since they want to be so clever and wise as to master and circumcise us Gentiles, let them first say why circumcision, or why God commanded it so harshly? They are obliged to do so, but they will do so when they return to Jerusalem, that is, when the devil goes to heaven. For they say that God commanded it, that by it one should become holy, blessed and God's people: you have heard that this is a shameful lie, because Moses and all the prophets say that their circumcision (because they were uncircumcised) did not help them, to whom it was commanded; how then should it help us, to whom it is not commanded?
But we Christians, speaking for ourselves, know well for what it was given, or for what it was used. But no Jew knows about it, and if you talk to him right away, it is like talking to a block or a stone. They do not let go of their glory and arrogance, that is, of their lies; they must be right, God must be their liar and be wrong; therefore let them always go and lie, as their fathers did from the beginning. But St. Paul teaches us Rom. 3, 1. 2. thus: that circumcision is not useful nor given, that it alone, as such a work done, makes holy or blessed, or that it is not given for the purpose of making a man holy.
4) Wittenberger: Thus speak.
He says: "Circumcision has been made almost useful, so that God's word is entrusted to it. This is it, this is it, this is it, that circumcision was given and established for this purpose, that God's word and his promise should be kept and preserved in it, so that not the circumcision as a work in itself should be useful or enough, but that those who have it should be connected with such a sign, covenant or sacrament to obey and believe God in his words, and 1) to inherit all this to their descendants.
But if this causa finalis, or cause of circumcision, would no longer exist, then circumcision (as a mere work) would no longer be valid or useful, especially if the Jews would attach another causam finalem, or cause, to it. This is also stated in the text of Moses, Gen. 17, 8: "I will be their God," and they shall have such a sign on their flesh. This is just as much as St. Paul says: Circumcision is for the purpose of hearing or keeping God's word. For where His word is not heard nor kept, He is certainly no longer our God, since in this life we must take hold of and have God through the word alone. In His bright majesty, He cannot suffer nor endure this miserable life, as He says in Exodus 33:20: "No man can see Me and live."
(55) How the Jews have held such causes or final opinion of circumcision, all Scripture shows with innumerable examples. For as often as God wanted to speak to them through the prophets, whether it was about the Ten Commandments in which He punished them, or about the promise of future help, they were always hardened, or, as the sayings of Moses and Jeremiah above testify, they were uncircumcised in heart and ear. They wanted to do right and well, the prophets (that is, God Himself, whose word they preached) must have done wrong and evil, they beat them.
1) Wittenberger: but. Jonas: et.
They have never let any go unpursued or undamned, except for a few in the time of David, Ezekiel and Josiah; otherwise nothing else has happened throughout the whole reign of the people of Israel and Judah, except to blaspheme God's word, to persecute, to mock, and to strangle prophets, so that, according to the histories, such a people must be called vain murderers of prophets and enemies of God's word; no one who reads the Bible can judge otherwise.
56. now God had (as said) not given the circumcision, nor accepted them thereby to the people, that they should persecute his word and his prophets, mock, murder, and thereby do right and God a service, but, as Moses says in the text of the circumcision 1 Mos. 17, 11.That they should hear God and his word; that is, they should let him be their God, if not, then the circumcision itself should not help them, as the now not God's circumcision, because it argued without God and against his word, would have become a mere man's work, because he had bound himself or his word to the circumcision. Where the two are separated from each other, the circumcision remains a hollow shell or numb husk, since there is no kernel or nut in it.
57. will give you a likeness of us Christians: God has given us baptism and the sacrament of his body and blood, and the keys of this final opinion or causa finali, that we should hear his word in it and practice faith in it (that is, he wants to be our God through it, and we should be his people through it). Now behold, what have we to accomplish? We have gone and separated the Word and faith from the Sacrament (that is, God and His final opinion) and made it a mere opus Iegis (or, as they, the papists, call it, opus operatum), badly a mere human work, which the priests offered to God and the laity performed as a work of obedience, as often as they received it. What remains of the Sacrament? Only the empty shell and lifeless ceremony, opus vanum, since there is nothing divine left inside, yes, a horrible abomination, by which we turn God's truth into lies and worship the right calf Aaron.
That is why God has delivered us into all kinds of terrible blindness and countless false teachings, as well as Mahomet and Pabst, along with all the devils, have come upon us.
(58) It was the same with the people of Israel. They have always separated circumcision as an opus operatum, their own work, from the word of God, and persecuted all the prophets through whom God wanted to speak to them (according to the appointed circumcision), and yet they always proudly boasted that they were God's people because of the circumcision. So they clash with each other: God wants them to hear him and to keep the circumcision right and whole; they do not want to do that, but they want God to look at their work of circumcision, that is, the half-circumcision (yes, the shell of the circumcision). He will not do that either; so the longer they go on, the further they get away from each other, and it is impossible to unite or reconcile them.
Now, who will prove God wrong here? Tell me, whoever you are that has reason, whether it is fitting for God to consider the works of those who will not hear His word, or whether He should consider those for His people who will not have Him for their God? According to all justice and equity, God may say that the Psalm sings [Ps. 81, 12. 13.]: "They do not want me, so I let them go"; and Deut. 32, 21.: "They anger me in that which is not God; so I will anger them again in that which is not a people."
60. Just as with us Christians, the papists must no longer be the church, for they do not want to let God be their God, because they do not want to hear his word, but persecute it in the most shameful way; they come here with their empty shells, sheep and chaff, hold mass and their ceremonies; God shall then look upon them, and hold them for his right church, and not consider that they do not hold him for the right God, that is, he shall not speak to them through his preachers, his word shall be heresy, devil and all calamity. Yes, he will do that, as they will learn, much worse than the Jews have learned.
61 From this it is well understood that circumcision has been almost useful and good,
as St. Paul says; yes, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the word of God; for we consider it certain, and it is the truth, that the little children, on the eighth day of circumcision, have become children of God, as the words are written, "I will be their God," for they have attained complete circumcision, the word with its sign, and have not separated them from one another. For God is there, speaking to them, "I will be their God," which completed the circumcision in them. Just as with us the children received the whole, right, complete baptism, the word with the sign, and do not separate it from each other; they receive the kernel in the shell. God is there, who baptizes them and speaks to them, and thereby makes them blessed.
But when we have grown old, the pope comes, and the devil with him, and teaches us to make opus legis, or opus operatum, separating word and sign from one another, so that we may be saved by our own repentance, work, and satisfaction, and, as St. Peter says in the other epistle in the next chapter, v. 22, "that the sow after the flood rolls again in the dung, and the dog eats again what he has eaten. Thus our sacrament has become a work for us, and is eaten up again by it, which we had spit out. So also the Jews, when they were old, corrupted their good circumcision of the eighth day, and separated the word from the sign, and even made a human or acid work of it, so that they lost God and His word, and now have no more understanding in the Scriptures.
(63) Indeed, God had highly honored them by circumcising them, speaking to them before all the nations of the earth and trusting in His word. And to keep his word with them, he gave them a special land, performed great miracles through them, established kings and reigns, showered them with prophets who not only told them the best of the present time, but also promised the future Messiah, the Savior of the world, for whose sake he proved all these things to them, and told them to wait for him and to be sure of him without delay. For the sake of the same, God was pleased to do everything; for the sake of the same, Abraham was called to be the
He was given circumcision, and the people of Israel so highly exalted, that all the world might know from what nation, country, time, even tribe, family, city, person he should come, that he might not be reproached by devils and men as coming from a dark corner or unknown ancestors, but his ancestors must be great arch-fathers, glorious kings, excellent prophets who testify of him.
(64) But as the Jews (except a few) have kept such promises and prophets, it is said above that they have never been able to suffer a prophet, and have always persecuted God's word for and for, and will not hear God; as all the prophets complain and cry out against them. And as their fathers did, so they still do today, and 1) will never do otherwise. For if even now Isaiah, Jeremiah and other prophets should come among them and preach what they preached at that time, or say that the Jews' present circumcision and hope in the Messiah is nothing, they would just as soon die at their hands as they died at that time. Look at whoever has reason (Christian reason will remain silent), how they so wantonly turn and torture the books of the prophets with their desperate glosses against their own conscience (of which we might want to touch something hereafter). For although they can no longer stone and kill the prophets bodily or personally, they still torture them spiritually, tearing, choking, and slaying their beautiful sayings, which must grieve and hurt a human heart, because one must see how they are so completely handed over to the devil to possess through God's wrath. Summa: They are a prophet-murdering people; if they can no longer murder the living, they must still murder and torture the dead.
After that, when they have scourged God in His word, 2) crucified, spit upon, blasphemed and cursed, as Isaiah 8:21 prophesies, they come trolling along with their
1) "and" is missing in the Wittenberger.
2) In the old editions: zergeischelt. Jonas: flagellarunt.
They want to be God's people alone and their own, condemning all the world, and their arrogance and glory should please God, giving a Messiah for it, whom they choose and prefigure for Him. Therefore beware, dear Christian, of such a damned, desperate people, from whom you can learn nothing, but to punish God and His Word with lies, blasphemy, perversion, murdering prophets, and to proudly and arrogantly despise all people on earth, so that even if God would let everything else go to them (which is impossible), he could not suffer such unspeakable (though poor and miserable) arrogance. For he is called a God of the humble, as Isaiah 66:2 says: "On whom will my spirit rest? Only on the humble who fears my word."
(66) Enough has been said about the other false glory of the Jews, namely, about the false, null circumcision, which did not help them at the time when they were punished by Moses and Jeremiah because of their uncircumcised heart; how much less is it of any use now, because it is nothing more than the devil's jugglery, so that he mimics and fools them, just like the Turks! For where God's word is no longer there, there is no more circumcision.
The third reason and glory of the Jews is the Law, given to them by God. 3)
Third, they have great pride that God spoke to them and gave the Law of Moses on Mount Sinai [Ex 19:20]. Here we come to the right place, here 'God must let Himself be rightly tortured, and hear how they praise Him and sing Him to pieces, that He sanctified them with His holy law and set them apart and brought them out of Egypt before all nations. Here we poor goyim stink; oh how nothing we are compared to this holy, chosen, noble and highly praised people, who have God's word! Yes, they say (as I heard myself). Dear, what do you want to say, God Himself spoke to us on the mountain.
3) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
Sinai, and with no other people. Here we have nothing to rebel against; for we cannot deny this glory, because Mosi's books are there, and David, Psalm 147:19, 20, also testifies and says: "He shows Jacob his word, Israel his manners and his statutes. So he does not do to the Gentiles, nor let them know his judgments," and Psalm 103:7: "He has let Mosi know his ways, the children of Israel his doings."
68 And here they say, as at the same time at Mount Sinai, the rulers of the people wore wreaths as a sign that they had contracted a marriage with God through the Law and had become His bride, and had held weddings with one another. It is also seen afterwards in all the prophets that God stands and speaks with the children of Israel as a man with his wife; from this also comes the special service of Baal; for Baal means a householder or householder, Bula a housewife; which word Bula has now also become German, as one says: Mein holder Buhle, and: I must have a paramour, which in former times was honestly called a mead, therefore a companion buhlete to marriage; now it has come into a different sense.
(69) Come now, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets, and whoever will, be bold and say that such a noble people, to whom God Himself speaks, even whom He Himself takes in marriage by the Law and unites as to a bride, that they should not be God's people. I mean, he should run and see cream; 1) with teeth (where they had no other weapons) they would tear and bite him in pieces, that he would take such glory, praise and honor from them. It is not to be said nor to be understood, what a stubborn, untamed, desperate arrogance is in the people, by this glory in them grown up, that God Himself has spoken with them; no prophet has been able to arise nor stand against them, Moses himself.
1) The expression: "Ram saw" - to run badly, we meet also in Luther's "small answer to Duke Georgen of Saxony next book", Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. XIX, 1875; likewise vol. XIII, 937, § 38. Here it is written in the old editions "Rham". It means the word Ram: waste, dirt, use. Jonas translates: pulcre excepturi essent eos Judaei.
But not. For 4 Mos. 16, 3. began Korah, and pretended that they were all holy people of God, why Moses alone wanted to rule and teach? At that time they were only Korahites, not true Israelites. For just as Korah persecuted Moses, so they have never left a prophet alive or unpursued, let alone obeyed him.
(70) And she was found to be a bride in disgrace, even a desperate harlot and a wicked brat, with whom God was always struggling, fighting and beating. If he punished or struck them with his word through the prophets, they struck him on the mouth, and killed his prophets, or bit like a bad dog in the stick, so that they were struck, as Ps. 95, 10. says: "I had forty years trouble with this people, and said, They are people whose heart always wants the wrong way, and will not learn my ways." And Moses himself, Deut. 31, 27. says: "I know your disobedience and stubbornness. Behold, because I am yet alive with you, ye have been disobedient against the Lord; how much more after my death?" And Isaiah 48:4, "I know that thou art hard, and thy neck is a vein of iron, and thy forehead is brass": so henceforth, whosoever will, may read for himself; and the Jews well know how in all the prophets through and through the children of Israel are reproached as a disobedient, wicked people, and the most wicked whore, when they praised very highly the law of Moses, and circumcision, and the blood of the fathers.
(71) Here one would say: Yes, let this be said of the wicked Jews, not of the pious ones, as they are now. Well, I am content this time that they must confess and acknowledge that the wicked Jews cannot be God's people, and that the blood, circumcision and law of Moses do not help them. Why then do they praise circumcision, blood and law, even the most wicked ones as well as the pious ones? And the worse a Jew is, the more trustworthy he is, simply because he is a Jew, that is, of Abraham's seed, circumcised and under the law of Moses. For David and other pious Jews have not been so proud as the present desperate Jews; which, how wicked they are.
Nevertheless, they want to be the noblest lords against us heathens, because of their blood or law, which chides them like the worst harlots and knaves, as the sun shines on them.
(72) Further, if they are the pious Jews, and not the Hurian people, as the prophets say, how is it that their piety is so secret that God Himself cannot know about it, nor they themselves? For they have now prayed, cried out, atoned for almost 1500 years (as I said); yet God will not hear them, when we know from the Scriptures that God will hear the prayer or sighing of the righteous, as the Psalter says [Psalm 145:19.]: "He does what those who fear Him want, and hears their prayer," and Psalm 34:18: "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them," as He promised, Psalm 50:15: "Call upon Me in the time of trouble, and I will hear you and save you." And many more of these sayings in the Scriptures. For if they were not, who would or could pray? Summa, he says he will be their God in the first commandment, Deut. 5, 6, 9. How is it that he will not hear these Jews? They must truly be the wicked Huric people, that is, not God's people, and their glory of blood, circumcision and law must be a dung. If there were a few pious Jews among them, who would stand with them, he would have to be heard, for God cannot let His saints pray in vain, as the Scriptures give many examples of. From this it is evident that they must not be the pious Jews, but rather the lost bunch of the Horean and murderous people.
73. Also, such piety (as said) is so secret among themselves that they themselves cannot know about it (what should God know about it?). For they are full of all wickedness, of avarice, envy, hatred among themselves, arrogance, usury, pride, swearing against us Gentiles, so that a Jew would have to have very sharp eyes, if he were to recognize a pious Jew, keep silent, that they should all be God's people, as they boast. For they truly conceal their piety very much under their public vices, and yet want to be God's people all the same, none excluded, Abraham's blood, the circumcision and Moses' people, that is, God's people,
against which the Gentiles should be vile, knowing full well that God cannot suffer such things, neither did He suffer them of the angels: neither shall He hear, nor must He hear, their lies and blasphemies, that they will be His people, because of the law which He gave them, which He spake unto their fathers at Sinai.
74. What shall one say much? If the glory were enough that God should esteem them His people, that He spoke to them and they have His word or commandment, then the devils in hell are much more worthy to be God's people, neither the Jews, nor better neither all men. For the devils have God's word and know much better than the Jews that there is a God who created them, to whom they owe all their might to love, honor, fear, serve, not to take His name in vain, to hear His word on the Sabbath and all hours, not to murder nor to do any evil against His creatures. Now what does it help them that they know and have God's commandment? Rather, let them boast that they are God's special, own, dear angels, while other angels must be nothing. How much better it would be for them if they did not have God's commandment, or did not know it! For if they did not have it, they would not be damned; for this very reason they are damned, because they have His commandment, and yet do not keep it, but go against it without ceasing.
75. Likewise, the murderers and harlots, thieves and husks, and all wicked men, may boast that they are God's holy, special people, because they have His word, and know that they should fear Him and be obedient, love Him and serve Him, honor His name, not murder, not commit adultery, not steal, and not do evil; for if they had not his holy right word, they could not sin; but if they sin and are condemned, it is certain that they have the holy right word of God against which they sin. Let them now boast, as the Jews did, that God sanctified them by His law and chose them to be a peculiar people before all men.
(76) It is the same glory that the Jews boast about in their schools, praising and praising.
thank God that He has sanctified them by His law and made them a nation, knowing full well that they are not full of pride, envy, usury, covetousness and all wickedness, and most of all those who want to be very devout and holy in their prayers. For they are so blind that they not only practice usury, but teach it as a right that God commanded them through Moses, in which, as in all other things, they shamefully lie to God, not having time to speak of it now.
77. But whether they pretend that they are not sanctified by the Ten Commandments, because all nations and devils are obliged to keep them, or must be sanctified and condemned by them, they still have the other laws of Moses besides the Ten Commandments, which are given to them alone, and not to the nations, by which they must be sanctified and set apart above all peoples. Oh Lord God, what a lazy, loose, futile makeshift and subterfuge this is! If the Ten Commandments are not kept, then what is the keeping of the other laws but a mere jiggery-pokery and carnival larvae, yes, quite a mockery, so that God is taken for a fool? Just as if a wicked devil's head were to walk about in our country dressed as a pope, cardinal, bishop, or preacher, keeping all the laws and ways of such persons, and under such spiritual adornment would be a real devil, a wolf, an enemy of the church, a blasphemer, who would trample underfoot, curse, and condemn both the gospel and the ten commandments. O how beautiful a saint this should be before God!
78 Or if a beautiful woman in the world were to come in a little cross, and keep all the ways, rights, and customs of virginity, and were among them a nasty, shameful whore, against the ten commandments, what good would her beautiful obedience do her, that she outwardly led all the rights and ways of virginity? It would help her that one would be seven times more hostile to her than to a free public whore. Thus God has always reproached the children of Israel for being such a wicked whore through the prophets, that under the appearance and adornment of the
The outward laws and holiness have practiced all kinds of idolatry and wickedness, as Hosea especially laments, Cap. 2, 4. 5. ff.
(79) Where a virgin or a woman is pious, it is good that she be honestly and cleanly dressed and adorned, and outwardly modestly dressed; but where she is a harlot, the dresses, ornaments, garments and jewels would be much more honest on a sow lying in the dung, as Solomon says: "A golden braid on the sow's nose is a beautiful foolish woman" (that is, a harlot) [Proverbs 11:22]. Therefore, the glory of the outward laws of Moses, apart from the obedience of the Ten Commandments, is worthy of silence; indeed, it makes them sevenfold more unworthy to be God's people than the Gentiles are. For the outward laws were not given to make a people of God, but to adorn and decorate God's people outwardly, just as the Ten Commandments were not given to be boasted of and proudly despised by all the world, as if they were therefore holy and God's people, but were given to be kept and obeyed, as Moses and all the prophets do most vehemently. Let not him boast who has them (as is said of devils and wicked men), but let him boast who keeps them. But he that hath them, and keepeth them not, let him be ashamed and afraid, as he shall surely be damned thereby.
(80) But this is far too much for the blind, obstinate Jews, and if you were to talk to them about it, it would be like preaching the gospel to a sow. They cannot know what God's commandment is, let alone that they should know how to keep it; for they could not hear Moses, nor look him in the face, he had to put a covering over it [Ex. 34:33]; which covering is still there today, and still do not see Moses' face, that is, his teaching; it is covered for them until this day. So they could not hear God's word on Mount Sinai when He spoke to them, but turned back and said to Moses, "Speak to us, and we will hear and do it; the Lord shall not speak to us, lest we die" [Ex 20:19]. It
is even a high prophetic mind, know what is God's commandment and how to keep it.
Moses understood it well when he said, Ex 34:7: "You are the God who forgives sin, and no one is innocent before you," which means: No one keeps your commandments unless you forgive sin. As David Ps. 32, 1. 2. also testifies: "Blessed is he whose sins are forgiven, and God does not impute sin to him"; and in the same Psalm, v. 6.: "All the saints must pray for their sin" etc., that is, no saint keeps God's commandment. If the saints do not keep it, how will the wicked, unbelievers, evil ones keep it? Again Ps. 143, 2.: "O Lord God, do not enter into judgment with your servant, for before you no living man is righteous." This is spoken clearly enough, that even the holy servants of God are not righteous before God, if he does not remove his judgment and acts with mercy against them, that is, they do not keep his commandment and are not allowed forgiveness of sins.
82. Now to this belongs a man whom we enjoy in this, who bears our sin for us, as Isaiah 53:6 says: "The Lord has laid on him all our sin. Yes, this means to understand correctly what God's commandments are and how they must be kept, namely, when we know, recognize, and even feel that we have them, and cannot keep them nor keep them, because of which we must be poor sinners and guilty before God, and only by sheer grace and mercy obtain forgiveness of such guilt and disobedience through the man on whom God has laid such sin. 1) We Christians speak and teach about this; the prophets and apostles speak and teach about this. And these are they who were and still are the bride of our Lord God and a pure virgin; and yet they boast of no law nor holiness, as the Jews do in their synagogues, but complain of the law and cry for mercy and forgiveness of sins. But the Jews are as holy as the barefoot monks, who have so much of the rest of holiness that they also help other people to heaven with it, and still keep a supply,
1) Wittenberger: learn and talk. Jonas: docemus et loquirnur.
of the same much, much to sell. With all of these, this matter is not to be spoken of, for there blindness and hopefulness is as firm as an iron mountain. They are right; God is wrong. Let them go, and let us stay with those who pray the Misei, the 51st Psalm, that is, those who know and understand what is law and what is to keep or not to keep the law.
(83) Now from this, Christian, know what you do when you let the blind Jews deceive you. This is certainly true according to the saying: Where one blind man leads another, they both fall into the pit [Luc. 6, 39]. You can learn nothing more from them than ignorance of divine commandments, and yet boast and be arrogant against all the Gentiles, who are much better than they are before God, because they do not have such arrogance of holiness, and yet do much more of the law than they do, the trustworthy, holy and damned blasphemers and liars.
Therefore beware of the Jews and know where they have their schools, that there is nothing else but a devil's nest, in which vain self-glory, arrogance, lying and blasphemy, desecration of God and men are practiced in the most poisonous and bitter way, as the devils themselves do. And where you see or hear a Jew teaching, think no other than that you hear a poisonous basilisk, which also poisons and kills people with its face. They are given to this by the wrath of God, that they think that their glory, their hope, their lying to God, their cursing all men, is a right and great service of God, which befits and is due to such noble blood of the fathers and the circumcised saints (however evil they feel themselves to be in tangible vices), and they want to do well with it. Beware of them!
The fourth reason and glory of the Jews of the land of Canaan. 2)
85] Fourth, they have the great high glory and hope that they have had the land of Canaan, the city of Jerusalem and the temple of God. Now, although God has brought down such glory and arrogance many times, they have not.
2) This heading is found in the Jena and partly also in the Wittenberg edition.
especially by the king of Babylon, who led them away and destroyed everything, as the king of Assyria led away the whole of Israel before and destroyed everything, and finally they have been wiped out and devastated by the Romans, now for more than 1400 years, that they might take hold of how God has not looked at nor will look at land, city, temple, priesthood, nor principality, that He would therefore consider them His own special people; still their iron neck (as Isaiah calls them [48, 4.]) has not been bent, nor has their brazen forehead been shamed, they remain blind as a bat and hardened, immobile, still hoping that God will bring them back home and restore everything.
Now Moses had told them many times, first, that they would not take the land before other nations because of their righteousness, because they were a stiff-necked, wicked, disobedient people; and second, that where they did not keep his commandments, they would soon be driven out 2) and perish. And when he chose the city of Jerusalem, he made it very clear in all the prophets that if they did not keep God's commandment, he would destroy and destroy the city of Jerusalem, his seat and throne. Item, when Solomon had built the temple, sacrificed to God and prayed, he said to him 1 Kings 9:3, 6, 7: "I have heard you, and have sanctified this house" etc. Soon after: "But if ye will transgress, and not keep my commandments, then will I cast Israel out of the land, and will forsake this my holy house, and it shall be a reproach unto all the heathen" etc. All this unseen and unheeded, they stood, as they still stand, as a rock and as a senseless 3) stone image, on the fact that God had given them the land, city and temple. Land, city and temple had been given to them, and therefore they had to be God's people or church.
(87) They do not hear and see that God has given everything for the purpose of keeping His commandment, that is, to keep Him as their God, so they should be His people and church. Just as they praise their tribe and their God, so they are his people.
1) "all" is missing in the Jenaer, in Walch and in the Erlanger.
2) "his" is missing in the Jena and the Erlangen.
3) - "senseless" is missing in the Wittenberg. Jonas: mente carens.
But that they should keep his commandment, because of which and for which he chose their blood, they do not see it and do not respect it. Their circumcision they praise; but that for which they are circumcised, that they should keep God's commandment, that is nothing. They praise their laws, their temple, their worship, their city, their land and their dominion, but why they have them they do not respect.
The devil has possessed this people with all his angels, so that they always praise the outward things, their gifts, their deeds and works before God, that is, they sacrifice the empty shells without a core, so that he will look at them and have them as a people, exalting and blessing them above all the nations. But that he will keep his commandment from them and be honored for a god, that they will not consider. So it goes according to the saying of Moses [Deut. 32, 21]: "They do not consider me as God, so I do not consider them as my people", as Hosea, 2, 2. also says.
(89) And if God had not torn up the city of Jerusalem and driven it out of the land, but had kept it inside as before, no one could have persuaded them that they were not God's people, because they still had the temple, the city and the land, no matter how wicked, disobedient and stiff-necked they were, even though the prophets had been snowing daily and a thousand Moses had been standing there shouting: You are not God's people, because you are disobedient and stubborn to God. They cannot yet abandon their nonsensical, frenzied boast that they are God's people, now that they have been driven out, disturbed and rejected for fifteen hundred years. Nor do they hope to get there again for the sake of their own merits. For they have no promise to comfort themselves without what they smear into the Scriptures out of their erroneous conceit.
90 Our apostle, St. Paul, rightly said of them that they "strive for God, but with ignorance" etc. [They want to be God's people with their deeds, works and outward nature, and not out of pure grace and mercy, as all the prophets and the true children of Israel had to do, as said; therefore there is no counsel nor help. Just like all things
1900 "rl. ss, ito-i4L. 51. l.'s writing of the Jews and their lies. W. xx. ssss-ssks. 1901
Our papists, bishops, monks and priests, together with their followers, want to be God's people and church by force, and God should look at them because they are baptized, have the name and sit in the regiment. There they stand like a rock; if a hundred thousand apostles came and said: You are not the church because you have such a nature, or much of your own works and worship, when you do it at the best; but must despair of all this, and cling only to grace and mercy in Christ; etc. If not, you are the devil's whore, or school of boys, and not the church. They might murder, burn, and drive out such apostles; but that they should believe them, and leave their own doings, there is no hope, nothing will come of it.
The Turks do the same with their worship, and so do all the sectarians, and all are full of Jews, Turks, papists and sectarians, who all want to be the church and God's people according to their conceit and glory, regardless of the right united faith and obedience of divine commandments, by which alone they become and remain God's children. And even though they do not all lead in the same way, but one takes this way, the other that way, and want to go out in various ways, they are all of the same opinion and final intention, that through their actions they want to come to be God's people, and thus boast and claim that they are the ones whom God will look upon. These are the foxes of Samson, which are joined together with their tails at the end, but with their heads full of each other they run in various ways [Judges 15:4].
92. but this, as said above, is much too high for the Jews, the Turks, Papists also; as St. Paul [says] 1 Cor. 2, 14.: "The cattle man does not hear divine things, there must be spiritual understanding"; otherwise it remains, as Isaiah 6, 10. says: "With seeing eyes they do not see, with hearing ears they do not hear." For they know not what they hear, see, speak, or set, and yet they would not that they should be blind and deaf. Let this be enough of the false glory and arrogance of the Jews, since with vain lies they want to persuade God to consider them His people.
The other part: Whether Messiah has come or not. 1)
Now let us talk about the main part, when they ask God for the Messiah. Here they are the true holy and pious children; here they truly do not want to be liars or blasphemers, but certain prophets that Messiah has not come, but is yet to come. Who will punish them here for being mistaken or lacking? If all the angels and God Himself spoke publicly on Mount Sinai or in Jerusalem in the Temple that Messiah had long since come and that there was no need to wait for Him, God Himself would have to be the devil and all the angels would have to be devils. So certain are these holiest, truest prophets that Messiah has not come, but is yet to come. Much less will they hear us, as they have done until now and still do, since they have been so magnificently overcome by many fine scholars, even from their own lineage, that even stone and wood, if they had half a brain, would have to confess this, and yet they knowingly rage against known truth 2); but their damned rabbis, who know otherwise, so wantonly poison their poor youth and common men and turn them away from the truth. For I hold that where such Scripture should be read by the common man and youth, they should all stone their rabbis and punish them worse than they do us Christians. But the evil-doers prevent it from coming before them, as they faithfully mean to do.
And if I had not experienced my papists, it would have been unbelievable to me that there should be such wicked people on earth, who should knowingly resist public, known truth, that is, God Himself to the face, because I would not have allowed such hardened courage in any man's heart, but only in the devil's heart. But now I am not surprised, neither of the Turks nor of the Jews blindness, hardness, malice, because I must see such in the most holy fathers of the church, pope, cardinals, bishops. O you
1) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
2) Thus the Wittenberg and the Jena. The old edition of Walch and the Erlangen: "Wahrheiten". Jonas: veritati.
1902 Eri. ss, its-144. I. Luthers Schriften Wider die Juden. W. xx, Wvs-Wm. 1903
terrible wrath and incomprehensible judgment of the high divine majesty, how can you be so despised by the children of men that we do not tremble badly to death before you in a moment? How even an unbearable sight art thou, even in the most holy hearts and eyes, as is seen in Moses and the prophets, but these 1) hearts of stone and souls of iron mock thee so defiantly!
(95) However, although we may work on the Jews in vain (for I said above that I do not want to argue with them), we want to strengthen our faith and warn the weak Christians against the Jews, first of all to honor God by acting out their nonsensical foolishness among ourselves, to prove that we believe rightly, and to make them go completely astray in this article of the Messiah. We Christians have our New Testament, which certainly testifies to us and enough to the Messiah. But that the Jews do not believe it, we do not inquire, much less believe their damned glosses, and let them always go and wait for their Messiah; their unbelief does us no harm, but what it helps them and has helped them so far, they may ask their protracted misery about it, which will answer well for us. Whoever does not want to follow, let him stay behind. For they act as if we care a great deal for them, and only pervert us to the annoyance of the Scriptures, when we neither desire nor need anything from their conversion for our advantage, benefit or help, but do everything we do for their good; if they do not want that, let them leave it, we are excused and can well do without them with all that they are, have and are able to do for salvation. We have the Scriptures better than they do, we know that for sure (praise God!), and all devils shall not take them from us, let alone the wretched Jews.
The first saying from which it is proven that Messiah has come. 2)
96 First of all, we take before us the saying Gen 49:10: "The scepter shall not come out of Judah until the Shiloh be removed.
1) Wittenberger: the. Jonas: his.
2) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
Come, and the nations will follow" etc. This saying of the holy patriarch Jacob, which he spoke at the end of his life, the new foreign Jews have been tortured and crucified many times against their own conscience. For they know well that their interpreting and turning is nothing but wantonness and superstition. And I am reminded of their words like an evil, stiff-necked woman who resists her husband and wants to have the last word, even though she knows that she is wrong. So the blinded people also think it is enough if they can bark and babble against the text and right mind, do not ask anything about it, that they are deliberately lying. And beware, they would rather suffer that the sentence were never written than that they should leave their mind; it does them the burnt harm, and they cannot get over it.
97 For the ancient Jews of right had the mind that we Christians have, namely, that in the tribe of Judah the regiment or scepter should remain until Messiah comes: "to him then shall the nations cleave" and fall, that is, the scepter should not then be in the tribe of Judah alone, but (as the prophets afterwards express it) it should come among all the nations of the earth at the time of Messiah. However, until the time of Messiah, the scepter would remain in the small corner of Judah. Such is (I say) the mind of the prophets and the ancient Jews, they cannot deny it. For also their Chaldean Bible, which they must not resist, as little as the Hebrew itself, clearly shows this. It reads in German thus: "From the house of Judah the Shulman shall not be taken away, nor the Sapphra from his children's children forever, until the Messiah come, whose is the kingdom, and the nations shall make themselves obedient to him." This is the Chaldean text faithfully and certainly Germanized, which no Jew nor devil can deny me.
Since now Moses Schebet, 3) [xxx] in Hebrew, we say Scepter in German, the Chaldean interpreter says "Schultan"; these words we want to explain. Schebet, Hebrew, means Virga, actually here not an
3) In the old editions: "Scheuet". In the old edition of Walch and in the Erlanger: "Schebät".
The German word "Ruthe" means a birch tree, which is used to stump children, and not a staff, which is used to stump the sick and the elderly, 1) but a stick that a judge holds in his hand when he sits in judgment. Which stick, in time, as the splendor of the world increased, became silver and gold, and is now called a scepter, that is, a royal stick. Skeptron is a Greek word, but has now become German; for Homerus, lib. 1, also describes his king Achilles as having had a wooden scepter adorned with silver pins 2); from this one can see what scepters have been, and from where they have finally become completely silver and golden. Summa, it is the staff, be it silver, wooden or golden, which the king, or whoever is in his place, carries. And means nothing else than a dominion or kingdom; there is no doubt in anyone's mind about this.
The Chaldean interpreter does not need the word shebeth, staff or scepter to make this clear; but instead he puts the person who carries the same staff and says, Shultan, that is, a prince, lord or king shall not come from the house of Judah, that is, there shall be a sultan in the house of Judah until Messiah comes. For Sultan is also Hebrew, and is now well known to us Christians, who have had your Sultan Egypti for longer than six hundred years, and have gained little in the way of landmarks. For the Saracens call their king or prince Sultan, that is, lord or ruler, or overlord. Hence the Hebrew word "Schilt," which has become quite pure German from the Hebrew, as if to say that a prince or lord should be the shield, protection and umbrella of his subjects, so he is a true sultan or lord etc. Some also want to make the Schultes 3) from it, I let that happen and go.
100. is Saphra, which is otherwise called Sopher in Hebrew (because Chaldee and Hebrew
1) The old edition of Walch and the Erlanger: "angehen".
2) Pfinchen---Pinnchen, small nails. (Grimm.) Jonas: clavis.
3) "Schuttes" (in the Jenaer and Erlanger) or, as the Wittenberger writes: "Schuttheß" -- Schultheiß, Schulze.
is not far from each other, and almost the same; just as Saxons and Swabians speak the same German, and yet there is a great difference). But we have commonly Germanized sopher: chancellor. Saphra interpret them now allammt, also Burgensis: serious, scribes; such the gospel calls "Schristgelehrte". These are not bad scribes who write for pay or without 4) force. They are the wise, great rulers, doctores, magistri, who teach, instruct and maintain the law in the reign. This also includes the chancellery, parliament, courts, councils and everything that helps to govern through wisdom and law. For this is what Moses means by the word Mechokek, 5) which means the one who teaches, issues and judges commandments and orders; as among the Saracens, the sultan's scribes or scholars are his doctores, masters and scholars who teach, interpret and preserve the Alkoran, as the rights of his country. In the papacy, the pope's scribes or saphra are the canonists or assists who teach and preserve his decrees and rights. In the Empire, the Emperor's saphra or scholars of Christ are the Doctores LL. [Legum], secular lawyers, the
teach imperial law, give and receive advice. 6)
So Judah also had scribes, that is, Christian scholars, who taught and preserved the Law of Moses, which was their law of the land. Therefore we have translated it: Mechokek, "master", that is, doctor, teacher etc. And this is also the intention of the little word, Mechokek, that is, the master shall not be taken from his feet, that is, teachers and listeners, who fitzen zun Füßen, shall remain in the proper regiment. For every country, if it is to exist, it must have the two pieces, namely, a power and a right. The country must have a lord, a head, a regent. So it must also have a right, according to which the ruler is held; this is the rod and mechokek or sultan and sapphra, as Solomon also shows; when he had received the rod, that is, the kingdom, he asked for wisdom, so that he might rule the people rightly.
4) "Without" is missing in the Wittenberg. Justus Jonas translates "without violence" by: privatim.
5) The old editions offer: Mehokek.
6) "Rath geben und erhalten" is missing m the Wittenberger.
For where there is power without justice, where the sultan does and lets what he wants and not what he should, there is no rule but tyranny, as Nero, Caligula, Dionysius, Heinz and the like are. Again, since law is without power, the wild rabble also does what it wants, and remains no regiment. Therefore there must be both law and power, Sultan and Saphra, that one may help the other.
(102) Therefore they call Saphra the councilors who were to be in Jerusalem from the tribe of Judah, whom they call Sanhedrim. Herod, a foreigner, an Edomite, wiped out all of them and became both sultan and sapphra, cane and mechokek, lord and scribe in the house of Judah. Then began this saying of the patriarch to be fulfilled, that Judah had no more dominion nor sapphra. Then it was time for Messiah to come and take his kingdom on the throne of David forever, as prophesied in Isaiah 9:7. Therefore let us now consider the saying of the patriarch.
103. "Judah, you are (he says) [Gen. 49, 8.], you will be praised by your brothers" etc. This, I respect, should not be a gloss, be said clearly enough, that the tribe of Judah should be honored [be] above all its other brothers and have the preference. Further: "Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies" etc. This is clear enough that the famous and distinguished tribe of Judah must have enemies and opposition, but it must have happiness and victory. Further: "Thy brethren shall bow and bend before thee" etc. It is clear that this does not refer to the prison, but to the rule over his brothers, all of which is fulfilled in King David. But not only did the same tribe of Judah become lord over its brothers in David, but it also took hold like a lion and forced other nations under it, such as the Philistines, Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites.
104 He praises this with these glorious words: "Judah is a young lion; you have come up from the grave. He has lain down like a lion and like a lioness, who
1) The old edition of Walch and the Erlangen "could".
will rise up against him?" That is, he has sat and wrought a kingdom that no one has been able to resist, as such nations around have often and mightily attempted to do.
(105) Now the patriarch has set up, established and confirmed the kingdom, the sultan, the rod, the sapphra, in the tribe of Judah, and Judah the sultan sits in the reign; what will become now? This is what will happen," he says, "until Messiah comes; that is, many will rise up against him and want to overthrow the kingdom and bring it to nothing, so that it will be destroyed from the earth; as the histories of the kings and prophets abundantly testify, that all the nations have dealt fiercely with it for and for, and he himself says above that Judah must have enemies. For in the world it is so: Where a kingdom or principality comes up, there is no rest of envy, until it is destroyed to the ground. This is what all histories and examples say.
But here saith the Holy Ghost: This kingdom in the tribe of Judah is mine; let no man take it from me, though he be mighty and wicked, though the gates of hell be; let it be called, Non auferetur. You devils and pagans say: Auferetur, we want to clean it up, we want to devour it, we want to make it quiet, as the 74th Psalm v. 8. complains very much: but it shall remain devoured, undesolate for me, the Sheba or Sultan shall not come away from the house of Judah, nor the Saphra from his children's children, even if you all become mad and foolish, until Shiloh or Messiah comes.
107. And when he comes, it will be much more different and glorious. For since you did not want the tribe of Judah to suffer in a small corner, I will first make a great lion out of it, who will become sultan and sapphire in all the world. And I will make it so that he shall not draw a sword, nor shed a drop of blood, but the nations shall freely and gladly make themselves subject and obedient to him. This shall be his kingdom. For it is the kingdom and all his.
Grasp this mind and thought,
and go with it to the text, Hebrew and Chaldee, what does it matter, whether your heart will not say to you together with the letters: By the dear God, this is the truth, this is the patriarch's opinion. Then go to the histories, and see if it has not happened and is not happening, and is still happening, then you will have to say again: It is truly so. For it is undeniable that in the tribe of Judah the Sultan and Sapphra remained until Herodem, even though it was sometimes weak and not without great resistance; it is still preserved. But under Herod and after Herod it was ruined and destroyed, but it was taken away, so that even Jerusalem, where the throne of the tribe of Judah was, and the land of Canaan no longer remained, and so the saying was fulfilled that the Sultan had gone and Messiah had come.
Now I do not have the time to show how rich a source this saying is, and how the prophets have taken so much from it about the fall of the Jews and the profession of the Gentiles, of which these new Jews and Bastards know nothing at all. This time we have it brightly and powerfully from this saying that Messiah must have come about the time of Herod; or must say that God did not keep his promise and thus lied. No one should do this except the wicked devil and his servants, the false bastards and foreign Jews. They do it without ceasing, God must be their liar, they want to be right, that Messiah has not yet come, since God says that Messiah should come before the scepter of Judah is even gone; who has now been gone almost fifteen hundred years, as there are the clear words of God, plus the obvious work and fulfillment of these same words.
Now what is it that you would argue about this with a stubborn Jew? It is just as if you wanted to talk to a foolish man and prove that God created heaven and earth, Genesis 1:1, and you showed him heaven and earth with your fingers, but he still chatted that this was not heaven or earth, which Genesis 1 speaks of, or not heaven and earth, but something else, etc. For this
Saying: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah" etc., is as bright and clear as that: "God created heaven and earth. And the work, namely, that now at fifteen hundred years the scepter has departed from Judah, is as tangible and obvious as heaven and earth are; that one understands sufficiently how the Jews neither err nor are deceived, but maliciously and wantonly deny and blaspheme the recognized truth against their conscience. Let no one esteem such a man worthy to speak a word to him, even if it were from Marcolfo, keep silent about such high divine words and works.
(111) But whoever feels like being unfunny with me, I will serve him with this, and show the Jews the gloss on this saying. First of all, those who do not fall away from the text, but remain with the text, especially with the Chaldean text, which no sensible Jew may deny, thus turn out: God's promise is certain, but misery's sins prevent what is promised from coming to pass; therefore we still wait for His promise until we have atoned etc. Is this excuse not lazy, even blasphemous enough? Just as if God's promise stood on our righteousness, or coexisted with our sin, that is, God would have to become a liar for the sake of our sin, and again, become truthful for the sake of our righteousness. How could one speak more shamefully of God than that He would be a reed that wavers, that can be moved, according to which we fall or stand?
If God did not promise us before and make us a promise, because we were without sin, He would not have been able to promise or make anything from the beginning. For thus says David, Ps. 130, 3: "Lord, wilt thou consider what sin is, who can abide before thee?" And Ps. 143:2: "O Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servant, for before thee no living man is righteous"; and of Proverbs much more. Hence the example of the children of Israel in the wilderness, whom God leads into the land of Canaan without their righteousness, even with their great sins and disgraces, only for the sake of His promise, as Moses says, Deut. 9:5, 6: "Know then that you are not a righteous man.
Now that you are not brought into the land because of your righteousness, because you are a stiff-necked, disobedient (I mean, that means sinning) people, but that the Lord promised your fathers" etc. As a sign he often wanted to destroy them, where Moses would not have prayed for them; so firmly did God's promise stand on their holiness.
It is true that when God promises something with a condition or proviso, saying, "If you will do this, I will do this," the promise is on our actions. As when he says to Solomon, 1 Kings 9:6, 7: "If you keep my commandments, this house shall be my sanctuary; if not, I will destroy it." But this promise of Messiah is not of this kind. For he saith not thus, If ye do this and that, Messiah shall come; if not, he shall not come: but freely he giveth it away, saying, Messiah shall come at the time when the scepter shall be removed from Judah. Such a promise is only based on divine truth and grace, which neither respects nor considers our actions. Therefore, this evasion of the Jews is rotten and quite blasphemous.
The others, who fall from the text, take before them and torture every word especially. And though they are not worthy to have their slobber and filth heard, yet, that their shame may be made manifest, we must have a little patience until we hear their courage also. For because they fall from the light text, they are already condemned by their own conscience, which compels them to obey the text, without wanting to charm the Hebrew words before our eyes, to our annoyance, as if we did not know the Chaldean text.
(115) Some are saying that Shiloh is the name of the city of Shiloh, where the ark of the covenant was, Judges 21:19. 21:19 [1 Sam. 4:3], that the opinion is, The scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come, that is, until Saul be king and anointed at Shiloh. This is too much of a rotten joke. Before Saul the king, not only Judah had no scepter, but all Israel had none. How could it have ceased when Saul became king? But the text says that Judah was master of his brethren before, and that he was the king of Israel.
He became a lion after Saul and thus received the scepter. So also before Saul no judge was lord or prince over the people of Israel, as Gideon said to the people, Judges. 8:23, when they wanted to make him and his heirs lord over them: "I will not be lord over you, neither will my son; God shall be lord over you." Neither was there any judge from the tribe of Judah, except Athniel, the first after Joshua; the rest all, except Saul, were from the other tribes. And though Athniel is called Caleb's youngest brother, it is not certain that he is of Judah; he may be of another father's descent. And it is not to be feared that Shiloh should be a city here, or that Saul should be crowned in Shiloh. For Saul was anointed by Samuel at Ramath, 1 Sam. 10:1, and confirmed at Gilgal.
116) Also where does it rhyme that the Chaldean says: of 1) Shiloh is the kingdom, and nations will be obedient to him? When did the city of Shiloh or Saul come to such honors? Israel is one people, not many nations, as they have one right, one worship, one name. But many nations are those who have other and different 2) rights, names and God. Now Jacob says that not the one nation Israel (which is before or under Judah's scepter), but other nations are to fall to Shiloh. Therefore this idle talk is nothing but an indication of the great courage of the Jews, who do not want to give victory to Jacob's saying, as they nevertheless feel that they must do in their conscience.
117) Others say that Shiloh is the king Jeroboam, crowned in Shiloh, to whom ten tribes of Israel fell, from the king Judah Roboam, 1 Kings 12:15. 3) Therefore this is the opinion of Jacob: The scepter will not come out of Judah until Shiloh comes, that is, until Jeroboam comes. This is indeed as rotten as that; for Jeroboam is not crowned at Shiloh, but at Shechem, 1 Kings 12:20. 1. Thus the scepter of
1) Jenaer: "the".
2) Jenaer: all sorts. Jonas: aliud.
3) The Jews try to bring out the opinion that Jeroboam was crowned in Shiloh by misinterpreting 1 Kings 12:15, although nothing like that is written there.
Judah was not taken, but the kingdom of Judah remained, and the tribe of Benjamin, along with all the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah and Benjamin, as it is written in 1 Kings 12, along with the entire priesthood, worship, temple and everything. Jeroboam also never gained control of the kingdom of Judah, much less other nations, as is said to have happened to Shiloh.
118) The third ones thus declare that Shiloh was sent, and that he was king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, saying, The scepter of Judah shall not depart until Shiloh come, that is, the king of Babylon sent to take away Judah, and to destroy it. This is no good either, and a child who learns letters can overthrow it. For Shiloh and Shiloch are two different words. Shiloh may mean sent. But here it does not say Shiloh, sent, but Shiloh, which is, as the Chaldean says, Messiah. Now the king of Babylon is not the Messiah who is to come from Judah, as the Jews, indeed all the world, well know. Nor was the scepter of Judah taken away, whether the Jews were led captive to Babylon. For there was only one distemper seventy years: but there were great prophets, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, which endured, and determined the time, even Jechoniah king of Judah, 1) which was kept as a king in Babylon. And many that were carried away came again in their life, Hagg. 2. This is not called putting away the scepter, but a little prodding. For even though they had to be deprived of the land for a little while as a punishment, God pledged His precious word to them so that they would remain secure in the land. And much more surely is that which is promised, though it is not yet, than that which is and is not promised. For that must surely come; this is not certain for an hour. But these fifteen hundred years not a dog, let alone a prophet, said that they would be sure of the land. Therefore the scepter of Judah is finished, of which I have written against the sabbath keepers.
119. The fourth crucify the word Shebeth,
1) In the old editions the name "Jechanja" is written here, against it later in §132 "Jechonja". Also in the Bible both spellings occur.
And they interpret it thus: The rod shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh (that is, his son) come, who shall weaken the Gentiles. These call the rod the punishment or misery, since they are now in, and Messiah shall come and slay all the Gentiles. This also is a great wantonness, which putteth the Chaldean text freely out of sight, which they shall not do, nor may they do, and interpreteth the word Shebeth of his pleasure, and regardeth not that which goeth before, when Jacob maketh Judah prince and lion, or king, and saith quickly without remedy thereon, The scepter, or Shebeth, shall not depart from Judah. How could such an alien mind of punishment follow the glorious words of principality or kingdom so without means? The sins that deserved the punishment would have to be reported beforehand. But here nothing is reported before, 2) but praise, honor and glory of the tribe of Judah.
(120) And if the word shewbeth be called a rod of punishment, (3) what good is it? For the judge's or king's rod is also a rod of punishment over the wicked. Yes, the stick of punishment cannot be other than a judge's or sultan's stick, because the punishment is only due to the authorities, Deut. 32, 35. MIHI VINDICTA: 4) so remains for the
still this opinion firmly that the scepter or stick should remain Judah, even if it is a punishment stick. But this Rabbi Muthwille interprets a foreign stick, which does not lie in Judah's hand, but on Judah's back from a foreign hand. And if that would be possible to understand so, as not is, where remains the other piece, from the Saphra or Mechokek to his feet? That would also have to be a strange master's mechokek and strange people's feet. But because Jacob says that it should be Judah and his feet Mechokek, the other piece, the staff, must also be his tribe's regiment.
2) Thus in the Wittenberg and in the Jena. In the old edition Walch's and in the Erlangen: "too previously reported".
3) Jenaer and Erlanger: "means". Jonas: significaret.
4) We have corrected these words according to Rom. 12, 19. in the Vulgate. In the old editions vindictam, while in the 5th book of Moses, 32, 35. it is written: Nva sst uitio.
1914 Eri. 3L, 154-ls". I. Luther's writings against the Jews, W. xx, Ww-WW. 1915
Some martyr the word DONEC, "until that", and should mean "therefore that"; the scepter of Judah will not come away DONEC, id est, therefore that Messiah will come. This is a delicious master, he should be crowned with donkey's feet, put the hindmost toDONEC vörderst, in this way: Messiah will come, therefore the scepter will remain. But Jacob set Judah a prince and a lion beforehand, to whom he gave the scepter before Messiah; and he gave the scepter to Messiah afterward. Thus Judah retains neither principality, nor lions, nor scepter, which Jacob grants him. In addition the fool makes from the word "until that" a new word "therefore that" out of pure courage, which the language does not admit to him.
Last of all is a rabbi who marshals the word "come," which to him must mean "setting," as the sun is Hebrew for "coming" when it sets. This one is rumbling so fine that I don't know if he wants to go on your head or on your ears. For I do not understand where to be waiting, since he thinks the scepter will not come away from Judah until Shiloh (the city) goes down, then David the Messiah will come. Where has the scepter of Judah been before Shiloh or Saul, as heard above? But so shall they rumble who rage against their conscience and known truth. Summa, Lyra says right, if they invent this and such a lot of glosses, the Chaldean text pushes them all to the ground, and convinces them that they are wanton liars, blasphemers, and transgressors of his word. But I wanted to bring it to us Germans, so that we can see what kind of fruit the blinded Jews are, and how mightily the truth of God stands against them.
(123) Seeing then that such evasions and vain pretexts are false, they confess that Messiah is come about the time when Jerusalem is destroyed; but that he is secretly in the world, and sitteth in Rome among the beggars, repenting for the Jews, until the time come that he should break forth. These are not the words of the Jews or of men, but the words of the arrogant, mocking devil, who through the Jews mocks us Christians with our Christ in the most bitter and venomous way, as if he should
The Christians boast much about their Christ, but they have to suffer and be tortured under the Romans and be beggars in the world, not only in the time of the emperors, but also in the time of the pope; they can do nothing in my kingdom in the world, I will remain their lord. Yes, mock, you wretched devil, and laugh at it enough, you shall tremble enough for it.
124 Thus it is with this saying of Jacob, as it is with the saying of Christ in our time, "This is my body, which is given for you. The scribes also tortured each word in a special and manifold way, putting the hindmost first, before they wanted to accept the text in its right sense, as we have seen. But it seems here that the Christians, as Lyra, Raymundus, Burgensis and their like, were nevertheless diligent, and would have liked to convert the Jews, they weeded from one word to another, as one weeds the foxes. But if they have been hunting for a long time, the Jews have finally persisted in their obstinacy, and knowingly want to err, and not depart from their rabbis; so we must also let them go, and not respect their poisonous blasphemy and lies.
It happened to me in the same way: Three learned Jews came to me, hoping that they would find a new Jew in me, because we began to read Hebrew here in Wittenberg; they also pretended that because we Christians began to read their books, things would soon get better. . When I now disputed with them, they did according to their manner, gave me their glosses; but when I forced them to the text, they escaped from me and said: They must believe their rabbis, as we believe the pope and doctors etc. Now I had mercy on them, gave them an intercession to the escorts that they should let them go free for Christ's sake. But I learned afterwards how they had called Christ a Thola to me, that is, an executed thief. Therefore I will have nothing more to do with any Jew; they are, as St. Paul says, given over to wrath, the more one wants to help them, the harder and angrier they become; let them go.
But we Christians can strengthen our faith very much from this saying of Jacob.
ken that Messiah must be present, and have been present, now at fifteen hundred years. Not, as the devil scoffs, a beggar in Rome, but a reigning Messiah, otherwise God's word and promise would become a lie. And if the Jews wanted to let the Holy Scriptures be God's word, they would also have to give a Messiah from the time of Herod, let him be where he is, and wait for no other. Before they do this, they would rather tear up the Scriptures and turn them upside down, so that they are no longer Scriptures. As it is in truth with them, that they have neither Messiah nor Scripture, as Isaiah 28:7 prophesied of them. That is enough according to the saying of Jacob.
The other saying, from which it is proved that Messiah is coming. 1)
127 Let us take another before us, whom the Jews did not, nor can they, so bruise. Among the last words of David, 2 Sam. 23, 2. 3., he speaks thus: "The Spirit of the Lord has spoken through me, and his word has come through my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken to me, the mighty one in Israel" etc. And soon after v. 5: "What is my Hans with God" (or that I give it actually and exactly from the Hebrew), "my house is not like this" etc. That is, my house is not worth, it is too high and too much that God does so much with me poor man. "For he hath established with me an everlasting covenant, which shall be established and kept in all places." Mark well these words, that David boasts with so much and (as it seems) with superfluous words, that the Spirit of God spoke through him, and God's word was done through his tongue. Item: "The God of Israel has spoken to me, the Mighty One in Israel" etc. As if he should say: Dear one, listen, hear who can hear. Here is God who speaks, listen etc. What is it that you urge us to hear? What is God speaking through you? What does he want to tell you? What do you want us to hear?
128] This you shall hear, that God has made an everlasting, firm agreement with me and with my house,
1) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
(of which my house is not worthy), yes, it is 2) nothing against God; nevertheless, he has done it. What then is such an everlasting covenant? Open your ears and hear, my house and God have sworn together and joined forever; this is a covenant, a promise, which must remain forever. For it is God's covenant and promise, which no one shall break, nor hinder, nor be able to hinder; my house shall be called forever, established and refined in all things, as the word "Aruch" gives, that [it] shall not lack a hair, nor be wanting. Have you heard this? Do you also believe that God is true? Yes, without a doubt. But do you also believe that He can and will keep His word?
Now then, if God is true and almighty, and has spoken these words through David (as no Jew may deny), then David's house or rule (which is the same as much), since the time he spoke these words, must have remained, and still, and forever, that is, remain forever, or God must be a liar. Summa, we must have David's house or heir, who reigns from David's time until now and forever; or David died as a desperate liar at his last end, since he says these words with so much useless gibberish (as it seems) "God speaks," "God speaks," "God promises." For it is no good that we, with the Jews, want to prove God false, as if He had not kept such theUre words and promises. We must have (I say) an heir of David from his time, so that his house will not stand alone, even where he wills. For his Hans must remain forever, and remain forever. There is God's word that there shall be an everlasting, firm, sure covenant, in which nothing shall be lacking, but all things shall be Aruch, made perfect, as God makes perfect all His things, Ps. 111:3: "All His works are perfect and glorious."
130 Now let the Jews give such an heir to David, for they must give him, for it is written, David's house is eternal, which no man shall break nor hinder; but as the sun breaketh forth in the morning, which no cloud can withstand nor hinder, so there also
2) "is" is missing in Walch's old edition and in the Erlanger.
1918 Eri. 82,158-iso. I. Luthers Schriften wider die Juden. W. xx, E-Wss. 1919
stands. If they do not give an heir to David's house, this sentence has condemned them to the ground that they are certainly without God, without David, without Messiah and without everything, lost and eternally damned people. And they cannot deny that David's kingdom or house existed for all time until the Babylonian prison, yes, even through the Babylonian prison and after it until Herod's time. It did not exist by its own power or merit, but by virtue of this everlasting covenant, which was established with David's house. For they had several evil kings and rulers, who practiced idolatry, killed prophets and lived shamefully, such as Rehoboam, Jehoram, Joash, Ahaz, Manasseh, etc., who made it worse than all the nations or the kings of Israel, so that they often deserved that both David's Hans and tribe were cut off, as finally happened to the kingdom of Israel. But this covenant, established with David, held fast, as the books of Kings and the prophets boast, that God gave a lamp or light to the house of David, and would not let it go out, as 2 Kings 8:19 and 2 Chron. 21, 7. It says: "The Lord would not destroy Judah because of his servant David, to whom he had spoken to give him a lamp among his children forever." Item 2 Sam. 7, 12. f.
131 And look at the kingdom of Israel, which never remained in one tribe or house until the third member, unless Jehu brought it into the fourth member in his house by special promise. Otherwise, it always fell from one tribe to another, sometimes barely remaining on one member, and not long after that, until it was completely extinguished. But the kingdom of Judah always remained on the tribe of Judah and on the house of David, by great miracles of God: for it had such great opposition from all the nations around, from Israel itself, from its own rebellions, from great idolatries and sinners, that it would not have been a miracle if it had perished in the third member under Rehoboam, or at least under Joram, Ahaz and Manasseh. But it had a strong restraint, which did not let it perish nor extinguish its light. It was promised to him, it should remain firm and eternal, firm and certain. So it also remained, and must remain until
therefore remain and abide forever; for God does not lie and cannot lie.
(132) But the fact that the Jews drool over the Babylonian prison, as if it had perished there, is nothing, as we also said above. For it was only a small distemper that was certain to last for seventy years, and God had pledged His word for it, and had obtained it through excellent prophets. Also Jechoniah of Babylon was exalted above all kings. Daniel and his companions ruled not only over Judah and Israel, but also over the empire of Babylon. And though they were not in Jerusalem for a little while, yet they reigned in another place much more gloriously than in Jerusalem. So that it may be said that the house of David did not perish at Babylon, but 1) shone more gloriously than at Jerusalem; but they had to leave the place for a little while, as a punishment. For where a king lies in the field out of the land, he shall not be called a king that is gone out, though he be not at home, especially where he hath great victory and fortune against many nations; but he shall be called shining more gloriously out of the land than at home.
133 If then God has kept his covenant from the time of David until Herod, so that his house has not perished, he must have kept it from then on and keep it forever, so that David's house has not perished, nor can it perish forever. For we must not reproach our Lord God half truthfully and half deceitfully, that he has kept his covenant true from David until Herod, and that he has kept David's house faithful; but after Herod's time he began to lie and to be unfaithful, and has dropped and changed his everlasting covenant; but the house of David, as it remained and shone until Herod, so it must remain under Herod's time and after Herod, and shine forever.
134) Now we see how this saying of David is in harmony with the saying of Jacob the patriarch: "The 2) scepter shall be taken from Judah.
1) "habe" is missing in the Jenaer and Erlanger.
2) The Jena and Erlangen editions have here and in some other places: "das Scepter", but we have retained throughout with the Wittenberg the prevailing spelling: "der Scepter".
not come away, nor Mechokek from his feet, until Messiah come, whom the Gentiles will obey." What can be said here that is brighter and more different than that David's Hans should shine until Messiah comes? Then the house of David shall shine not only over Judah and Israel, but also over the Gentiles and other nations and more; that is, it shall not be extinguished, but shall shine more gloriously and more widely than before its coming. And so it has become an everlasting kingdom and an everlasting covenant, as David says. Therefore, it was decided that Messiah would come when the scepter of Judah was taken away, because we do not want to blaspheme God that He did not keep His covenant and oath. If the stiff-necked, obstinate Jews will not accept it, our faith is herewith firmly and strongly proven, and ask nothing of their foolish glosses, spun out of their heads; we have the clear text.
135 These last words of David are based on God's own word, when he speaks to David (as he boasts here at his end), 2 Sam. 7, 5. and says: "Should you build me a house to live in? You may read further, that there follows, how he tells one after another, that he had not dwelt in any house until then; but he had chosen him to be the ruler of his people, to whom he would give a firm place and rest. And he curses, "I will build you a house," that is, neither you nor anyone will build me a house to live in; I am far, far too great, as Isaiah also says in 66:1; but, "I will build, and I will build you a house." For thus saith the Lord (saith Nathan), "The Lord declareth unto thee, that the Lord will make thee an house." Now it is well known what is meant by a house built by men, namely an erected heap of stones and wood, quite perishable. But a house built by God means a father of a house, who has descendants and heirs of his blood and tribe, as Moses says in Exodus 1:21, "that God built houses for the midwives," because they let the children live against the king's commandment and did not strangle them. Again, the houses of the kings of Israel he breaks and destroys in the other member.
136 Therefore David has a house built by God, which shall have heirs for ever and ever; not a bad house, but "I have made thee prince over my people. Therefore it shall be called a princely, royal house, that is, the house of David the prince and king, wherein thy children shall reign for ever and ever, and be princes, as thou art. Now all this is proved by the books and histories of the kings, down to the time of Herod. Until then we have the scepter and sapphra in the tribe of Judah.
137 Now follows the other piece, before 1) Silo. How long shall my house stand like this, and my heirs remain in my rule? Then he answers thus [2 Sam. 7, 12-16.]: "When your time is past, that you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which shall come from your body (utero, that is, from your flesh and blood), to him I will confirm his kingdom, he shall build a house for my name, and I will confirm the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. Where he does iniquity, I will punish him with the rod of men and with the blows of the children of men. But my mercy shall not be turned from him, as I turned it from Saul, whom I put away from before thee. But thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before me, and thy throne shall be established for ever." 2) This saying almost in the same words is also found in 1 Chron. 18, 11. ff. You may read that.
Whoever would interpret this saying as referring to Solomon would have to be a malicious interpreter. For although Solomon was not yet born at this time, nor did his adultery with his mother Bathsheba take place, he is not the seed or son of David, who was born after David's death, of whom he says: "When your time is over, and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you. For Solomon was born in the time of the living David. And it would be foolish, even ridiculous, that "raise up" here should be interpreted that Solomon was born after David.
1) The old edition of Walch and the Erlanger: "vom".
2) The following words to the end of the paragraph are missing in the Wittenberg.
Death was to be raised up to be a king, or to build the house; for there are three other chapters, 1 Kings 1:39, and 1 Chron. 23, 9. and 1 Chron. 30:22, which testify that Solomon was not only made king by the life of his father, but that he also received orders from David his father, and the whole pattern of the temple, with all the furnishings, with all the food, and also the whole order of the kingdom. It is clear that Solomon did not build the temple or set up the kingdom and the priesthood from his own head, but from David's head, who set it all before him and ordered it even while he was still alive.
139. also is a great disparity, and many other words 2 Sam. 7, 5. against the words 1 Chron. 23, 9. and Cap. 29, 6. 7. There God will build David an eternal house; here Solomon shall build a house in God's name. There it says freely without addition: "It shall stand forever, and no sin shall hinder it"; here it says, as long as Solomon remains pious and his descendants, when he did not remain, and therefore not only lost the ten tribes of Israel, but was also cut off in the seventh generation. The latter is promissio gratiae; the 1) is promissio Iegis. There David thanks God that his house shall remain forever; here he does not thank that Solomon's temple shall remain forever! Summa, it is spoken at another time and of other things and house there and here. And even though God calls Solomon his son here, and wants to be his father, it is still spoken with the addition, as long as he is pious. Such addition is not there. And is it not strange that God calls his saints, even the angels, his children. But that son, 2 Sam. 7, 14, is a different and special son, who should keep it without addition, and no sin should hinder him.
140 And so the prophets and psalms have taken before them the saying of 2 Sam. 7, which speaks of the seed of David after his death, and have left out the saying of 1 Chron. 23 and 29, which speak of Solomon. For thus says Psalm 89:2, 3, 4, 5: "I will sing of the grace of the Lord forever, and declare his truth with my mouth for ever and ever. And say, an everlasting grace shall be built, and thou castest thy
1) It should be read "this". Jonas: altera - altera.
Keep truth faithfully in heaven. I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will surely create seed for you forever, and build your throne for and for. "etc. These are also clear words that God vows and swears to give eternal grace to David, and to build and keep his hall, seed and throne forever.
141 And then in the 19th verse, the most beautiful prophecies of the Messiah, which cannot be understood by Solomon, because he was not the highest over all the kings of the earth, nor did he set his hand over the sea and the water; and here no one is allowed to speak. Also the kingdom did not remain on Solomon's house, because he did not have a certain promise, without being pious; but David's house has the promise, who had more sons than Solomon. 2) And as the histories testify, sometimes the scepter of Judah passed from brother to brother, from cousins to cousins, but always remained in the house of David. As, Ahaziah left no son, Ahaz left none, and brother's children had to be called heirs and son, according to the holy scripture way.
Now, that one would deny such bright and mighty sayings of the Scriptures about the eternal house of David, which the histories prove in their works, how always kings or princes have been for and for until Messiah, no one else would have to do that but the devil himself, and whoever is his member. For I suppose that if the devil, or whoever he is, would not let Messiah be, they would have to let David have an eternal hall and an eternal throne. For he cannot deny the bright words of God, since God swears that His word shall not be changed and that He will not lie to David, even for the sake of no sin, as the above Psalm mightily and clearly sings.
143) Now such an eternal house of David is nowhere to be found where one does not put the 3) scepter before the Messiah and the Messiam after
2) Wittenberger:. "had". Jenaer, Walch and the Erlangeners: "hat". Jonas: habuit.
3) Here all outputs have: "that"; likewise immediately following "the".
the scepter together and join them together, namely that Messiah came when the scepter was gone, and thus David's house preserved in his eternity, and God found true and true in his word, covenant, and oath. For it is evident that in the time of Herod the scepter of Judah fell completely; but rather that the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the scepter of Judah. If David's house is to be eternal and God is to be true, then the right king of Judah, Messiah, must have come at the same time: no reading, interpreting or glossing can help against this, the text is too powerful and too bright. Whether the Jews do not want to confess this, we do not ask anything about it, we have enough:
First, that our Christian faith is herewith most strongly proven, and only such sayings give very great joy and comfort, because we also have such strong testimonies in the Old Testament. On the other hand, we are sure that even the devil and the Jews themselves have nothing to say in their hearts against this, and are overcome with their own consciences, which can be well and surely noticed by the fact that they torture Jacob's saying from the scepter (like all other Scriptures) so many times, as they feel convinced and overcome, but do not want to confess. Just as the devil knows that God's word is the truth, and yet out of deliberate malice contradicts and blasphemes: so the Jews feel that these sayings are vain rocks, but their interpretation is vain straw or cobwebs, but out of deliberate malicious intent they do not want to confess it, yet they want to be and be called God's people, solely because they are the blood of the fathers; otherwise they have nothing to boast about. But what blood alone does, is said above; just as if the devil wanted to boast that he was created angelically, therefore he wanted to be an angel and God's child alone, even though he is God's enemy.
The third saying, from which it is proved that Messiah has come. 1)
According to these sayings, let us hear what Jeremiah says; he makes it very strange.
1) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
We know that he was a prophet long after the kingdom of Israel had been taken away and destroyed, and only the kingdom of Judah still existed, which also soon had to go to Babylon, as he prophesied to them, and also saw that it happened. So he is still allowed to say Cap. 33:17 ff: "Thus saith the Lord, There shall not be cut off (I must speak Hebrew) from David a man that sitteth upon the throne of the house of Israel: neither shall there be cut off from among the priests, nor from among the Levites, a man before me, that offereth burnt offerings, and burneth incense, and slayeth sacrifices for ever."
146. "And the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, If my covenant be broken with thee day and night, that there be neither day nor night in his days; then shall my covenant also be broken with David my servant, that he have not a son to be king upon his throne; and with the priests and Levites my servants. etc. And the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying, Hast thou seen what this people speak? saying, Hath the Lord also rejected the two tribes which he hath chosen, and they have embittered my people, as though they should no more be my people? Thus saith the Lord; If I keep not my covenant of day and night, nor the ordinance of heaven and earth; then will I also reject the seed of Jacob and David my servant, that I take not of their seed to rule over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will turn away their captivity, and have mercy upon them."
147 What shall we say to this? Let him interpret who can interpret, for it is written that not only David shall endure forever, but also the Levites; item, Israel, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And especially David shall have a son, who shall sit on his throne for ever, as day and night for ever. But Israel is taken away, and Judah after; Israel is not brought again, as Judah is brought again. Tell me, how does this rhyme? God's word must not lie; but as He keeps the course of heaven, that without ceasing there is day and night: so must David (that is, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) also without ceasing have a
Son on His throne; for God Himself gives such a likeness. It is impossible for the Jews to put it together, who see before their eyes that neither Israel nor Judah has a regiment, now at fifteen hundred years, but Israel far beyond two thousand years; nor must God be true, we do as we will. The kingdom of David must reign over the seed of Jacob, Isaac and Abraham, as Jeremiah says here, or Jeremiah must not be a prophet but a liar.
We let the Jews here rhyme and interpret what they will or can: the saying is certain to us, that David's house shall be forever, and the Levites also, and Abraham's seed, Isaac's seed, Jacob's seed, under the Son of David, as long as day and night (which is said, as long as sun and moon) endure. If this is true, then Messiah must have come when David's throne and reign ceased, and thus David's throne became more glorious through Messiah, as Isaiah 9:6 says: "To us a child is born, to us a son is given, whose dominion is on his shoulder, and will be called Paele, Jogez, El, 1) Gibbor, Abigad, Sarsalom. His kingdom shall be great, and there shall be no end of peace in the throne of David, and in his kingdom to establish it, and to strengthen it from henceforth even for ever" etc. Now we let stand (perhaps we will do it afterwards) how the blind Jews torture the six names of Messiah; they allow the saying, and must allow it to speak of Messiah. Therefore we will lead him to the fact that Jeremiah says that David's house must reign forever, first by the scepter until Messiah, and then much more gloriously by Messiah. So that it is certain that David's house must not fall until this hour, and henceforth may not fall until eternity. 2) But now the scepter of Judah 3) lies fallen fifteen hundred years, so Messiah must have come fifteen hundred years ago, or, as said above, a thousand four hundred and eight and threescore years ago. This is all powerfully proven from Jeremiah.
1) So in the Wittenberg and in the Jena edition correctly. The Erlangen edition, after Walch's old edition, offers: "Jogez El" without an intervening comma.
2) Thus the Wittenbergers. Jenaer and Erlanger: "still henceforth . . may fall."
3) "Judah" is missing from the Wittenberg.
149. But if any of us may be moved, how it is possible that in the days of Jeremiah, and afterward unto Messiah, there should have been under the tribe of Judah, or the throne of David, and should have remained the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; yet Judah alone remained, and Israel was carried away: Who shall know that 4) the kingdom of Israel is taken away and destroyed, so that it is not returned, nor shall it come again for ever; but Israel, or the seed of Israel, is ever remaining among Judah, and is caught with Judah, and is returned. You may read about this in the first book of Kings 12, 17. and 2 Chron. 30, 11. 31, 1. f., where you will find that the whole tribe of Benjamin, as "a good part of Israel, remained with Judah, also the whole tribe of Levi, also many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, Jesashar, Zebulou, who remained in the land after the spoiling of the kingdom of Israel, and went to Ezekiel to Jerusalem, and helped to cleanse the land of Israel from idols, and many Israelites dwelt in the cities of Judah.
150) Now if we have so much of Israel under the son of David, then Jeremiah is no liar, since 5) he says, Levies and seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob shall be found under David's house. These are all, or even partly, led with Judah to Babylon and come again with them, as Ezra counts and calls them, and no doubt many others more- which are led away under Sennacherib, because the Assyrian or Median empire was brought under the Persian empire by Cyrum, that Judah and Israel could well' have come together and go up with each other from Babylon to Jerusalem and to the land of Canaan; for these words are written Ezra 2, 70.I know this for certain: "and all Israel (or all that was of Israel) dwelt in her cities." How will they dwell there, where they have not returned? And in the days of Herod and Messiah the land was full of Israel again; for they had gathered in the seventy weeks of Daniel, that is, in 490 years, but had not gotten a kingdom again.
Therefore the present Jews are very rough teachers and industrious students of the Scriptures, pretending that Israel has not yet returned,
4) "that" is missing in the Jena and Erlanger.
5) Jenaer and Erlanger: "that".
Just as if they all had to return, but Judah did not return all, but a small number, as Ezra counts them all, that several parts stayed in Babylon, also Daniel, Nehemiah, Mordecai himself. Also, several parts of Israel remained in Medes, but perhaps came to Jerusalem at the high feasts and returned home, as Lucas writes in Acts 2:9 ff. But that the kingdom or scepter of Israel should return, as the scepter of Judah, that God had not promised; but to Judah He had promised it, who also had to get it again, in virtue of such a promise that God would build David's house and throne forever and not let them go out. For, as Jeremiah says here, God will not suffer it to be said of Him that He has rejected Judah and Israel altogether, that they should no longer be His people, and that David's throne should come to an end, as if He had forgotten His promise, since He promised and swore to David an everlasting house, even though they should now go to Babylon for a little while, yet it (says He) should remain an everlasting house and kingdom.
I say this to the honor and strength of our faith, and to the shame of the stubborn unbelief of the blinded, stiff-necked Jews, to whom God must always and forever be a liar, as if he had let David's house go out, and had forgotten his covenant and oath that David swore. For if they wanted to keep God true, they would have to confess that Messiah would have come fifteen hundred years ago, so that David's house and throne would not have had to be desolate as long as they respect it, since Jerusalem has lain in ashes for so long without a throne and David's house. For if God has kept His word from David until Babylon's prison, and from then on until Herod's time, when the scepter ceased, then He must also keep it from then on, after Herod's time, forever and ever, or David's house would not have been eternal, but a perishable one, which would have ceased with the scepter in Herod's time.
153. But God will not suffer this (as said), but David's house shall be for ever, as the day and the night, and the course of heaven and earth, saith Jeremiah. Now it cannot be eternal unless the son of David,
Messiah, when the scepter of Judah fell in the days of Herod, and sat on David's throne, and became Lord of the world. Otherwise, if the Jews were right, David's house would have been missing these thousand, four hundred, eight and sixty years, against God's promise and oath. This will not suffer. Well then, this is a thorough explanation of the matter, so that no Jew can really protest against it, even though he may outwardly pretend not to believe it, but his heart and conscience have nothing to say against it.
And where would God have preserved honor to His divine truth, since He promised David an eternal house and throne, and should have let it stand longer desolate, neither built? For, let us reckon, according to the opinion of the Jews, from David until Herod there was not completed a thousand years: so long did David's house or throne stand, including the seventy years in Babylon (but we reckon over a hundred more). But from Herod's time, or let us take (which is not much out of the way) from the destruction of Jerusalem to this year 1542 are 1468 1) years, as is said above; so according to David's house and throne four hundred or five hundred years longer desolate than built. Now ask stone and block if this is called an eternal house, especially built by God and preserved by His supreme faithfulness and truth, which stands a thousand years and lies in ashes fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred years?
Let the Jews be hard, and harder than any demant: such lightning and thunderclap of such bright, public truth should shatter them, if not soften them. But, as I said, our faith is gladly strengthened, made sure and certain, that we have the right Messiah, at the time when Herod took away the scepter from Judah and Sapphra, surely come and appear, that David's house may be eternal, and have a son on his throne forever, as God has spoken to him, sworn to him, and joined himself to him.
1) In the Wittenberg: "1569". In the Jena and Erlangen "1568". Compare the note to § 4 of this paper. - In § 154 the Wittenberg has: "1469" while the Erlangen retains "1568", as does Walch. Also Jonas has: 1568.
And if a slippery Jew would reproach me with my book against the Sabbaths, since I have proved the word eternal, Leolam, that it often means no more than a long time, not quite eternal, as Moses says, 2 Mos. 21, 6: "The master of the house shall pierce his 1) servant, who wants to stay with him, with an awl through the ear to the door, and so he shall be his servant forever. Here eternal means a human eternal; that is, as long as he lives. But I have also said there that when God sets an eternity, it is a truly divine eternity, and there He uses to add a word: "and shall not change," as Psalm 110:4: "God has sworn, and He will not repent"; item Psalm 132:11: "God has sworn to David a truth, which He will not change," etc. Where such a thing is not added, it will certainly never be otherwise, as Isaiah 9:7: "There will be no end of peace." And Daniel 7:14: "His power is eternal, and his kingdom shall have no end." That means Eternal (not before men, who do not live eternally, but before God, who lives eternally).
157 Now it is written in this promise that David's house and throne shall be eternal in the sight of God, saying: "Before me, before me, a son shall sit on your throne forever. He also adds the word "not" to it, Psalm 89:36-38: "I have sworn once, by my holiness, I will not lie to David; his seed shall be forever, and his throne before me, like the sun, like the moon, it shall be preserved forever. And as the witness in clouds shall he be sure, selah." Such are also the last words of David, when he says [2 Sam. 23, 5.]: "God has made a covenant with me, eternal, sure and steadfast," or preserved. Such "sure" and "firm" is as much as a firm, sure eternal, which shall never be lacking. Likewise the saying of Jacob Gen. 49, 10: "The scepter shall not depart." Not to come away is eternal, until Messiah comes; that means quite eternal. For to Messiah all the prophets give an everlasting kingdom that shall not cease.
But let us suppose that it is a human or temporal eternity, or uncertain length.
1) In all editions: his.
of time (which is not possible), that would have to be the mind: Your house shall be eternal before me, that is, your house shall stand as long as it stands, or as long as you live. Hereby David would be sworn and given as much as nothing; for even without such an oath David's house would stand forever, that is, as long as it stood, or as long as he lived. But let such foolishness go, which no one but a blinded rabbi should think of. The Scripture shows that they [the prophets] all understood it from the right eternity, since it boasts that God did not want to destroy Judah because of the sins that happened under Roboam, so that David would remain a light, as God had spoken to him about his house.
159) The Maccabees may also be mentioned here, who, after Antiochus the Noble had horribly laid waste the land and the people, that the princes of the house of David departed, and the Maccabees, who were not of the house of David, but of the priestly tribe, sat in the reign, and so that the scepter of Judah had fallen, and not a son of David had eternally sat on the throne of David, because of which the eternal house of David nevertheless could not truly be eternal. Answer: The Jews may not dispute with us about this, and we may not answer them about it; for there is nothing about it in the Scriptures, because Malachi is the last prophet, and Nehemiah the last historian, who lived until Alexandrum, as his book indicates. Therefore, for both parts, for the sake of this piece, we must leave it based on Jeremiah's saying that a son sat or ruled on David's throne for and for, because apart from the Scriptures, whoever does not want to leave it, may consider it a delusion whether the Maccabees themselves ruled or served the rulers. But to the histories we want to indicate hereafter, what one may think of it.
160 But this methinks not from the scripture to be a contemptible little thing, because in the days of Athaliah the queen there sat not a son of David upon his throne six whole years, but she herself, Athaliah the tyrant, for she had slain all the male seed of the house of David, save one Joash, which was a child of a quarter of a year, or half a year old, and was secretly carried away under her hands, in the tem-
pel was brought up in secret by the noble woman Jehosheba, the wife of Jehoiada the high priest, 1) who was the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of King Ahaziah, whom Jehu slew [2 Kings 11:3 ff]. Verily, here the everlasting covenant of God, made with David, was in great danger, and stood on a single, young, hidden child, silent that he should sit on the throne of David; and his house, verily, at this time looked like a dark lantern, because the light in is gone out, because the strange queen of the Gentiles of Zidon sitteth and reigneth on David's throne; but she also burneth the butt graciously.
All this does not mean that the scepter has been taken away or that the eternal covenant of God has been broken. For although the light of David does not shine brightly here, it still glows in the child Joash, who is to shine brightly and reign again in the future, and who has already been born a son of David, so that these six years are nothing but a trial, a temptation, since God often presents Himself as if He wanted to forget His word and leave everything undone, as He did with Abraham. As he did with Abraham, when he burned the dear son Isaac to ashes [Gen. 22, 2], in whom he had promised the eternal seed; as he also 2) led the children of Israel out of Egypt. Yes, he led them to death, because they had the sea in front, on both sides high rocks, behind them the enemies, who had blocked their way and their escape. Still it went according to GOtles word and promises that the sea had to open, flee and give space. If the sea had not done so, the rocks would have split open and given way, and squeezed and crushed Pharaoh between them, as they drowned the sea. For all creatures must be destroyed a thousand thousand times before God's word should fail and be false, however strange it may seem. So Joash is king by and in the word of God, and sits on the throne of David before God, even if he lies in the cradle, even if he lies dead and buried under the earth; for he would have to come forth, like Isaac, from the ashes.
1) Walch and the Erlanger: Jojoda.
2) Instead of "as he also" in the Jena and the Erlangen: "and". Jonas: item.
162 So one would like to answer for that from the Maccabees also. But it is not necessary, and even has a different opinion. With the prison of Babylon it would have also a mind; but it goes there much more gloriously by excellent prophets and miracles. But Jehoash was an abominable torment to the house of David against the covenant and oath of God, even though the house and regiment of David still stood strong; only the regent, or head, is in need, and God is weak in His covenant. But it is the way of his divine grace that he sometimes plays and jokes with his own, hides and disguises himself, so that he tries us whether we want to be firm in faith and love toward him, as a father sometimes does with his children. But such jesting of our dear Lord hurts beyond measure, because we do not understand it. But this does not belong here. Let this be said of the saying of Jeremiah.
The fourth saying, from which it is proved that Messiah has come. 3)
Further, we take before us one of the last prophets. It is written Hagg. 2, 7. ff.: "Thus saith the Lord, it is yet a little while, that I will move heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land; yea, all nations will I move: then shall come the consolation of the nations, Chemdath. 4) And I will make this house full of glory, saith the Lord of hosts. For I have silver and gold enough, saith the Lord of hosts: the glory of this last house shall be greater than that of the first, saith the Lord of hosts. And I will give peace in this place, saith the Lord of hosts."
This is also one of the sayings that causes the Jews the burnt suffering, trying, twisting, interpreting and torturing almost all words, as in the saying of Jacob, Gen. 49, 10, yet it does not help, their conscience pales before it, and feels that their glossing is nothing. Lyra does well, as he urges her with the word ADHUC MODICUM, "yet.
3) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
4) In the old editions written: "Hemdach".
a little one", and they cannot escape from him. This is what we want to see. A small short time (he says) cannot mean a great long time. Lyra is certainly right in saying that no one can deny, not even a Jew, that they are to be denied as hard as they always can. Now shall the consolation of the Gentiles come, saith he, for a little time after the same temple is built, that is, it shall come while the same temple is yet standing. And the glory of this last temple shall be greater than that of the first; and that in a little while, that is, for a little while.
165. For it is good to reckon, where the consolation of the Gentiles, which the old Messiah interprets, did not come while this temple was still standing, and is yet to come (as the Jews are now waiting for 1468 years after the destruction of the same temple, and cannot be called a short time, because they do not yet know the end of such a great time), it will never come, because it has missed the small short time, and has come into the great long time, where nothing will ever end; for the prophet speaks of a small time, not of a great time.
But here they turn out like this: Because they cannot deny the short little time, they take the word, comfort of all Gentiles, Hebrew Chemdath, before them, and crenellate it, as they did above to the saying of Jacob, with the word Shebet and Shilo, wanting it not to mean Messiah, but it should mean gold and silver of all Gentiles. Because the word Chemdath actually means desire or lust according to the grammar, as the heathen desire to have lust and love. And shall the text thus stand: Still over a short, then shall come the desire of all the Gentiles. What is this? What do the heathen desire? Gold, silver and jewels. Perhaps you would like to ask why the Jews are making such comments here? I will tell thee, Their breath stinketh for the gold and silver of the heathen: for there is no nation under the sun more covetous than they have been, 1) nor are, nor ever shall be, as is seen in their accursed usury; and they comfort themselves, when their Messiah cometh, that he shall take gold and silver from all the earth,
1) In the Wittenberg: gewest ist.
and divide among them. Therefore, where they can draw the Scripture on their insatiable avarice, they do so with all sacrilege. You may think that God and his prophets knew nothing else to prophesy, but how to satisfy the unjustified avarice of the damned Jews with the gold and silver of the Gentiles.
But according to this stingy mind, the prophet did not speak wisely, but should have said thus: Over a little while shall come the covetousness of the Jews. For it is the Jews who desire gold and silver more than any people on earth, so that it should be called the desire of the Jews more than the desire of the Gentiles. For though the Gentiles covet gold and silver, yet the Jews are there who covet such desires of the Gentiles, and wait for it to be brought to them, and devour it, and leave nothing for the Gentiles. Why? Because they are the noble blood, the circumcised saints, who have God's commandment and do not keep it, but are stiff-necked, disobedient, prophet-killers, hopeful, usurers, and full of all unrighteousness, as all Scripture and their present nature testify. For to such saints belongs the gold and silver of the Gentiles, who earn it with such honesty and integrity, as the devil earns paradise and the kingdom of heaven.
168. further, how is it that such highly knowledgeable masters and wise, holy prophets do not also extend the word desire (chemdath) to all other desires of the heathen? For the pagans desire not only gold and silver, but also pretty damsels, and the women pretty youths. And where among the heathen there are not vain Jews (I wanted to say miserly), who do no good to their own bodies, they also desire beautiful houses, gardens, cattle, goods; item, good days, clothes, eating, drinking, dancing, playing, and all kinds of joy. Why then do they not interpret this saying of the prophet, that such desires of all the heathen also shall come shortly to Jerusalem, that the Jews alone may fill their bellies, and feed on the pleasures of the world? For Mahomet promises such a being to his Saracens, and in this he is a true Jew, and the Jews true Saracens, according to this interpretation.
The pagans have another desire:
How have these wise, intelligent interpreters of the same forgotten? I am surprised, the Gentiles die and have much sickness, poverty, all kinds of hardship and fear, and there is no one who does not desire most of all not to die, not to suffer hardship, misery, sickness, or to be rid of them soon and be safe; such desire is so strong in them that they would gladly give up all the other desires, as one sees daily in experience. Why don't they then indicate that such desires of all Gentiles should also recently come to Jerusalem into the temple? Fie on you here, fie on you there, and where you are, you damned Jews, that you are allowed to drag these serious, glorious, comforting words of God so shamefully onto your mortal, maddening avarice, and do not be ashamed to show your avarice so grossly. You are not worthy to look at the Biblia from the outside, let alone to read it inside. 1) You alone should read the Biblia, which is under the sow's tail, and eat and drink the letters that fall out of it; that would be a Bible for such prophets, who rummage up the word of the divine majesty, which should be heard with all honor, trembling and joy, so sourly, and tear it up so swinishly.
170] Further, since the prophet says, "The glory of this last house shall be greater than that of the first," let us hear the noble and circumcised (I say circumcised) holy and wise prophets, who would make us Christians Jews. The great glory of the last temple over the first is this, that the last, that is, this temple of Haggai stood ten years longer than the temple of Solomon etc. Oh, that they would have had a good astronomer here, who would have calculated it a little more exactly, he would have found perhaps that to the ten years still three moons, two weeks, five days, seven hours, twelve minutes and ten half minutes would have been over it. If there were some stuff that was on sale in Schamroth, I could give the Jews a few guilders, so that they would go and buy a pound of Schamroth.
1) In the Jenaer, with Walch and in the Erlanger: sollet. Jonas: Debebatis.
But they still spread it on their foreheads, eyes and cheeks, because they did not want to spread it on their insolent hearts and tongues. Or do they mean that they talk with sticks and blocks, as they themselves are, the unlearned, coarse asses?
There were many gray old men and women, and beggars and wicked men, in Jerusalem, when Solomon, a youth of twenty years old, became a glorious king; should they therefore have greater glory than Solomon? Perhaps the mule of David, whereupon Solomon became king, was older than Solomon; should he therefore be more glorious than Solomon? But so shall they run, fall and fall, who without ceasing reproach God with lies, and want to be right themselves; they are not worth better than that, that they vainly write such glosses, foolish works and their own disgrace over the Biblia (as they do with great diligence). Therefore beware, dear Christian, of the Jews, whom you see from this, how they have been handed over to the devil by God's wrath, who has robbed them not only of the right understanding of the Scriptures, but also of common human reason, shame and senses, and through them only makes a vain mockery of the holy Scriptures, so that henceforth one can neither trust nor believe them in any other piece, even if a true word sometimes escapes them. For whoever may so mock and shamefully play with the terrible word of God, as you see here, and also saw above in the saying of Jacob, must have no good spirit with him. Therefore, where you see a true Jew, you may with a good conscience put a cross in front of you and speak freely with certainty: There goes a devil in the flesh.
172. The desperate peelers know well that their ancient ancestors understood this saying of Haggai of the Messiah, as Lyra, Burgensis, and others testify; They still fall from it wilfully, and make their own biblia out of their own foolish head, that they keep their wretched Jews with them in their error, against their own conscience, to our chagrin, just as if they were doing us great harm with it, and as if God would still reward them, where they serve Him (as they dream) us Gentiles, even in publicly recognized
Truth, resisted. So it goes with them, as you have seen, that they disgrace themselves, do us no harm, and lose God and His Scripture over it.
Now this is the saying: "Over one small thing, I will move heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land (that is, the islands in the sea), and Chemdath shall come to all the nations," that is, Messiah, the desire of all the nations, which we have translated "comfort. For Begierde is not intelligible enough, because in German it means the inward lust and desire in the heart, active. But here it means desire, the outward, passive thing that a heart desires; if it were also translated as: "aller Heiden Freud und Wonne," it would not be wrong either. Summa, it is Messiah in whom the unbelieving, hardened Jews should have vain displeasure, disgust and abomination, as Isaiah 52:14 prophesies of them. But the Gentiles should welcome him as their heart's joy, pleasure, all desire and lust. For he brings them salvation from sins, death, devils, hell and all evil forever. Yes, this is the desire, heart's desire, joy and comfort of the Gentiles.
174 This agrees with the saying of Jacob, Gen 49:10: "And the nations will obey Shiloh, or Messiah," that is, they will accept him with joy, hear his word, and become his people without sword, without restraint, as if he should say, "The base, uncircumcised nations will do this; but my noble fruits, my circumcised lost children, will not do it, but will become furious and senseless against it. Isaiah 2:2 ff. and Micah 4:1 agree with this: "In the last days the mountain where the Lord's house is will be made higher than all mountains, and will be exalted above all hills, and there all the nations will run to it (no doubt without restraint, out of lust and desire), and many peoples will rush to it and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob the God, that he may teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" etc. And indeed the prophets speak of Messiah's kingdom among the Gentiles.
175 Yes, that's the trouble, that's the trouble.
This makes the Jews mad and foolish and drives them to such a damned mind that they have to pervert all the sayings of the Scriptures so shamefully; namely, they do not want it, they cannot stand it, that we Gentiles should be like them before God, and the Messiah should be our comfort and joy as well as theirs. Before they suffer this, I say that we Gentiles, who are spat upon, maledicted, cursed, blasphemed, desecrated by them without ceasing, should partake with them in the Messiah, be called joint heirs and their brothers, crucified before ten more Messiahs, and kill God (if it were possible) themselves, with all the angels and all the creatures, and deserve a thousand hells for one: so even an incomprehensible hard pride is in the noble blood of the fathers and circumcised saints. They want to have the Messiah alone and be lords of the world; the accursed goyim shall be servants, give their desire, that is, their gold and silver to the Jews, and let themselves be slaughtered like the poor cattle; before they leave this sense, they rather remain knowingly and eternally lost.
They have imbibed such poisonous hatred against the Goyim from their youth, from their parents and rabbis, and still drink in themselves without ceasing, that, as the 109th Psalm, v. 2 ff. says, it has gone through their blood and flesh, through their marrow and bone, has become their very nature and life. And as little as they can change flesh and blood, marrow and bone, as little can they change such pride and envy, they must remain and perish like this, where God does not perform particularly high miracles. And if I wanted to cause a Jew great, great annoyance and anger, I would say: Do you hear, Jehudi, do you know that I am a true brother of all the holy children of Israel, and a joint heir in the kingdom of the true Messiah? There is no doubt that I should see Rahm; 1) if he could look at me with the eyes of a basilisk, he certainly would, and what he would wish for me, all the devils would not be able to do, I truly know, if God would allow them to. But I don't want to do it, and I also ask that no one does it.
1) Compare the note to § 69 of this paper.
for the sake of Christ. For the weather would go with cursing and blasphemy in the heart and mouth of the Jew against the name of Jesus Christ and against God the Father; so we should do well, and not give cause where we can avoid it, just as I should not provoke a possessed man when I know that he will blaspheme and curse God. Otherwise the Jews hear and see more than enough in us, that they blaspheme the name of Jesus, and curse in their hearts every moment, as they are possessed.
For, as I have said, they cannot bear to hear or see that we cursed Goyim Messiah should boast of our Chemdath, and be as good as they are, or make themselves to be. Therefore know, dear Christian, and do not doubt that, next to the devil, you have no more bitter, poisonous, fierce enemy than a true Jew who earnestly wants to be a Jew. There may be some among them who believe what the cow or goose believes, but they all have the blood and circumcision attached to them. Therefore, they are often blamed in the histories for poisoning wells, stealing children, and keeping them in a state of cultivation, as in Trent and Weissensee etc. They may say no to it, but whether they do or not, I know well that there is no lack of full, complete, ready will among them, where they could do it, secretly or obviously. Be sure of this, and act accordingly.
But if they do something good, know that it is not out of love, nor for your benefit, but because they must have room to live with us, they must do something out of necessity, but the heart remains and is as I have said. If you don't want to believe me, then read Lyra, Burgensem and others, honest, truthful men. And if they did not write it, the scripture says that the two seeds, the serpent and the woman, are enemies, and God and the devil are not one. Also one finds it in their writings and prayer books roughly enough.
A person who does not know the devil might wonder why they are so hostile to Christians before others, since they have no reason to be, since we do everything good for them. They live with us at home,
under our protection and umbrella, need land and streets, market and alleys; in addition, the princes and authorities sit, snore and have their mouths open, let the Jews take from their open bag and box, steal and rob what they want, that is, they let themselves and their subjects toil and be sucked dry by the Jews' usury, and make beggars of themselves with their own money. For the Jews, being in misery, should certainly have nothing, and what they have must certainly be ours: so they do not work, earn us nothing; so we do not give or give it to them; nor do they have our money and goods, and are thus our masters in our own lands, and in their misery. If a thief steals ten guilders, he must hang; 1) if he robs in the street, his head is lost. But a Jew, if he steals ten tons of gold and robs by his usury, he is dearer than God himself.
180. and for a sign they confidently boast, and strengthen their faith and venomous resentment against us, saying among themselves, Hold fast, behold, how God is with us, and does not forsake his people even in misery. We do not work, we have good days, we have bad days; the cursed Goyim have to work for us, but we get their money; thus we are their masters, but they are our servants. Hold fast, dear children of Israel, it will get better, our Messiah will still come, if we continue like this and have brought all the Gentiles Chemdath to us through usury, and otherwise. Well, this we suffer from them under our protection and shield; still they curse us, as said. But more of this hereafter.
Now we act as they cannot suffer us to be joint heirs in the kingdom of Messiah, nor to have our Chemdath in it, as the prophets abundantly give it to us. But what does God say to this? He says: He wants to give the Chemdath to the Gentiles, and their obedience shall please Him, as Jacob, Gen. 49, 10., says, and all the prophets, and again wants to be so hard against the hard head of the Jews that He wants to reject them before they 2) choose and accept the Gentiles, un-
1) In the old editions: hencken.
2) Wittenberger: she marriage.
whether they are not full of the noble blood of the fathers, nor circumcised saints. For thus saith Hosea Cap. 2, 23. "I will call that, which is not my people, my people, and they shall call me their GOt." But to the Jews he says [Hos. 1, 9.]: "LoAmni, you are not my people, and I am not your God", which also Moses sang to them long before in his song: "They provoke me to anger with that which is not God, and they provoke me to anger with their useless doings: so again I will provoke them to anger with that which is not my people, and with a foolish people I will provoke them to anger [5 Mos. 32, 21.]. This saying has now gone strong for fifteen hundred years, that we foolish Gentiles, who were not God's people, are now God's people. That makes the Jews mad and foolish, and have become over it not-God's people, who nevertheless should have been God's people and should be fair.
(182) Now that we have finished the saying of Haggai, it is here proved with authority that Messiah, the Chemdath of the Gentiles, came at the time when this temple stood; as the ancients understood, and the present Jews also bear witness to their lazy, vain sayings, because they know nothing to say against it, except that in which they speak their own shame. For he who gives an idle, cold and loose answer testifies and judges of himself that he has a lost cause, and it would be better for him to be silent with less shame than to answer idly with great shame. So now Haggai says: "Still over a little one, then I will move heaven and earth, sea and dry land, yes, I will move all nations, and shall 1) come the desire of all nations." This I understand after my simple sense thus: There has been from the beginning of the world enmity between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed, and have for and for with each other caused turmoil, but one time greater than the other.
For where the seed of the woman is or comes, it brings with it a jumble and a tumult, as it says in the Gospel, "I have not come to send peace on earth, but sword and dissension," and takes away the household goods of the strong-armed man who had peace in his court [Matt. 10:34].
1) Jenaer, Walch and Erlanger: should.
Luc. 11, 22]. He does not like it, because angels and devils are stirring in the air, and men are stirring with men on earth, all for the sake of the seed of the woman. And although without this there is also much and great rumbling, war and unrest in the world, but because it is not because of this seed, it is a small thing before God, since all angels have to do with this rumbling.
Because it was now high time for this seed or Messiah to come, he said, "Yet a little," that is, until now the rumbling has been in my people Israel alone, that is, in a small corner, which the devil has always wanted to devour, and all the kings around have set against them. For he knew well that the promised seed was in this people, which should do it to him; therefore he has always wanted to wear it out, to accuse one unrest, displeasure, war, rumor after another. Well, there is still a small thing to do, so I will give him enough rumors. And I will stir up such a tumult, and it shall be good; not only among my people Israel in the narrow corner, but as far as heaven and earth, sea and dry land, that is, where it is wet and dry, whether in the land, or in the islands, or by the sea, or by the waters, that is, where men are (or, as he says): "All nations will I stir up," that all angels may fight with all devils in heaven or in the air, and all men may quarrel with all men on earth over the seed.
For I will send Chemdath to all the nations, and they will love him and cling to him, as Gen 49:10 says: "The nations will fall to him," and they will become enemies of the devil, the old serpent, and fall from him. Then it will happen as it should happen, when the god and prince of the world has become angry, mad and furious, so that he has to grant Chemdath and Shiloh, the seed of women, his kingdom, his Hans, his household, his services, his power. Read the histories from the time of Christ, whoever wants to, how first the Jews and pagans, then the heretics, last the Mahomet, and now the pope vows and still rages against God and his Messiah, Ps. 2, 1, so
2) "an" is missing in the Wittenberger.
he will understand what Haggai says here about rumors. There has not been a corner in the world, nor a place in the sea, where the gospel has not sounded and brought Chemdath, as Ps. 19:4, 5 says: "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their sound goes out into all the earth, and their speech to the end of the world." And the devil was truly found at home with murders by tyrants, with lies by heretics, and with all his devilish wiles and powers, as he still does to hinder and resist the gospel. This is the rumor.
I will begin this rumor with the tender fruit of Antioch the Noble. For from Haggai to Antioch are about 300 years. That is the small time in which they had peace. For the kings of Persia did them much good; so Alexander did them nothing, and stood well with his descendants, except for this unruly man, Antioch, who began the strife and misfortune, and the devil sought through him to extirpate the seed of the woman; he washed away 1) Jerusalem, temple, land and people, desecrated the temple, and raged as his god the devil drove him. And there almost all the happiness of the Jews was gone, and never came back to the former state until this day, and never comes again.
187 This is so that the Jews may be understood correctly when they say: Chemdath of all the Gentiles, that is, gold and silver have come into this temple; that is, if the previous kings have put something into it, this one has taken it away purely; and reverses their gloss thus: Chemdath of all the Jews brings Antiochus among the Gentiles; so that this saying of Haggai cannot be understood from the shirt nor coat of all the Gentiles. For after these 300 years, or little time for and for, from that time on, they got not much from the Gentiles, but had to give much to the Gentiles, until the Romans came in soon after, and made it all over, and set Herodem king over them; what he gave them they well invented; and so is with
1) "Flush" here and at the beginning of § 188 as much as: rob, plunder. Cf. § 254 at the end. Jonas: diripuit.
From Antioch on, they were left with very little peace. And Daniel also stops at this Antiocho, as if he should say: Now it is at the end and everything is over, now the Messiah is before the door, who will make the rumor the longer the greater.
(188) Not only did the wicked Antiochus wash and desecrate the temple, but he also oppressed the Shebeth or Sultan, the prince of the house of David, that is, the last prince John Hyrcanum, so that none of his descendants came again to the throne of David or to the regency, without the Saphra or Mechokek remaining until Herodem, that from now on David's house was to be looked upon as if its light had gone out, and there was no longer a shul or scepter of Judah. It was also now at the end, and still about 150 years approximately up to Messiah. But it is common that what is to break must first crack or crack a little; what is to sink must first sink or sway a little. Thus the scepter of Judah also did at its last end; it became weak, cracked and crumbled for 150 years, until it fell completely at the hands of the Romans and Herod. And so the princes of Judah remained the 150 years without regiment among the commoners, perhaps even impoverished. For Mary, Christ's mother in Nazareth, boasts that she was a poor, miserable little girl [Luc. 1, 48].
But it is also true that the Maccabees fought against Antiochum and won (as Daniel 11:34 says of a little help) and thus came to the throne of David, who were priests of the tribe of Levi and Aaron. Now one can say with good reason that the royal and priestly tribe are mixed. For so we read 2 Chron. 22, 11. about Josabea, daughter of King Joram and sister of King Ahaziah, that she was the wife of the high priest Jehoiada, from the royal tribe of Solomon, grafted into the priestly tribe as a graft. One trunk and tree with him. Because of this, she became the descendant of Jehoiada, the priest's archmother, and a right Sarah of the priestly lineage. Therefore the Maccabees may well be called David's blood and children, from the mother's line. For that which comes from the mother,
belongs to us just as closely as it comes from the Father. Which way goes also in other countries. As, our emperor Carolus is king in Hispania from the mother, not from the father; his father Philip was duke of Burgundy, not from the father Maximiliano, but from the mother Maria.
190 So David called all the children Jehoiada and Josabea his natural children, sons and daughters, because Josabea was descended from his son Solomon, and by the Maccabees Solomon's tribe returned to the regiment and the scepter, according to the female line, from which he had fallen by Ahaziah, according to the male line, and remained until Herod, who cut off and cut off all of them, both Shulman and Saphra, or Sanhedrin. There now lies the scepter of Judah and Mechokek; there stands David's house in darkness, both from the male and female line. Therefore Messiah must be there, the right light of David, the right son, who shall preserve his house until now, and now continue to preserve and shine forever, as God has said that the scepter of Judah shall remain until Messiah comes, and David's house shall endure forever and not go out. But God must (as said) nevertheless remain the liar of the Jews, as the Messiah has not yet sent, as He has promised and sworn.
Further, God says through Haggai: "I will make this temple full of glory; I have gold and silver, and the glory of this last house shall be greater than the glory of the first house. It is true, great glory happened to this temple in the three hundred years before Antioch, when the Persians and Alexander's descendants, the kings of Syria and King Philadelphus in Egypt gave great goods to it; but it is still nowhere equal in glory to Solomon's first temple with all of it, there must be another glory, or that temple of Solomon's 1) far surpasses it. For there was also gold and silver in abundance, and the ark, and the mercy seat, and the cherubims, and the tables of Moses, and Aaron's rod, and the bread of heaven in the golden vessel, and Aaron's garments; and the Urim and the holy things.
1) Erlanger: "overview", which is not a misprint because "übersticht" is given as a variant. Jonas: superat.
Thummim, the holy oil with which the kings and priests were anointed (Dan. 9). And when Solomon dedicated the same temple, fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. And the temple became full of mist (that is, it), divine majesty, which shows itself present in it, as Solomon speaks there: "God has said that he will dwell in the mist" [1 Kings 8:12]. For this is what He did in the wilderness over the tabernacle of Moses.
192. none of these glories (which are far above gold and silver) have been in this Temple of Haggai; yet God says that there shall be greater glory here than there. Then let the Jews whistle, who has been this greater glory? They can't murmur here, because, as the text says and the old Jews, their ancestors, confessed, that the Gentile Chemdath, Messiah, came at the time of the same temple and honored the temple with his presence; as we Christians know that our Lord Jesus Christ, the right Chemdath, sacrificed inside by his mother, and he himself often taught inside and did miracles; that is the right mist, his tender humanity, in which God showed himself present and let himself be heard and seen. Whether the blind Jews scoff at this, yet our faith is strengthened with it, until they give another glory of this temple, greater than this Chemdath of all the Gentiles. This is what they will do when they build the third temple, that is, when God is a liar and the devil is the truth, and they will possess Jerusalem again, and not before.
193 Josephus 2) writes that Herod had demolished the temple of Haggai, as it was not built splendidly enough, and built it anew, as splendidly or more splendidly than Salompn's temple had been. I want to believe the histories gladly; but still it lacks the pieces, which are told above of the high old sanctuary, namely, the ark, mercy seat, Cherubim etc., if it would have been equally vain Demant and Rnbin. Moreover, because Herod had no command from God to do such things, but, as an ungodly enemy of God and His people, out of vain, he did not do them.
2) Antiquit., Lib. XV, cap. XI, § 3.
If Zerubbabel, for his own glory and pride, did such construction, all his building and work was not as good in the sight of God as the smallest stone that Zerubbabel placed in the Temple by God's command. And no doubt he did not deserve much mercy, that he wanted to build the commanded temple, erected and consecrated by God's word, broken down, desecrated and much more glorious, without God's word and command. Although God, for the sake of the place 1) that He had chosen for the temple, allowed such things to happen and suffered, that He rather gives an evil interpretation with His breaking down, that henceforth the people of Israel should lose the temple, God's word and everything, and instead practice the vain splendor of the world under the appearance of God's service.
194 This temple was not only less glorious than Solomon's temple, but it was also more defiled in every way than Solomon's temple, and often made full of shame. First of all, against the will of the Jews, when Antiochus took everything that was inside and put an idol on the altar, sacrificed pork, and made a real pigsty and idolatrous mess out of the temple, he made an abominable strangulation, as if he were the devil himself, in Jerusalem, 1 Maccab. 1, 57 , as Daniel 11, 31. had proclaimed. No less dishonor was practiced by the Romans, and especially by the disgraceful Emperor Caligula, who also placed his abomination in the temple, of which Daniel 9:27 and 12:11 tell us. Such dishonor and disgrace was not done to that temple of Solomon by pagans and foreigners, that it would be a trouble, how the word of Haggai is true: "I will make this temple full of honor, which shall be greater than the honor of that temple"; so one would like to say against it, that it was full of disgrace and more than that temple, where one wants to speak of outward, physical honor. Therefore another glory must come to it, if Haggai is right.
Secondly, they themselves, the Jews, have also defiled this temple more than it has ever been defiled, namely, with spiritual idolatries. Lyra writes, and others more in many places, that the Jews, after the
1) Wittenberger: Worts.
Returning from Babylon, they have not committed idolatry, nor as grave a sin with the murder of prophets as before; so that he will prove that this cause of their misery must be a greater sin than idolatry, prophet murder etc., namely, that they crucified Messiah. This argument is right, good and strong; but that they did not murder prophets, the fault was not in their evil will, but they had no more prophets to punish their idolatry, avarice and vice; therefore they could not murder prophets. Although the last prophet Malachi, who began to rebuke the priests, hardly escaped, if he escaped otherwise.
But they practiced idolatry more abominably in this time than in the time of the temple; not the crude, tangible, foolish idolatry, but the subtle spiritual idolatry, as Zechariah paints it on the 5th, v. 1 ff. under the name of the flying letter and the traveling bushel, and finally, chap. 11, 13. and 12, 10. prophesies a shameful thing: "as they sell and pierce God for thirty pieces of silver". Elsewhere. Is it not great shame enough that at the same time the priests most shamefully perverted the ten commandments of God? Tell me, what idolatry is like this abomination that turns God's word into lies? That is, to set up false gods under God's name and appearance, as the other commandment says: "You shall not take the name of your God in vain.
197. Yet their Talmud and Rabbis write that killing is not sin if a Jew kills a Gentile, but if he kills a brother in Israel; and if he does not keep an oath to a Gentile, it is not sin. Item, stealing and robbing (as they do by usury) the goyim is a service to God; for they hold, because they are the noble blood and circumcised saints, but we are cursed goyim, so they cannot make it 2) rude with us, nor sin against us, because they are lords of the world, and we are their servants, yea, their cattle. Of this you may read further yourself Burgensem
2) Wittenberger: so. Jonas: non satis esse scelerati.
additione Isa. 34. and Zachariä 5., there you will find what the rabbis teach good, and you will say that I write much too mildly against them.
198. Summa, as their rabbis taught, our evangelists also tell us. Matth. 15, 6: that they abrogated the fourth commandment, to honor father and mother, and Matth. 23, 13. ff., practiced many shameful teachings without what Matth. 5, 20. ff. Christ says, how they preached and interpreted the ten commandments so harmfully, and had established in the temple changers, merchants, and all kinds of covetousness, that our Lord Christ said: they had made of God's house a den of murderers [Matth. 21, 12. Luc. 19,45.]. Now you count what a beautiful honor this is, how full of glory Hans has been, that God must call His own house a pit of murder, because so many souls have been murdered by their stingy false doctrine, that is, by perverse idolatry. Even today, the Jews persist in such teachings, and do as their fathers did, perverting God's word, being stingy, usurious, stealing, murdering (wherever they can) and always teaching their children to do so.
This is not yet the greatest disgrace of this temple. This is first of all the true abomination of all abominations, shame above all shame, that at the time of this temple some high priests and a whole sect were Sadducaean, that is, Epicurean, who held no angel, devil, heaven, hell, or life after this life. And such fellows should go to the temple in priestly office and garments, sacrifice for the people, pray and burn incense, preach to the people, and govern? Tell me, how much worse could Antiochus have been with his idol and pork sacrifices than these Epicurian sows and ferch mothers 1)? Where is Haggai's word that the glory of this temple shall be greater than Solomon's temple? A physical sow's stall can be a royal one in the sight of God and reason.
1) In the Wittenberg: "Ferchmütter" - piglet mothers, sows. The same expression: "Farchmutter" is also found in Luther's letter to Gabriel Zwilling of 3V. Sept. 1535, Walch, old edition, vol. XXI, 383. The Jenaer, Walch and the Erlanger offer here: "Sewmüttere.
Hall against this temple, for the sake of such great, abominable, monstrous pillars.
How much more honestly do the pagan philosophers and poets write and teach, not only about God's rule and the life to come, but also about temporal virtues, since they teach that a man is by nature obliged to serve others, to believe even his enemies, and especially to be faithful and helpful in times of need, as Cicero and his peers teach. Yes, I think that in three fables of Aesopi, in half of Catone, in several comedies of Terentii there is more wisdom and teaching of good works than is found in all Talmudists' and rabbis' books, and may fall into all Jews' hearts.
If anyone thinks that I speak too much. I do not talk too much, but much too little, because I see their writings: they curse us Goyim and wish us all misfortune in their schools and prayers, they rob us of our money and goods by usury and, where they can, they prove to us all evil trickery, want to have done right and well in this, that is, to have served God, and teach to do so. No Gentiles have done this, nor does anyone, except the devil himself, or those he has possessed, as he possessed the Jews.
Burgensis, who was a very learned rabbi among them, became a Christian by God's grace (which is strange), is almost moved by this piece, that they curse us Christians so horribly in their schools (as Lyra also writes), and concludes that they must not be God's people. For if they were God's people, they would do as the captive Jews did in Babylon, to whom Jeremiah wrote: "Pray for the king and for the city where you are captives, for in its peace you also have peace" [Jer. 29:7]. But our bastards and false Jews think they must curse us, hurry, and do all harm where they can, when they have no cause; therefore they are certainly no longer God's people. More about this later.
203. Now that we come back to the temple of Haggai, it is certain that no greater, more shameful disgrace has happened to a house than to this holy house of God by such disgraceful
The house of Christ is called the House of God because the four poles are his. Nor is it called Christ's house, because the four poles are his. Therefore, against such great dishonor, there must have been great and different glory inside, neither silver nor gold. If not, Haggai's prophecy will not stand, that the glory of this temple will be greater than Solomon's temple, and no glory can be found in such overpowered disgraces, except that of Chemdath, who is to come shortly and surpass such disgrace with his glory; the Jews cannot show any, and must stifle here.
I must break off and leave the last part of Haggai, where he prophesies: "In this place (says the Lord) I will give peace"; whether this should be understood from the time of Antiochus until this time, when the Jews have suffered all misfortunes and are still in misery, for there shall be peace in this place, says God. The place is and still stands, the temple and peace is gone; the Jews will know how to interpret it. The histories tell me that before Antiocho there was little peace for 300 years, and after that none, until this hour, without what existed in the time of the Maccabees; I leave that, as I said, to others. Summa, this peace must not be a physical one, but the peace of Messiah or Chemdath, that is, the peace in the kingdom of God, which is eternal, which Messiah brought and taught, Is. 11, 2. Zach. 9, 9.
The fifth saying, from which it is proved that Messiah has come. 1)
Lastly, we must listen to the great prophet Daniel, with whom a special, so-called angel, Gabriel, speaks, the like of which is not found in the old Scriptures. This must be something special, since the angel is named; he speaks to Daniel thus: "Seventy weeks are determined over your people and over 2) your holy city, so that the transgression is prevented, the sin is sealed, the iniquity is reconciled, an everlasting righteousness is established.
1) This superscription is in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
2) "about" is missing in the Wittenberger.
brought, and the visions and prophecies sealed, and the Most Holy One anointed." [Dan. 9, 24.]
206 We cannot now deal with this rich saying, which is, of course, one of the most distinguished in all of Scripture, and all have (how rightly) been taken up around it. For he not only predetermines the time of Christ, but also prophesies what he shall do, namely, to take away sin, and to bring in righteousness, and that the same by his death; and makes Christ the priest, which taketh away the sin of all the world. These things, I say, we must now leave in abeyance, and consider the time (as we have determined), whether such a Messiah or priest has come, or is yet to come, to strengthen our faith against all devils and men.
Of the seventy weeks of Danieli. 3)
(207) First, it is agreed that these seventy weeks are not weeks of days, but weeks of years, that one week is called seven years, and makes 490 years in all; that is one. Secondly, it is also one that these seventy weeks were completed when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. In these two matters there is no doubt in anyone's mind, although there are countless doubts as to when and where such seventy weeks actually began and were completed; which we do not need to dispute here, because it is unanimously decided that they were completed and finished around the time of Jerusalem's destruction, which is enough for us this time.
If this is true, as it must be, because after the destruction of Jerusalem there is not a week left of the seventy weeks, then Messiah must have come about the time before the destruction of Jerusalem, when there is still something left of the seventy weeks, namely, the last week, as the text hereafter speaks clearly and powerfully. After the seven and sixty-two weeks (that is, after nine and sixty weeks), namely, in the last or seventieth week, Christ will come
3) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
4) "der" is missing in the Jenaer and in the Erlanger.
be killed, but in such a way that he will come back to life. For "in the same last week he shall make a covenant with many" (says the angel), which he cannot do as long as he is dead, he must be alive. For "to make a covenant" can mean nothing else than to fulfill the promise of God made to the fathers, namely to spread the blessing promised in Abraham's seed among all the Gentiles, as the angel Kroben says: "the visions and prophecies shall be sealed or fulfilled." There belongs a living Messiah, who nevertheless is to be killed before. But the Jews do not want to know about this; therefore we leave it this time and stick to the fact that Messiah must have come around the time of these seventy weeks, which the Jews cannot deny.
209 For there are their books and certain histories which prove that not only a few Jews, but all the Jews at that time, were of opinion that Messiah should come or be present at that time; this we will hear. When Herod became king by force of the Romans in Judah and Israel, the Jews saw that the scepter of Judah would be taken away by force, and they fought hard against it, and during the thirty years (that is how long they resisted) many thousands of Jews were slain and much blood was shed, until they grew tired and surrendered. But the Jews looked around for their Messiah, and there was a cry that the Messiah had been born, which was true, for in the thirtieth year of Herod our Lord Christ was born. But Herod put a stop to this cry by force, strangled all the young children around Bethlehem, so that our Lord had to be fled into Egypt. He also strangled his own son (because he was from the Jewish mother), fearing that the scepter of Judah would rise again through him and gain the followers of the Jews, because such a rumor of the born Christ (as Philo writes) had spread.
210) More than thirty years later John the Baptist comes out of the wilderness and preaches about the Lord, that he was not born alone, but that he was on his way to rule among them, soon after him, as our evangelists describe. Suddenly he is
Even there, he preached great miracles, so that the Jews hoped that after the fallen scepter would come Shiloh. But the chief priests, rulers and their followers were offended by the fact that he did not come as a mighty king, but as a poor beggar. For their thoughts were that Messiah should gather the Jews together, and not only thrust the foreign king from the scepter, but also subdue the Romans and all the world with the sword, and make them great rulers over all the Gentiles. Since such a thought was lacking, the noble blood and circumcised saints were spurned, as to whom the kingdom was promised, and could not come to it through this beggar. So they despised him and did not accept him.
211 But he, when they despised and blasphemed John and his preaching and miracles as the deeds of Beelzebub, spoiled it, and salted it altogether, chastising and reproving them severely (which he should not have done), that they were stingy, wicked, naughty children, false teachers, seducers of the people, etc. Summa, serpent-breeders and devil-children, on the other hand he was friendly to the sinners, tax collectors, pagans and Romans, so that it could be seen that he was an enemy to the people of Israel and a friend to the pagans and husks. Then the fire was kindled against him, and they were angry, bitter, venomous, and foolish against him, and at last poured out the bells to kill him, and so they did, crucifying him as cruelly as they ever could, and so they cooled their little troubles, that even Pilate the Gentile perceived and testified that they innocently condemned and killed him out of hatred and envy, without a cause.
212 Since they had executed this false Messiah (when they wanted to have considered it), they nevertheless did not leave the delusion that Messiah must be present or near. The Romans were always grumbling about the scepter. Soon the rumor came that Jesus, whom they had killed, had risen again, and was now preached for Messiah freely and openly, and the people in the city of Jerusalem fell to him, also the Gentiles in Antioch and everywhere in the country. Here they got to do; they should,
To resist this dead Messiah and his people, so that he would not be believed to be the resurrected Messiah, and also to resist the Romans, so that their Messiah, whom they hoped would not come eternally from the scepter; there arose a stranglehold against the Christians, there unrest against the Romans. This they did for forty years, until the Romans were forced to disturb the country and the city. And they lost over this delusion of their false Christ and for persecution of the true Christ eleven times a hundred thousand men, as Josephus writes, along with the land, city, scepter, temple, priesthood and everything they had in the most terrible way.
This great cruel defeat, which is terrible to read and to hear, should have made them cheap and humble. Yes, they became seven times harder, angrier and more proud than before; it helped that they, scattered around, had to see how the Christians grew and increased daily with their Messiah, and the saying of Moses, Deut. 32:21, came over them with full force: "They have angered me.They have provoked me to anger against that which is not a God; so will I provoke them to anger against that which is not a people"; and Hos. 2:23 [Cap. 1:9]: "I will call that which is not my people my people; but ye shall not be my people, neither will I be your God." And putting on their heads and horns, they wanted to have their own Messiah, of whom 1) the Gentiles should not boast, and to cut off this Messiah, of whom both Jews and Gentiles boasted; They went all over the world through the Roman Empire, where they could strangle a Christian in a corner, they dragged him out to the judges, and cried out over him (because they could no longer, since they had no court' nor power), until they killed him, shed thereby a lot of Christian blood and made countless martyrs, also outside the Roman Empire, in Persia, and where they could.
214. but they still held fast to the delusion that the time of Messiah must be at hand, because the seventy weeks of Daniel were over, and the temple of Haggai destroyed, and yet not liking the person of JESUS of Nazareth, they continued
1) Wittenberger: "the".
They had a rabbi or Talmudist, named Akiba, who was very highly learned among them and held above all rabbis, an old, gray, honest man, who was fervent about the sayings of Haggai and Daniel, and also Jacob, Gen. 49:10.They chose one whose surname was Kochab, which means a star in German (Burgensis calls his real name Heutoliba), who is almost well known in all histories, and called him Ben Kozba 2) or Bar Kozban; this one had to be their Messiah, and he was quite happy to do it. Then all the rabbis and all the people fell down, confidently gathered themselves together and armed themselves strongly, and wanted to clean up both Christians and Romans from the world. For they now had the Messiah of their liking and mind, of whom the above Scriptures proclaimed.
This displeasure began about thirty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, under the emperor Trajan. And Rabbi Akiba was the Kochab's prophet and spirit, who blew, drove, and incited him fiercely, bringing all the sayings in the Scriptures of Messiah upon his person before all the people, saying, Thou art Messiah. He especially made use of the saying Balaam, Numbers 24:17, 18, 19, because of his surname, that he was called Kochab, that is, Star. For thus Balaam saith in the spirit there, A Kochab (star) shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall arise out of Israel, and shall smite the princes of Moab, and destroy all the children of Seth. Edom he shall take, and Seir shall be subject to his enemies; but Israel shall have victory. Out of Jacob shall the ruler come, and destroy the remnant of cities."
That was a right sermon for such an angry, restless mob to lead them on, as it happened. And so that it would be certain and could not be lacking, the high, noble Rabbi Akiba (the old fool and hunch) made himself a satellite.
2) About this change of the name from Barcochba compare § 218.
3) Scripture - Scripture passages.
If I haven't got it right in German, someone else will do it better; it should be the one who is first at the king's or prince's side in the field or battle, be he on horseback or on foot, although here there is something more, because he is also a prophet and (as happened with us) a coiner. Now the scepter of Judah and Messiah are sitting there, and they are sure of the things. Nevertheless they did this for thirty years, so that Kochab always let himself be called King Messiah, slaughtered many Christians who did not want to deny our Messiah Jesus Christ. His captains also attacked the Romans wherever they could, especially in Egypt, where they once defeated the Roman captain under Trajano; indeed, their hearts, brains and stomachs swelled; now God had to be with them and with them, and they took a city near Jerusalem, called "Bitter", which is called Bethoron in the Scriptures.
Here they knew no other way, because their Messiah, King Kochab, would now be master of the world, and would have won the Christians and Romans under him and everything. But the emperor Adrianus sent his army against them, besieged Bitter, won it and killed Messiah and prophet, star and eclipse, lord and ruler, so that they themselves complain in their books that there were twice eighty thousand men at Bitter, who blew the trumpets, and were over a large number of captains, and that forty times a hundred thousand men were slain, without what was slain at Alexandria, which is said to have been twelve times a hundred thousand. But methinks they throw the axe much too far. So I will interpret it: That the two times eighty thousand trumpet-blowers were brave men, able to defend themselves in battle, that each of them was able to lead large and many troops in the field.
218. after this defeat, which was very good, they themselves called Kochab, their lost Messiam, Kozab; that rhymes and reads close together. For so their Talmudists write: You shall not read Kochab, but Kozab; therefore he is now called Kozban in all histories. Kozab means: wrong. Because it had lacked, and was a false, "light
a true Messiah. Just as we Germans would rhyme: You are not a German, but a deceiver, not a Welshman, but a forger. And of a usurer I may say: You are not a citizen, but a strangler; as such rhyming is common in all languages. Of such histories also writes our Eusebius, eccl. hist. lib. 4, cap. 6, calls Barcochabas, and says that there was a cruel great battle, that the Jews were so completely driven out of the country that they could no longer have seen their fatherland with their godless eyes, even from afar, if they had climbed the highest mountains.
219. such terrible history gives sufficient testimony that the whole Jewry had such a mind that the time of the Messiah must be there, when the seventy weeks had ended, the temple of Haggai had been destroyed, the scepter had been taken away from Judah, as the Proverbs of Jacob, Gen. 49, 10., Haggai 2, 8. and Daniel 9, 24. had clearly pointed out and proclaimed, that we Christians (praise God!) are sure and certain of our faith.) are sure and certain of our faith that the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, has come at that time; because not only his excellent miracles, which the Jews themselves cannot deny, stand as a testimony, but also his opponents, who wanted to cut him off together with all his own, so terrible a fall and misfortune over the name Messiah. 1) How else could they have started such misery over themselves, if they had not been sure that the time of Messiah must be here? Well, I mean, that is to say, they ran and pushed themselves, now for another time, "against the stone of offence and rock of trouble," as Isaiah 8:14, 15 says, since so many times a hundred thousand wanted to devour Jesus of Nazareth, and were themselves crushed, disintegrated, broken, entangled and caught, as Isaiah says there.
1) It seems to us that according to the context "name-Messiah" stands for "false Messiah". In all editions the words "names" and "Messiah" are written separately. A hyphen in compound words was not yet in use at Luther's time. Jonas, we believe, also did not understand this passage correctly, for he translates: propter nomen Messiae. It should be noted that in none of the German editions does it say: "Messiä", but: "Messia".
220 Since they had lacked such two dangerous and cruel entrenchments in the most horrible way, the first one in Jerusalem under Vespasiano, the other one in Bitter under Adrians, they should have been struck in themselves, become soft and humble, and thought: Help God, how does it happen, the time of Messiah has appeared and passed according to the word of the prophets, and we are so cruelly and terribly struck over it! How if our thoughts of Messiah, that he should become such a worldly cook, had deceived us, and had come in another way or form, how if it were Jesus of Nazareth, to whom so many Jews and Gentiles fall, and do many great miraculous signs daily? Yes, they have become seven times harder and angrier than before. Their thoughts of the worldly Messiah must be right and not wrong; they must lie and be wrong before the appointed time and all the prophets; they do not want Jesus, and if they pervert all the Scriptures, have no God, and never get a Messiah, they will have it.
221. Therefore, from that time on, they have opposed the Scriptures (because they were now beaten by the Romans, powerless and defenseless), and they have been able to take them from us with other people's minds 1) and to use them; have fallen from all the forefathers and prophets, and from their own understanding, because of which they lost so many hundred thousand men, land and city, and have come to all miseries; these fourteen hundred years they have done nothing else, except where they learned a saying from the Christians, understood by our Messiah, They took him before them, scourged him, tore him apart, crucified him, tortured him, so that they might put on him a different nose and a different body, and acted in the same way as their forefathers acted against our Lord Christ on the silent Friday, so that God might be found to be a liar, but they might be found to be the truthful ones; as you heard above, how they followed the saying of Jacob, Gen. 49, 10., 2) by ten noses, and likewise by many noses to the saying of Haggai, in which you may find two certain examples.
1) The Wittenbergers and the Jenaers offer: "nemen". Erlanger: "nennen".
2) In the old editions: "Jacob 49."
If you want to know how masterfully the Jews interpret the Scriptures, so that they may not have a certain understanding.
So they have also martyred this saying of Daniel. I cannot tell all their shameful glosses. I will take one before me, which Lyra and Burgensis consider to be the most famous and meanest of the Jews, from which the Jews must not depart at the loss of their souls, which reads thus:
223. "Seventy weeks are appointed (says Gabriel to Daniel) over thy people and over thy holy city, that transgression may be increased, sin sealed, iniquity atoned for, and everlasting righteousness brought, vision and prophets sealed, and the most holy anointed." This is the text. Now follows their beautiful gloss: 3)
There are still seventy weeks, then Jerusalem will be destroyed, and the Jews will be led into misery by the Romans, and the same therefore, that through such misery they let go of their 4) sins, and therefore 5) are punished, repent and make atonement or reconciliation, and thus become eternally pious, so that they deserve that the prophecies 6) of Messiah are fulfilled, and the holy temple is rebuilt etc.
Here you hear, first of all, that the immense holiness of the Jews misses that God will fulfill His promise of the Messiah not out of pure grace and mercy, but according to their merit and repentance, and for the sake of their great exuberant piety. And how should and can God, the poor man, do otherwise? For when He promised the Messiah to Jacob, David, and Haggai out of pure mercy, He did not think nor know that after the seventy weeks and disturbance of Jerusalem such great saints would come to merit the Messiah from Him, that He would not fulfill anything out of mercy, but for the sake of their great
3) This sentence is missing in the Wittenberg; in Jonas it is translated.
4) Marginal gloss of the second Alisgabe, which is found in the Wittenberg and Erlangen, but is missing in the Jena: "Sins; of which they have done none, the holy children of God, nor crucified the Son of God, but committed vain worship."
5) Jenaer and Erlanger: in favor.
6) Thus the Jena. Wittenberg and Erlangen: prophets. Jonas: proxksoiao.
The Jews had to give the Messiah when, where and how they wanted for the sake of purity and holiness. Such a mighty thing is it about the Jews, who after the seventy weeks have repented and become devout.
226 You can also easily think that before and during the seventy weeks they did not atone, nor were they pious, nor did they need it, and the priests at Jerusalem all died of hunger, because there was no repentance, no sin offering, no guilt offering (on which they had to feed), but everything was saved for repentance and holiness to begin after the seventy weeks. Even where there is no repentance or nothing to atone for, there is no sin. But it seems strange that after the seventy weeks, when they have atoned for all their sins by the sacrifices of the priests (who were ordained by Moses) all the days, they have to atone for them, and now they have to atone for them after the seventy weeks, when the temple, the office and the sacrifices for sin are no longer there.
But this is much more subtle: Gabriel speaks (as they gloss it), the Jews will repent and become pious after the seventy weeks, so that Messiah will come by their merit. Well, that is out; if Gabriel speaks right and does not lie, then the Jews have atoned, have become pious, have earned the Messiah sint the time after the seventy weeks. For he says that these things shall come to pass from the Jews after the seventy weeks. Where now? They confess, yes, they complain, that Messiah has not come in the seventy weeks, nor until then, probably 1468 years, and they do not yet know when he will come: so they must also confess that these 1468 years after the seventy weeks they have never atoned for any sin, nor become godly, nor earned the Messiah. Otherwise, 1) the angel Gabriel must be lying, who promises by God that after the seventy weeks the Jews will repent, become righteous and merit the Messiah'.
228. if the angel Gabriel lied that the Jews have not atoned for 1500 years after the seventy weeks, which is a long time to atone for, then
1) "Wo anders" is only in the Erlangen edition, but is also in Jonas: Huiä si seeus rss kaderst.
he will lie for eternity, and the Jews will not repent for eternity. For whoever does not repent in 1500 years, nor become pious, if he intends to do so, will certainly never repent nor become pious.
229) Moses also clearly proves that they never atoned for their sins after the seventy weeks, 3 Mos. 26, 44. 5 Mos. 4, 30. 31. and 30, 1-6. where he promises with many glorious words, where they will turn from their hearts and confess their sins, God will bring them back to their homeland, even if they were scattered to the ends of the heavens etc. Moses speaks such words because of God, whom one does not have to punish with lies. Since they are not brought back into the land until then, it is certain that they have never atoned for any sin after the seventy weeks from their hearts, and it must be a lie that Gabriel should speak of their repentance, as they falsely interpret.
230 Thus we also know that God is so kind by nature that the hour a man repents or repents from the heart, his sin is forgiven, as David says, Ps. 32:5: "I said: I will confess my sin unto the Lord; and thou wilt forgive me the iniquity of my sin." So we also read, when the prophet Nathan punished David's sin, and he then said, "I have sinned"; immediately Nathan absolved him and said, "God has forgiven your sin" [2 Sam. 12:13]. And even though he often does not take away the punishment as soon as it happens, as happened to David, he nevertheless lets the forgiveness of sins be certain for the person, and if there were not a prophet or priest, an angel would have to come and say: Your sins are forgiven you; so that the sinner in his repentance and under the punishment does not despair or despair. As we also see in the Babylonian prison, how graciously and fatherly he comforts those who confess their sin, so that they may endure the punishment; and even the punishment cannot last the length of time, but must have its definite time, measure and end, where there is right repentance and penance.
231 But here with these Jews there is no forgiveness of sin, no prophet to comfort them and make them sure, no appointed time of punishment, but only unending wrath and unmercifulness without all mercy, so that they may be forgiven.
is not only false, but also impossible to understand Gabriel's promise of their repentance, much less of their merit and righteousness.
232. ah, what shall we lose much words and time? The land of Canaan has hardly been a beggar's piece or a plate compared to the whole world's kingdom; nor have they earned it by their repentance, contrition or righteousness, as Moses says, Deut. 9:4, 5.That they did not take the land by their righteousness, but as the stiff-necked and disobedient (that is, with great sins and unmerit), only by the gracious promise of God; and yet they were at that time the most pious and best, as Hosea and Balaam, Numbers 23:21-23. 23, 21-23. They had Moses, Aaron, worship, prophets, God Himself with His miracles, bread from heaven, water from the 1) rock, clouds by day, pillars of fire by night, imperishable garments and shoes etc. And these saddened yeast, nasty yeast, withered foam, moldy basic soup, and evil 2) cesspool of Judaism should deserve with their repentance and righteousness of the whole world kingdom, that is, Messiah and the fulfillment of the prophecies, since they do not have anything, nothing but a rotten, stinking, discarded yeast of the fatherly blossom.
Summa, Moses and all right Israelites understood the sayings of the Messiah, given by pure grace and mercy, without repentance and merit, as we have seen in the above-mentioned sayings of Jacob, David, and Haggai: for Daniel also does not ask, desire, or think that such a glorious promise of the seventy weeks should be revealed to him; but far, far beyond his desire, it is proclaimed to him by grace.
From this you can see what repentance the Jews have done and are still doing after the seventy weeks, which they began with lies and blasphemy and continued to do, and still do without stopping. If anyone desires, let him take here an example of the repentance of the Jews, and lift up and say: God and his angels are liars, talking about
1) Jenaer, Walch and the Erlanger: den. Jonas: de petra.
2) Jenaer, Walch and Erlanger: mösichtiger.
to that which is not; so shalt thou merit grace, as they merit the Messiam.
Even if they were not so ftockstaarblind 3), their own, even the very coarse outward life should convince them well, what they do for repentance. For they are full of sorcery and witchcraft, of signs and figures and of the name Tetragrammaton (that is idolatry), full of envy and pride, in addition vain thieves and robbers, who daily neither eat a morsel nor wear a thread, which they have not stolen and robbed from us by their damned usury; thus they live daily by vain theft and robbery with wife and child, as the arch-thieves and land-robbers in all impenitent security. For a usurer is an ore thief and land robber, who should hang on the gallows seven times higher than other thieves. Indeed, of such beautiful repentance and merit God would have to prophesy from heaven through His holy angel, and thus become a shameful, blasphemous liar, for the sake of the noble blood and circumcised saints, who boast themselves sanctified by God's commandments, and yet trample all of them underfoot and do not keep any of them.
236 Then follows in the saying of Daniel: "Know therefore, and mark, that from the time that the commandment goeth forth, that Jerusalem shall be built again until Messiah the prince be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, then shall the streets and the walls be built again, though in a small time. And for two and threescore weeks Messiah shall be slain, and have nothing."
237] How ridiculous it is to the circumcised saints that we cursed goyim have interpreted and understood this saying, especially because we have not read their rabbis, Talmudists, Kochabists, which are more resounding with them than all the Scriptures, for they do it much better, namely, "Know therefore and know of the origin of the word that Jerusalem is to be rebuilt; that is, remember and understand it well, that a word has gone out how Jerusalem is to be rebuilt.
3) In the editions: rigidly blind.
4) In the Wittenberg and Jena editions: "das sich". In the old edition of Walch and in the Erlangen: "das sie". Jonas: qui se - "the themselves". We have assumed the latter.
are to be built; that is one. Further: Up to Messiah the prince, that is up to king Cores, are seven weeks; that is again one. Next: And two and threescore weeks shall the walls and streets be built again, though in a little time; which is once more one. And after sixty-two weeks, Messiah (that is, King Agrippa) shall be slain, and shall not be (that is, shall not be king etc.).
238 It is indeed vexatious to deal with such confused lies and fools' remarks; but I must give ours cause to consider the devilish will of the rabbis in this beautiful saying. Well, here you see how they divide the text, which is to be attached to each other, and, since it is to be divided, attach it to each other. Namely, they shall hang one upon another, "Know and mark that from the beginning of the word, how Jerusalem is to be rebuilt until Messiah, there are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. These things, I say, shall hang one upon another, and be a whole text. Follows: "then shall the walls and the gates be built again in a little while." This piece, which is divided, is attached to the previous piece (sixty-two weeks), so that walls and streets are built for sixty-two weeks.
These are called "arch-knave pieces". I am immediately reminded of the boy, of whom I heard say, when I was a young monk, how he had torn and disjointed the Lord's Prayer in this way: Our Father, hallowed be thy name in heaven, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Or as that unlearned priest read the lection in the Vigil, 1 Cor. 15:55, 56: Ubi est mors stimulus, Tuus stimulus autem mortis, peccatum est virtus vero, etc. 240. Such tearing up of the text is done by the Jews only because they want to destroy the text of Scripture for us Christians, even though it is of no use to them in this way. For it teaches them nothing, comforts them nothing, gives them nothing, and remains vain words, so that the angel does as much as if he had spoken nothing. But they want to go without such comforting, blessed words and suffer harm before they should be of use to us. Like ground
stein [Carlstadt] also sacrilegiously tore up the words of the Sacrament, so that they should not be useful to us. But it shall not help the rabbis, yes, the Nachtraben and Huhu; we want to give up their howling and lying with God's help, and want to take one piece after the other.
241 First, I will let the Hebrew scholars be instructed whether the word intellige is also constructed with the word de in the Scriptures; I have not found it, and it seems to me to be a matter of opinion. If it is to be called de, as de subjecta materia, the Hebrew has praepositio Al, as also the Latin, muIta super Priamo etc.. But this I know well, that the Jews cannot prove such construction in this place, and the examples of Scripture here agree that it stands absolute sine regime. But to freely attribute something to God, which is not certain nor can be proven, is just as much as trying God and punishing him for lying.
242 Now let us see how they tear up the text: Know and mark the end of the word, that Jerusalem shall be built again. This piece is not to give the beginning of the seventy weeks, but an understanding of the outgoing word, after which follows: Until Messiah the Prince there are seven weeks. Now it is the way of all languages that this word donec, until, must have a beginning; but the Jews do not give it one, do not want to suffer it to be called: from the beginning of the word until Messiam. I must give a simile 1).
If someone said to you here in Wittenberg in the marketplace of St. Galli, "You have heard a sermon about God's word that the church is holy; think about it and notice it well. Well, you look him in the mouth, what he wants to say more, because he wants to say more. So he suddenly starts: Until Michaelmas are seven weeks, or: Until Halle are three miles away, Here you would look at him and say: What, art thou foolish? Shall the seven weeks now begin at the market, or the three miles from Wittenberg? No, he would say, you must understand this, from St. Lörenz to Michaelmas,
1) In the editions: "Gleiches"; but the Wittenberg and the Jena have as marginal gloss: "Gleichniß". Jonas: simile.
and from Bitterfeld to Halle. Here you would like to say: Kiss me the sow on the Pacem under the Pirzel, 1) where did you learn to talk like that? And where do the seven weeks rhyme with that, since you tell me that I should well remember the sermon of God's word heard in Wittenberg 2)?
The rabbis do the same with the word of the angel Gabriel, who must begin, "Until Messiah, there are seven weeks. Would Daniel now say, What then, my Gabriel, shall the seven weeks begin now that thou speakest unto me? No, saith he, thou must understand this, to begin from the destruction of Jerusalem. Yes, thanks be to you, you noble circumcised rabbis, you are masters over God and all the angels, that you teach the angel Gabriel to speak in this way, as if he could not tell the beginning of the seven weeks as well as the middle and the end. But Daniel shall understand it. I thought, he is to pass away it in it or to miss it. Fie on you shameful rabbis, that you may ascribe your foolish speech to the angel of God, so that you disgrace yourselves and convince yourselves that you are liars and blasphemers in the words of God. But that is only the Grammatica, now let us see the Theologica 3).
They say, the holy circumcised ravens, that the seventy weeks shall begin from the first destruction, and end in the second destruction of Jerusalem. How can they get away with it, because their eyes and ears are closed, they have not looked at the Scriptures or the histories, but they have spoken out of free conceit: It seems to us thus, and wanting thus, therefore God and his angel must have spoken thus? how can it fail? we are the ravens, who can master God and angels.
246 Well, this may be called a wicked, fretful, blasphemous people, who can merit the Messiah by such their repentance. But let us hear their prudence: The seventy weeks looked on from the destruction of Jeru-
1) "Pirtzel" - rump, tail. The old edition of Walch and the Erlangen offerü: "and the Pirzel". - Pacem", euphemistic for podicem, also for its incense, Walch, old edition, vol. XVII, 1299, § 32.
2) "zu Wittenberg" is missing in the Wittenberg specification.
3) In the Jenaer, with Walch and in the Erlanger: Theologia. Jonas: Theologiam.
salem, from the king of Babylon; that is out. From that time there are seven weeks until Messiah the Prince, that is, until King Cores; that also is out. Now tell me, where is this written? In the ranch hole. Who said it? Marcolfus. Who else could say it or write it?
247 There is the bright, clear text of Daniel in the beginning of this 9th chapter, that this revelation of the seventy weeks happened to him in the first year of Darii, the Mede, who had won the kingdom of Babylon, since the first destruction of Jerusalem had happened seventy years before; as Daniel clearly says there that seventy years of desolation were fulfilled, according to the word of Jeremiah 29:10, likewise 2 Chronicles 36:22. 36, 22. Nor must such bright two sayings of the Scriptures, as Daniel 9. and 2 Chron. 36, 22, are liars to the rabbis, but they are right, that the seventy weeks must have begun seventy years before they are revealed to Daniel. Isn't that fine? Now believe the rabbis, the coarse unlearned asses, who regard neither Scripture nor history, and spout out of their wicked mouths against God and angels, as they please.
248 Because their lies and false courage are now publicly convinced that the seventy weeks, which were revealed in the first year of Darii, could not have begun seventy years earlier, from the destruction of Jerusalem, all their lies, which were built on this foundation, have fallen down and must let Daniel's saying about the seventy weeks remain pure and unadulterated without their thanks, but they have to pay eternal disgrace for their courageous, obvious lie. For this lie is followed by another lie, that they point Messiah the prince to the king Cores, who is supposed to have come seven weeks after the destruction, when he probably came ten weeks, that is, seventy years after the destruction, as 2 Chron. 36, 22. and Dan. 9, 24., Ezra 1, 1. is written.
(249) Even if we suppose (which is impossible) that the seventy weeks began from the destruction of Jerusalem, yet the gross lie will not be mended, and here falls the third lie after it. For they say that Cores came fifty-two years after the destruction of Jerusalem.
of destruction, they make seven weeks and three years, which is eight and a half weeks; so they take three years, or half a week, out of the sixty-two weeks, and put them with the seven first weeks; just as if the angel were so much a fool or a child that could not count seven, and spoke seven, when he should speak eight and a half. Why do they do this? Because they want to see how they handle lies, how they tear apart and pervert God's word. Therefore Cores must have come to them eight and a half weeks, which they call seven, after the destruction, when he came ten weeks, that is, seventy years after, as is said.
(250) Neither suffereth the angel that the weeks should be so divided and broken, 1) That thou shouldest take from one three years, that she may have four years only; and that thou shouldest divide to another, which hath seven years, the three years, that she may have ten years, or a week and a half. For he saith, The seventy weeks are actually numbered, and counted, or reckoned.
251 He suffers much less from this fourth lie, that Cores should be called Messiah here, if the other lies were true, that Cores would have come after seven weeks (that is after fifty-two years). For there stand the bright dry words of the angel: "Seventy weeks are determined over your people and your city", wants to say: I have spoken in other chapters of foreign people and kings; but now in this saying of the seventy weeks I speak of your people, of your city and your Messiah. And he that saith otherwise of other people and kings is a wanton, desperate liar.
252 After this fourth lie comes the fifth, when they tear the seven weeks from the sixty-two weeks. For they shall cleave one to another, and there is no cause why they should be severed one from another, especially because the lie of the king Cores was omitted, for whose sake they severed the seven and sixty-two weeks one from another, that they might give him seven, that is, eight and a half. And is the scripture wise thus in
1) "zermerkeln" probably as much as: zermergeln. Jonas: truncentur - verstümmele.
Hebrew, to count the years. First the one number, then the other number of years, but all together, as Gen. 5, 6. 7. and 11, 16. 17. the examples much stand, in the fathers, so died; namely: "Seth lived five year and hundred year, and begat Enos. After that he lived seven years and eight hundred years." Item Gen. 11, 17: Eber lived after the birth of Peleg thirty years and four hundred years. And Gen. 25, 7: Abraham lived a hundred years, seventy years and five years. From this it can be seen that it is pure courage to separate the number of seven years and sixty-two years in this saying.
253 The Latin and German language finely resists such tearing, because it does not repeat the little word year so often, but attaches it to each other and says: Abraham lived a hundred and five and seventy years. So here also, from the beginning of the word to Messiah, the prince, are seven and sixty-two weeks. This number is to be attached to each other and be one number until Messiah, But the angel has reason why he calls the whole number, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, when he could have said nine weeks and sixty weeks, and many other ways call such number, as five weeks and sixty-four weeks, item, six weeks and sixty-three weeks etc. For he must have the seven weeks to build the walls and streets of Jerusalem, and the sixty-two to the last week, for which all things are to be done, in which Messiah shall die and make the covenant etc.
254 The sixth lie follows, when they say that the walls and streets of Jerusalem were rebuilt for sixty-two weeks (not including three years), that is, until the last week, after which (as they lie for the seventh time) Jerusalem is destroyed again. For with the last week the seventy weeks are over. And therefore Jerusalem should not have been built longer than one week, that is, seven years. Deny, Jew, confidently, and do not be ashamed. Nehemiah, on the other hand, stands with his book and testifies that he built the walls, set the gates, divided the city, and consecrated it gloriously, so that the temple was ready in the seventh week.
sixth year Darii, Ezra 6, 15.; also Alexander Magnus found the city of Jerusalem ready for a long time; still much more found it ready after him and the temple very rich the noble fruit Antiochus, who plundered it horribly.
The eighth gross lie falls after this, because they interpret this word of the angel: "And after sixty-two weeks Messiah will be killed, and will have nothing": Messiah is the king Agrippa, he is killed, and after his death he has had nothing, and no king has come after him. Why is not Messiah more the emperor Nero, who is killed at this time without heirs? Yes, I fear they would take Marcolfum or Thersitam for Messiam before they suffered the right Messiam. How should God suffer such a shameful public lie, who loves the truth and is the truth itself, if such a lie is offensive to a man who is a liar or false, or who does not love the truth so much? And this eighth lie is a manifold lie: first, that in so short a text they interpret Messiam differently and differently; there he must be Cores after the seven weeks; here he must be Agrippa after the sixty-two weeks; as if the angel were a fool, always wanting to give another Messiah over the third word.
(256) So we have heard above that the angel does not speak of a foreign people and city, but "of your people" (he speaks), and "of your city" I speak, therefore we must not unite two Messiahs in this saying, but one, and he who is Messiah of this people and city, namely Shiloh of Judah, after the fallen scepter, the son of David, Chemdath Haggai, yes, we must understand him here, otherwise the saying will not suffer anyone. For Agrippa was not king in Jerusalem, much less Messiah before the last week, that is, after seven and sixty-two weeks. The Romans gave him a small land on the other side of the Jordan by grace, and the Roman governors ruled the land of Judea, Felix, Festus, Albinus etc., nor was Agrippa killed after the sixty-two weeks. Summa, everything they say is a lie.
257. because they now confess and confess
1) "Messia" is missing in the Wittenberg.
If a Messiah is killed after the sixty-two weeks, that is, in the first year of the last week, and Agrippa cannot be (as they would like to confirm their lies), nor any other, I would like to see where they will take one; we must have one who has been there before the seventy weeks have ended, and who is killed after sixty-two weeks; and who is from their people (as Gabriel says) without doubt from the royal tribe of Judah. Now they had not had a king of their people or tribe since Herod's time, that is certain; so Gabriel also wants to be certain, and have a Messiah of their people. Where now from?
258 I will say further. They themselves confess that from the first destruction of Jerusalem until the last destruction they had no Messiah, that is, an anointed king (Messiah means the anointed one), because the holy anointing oil, of which Genesis 2 Mos. 30, 25. writes, so that kings and priests were anointed, no longer existed after the first destruction. Therefore Zedekiah was the last anointed king; his descendants were princes, not kings, until Herod, when the scepter ceased and Shiloh, the true Messiah, was to come.
259. they want to clean the lies completely, because Daniel says: "He will confirm the covenant to many a week" (that is, the last week). Here they do the ninth lie, saying: "The Romans made peace and decency with the Jews this last week or seven years; but because the Jews resisted, the Romans came over three years and destroyed Jerusalem. Yes, where does Gabriel stand here, who says that the peace or decency (as they interpret the covenant) should stand for seven years? If it has not stood longer than three years, Gabriel lies with his seven years or last week, that is, the desperate liars falsely impute this to the angel Gabriel out of their lying heart. Ah, what decency! what peace! Read Joseph[us] and the histories, and you will find how the Romans slew many thousands of Jews long before, and there was no peace until they had to destroy Jerusalem and the land.
260. the tenth and last lie, that the desolation of Jerusalem shall endure until the
The end of the quarrel. This they interpret: until the battle of their Messiah, who shall slay Gog and Magog and win all the world. This is a poor, impotent lie, which is dead before it is born. For where it is received that Messiah is to come before the seventy weeks are out, such a lie is already destroyed 1500 years ago. And so the Jews do not keep a word of the whole saying of Gabriel that they have not made a lie, except when the angel says that Jerusalem is to be destroyed. That they now believe the same and let it remain true, no one knows them no thanks; but at the time when they still had Jerusalem, they believed it much less, neither they now believe in our Messiah, although it is brightly enough prophesied, see Dau. 9, 26. and Zach. 14, 2. And if they were still sitting in it, they would have to think up a hundred thousand lies before they believed it, as their forefathers did before the first destruction; they were not persuaded by any prophet that the holy city of God should be destroyed, and they tormented it and raged like mad dogs until faith came into their hands. They have always been a stiff-necked, unbelieving, proud, wicked, desperate people, and still remain so.
From all this we see that Daniel with his seventy weeks stands for us against the lies and foolishness of the Jews as an iron wall and immovable rock, that the true Messiah must have come before the end of the seventy weeks, and was killed, and came to life again, the covenant of God (for what should Daniel speak here of the Gentiles' covenant, which was also never nothing at that time?) the last week, so that the city and the people were given leave after the end of the seventy weeks, so that soon after it was torn apart by the Romans, and the people were destroyed with all their regiment and everything, as the angel said, "Seventy weeks have been reckoned for your people and your city," or determined; so that an end was made.
262 If the Jews can lie and interpret a lot to maintain their error against such a bright and powerful text, they need to do so; the previous lies have become disgraceful in themselves. But if they have a hundred
A thousand years should lie and take all devils to help, nor would they always have to stand with shame for and for. For it is impossible to give a Messiah at the time of the seventy weeks, as Gabriel's revelation compels, if it is not to be our Lord Jesus Christ; of this we are sure, certain and joyful, and offer it with a clip in defiance of all the gates of hell, all the gates of the world, and all that will or may be high, wise and prudent against us. I, a wicked, lowly saint in Christ, trust to resist them all alone, and to defend such with light, sleepy, merry work. But to convert the devil and his own is not possible, nor are we commanded to do so; it is enough to expose their lies and reveal the truth. Whoever does not want to believe the truth for the sake of his own soul may well leave it alone for my sake.
We will now leave it at these four sayings, Jacob, David, Haggai, Daniel, in which we see what a beautiful work the Jews have done in the Scriptures these 1500 years and are still doing. For as they deal with these sayings, so do they with all other sayings, especially those concerning us and our Messiah; they must all be lies, but they are the ones who cannot err or be mistaken. But they have not learned the art of lying well; they lie too roughly and unawares, that one can grasp it well, who wants to pay a little attention to it.
But a frightening example of divine wrath is presented to us Christians, as St. Paul says, Rom. 11, 21, that we should fear God and honor His word, while the time of grace seems to be, lest such a shameful or even worse thing happen to us, as we have already experienced with the Pabst and Mahomet. For in the case of the Jews one can see how easily the devil (once one falls away from the right understanding of the Scriptures) can lead people into such blindness and darkness that even natural reason and sheer unreasonable animals can grope and grasp; nor should those who teach and hear God's word daily see it, but consider it to be the right light. Oh, Lord God, have mercy on us!
265. where I should find all the other articles of the
I might have to write against them as much and for as long as they have been telling lies, that is, for more than two thousand years. I have said above, as they corrupt their circumcision with seditions, and destroy their bloodline with courtship; so also do they profane their Sabbath and all their feasts. Summa, they eat, they drink, they sleep, they watch, they stand, they walk, they dress or undress, they fast, they bathe, they pray, they praise, and everything they live or do is so polluted with rabbinical, obscene essays and misbelief that Moses is no longer recognizable among them, just as among us under the papacy Christ and his word became almost unrecognizable before the great immensity of human essays. But that is enough of their lies against doctrine or faith this time.
The third part of this book, of the Jews' lies against the person of our dear Lord
JEsu Christ. 1)
In the end, we also want to see their lies against people, which neither make the doctrine worse nor better, whether they are pious or evil, namely, what they lie about the person of our Lord; item, about his dear mother, and about us and all Christians. These are such lies, when the devil can do nothing to the doctrine, 2) then he sets himself against the person, denies, reviles, curses and rages against the same. Just as the papist Beelzebub did to me; when he could not resist my gospel, he wrote: 3) I have the devil, I am a changeling, my dear mother is a whore and a bathmaid; immediately, when he had written this, my gospel was destroyed, and the papists had won. So John the Baptist and Christ himself had to have the devil and be called Samaritan [Joh. 8, 48.]; immediately John's and Christ's teaching became wrong, and the Pharisees' teaching right. This is what happened to all the prophets. Recently, now also, when the assassin of Wol-
1) This superscription is in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
2) "anhaben" put by us instead of: abhaben. Jonas: laedere aut opprimere.
3) Duke George of Saxony.
fenbüttel 4) (of the Holy Roman Church, according to your Cardinal at Mainz, a certain sanctuary and treasure) 5) had reviled and disgraced the person of the Elector of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse in the most shameful way, they were both lost in a flash; but he, the holy man, king over all kings, was crowned with a diamond wreath and gold, so heavily that he could not bear it and had to flee.
Therefore, whoever wants to win an evil cause, do so also, and, as the loose tongues do in court, if the silver addiction and the golden fever persist, scold and lie confidently on the person, then the cause is won. As that mother taught her child: "Dear son, if you cannot win, enter into a quarrel. These are called lies, because the liar does not believe or err in the matter (as happens in matters of faith), but knows himself well that he is lying and wants to lie against the person, and does not intend to prove it either with appearance or truth, as he cannot.
268. So do the Jews in this case; they confidently reproach, lie and curse the person, against their own conscience; Thus they have long since won the cause, that God must hear them, sitting in Jerusalem in a golden city for 1500 years, as we see before our eyes, being lords of the world, running to all the Gentiles with their chemdath, skirts, brogues 6) and shoes, letting themselves be strangled by the noble princes and lords of Israel, giving them land and people and everything they have, as they curse, spit and maledict the Goyim.
And if they did not lie, curse, spit, blaspheme, and revile the people so shamefully, you can think that God would not have heard them, and that they would have lost their cause long ago, that they would not be masters in Jerusalem, but would be scattered in the world, not seeing Jerusalem, feeding themselves with lies, deceit, stealing, robbing, usury, and all kinds of evil among the cursed goyim. Such a mighty thing is it, if one can curse the persons, if the thing is evil and lost. Therefore let
4) Duke Henry of Brunswick.
5) These brackets are set by us.
6) d. i. Pants.
Do not let the Jews' example be a bad thing to you, where you have an evil thing. They are the noble princes of Israel, who can do anything when they have lost the cause and can curse the goyim greatly.
270 First, they call our Lord Jesus a sorcerer and a devil, because they cannot deny his miracles, just as their fathers did, saying, "He casts out devils through Beelzebub, the prince of all devils" [Luc. 11:15]. And they have much to lie and make up about the name of God, Tetragrammaton, that our Lord Jesus was able to interpret the same name (which they call Shemhamphorah) and whoever is able to do this is able to perform all kinds of miracles; But they cannot give an example that ever there was a man who by such a Shemhamphorah performed a miracle worth a gnat, so that one has to grasp it, as they, as desperate liars, invent such things about our Lord. For if such a rule were true of Shemhamphoras, someone must have done it before or after; otherwise how could one know that Shemhamphoras had such power? But it is too long, will let it go out after this booklet in special note, what Purchetus writes about it. 1) It has happened rightly to them, since they rejected the truth of God, that they had to believe such shameful, foolish, foolish lies for it, and for the beautiful face of divine word had to look into the black, dark back lying hole of the devil, and worship his stink.
After that they take his name. For Jesus in Hebrew means Savior or Helper. The old Saxons used a name, Helprich or Hilprich, which sounds like the name Jesus, so that we would now say Hülfreich, that is, he who can or should help. To their chagrin, however, the Jews do so, and call him Jesus, which in Hebrew is neither a name nor a word, but three letters, like the cypher or number letters; as if I took the three number letters C. L. V. cypher-wise, and made the word Clu out of them, which are a hundred and ten letters.
1) This was done by the next following writing of Shemhamphoras.
fifty-five. So they call Jesus, that is, three hundred and sixteen. Such a number shall then give another word, in it stands Hebel Vorik, of which you may read further Anton. Margaritam, what they do devil's work with such number and words.
Now when a Christian hears them speak Jesus, as must sometimes happen because they have to speak to us, a Christian thinks they call the name Jesus; but they mean the numerical letters, Jesus, that is, the three hundred and sixteen number in the blasphemous word Vorik. And so, when they have said Jesus in their prayer, they spit three times on the earth in honor of our Lord and all Christians, with great love and devotion. But when they themselves speak among themselves, they add: deleatur nomen ejus, in good German: that God may destroy him, or: that all devils may take him away.
They do the same to us Christians: when they receive us, if we come to them, they turn the word, welcome to God, and say, "Sched wil kom,"2 ) that is, devil come, or, there comes a devil. Because we do not understand Hebrew, they secretly exercise their wrath on us, so that we think they are talking to us in a friendly manner, and so they curse us with hellish fire and all misfortune. Such fine guests we poor pious Christians have with the Jews in our country, whom we mean with all faithfulness, and would gladly do them the best, both in body and soul, and suffer very many rough things from them.
274 After that they call him a whore child and his mother Mary a whore, whom she had with a blacksmith in adultery. I must speak so rudely, though unwillingly, to the wretched devil. Now they know very well that they lie such things out of pure hatred and will of courage, only that they poison their poor youth and simple-minded Jews bitterly enough against the person of our Lord, so that they do not fall for his teaching (which they cannot deny). Nor do they want to be the holy people to whom God, for the sake of their righteousness, has given the
2) Deceptively spoken instead of: Be welcome". - In our Wittenberg edition, the following remark is made in an old hand: "Anton[ius] Margar[ita] C. 1.
Messiah. God commanded in the eighth commandment not to speak falsely against one's neighbor, not to lie or deceive, not to revile or blaspheme, even to one's enemies. Because Zedekiah did not believe the king of Babylon, he was severely punished by Jeremiah and Ezekiel for such lies, and was also miserably imprisoned [Jer. 37:17, Ezek. 17:16].
But our noble princes of the world and circumcised saints have invented this beautiful doctrine against such commandment of God, that they may freely lie, blaspheme, curse, rape, murder, rob, and do all evil as and when and to whom they will. God may keep His commandment Himself, the noble blood and circumcised people shall do contrary to it according to all their pleasure and good pleasure, and shall nevertheless be called right and well done, Messiah and deserving of Heaven. In spite of God and all the angels, that they should rebel against it, be silent, that the devil and the accursed goyim should reprove it unjustly; for here is the noble blood, which cannot sin, nor is subject to God's commandment.
Now what has the poor maid Mary done to them? With what do they want to prove that she is a whore? She has done nothing but bear a son, whose name is Jesus. Is it then an evil thing for a young wife to bear a child? or shall they all be called harlots who bear a child? where will their wives and themselves be? are they also all harlots and harlot children? Yes, you cursed goyim, that is another. Do you not know that the Jews are Abraham's noble blood, circumcised, and kings in heaven and earth, what they say is right. Now if among the accursed goyim there were a virgin as pure and holy as the angel Gabriel, and one of the least noble princes said that she was an arch-whore and worse than the devil, it would have to be so, without any other proof than this: "A noble mouth of the blood of Abraham has said it, who can say no to it? Again, if an arch-whore of the noble blood of the Jews were as ugly as the devil himself, if it pleased the noble lords, she is purer neither no angel. For the power stands with the noble circumcised lords, who
cursed goyim to lie, revile, defile, blaspheme and curse as they please; in turn, to bless, honor, praise and extol themselves, even if God would have it otherwise. Do you think it is such a bad thing for a Jew? God in heaven and all the angels must laugh and dance when they let a Jew hear a forz, so that you cursed goy may know from now on what a glorious thing it is about a Jew; otherwise, how could they so boldly call Mariam a whore for whom they know no guilt, when they would not have such power to trample God and His commandment underfoot?
You and I, as the pale goyim, want to present a rough similitude, so that we, as the blind Gentiles, may understand a little the high cleverness of the noble holy Jews. If I had a cousin or close blood friend, of whom I knew nothing evil nor had ever noticed anything, and other people, to whom I would have been unhappy, praised the same 1) my cousin, honored her highly, considered her to be an excellent, pious, virtuous, praiseworthy woman, so that they would also say that the wretch is not worthy that he should have such a fine honest female image for a cousin, a bitch or she-wolf should be his cousin. And if I were to hear such praise of my cousin, I would begin to say against my conscience, "She is an evil whore, they are all lying," and I would want everyone to believe me without any proof, since I would truly know that I, a desperate liar, was speaking such things against the innocent cousin, and I would curse all those who did not believe such a lie of mine (as I myself would have to consider it a certain lie in my heart):
Tell me, what would you consider me? Would you not say: I would not be a man, but a monster, a fierce monster, who would not be worthy to look at the sun, leaves, grass, or some creature, yes, you should consider me full of devils, as I should cover my base's shame, if I knew one, as it would be my own, where it wanted to break out, as all other people do. And now no one knows of her but vain honor, nor I myself, yet out-
1) In the editions: "the same".
and to lie to my cousin with false shame as a villain, regardless of the fact that such shame would come home to me myself.
The noble circumcised saints are also such people (where I should or could call them so). We Goyim, to whom they are hostile and hateful, confess that Mary is not ours, but the Jews of Abraham's blood, their base and blood friend, praise and extol her to the highest: then they go to and ravish her to the highest. Now if there were a real drop of blood from Israel in such shameful Jews, do you not think they would say, "What will we do? If her son has angered us, what can she do? Why would we ravish her? After all, she is our flesh and blood; surely before a wicked child comes from a pious mother. No, such saintly people must not have such reasonable human thoughts, but they must have devilish, evil, lying thoughts, so that they may repent and soon deserve their Messiah, as they have deserved for 1500 years.
280 They lie further and blaspheme him and his mother, that she conceived him untimely. This bit they mean very poisonous, bitter and evil. Moses writes, Leviticus 18:19, that when a woman's mother purifies herself, she should separate herself from her husband, and the husband from her, for loss of life and limb; for what is conceived at the same time of purification will also produce an unfit, infirm fruit, such as delusional children, natural fools, kilts, 2) changelings, and the like, who have broken brains all their lives. Thus the Jews want to disgrace us Christians, that we honor a natural born fool from the womb, or a right kilkrop for a messiah. Such nonsensical, accursed goyim they hold us, the highly understanding, circumcised and deeply enlightened saints. Well, these are the devil's own thoughts and words.
281. do you ask, for what reason they such
1) Wittenberger: and. Jonas: ex Abraham.
2) On "Kielkrops" compare Luther's Table Talks, Cap. 24, § 95 and § 96. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 756 ff. Jonas translates: lymphati, daemone afflati.
or what is the cause of it? Thou coarse, accursed goy, shalt thou ask this first? Is it not enough for you to hear that the noble circumcised saints say so? Wilt thou not yet learn that such a holy people, free from all the commandments of God, cannot sin, may lie, blaspheme, revile, murder whom they will, even God Himself and all His prophets, is all vain glorious service of God. Didn't I tell you above that a Jew is such a noble and precious jewel, that when he lets out a pomp, God and all the angels dance, and even if he does something worse, it should still be considered a golden Talmud, and what goes down and up from such a holy man, that the cursed goyim should have for vain sanctity.
For if it were not such a noble thing for a Jew, how would it be possible that he should despise all Christians with their Messiah and his mother so disgracefully, and destroy them with such sacrilegious, poisonous lies? That they would let us be as good as geese or ducks, if they did not want to take us for human beings, the tender, pure, wise saints! For such nonsense, which they herewith attribute to us, I would not know how to appropriate to a sow, which lets itself be defiled with dung below and above, does not eat much purer. Well, this may be called a wrath of God, which is terrible, namely, to fall into such groundless, devilish, hellish, furious malice, envy and hopefulness. And if I were to take revenge on the devil himself, I would not wish him such evil and misfortune, so that the Jews are tormented by God's wrath, that they have to lie and blaspheme so shamefully against their own conscience. Well, they have their reward, that God has always had to be their liar.
283. it also indicates Sebastianus Münster 4) in his Bible, that a poisonous rabbi should be, who calls the dear mother of Christ not Mary, but Haria, sterquilinium, a heap of dirt. And who knows what they have more among them, of which we know nothing? One sees
3) Pomp - Bombart, Fart. Compare § 293 and § 340 of this paper.
4) About Sebastian Münster compare the Tischreden, St. Louis edition, Vol. XXII, 1704, No. 106. Lauterbach, p.47.
They know that the devil drives them to all kinds of lies and blasphemies, which he can always devise in the worst way. So they do not begrudge the dear mother Mary, the daughter of David, who has done them no harm, not even her right name, how should they begrudge her life, good or honor? And what should they grant us cursed goyim, when they wish and show all shame and evil to their own flesh and blood, which is innocent, of which they know nothing evil?
With such a heart and mouth, they may therefore come before God, call His holy name, pray, and call upon Him to bring them back to Jerusalem, to send the Messiah, to kill all the nations, and to give them the goods of all the world. The fact that God does not strike them with thunder and lightning and sink them suddenly with fire, like Sodoma and Gomorrah, is the reason that such punishment is too small for such wickedness. Therefore he smites them with spiritual lightning and thunder, as Moses writes, among others Deut. 28, 28: "The Lord shall smite thee with madness, blindness, and raging of the heart." Yes, these are the right weather axes, lightning and thunderbolts, madness, blindness, racing hearts.
Although such terrible, shameful, blasphemous lies especially concern the person of our Lord and his dear mother, they also mean the person of all of us, and want to make us the highest mockery and annoyance by the fact that we honor such a Messiah, so shamefully cursed and scorned by them that they do not consider him worthy to be called by them or any man, let alone remember him 1). So we must repay him by believing in him, praising him, honoring him, serving him.
But I would like to ask: What did the poor man Jesus do to the holy people? If he was a false teacher, as they claim, he was punished for it, received his due, atoned for it with an ignominious death on the cross, paid for it, and did enough. Do no accursed heathen in the whole world so that they would always give a dead, poor man, who has suffered his right for his wrongdoing, for and for more?
1) "his" is missing in the Wittenberger.
persecute and blaspheme. How then do these most holy, blessed Jews think that they do much worse than the accursed Gentiles? Because they confess that Jerusalem is not destroyed, nor that they are imprisoned for sin, because they crucified Jesus. For they will have done right and well, as they did the deceiver his due, and so earned their Messiah. What can the dead man do, who has now endured his judgment, that we Goyim are so foolish and foolish, and honor him for Messiah? Why do they not fight it out with us, convince us of our foolishness, and prove their high, heavenly wisdom? We have never fled from them, and still stand here, defying their holy wisdom; what they can do, let us see. For it behooves such great saints to grovel at angles, and curse and reproach in darkness.
Now, as I began to ask, what has poor Jesus done to the most holy children of Israel, that they cannot stop cursing him after his death, so that he has paid? He may want to be Messiah, which they cannot suffer? Oh no, he is dead, as they themselves crucified, and a dead man cannot be Messiah. Perhaps he prevents them from coming back to their country? Neither; how can a dead man hinder such a thing? What then is the cause? I will tell you: It is the thunder and lightning of Moses, as told above: "God will strike you with madness, blindness and raging of the heart" [Deut. 28, 28.] and the eternal fire, of which the prophets say [Jer. 21, 12.]: "The wrath of God will go out like a fire that no one can extinguish." Likewise John Baptista preaches to them, after Herod had taken away the scepter, saying, "He hath the word-shovel in his hand, and shall sweep his threshing-floor, and gather the wheat into his barns; but the chaff he shall burn with fire that cannot be quenched" [Matt. 3:12.]. Yes, such fire of divine wrath we see in the Jews, how it burns brightly and brightly, more horrible than Sodoma and Gomorrah.
288 Although such devilish lies and blasphemies against the person of Christ and His
The same thing that was done to our dear mother is also done to our person and to the person of all Christians. For they also mean our person, since Christ and Mary are dead, but we Christians are such shameful people that we honor such shameful dead persons, so they also give us our special part in this. First, they complain about us before God that we hold them captive in misery, and fervently ask that God would redeem His holy people and dear children from our power and imprisonment, and call them Edom and Haman, so that they may have hurt us before God, which they mean very bitterly, and here [to] tell too long; for they themselves know that they lie in this, and I would not be ashamed (if it were true) to have Edom for my grandfather, who was the natural son of the most holy woman Rebekah, and the nephew of dear Sarah, Abraham his grandfather, Isaac his right father. And Moses himself commanded, Deut. 23:7, that they should hold Edom for their brother; yea, they hold Moses, as they are Jews.
After that, they teach God and write before Him the way in which He should redeem them. For he is a bad cobbler among the Jews, the highly learned saints, who has no more than a left last to make shoes, namely, that he should strike us Gentiles dead by their Messiah and destroy us all, so that they may have all the land, goods and dominion of the world. And here the weather goes over us with cursing, blaspheming, spitting, so that it is not to be said, wish us that sword and wars, fear and all misfortune come over us cursed Goyim. They practice such cursing publicly every Saturday in their schools and daily in their homes, teaching, training and accustoming their children to it from their youth, so that they may remain bitter, poisonous and evil enemies of the Christians.
From this you can see how they understand and keep the fifth commandment of God, namely, that they are scanty bloodhounds and murderers of all Christendom with full will, now more than 1400 years ago, and would rather be with the deed; as they have often been burned over it, that they were accused of having poisoned water and wells, stolen children, and of having broken and
so that they secretly cooled their little tiredness with the blood of Christians. God still does not want to hear their holy repentance of such great saints and dearest children, and the unjust God lets such holy people curse (I wanted to say, pray) so heartily against our Messiah and all Christians for nothing, does not want to see or know them or their pious nature, which is covered with the blood of Messiah and his Christians thickly, thickly, roughly, roughly. For they are much holier than the captive Jews of Babylon, who did not curse, nor shed the children's blood secretly, nor poison the waters; but, as Jeremiah [29:7] taught them, they had to pray for the Babylonians with whom they were captives. Cause that they were not so holy as these Jews are, neither had they so wise rabbis as these Jews have now. For Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel were great fools who taught such things, and should be torn with teeth among these Jews.
Now behold, what a fine, thick, fat lie this is, when they complain that they are captives with us. It is more than 1400 years since Jerusalem was destroyed, and we Christians have been martyred and persecuted by the Jews all over the world for almost 300 years (as said above), so that we would like to complain that they had captured and killed us Christians at that time, as it is the plain truth. In addition, we still do not know today which devil brought them here to our country, we did not bring them to Jerusalem.
Moreover, even now no one holds them, land and roads are open to them, they may go to their country when they want, we would gladly give a gift to be rid of them. For they are a heavy burden to us, like a plague, pestilence and vain misfortune in our country. They have often been forcibly expelled from landmarks (let it be said that we should keep them); they have been expelled from France (which they call Zarpath from Obadiah, v. 20), which is a fine, peculiar nest. Now recently they are expelled by the dear emperor Carolo from Hispania (which they call Sepharad also from Obadiah), the very best nest. So fine they understand the prophet Obadiah; make of Zarpath France, and Sepharad Hispania; that rhymes like a cow to the wind-.
mill. And this year from the whole Bohemian crown, since they had one of the best nests in Prague. Item, from Regensburg, Magdeburg and more Oertern with my life expelled.
293 Does that mean to hold captive, if one cannot stand one in the country or home? Yes, they hold us Christians captive in our own country; they make us work in the sweat of their noses, win money and goods, meanwhile they sit behind the stove, loafing, pomping 1) and roasting pears; eating, drinking, living gently and well from our earned goods; have captured us and our goods by their cursed usury, mock at it, and spit at us that we work and let them be lazy squires of ours and in ours; are thus our masters, we their servants with our own goods, sweat and work, curse our Lord and us afterwards, for reward and thanks. Should not the devil laugh and dance here, if he can have such a fine paradise with us Christians, that he eats ours through the Jews, his saints, and for reward fills our mouths and noses, mocks and curses God and men for it?
They could not have had such good days in Jerusalem under David and Solomon in your own estate as they have now in our estate, which they steal and rob daily; nor do they complain that we have imprisoned them. Yea, we have caught and hold them captive, as I have caught my calculum, blood sores, and all other sickness or calamity, who must wait as a poor servant, with money and goods and all that I have, would that they were at Jerusalem with the Jews, and whom they would have with them.
295 Since it is certain that we do not hold them captive, why do we deserve such hostility from such noble and great saints? We do not call their wives harlots, as they do Mary, Jesus' mother; we do not call them children of harlots, as they do our Lord Christ; we do not say that they are born in the time of purification, that is, natural fools, as they do our Lord; we do not say that their wives are harlots.
1) The word "pompen" is formed from "pomp". Compare § 281 of this document.
We do not curse them, but wish them well, both physically and spiritually; we shelter them with us, let them eat and drink with us; we do not steal and tear up their children, we do not poison their waters, we do not thirst for their blood. Why do we deserve such cruel anger, envy and hatred of such great holy children of God?
296. It is no different from what we said above from Moses, that God struck them with madness, blindness and a raging heart: so it is also our fault that we do not avenge the great innocent blood, which they shed on our Lord and the Christians three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and until then on children (which still shines from their eyes and skin), do not put them to death, but let them sit free with us for all their murder, cursing, blaspheming, lying, defiling, Protect and shield their school, houses, body and property, so that we make them lazy and safe and help them to confidently suck our money and property, to mock us, to spit at us, whether they could finally become powerful, and for such great sin beat us all to death, take all our property, as they daily ask and hope. Tell us now if they do not have great cause to be hostile to us cursed goyim, to curse us, and to finally seek our eternal destruction?
From all this we Christians see (for they, the Jews, cannot see it) what a terrible wrath of God has come upon this people and goes on without ceasing, what a fire and blaze burns there, and what those gain who curse Christ and His Christians or are enemies. O dear Christians! Let us take such a terrible example to heart, as St. Paul says in Romans 11:21, and fear God, lest we also fall into such or even worse wrath in the end; but (as we also said above) honor His divine word, and not miss the time of grace, as Mahomet and Pope have already missed it, and have become not much better than the Jews.
What do we Christians want to do with this rejected and damned people of the Jews? It is not too much for us to suffer, since they are with us, and we have to put up with such lies, blasphemies, and
We have to know about their curses so that we do not participate in all their lies, curses and blasphemies. Thus we cannot quench the unquenchable fire of divine wrath (as the prophets speak), nor convert the Jews. We must exercise a sharp mercy with prayer and fear of God, if we could save some from the flame and embers: we must not take revenge, they have vengeance on their necks a thousand times worse than we may wish for them. I will give my faithful advice.
First, set fire to their synagogue or school, and heap earth over what will not burn, and pour it down, so that no man may see a stone or cinder of it forever. And this is to be done in honor of our Lord and Christianity, so that God may see that we are Christians and have not knowingly tolerated or consented to such public lying, cursing and blaspheming of His Son and His Christians. For what we have hitherto tolerated out of ignorance (I did not know it myself), God will forgive us; but now we know it, and should freely protect and shield such a house from under our noses to the Jews, in which they lie, blaspheme, curse, spit upon and defile Christ and us (as was said above), that would be as much as if we did it ourselves, and much worse, as is well known.
300 Moses wrote in Deut. 13:16 that if a city practiced idolatry, it should be completely destroyed by fire and nothing should be kept. And if he lived now, he would be the first to set fire to the Jewish schools and houses. For he commanded harshly, Deut. 4:2 and Deut. 12:32, that they should not change anything from his law, but that they should not pervert his testimony of the Messiah and the right understanding of the law; and Samuel says in 1 Sam. 15:23 that it is idolatry to disobey God. Now the teaching of the Jews is nothing else than vain additions of the rabbis, and idolatry of disobedience against Messiah and laws, that Moses has become completely unrecognizable with them (as said), just as with us under the papacy the Biblia has become unrecognizable. That therefore also Mosis half their schools are not to suffer, whom they just as well
and it is not necessary that they should have their own free churches for such idolatry.
301 Secondly, that their houses also be broken up and destroyed in the same way. For they do the same inside that they do in their schools. For this they may be put under a roof or in a stable, like the gypsies, so that they may know that they are not masters in our land, as they boast, but in misery and imprisoned, as they cry out and complain about us before God without ceasing.
(302) Third, to take away all their prayer books and Talmudic books, which teach such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy.
Fourthly, that their rabbis be forbidden, life and limb, to teach henceforth. For they have justly lost this office, because they have imprisoned the poor Jews with the saying of Moses, Deut. 17:11, 12, where he commands them to obey their teachers for loss of life and limb, when Moses clearly states what they teach you according to the law of the Lord. The evil-doers ignore this and use the obedience of the poor people for their courage against the law of the Lord, pouring such poison, curses and blasphemy into them. Just as the pope imprisoned us with the saying Matth. 16, 18: "You are Peter" etc. that we had to believe everything that he lied to us and deceived us out of his devil's head, and did not teach us according to God's word, because he lost the office to teach.
Fifth, that the Jews be completely deprived of escorts and roads, for they have no business in the country, since they are not lords, nor officials, nor merchants, or the like; they shall stay at home. I am told that a rich Jew 1) is now riding in the countryside with twelve horses (he wants to become a kochab) and is overgrowing princes, lords, countryside and people, so that great lords look askance at him. If you princes and lords will not lay the road properly for such usurers, then a rebellion may arise against them, because
1) Here Jonas has the marginal gloss: "Michael Judaeus".
They will learn from this booklet what the Jews are and how one should deal with them and not protect their nature. For you should not and cannot protect them either, because you want to be partaker of all their abominations before God. What good may come of it, let it be known and come to pass. 1)
305. sixth, that they be forbidden to practice usury, which Moses forbade them, when they are not lords in their own land over foreign lands, and that they be deprived of all their goods and jewels of silver and gold, and that they lay them up for safekeeping. And this is the cause: all that they have (as said above) they have stolen and robbed from us by their usury, because they have no other food. Such money is to be used for this purpose (and not otherwise), if a Jew is seriously converted, so that one gives him a hundred two three florins of it before the hand, according to the occasion of the person, so that he may start food for his poor wife and child, and maintain the old or infirm with it, because such evil gained good is cursed, if one does not turn it with God's blessing into good necessary use.
306. but that they boast that Moses permitted or commanded them to usurp the strangers, Deut. 23, 20. (otherwise they have no more letter to pretend for themselves), to this is to be answered: There are two kinds of Jews or Israel. The first are those whom Moses brought out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, as God had commanded him; to them he gave his law, which they were to keep in that same land, no further, and all this until Messiah came. Although it was rather an indulgence than a law, which they should not have needed before, because they had kept Mosiah's law before (which they had never kept). Moreover, they were to do such things to strangers who would not suffer it from them, for they had been subject to them before. But this was a strange wild thing. For they were commonly subject to the strangers, as the books of judges and kings show. But we are not subject to them, but they shall be subject to us. Therefore
1) Jenaer and Wittenberger: verkommen. Jonas: praeveniatis.
Their usury is vain theft and robbery against their overlords and against Moses.
The other Jews are the emperor's Jews, not Mosiah's Jews. They began in the days of Pilate the governor in the land of Judah. For when he asked them before his judgment seat, What shall I do with Jesus, who is called Messiah? Then they cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. And he said, Shall I crucify your king? They cried out again, "We have no king but Caesar" [Matth. 27, 22. Joh. 19, 15.]. Such subordinates to the emperor God had not commanded them, they did it by themselves. When the emperor demanded obedience, they resisted and sat against him, not wanting to be imperial. Then he came and visited his subjects and brought them to Jerusalem, scattering them throughout his empire so that they would have to be obedient.
308) Of these are the present rest of the Jews, of whom Moses knows nothing, nor they themselves of him; for they keep no passover 2) or verse in Moses. Now if they want to enjoy Moses' law, they must first come back to the land of Canaan, and Moses' Jews, keeping his commandment, will force Gentiles and strangers among them; there they may then grow as much as the strangers will suffer from them. But because they are in foreign lands under Caesar, and have disobeyed Moses, they shall keep Caesar's law, and not usurp their overlords, until they have obeyed Moses. For Moses' law never went a step beyond the land of Canaan, or out of the nation of Israel; for he was not sent with his law to the Egyptians, Babylonians, or any other nation, but only to the people whom he brought out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, as he himself often declares in the fifth book of Moses, that they should keep such commandments in the land which they would take over Jordan.
309. moreover, because priesthood, worship, principality, of which Moses gave most and almost all, has fallen, now over 1400 years, it is certain that his Law
2) i.e. verse division.
The Jews, who had existed at that time, also fell and came to an end. Therefore, these imperial Jews are to be given imperial justice and are not to be allowed to be Mosaic Jews, who have not been any more for more than 1400 years. For they have no land of their own, much less foreign land, where they might grow up according to Mosiah's permission.
310. seventh, that the young strong Jews and Jewesses be given a mallet, an axe, a cart, a spade, a stick, a spindle, and be made to earn their bread by the sweat of their noses, as Adam's children were made to do, Gen 3:19. For it is not fit that they should make us cursed goyim work by the sweat of our noses, and that they, the holy people, should eat it behind the stove with rotten days, feasts and pomps, 1) and thereupon blaspheme that they are lords of the Christians, by the sweat of our noses; but the rotten rogue's leg should be cast out of their backs.
311 But we are concerned that they may harm us in body, wife, child, servants, livestock etc. If they should serve us or work for us, because it is to be assumed that such noble lords of the world and poisonous bitter worms, accustomed to no work, would not like to humble themselves so highly among the cursed Goyim: so let us remain with the common wisdom of the other nations, as France, Hispania, Bohemia etc., and reckon with them what they have robbed us of; and thereafter divide amicably, but always drive them out to the land. For, as we have heard, God's wrath is so great against them that gentle mercy only makes them worse and worse, but sharpness does little to improve them. Therefore always away with them.
312 I hear that the Jews give large sums of money and are useful to the rulers. Yes, from what do they give it? Not from their own, but from the property of the lords and subjects, which they steal and rob by usury. And so the lords take from their subjects what the Jews give, that is, the subjects have to give money and allow themselves to be exploited.
"Feisten" and "Pompen" are synonymous. Cf. § 281 of this paper.
for the Jews, so that they remain in the country and can lie, blaspheme, curse and steal confidently and freely. Should the desperate Jews not laugh in their fists that we allow ourselves to be so shamefully fooled and fooled, and give our money so that they may remain in the country, and do all the wickedness, and become rich from our sweat and blood, while we become poor and are sucked dry by them? If it is right that a servant, a guest or a prisoner should give his master or host ten florins a year and steal a thousand in return, the servant and guest will soon be rich and the master and host will soon be a beggar.
313. And if the Jews could give such a sum of their own to the rulers as is not possible, and they should buy protection and protection from us, publicly, freely in their schools, to lie, blaspheme, spit on, curse our Lord Christ so shamefully, and also to wish us all misfortune, that we all might be stabbed and perish with our Haman, emperor, princes, lords, wives and children: That would truly be selling Christ, our Lord, the whole of Christendom, including the whole empire, to us, with wife and children, at a shameful price. How much of a saint would the traitor Judas be esteemed against us? Yes, if every Jew (as much as he is) could give a hundred thousand florins a year, we should not allow them to blaspheme, curse, spit, and run riot so freely against some Christian; it would still be much too cheaply sold. How much more unmistakable it is that we should allow the whole of Christ and all of us to be bought with our own money, to blaspheme and curse the Jews, 2) and to make them rich and our disciples for the reward of it, who also ridiculed us and tickled their courage. This would be quite a joy to the devil and his angels, that they could laugh through their noses as a sow laughs at her piglets, but earn a right wrath before God.
2) The meaning is: that we let ourselves be bought by the Jews with our own money, that they might blaspheme and curse us, and so on.
314. Summa, dear princes and lords who have Jews among them, if such my counsel is not equal to you, make a better one, so that you and we all may be relieved of the unpleasant devilish burden of the Jews, and not become guilty before God and be guilty of all the lies, blaspheming, spitting, cursing, which the raging Jews so freely and wantonly commit against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, His dear Mother, all Christians, all authorities, and ourselves, not letting them have any protection, shield, escort, or fellowship, nor letting your and your subjects' money and goods serve and help them by usury. We have enough sin of our own upon us before, nor from the papacy, and do much to it daily with all kinds of ingratitude and contempt of his word and all his graces, that it is not necessary to burden us also with these strange, shameful vices of the Jews, and yet give them money and goods. Let us think that we are now fighting daily against the Turk, since we may well expect relief from our own sin and the betterment of our lives. Hereby I will have cleared and excused my conscience, as I have faithfully denounced and warned.
315. And to you, my dear lords and friends, who are pastors and preachers, I hereby faithfully remind you of your office, that you also warn your pastors against their eternal harm, as you well know how to do, namely, that they beware of the Jews and avoid them where they can; Not that they should curse them much, or do them harm personally; for they have cursed and offended themselves too much when they curse the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, as they have unfortunately been doing now for over 1400 years. Let the authorities here be with them, as I have now said. But let the authorities do it or not, that each one nevertheless perceives for himself his conscience, and makes him such a definitio or prosopopoeia of a Jew.
When thou seest or thinkest of a Jew, say thus unto thyself, Behold, the mouth that I see there hath cursed every Saturday my dear Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed me with his precious blood.
and 1) maledicted and eaten, prayed and cursed before God, that I, my wife and child and all Christians would be stabbed and perish most miserably; would like to do it himself, if he could, so that he would possess our goods, has also perhaps this day fed many times on the earth over the name of Jesus (as they use), that the saliva still hangs in his mouth and beard, where he would have room to spit: And if I should eat, drink or speak with such a devilish mouth, then I would eat and drink myself full of devils out of the bowl or jug, as I would certainly make myself a partaker of all the devils that dwell in the Jews and spit out the precious blood of Christ. God protect me from this.
317. For if they do not believe as we do, we cannot help it, nor force anyone to believe (which is impossible); yet this is to be avoided, that we do not strengthen them in their wanton lying, blaspheming, cursing and profaning, nor with protection, umbrella, food, drink, lodgings, and other neighborly benefits make ourselves partakers of their devilish raging and blustering, first because they boast proudly and shamefully, where we are friendly or of service to them, that God has made them their masters and us their servants, as where a Christian makes their fire on the Sabbath, cooks for them what they want in the inn, for which they curse us, spit at us and blaspheme, as if they were well off, and yet feed on our goods, which they have stolen from us. It is such a desperate, evil, poisoned, devilish thing about these Jews, so that these 1400 years have been and still are our plague, pestilence and all misfortune. Summa, we have real devils in them, that is no different, there is no human heart against us Gentiles. They learn this from their rabbis in the devil's nests of their schools.
In particular, where you are preachers, where there are Jews, diligently persevere with your lords and rulers, that they perform their office as they owe to God, and compel the Jews to work, forbid usury, and control their blasphemy and cursing. For if they punish among us Christians the thieves, robbers, murderers, blasphemers and other vices -
1) "and" is missing in the Wittenberger.
Why should the Jews be devil-free to practice this with us and against us? We suffer more from them than the whales from the Spaniards: the latter take the householder's kitchens, cellars, closets, and bags, curse them, and threaten them with death. The Jews, our guests, do the same to us. We are their landlords; so they rob and suck us dry, lie at our throats, the lazy rogues and idle wretches, drink, eat, have good days in our house, curse in reward our Lord Christ, churches, princes, and all of us, curse and wish us death and all misfortune without ceasing. Think, where do we poor Christians come to this, that we should feed and make rich such lazy, idle people, such useless, wicked, harmful people, such blasphemous enemies of God for nothing, and get nothing in return but their cursing, blaspheming and all the misfortune they can do and wish us? Are we as blind and staring blocks in this matter as the Jews in their unbelief, that we suffer such great tyranny from the unholy rascals, neither seeing nor feeling how they are our nobles, even our furious tyrants, but we are their prisoners and subjects, still complaining that they are our prisoners, mocking us for it, as if we had to suffer it from them.
319. But the lords will not force them, nor will they control their devilish will, that they be driven out to the land, as has been said, and let 1) them be told that they go to their land and goods to Jerusalem, and there lie, curse, blaspheme, spit, murder, steal, robbing, usurping, mocking, and committing all such blasphemous abominations as they do among us, leaving our dominion, land, body and goods, much more our Lord, Messiah, faith and churches, unharmed and untouched by such their diabolical tyrannies and wickednesses. Whether they could use liberties [privilegia], they shall not help; for no one can give liberty to practice such abominations, and all liberties are thereby neglected and lost.
320 If you pastors and preachers (besides me) have issued such faithful warnings, you will be able to do so.
1) Wittenberger: lasse. The reading given by us is confirmed by Jonas.
and neither master nor subject will do anything about it, then let us (as Christ says [Matth. 10, 14.]) shake the dust off our shoes and say: We are innocent of your blood. For I see well, and have often experienced it, how utterly merciful the perverse world is, when it should be cheaply sharp; and again, sharp it is, when it should be merciful, as king Ahab, 1 Kings 20:32. Thus reigneth the prince of this world. So perhaps now they will also want to be merciful over the Jews, the bloodthirsty enemies of our Christian and human name, in order to earn heaven. But that the Jews, with all such diabolical abominations, catch us poor Christians, torment us, torture us, and cause us all heartache, that is to be suffered, and is Christian, well done, especially if there is money which they have stolen and robbed from us.
321 What do we poor preachers want to do? First, let us believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is true, who speaks of such Jews, who did not accept him, but crucified him, such a judgment: You are serpents and devils' children, as his forerunner, John Baptist, also says [Matth. 3, 7], and yet you were his blood friends. Now our rulers and all such merciful saints, who are kind to the Jews, will at least leave us the space to believe Jesus Christ, our Lord, who certainly knows all hearts better than such merciful saints, that these Jews must be serpent-bred and devil's children, that is, who grant us as much good as their father, the devil; 2) We Christians should have long since understood from experience and from the Scriptures what good the devil grants us.
322 I have read and heard many histories of the Jews, which agree with this judgment of Christ, namely, how they poisoned the wells, secretly murdered, stole children, as reported above. Item, that a Jew sent a pot full of blood to another over the field, also by a Christian; item, a barrel of wine, since that was drunk, a dead Jew found in the fast, and the like much.
2) In the old editions: "gan".
And the stealing of children has often (as said above) burned them and made them perish. I know well that they deny these things and all; but it all agrees with the judgment of Christ, that they are poisonous, bitter, vengeful, malicious 1) serpents, assassins and children of devils, who secretly stab and do harm, because they are not able to do it publicly. That is why I would like them to be, since they are not Christians. The Turk and other pagans do not suffer from them what we Christians suffer from poisonous snakes and young devils; they do it to no one but us Christians. This is what I said above, that a Christian has no enemy more poisonous and bitter than the devil, except a Jew, yet no one does so much good, nor suffers so much from anyone, as from such evil devil-children and serpent-breeds.
323 Therefore, whoever desires to harbor and defile such poisonous serpents and young devils, that is, the worst enemies of Christ our Lord and of us all, 2) and to honor them, and desires to toil, rob, plunder, desecrate, spit, curse, and suffer all evil, let these Jews be faithfully commanded to him. If it is not enough, then let him also put him in the mouth, or crawl into their buttocks and worship the same sanctuary, then boast that he has been merciful, has strengthened the devil and his young devil, to blaspheme our dear Lord and the precious blood, so that we Christians are bought, then he is a perfect Christian, full of works of mercy, which Christ will reward him on the last day with the Jews in the eternal hellish fire.
324 Let this be spoken roughly of the gross cursing of the Jews, of which others write much; which also the Jews well understand to mean cursing, as they knowingly mean to curse and blaspheme. Let us also speak of it more subtly and, as Christians, spiritually; thus our Lord Jesus Christ says Matth. 10, 40: "He who receives me receives him who sent me"; Luc. 10, 16: "He who despises you receives him who sent me.
1) Wittenberger: domestic.
2) fretzen - to feed. Jonas: pascat.
He that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me"; Joh. 15, 23: "He that hateth me hateth my Father also"; Joh. 5, 22: "That they all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." etc.
These are (praise be to God) clear, understandable words, namely that everything that is done in honor or dishonor of the Son is certainly done to God the Father Himself. This cannot be doubted nor suffered by us Christians. Whoever then denies, blasphemes, curses JEsum of Nazareth, Mary, the virgins, the Son, denies, blasphemes, curses also God the Father Himself, who created heaven and earth. This is what the Jews do etc.
If you say, "Yes, the Jews believe and do not know this, because they do not accept the New Testament," I answer, "The Jews may know or believe this or that, but we Christians know that they publicly blaspheme and curse God the Father when they blaspheme and curse this Jesus. If now or on the last day God will speak to us Christians in this way: Do you hear, you are a Christian and have known that the Jews have blasphemed and cursed my Son and me publicly, but you have given them room and space for it, and have also protected and shielded them, so that they might do it unhindered and unpunished in your country, city and house: tell me, what shall we answer here?
For that each one for his own person does not believe, omissive et privatim, we must leave to each one on his conscience; but to praise, to sing, to teach, to defend such unbelief publicly and freely in churches and before our noses, eyes and ears, and to blaspheme and curse the right faith, thereby to draw others to himself and to hinder ours, that is far, far different. It will not help us that the Jews do not believe, nor know, nor respect the New Testament, because we know it well, and cannot allow the Jews to profane and curse it in our hearing. Our watching and silence is as much as if we did it ourselves. So the wretched Jews complain to us with their
diabolical, blasphemous, abominable sins in our own country.
328 It is not to be said here: We Jews do not ask about the New Testament or the faith of the Christians. They may speak such words in their own country or secretly; in our country and before our ears they must keep silent, or we must do otherwise. They know well, the desperate boys, that the New Testament is a book from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and they pretend that they do not want to know what the New Testament is. No, companion, it does not apply here what you know or want to know; it applies what you should know and what you are obliged to know. Now not only the Jew, but all the world owes to know that the New Testament of God the Father is the book of His Son JEsu Christo. And whoever does not accept nor honor the same book, does not accept nor honor God the Father Himself. For it is said, "He who despises me despises my Father" [Luc. 10, 16.]. If the Jews do not know this, we Christians know it, as I said.
329 Therefore, just as we cannot suffer the Jews (if we do not want to be condemned with the Jews' sin) to publicly blaspheme and defile God the Father in our hearing, when they blaspheme and defile Jesus our Lord, as he says, "Whoever hates me hates my Father also"; so we also cannot suffer them to speak publicly in our hearing, that they ask nothing about the New Testament, and consider it a lie. Which is just as much as to say, We ask nothing of God the Father, and hold him for a liar; because it is God the Father's book and word concerning his Son JEsu Christo. And it shall not help them, but rather it shall help them not to say that they know not of the book, or that they regard it not. For God's book is to be known. He did not reveal it so that it should not be known or despised; he wants it to be known and no one to be excused from it.
(330) If a king put his only son in his place, and commanded the land to take him for their lord (though he was an heir by nature), and the land gladly received him; but some of them would not take him for their lord.
wanted to oppose it and pretend that they did not know. But the king would give seals, letters and all kinds of testimony that it was his will. But they said they did not want to know or respect it. So the king would have to take them by the head, throw them into the towers and order Master Hansen to teach them how to speak: We would like to know. If not, they would have to stay in the tower forever and leave the others satisfied with their rottenness, who would like to know.
God has also done this. He appointed His Son Jesus Christ in His place in Jerusalem and commanded that homage be paid to Him, Ps. 2:12: "Pay homage to the Son, lest He be angry and you perish. Some of the Jews did not want to know. God gave testimony through many tongues of the apostles, and all kinds of miraculous signs, and led the prophets to witness their sayings; but they did as they still do, standing stiffly, not wanting to know. Then came Master Hans the Romans, and spoiled Jerusalem, and took the boys by the heads, and cast them into the tower of misery, where they are yet, and shall be for ever, or until they say, We would know.
For God did not do this secretly, nor did He act in secret, so that the Jews could excuse themselves, as if they would despise the New Testament without sin. For, as we have heard above, He has given a sure sign through the patriarch Jacob: when the scepter of Judah would fall, they should certainly take care of the Messiah [Deut. 49:10]. Item, when the seventy weeks of Daniel would be over [Dan. 9, 24]. Item, a short time after the built temple Haggai, before the same would be destroyed [Hagg. 2, 7.]. Item, he let them know through Isaiah, when they would hear a voice in the wilderness (that is, a preacher and prophet), who taught: "Repent, the Lord is here, and come himself", they should be sure that Messiah would be there [Is. 40, 3].
333. soon after, he himself comes, teaches, baptizes, and performs unspeakable great miracles, not
secretly, but throughout the whole country, that many also said, "He is Messiah" [John 41]; item v. 31: "If Messiah comes, how can he do greater signs?" And they themselves: "What do we do? This man does many miracles; if we let him, the whole world will believe in him" [Joh. 11, 47. 48.], and at the cross: "He has helped others, but cannot help himself" [Matth. 27, 42.]. Yes, indeed, God should allow the circumcised saints not to know all these things, if they alone have overcome from the above four sayings, Jacob's, David's, Daniel's, Haggai's, that Messiah must have come at that time; as also some of their rabbis say that he goes begging in the world and in Rome etc.
334 About this he warned them that they should not be offended at the person, proclaiming through Zechariah 9:9, 10.He would come to Jerusalem mounted on an ass, miserable and poor, but a king of salvation, who would teach peace, put away chariots, horses, and bows (that is, not rule worldly, as the mad Kochabites, those bloodthirsty Jews, race), and such a poor (yet peaceful, salutary) king would reign as far as the world. This is an exceedingly bright saying, that Messiah should reign without a sword and with peace as a holy king in all the world, so that I am not a little surprised how the devil can be so powerful to persuade a man (let alone a whole nation that boasts of God) otherwise than such a bright text forces him to do.
Furthermore, he faithfully warned them that they should not be angry when they saw that such a great miracle worker and poor king, riding on an ass, would be killed and crucified. For he had previously proclaimed this, Dan. 9, 26. and Isa. 53, 4. ff., "that his servant, of whom the kings would be astonished, must be beaten and miserably slain; but all this because God laid all our sin upon him, and smote him for the sins of us all, but he should give his life for a trespass offering for sin, and pray for sinners, and by his knowledge make many righteous," as the text stands brightly.
336. but outrageous thing has the sun
not seen nor heard, neither these 1) blasphemous Jews practice in this saying, which they point to themselves in this misery, of which now is not time to act. Oh, should they be the ones who are beaten for our sins, bear our sins, and make us righteous, and pray for us etc., 2) as no worse people have ever been, who with their lying, blaspheming, cursing, profanation, idolatry, robbery, usury and all vices weigh us Christians and all people, where they are, down higher before God and the world? To this end, do not pray for us sinners, as the text says, but curse in the worst way, as is proven above from Lyra and Burgensi. But before great idleness and willfulness, the blasphemous evil-doers mock the Scriptures, God and all the world with such insolent glosses as they deserve and are worthy of doing.
After such a crucified king, God first gave the right signs that this Jesus was Messiah. Then the poor, despondent, unlearned, unconsecrated fishermen, who did not know their own language well, stood up and preached with the tongues of all the world, so that all the world, heaven and earth were still amazed; they led the scriptures of the prophets in the right understanding, did such miracles and signs that their sermons were accepted by Jews and Gentiles all over the world, so earnestly that countless people, young and old, let themselves be horribly tortured over it, and now for 1500 years it has lasted until us, and will last until the end of the world.
Since such signs did not move the Jews at that time, what do we hope from these wicked Jews, who now gloriously do not want to know about such stories? Yes, God will allow them to do so, who has so gloriously revealed such things before all the world, that they still today see us Christians preaching and keeping such things, which we have not invented, but have heard from Jerusalem from 1500 years ago, and no enemies nor Gentiles (the Jews in particular) have ever been able to dampen how hard they have opposed it; that it is impossible for them to have known it.
1) Wittenberger: the. Jonas: his.
2) "etc." is missing in the Wittenberger.
is to exist such a thing where it would not be of God.
The Jews themselves, with their fifteen hundred years of misery, must bear witness to this, that it was preached in their ears all over the world, and that it was challenged and proven by much heresy, so that God cannot be blamed as if he had done this secretly or in the dark, or that it never happened to the Jews or to any people. For they have persecuted it 1) all these 1600 years with great care and confidence. The blasphemous Jews still oppose it as shamefully and mockingly as if a drunkard had recently invented it, which they would not be obliged to believe, but would like to blaspheme and curse it freely and safely, and we Christians would have to give them room and place, house and courtyard for it, to protect and shield them, so that they could blaspheme and curse such a word of God confidently and freely, and let our money and goods grow into wages for them.
No, you miserable father of such blasphemous Jews, you infernal devil, it must therefore be said: God has publicly preached to your children, the Jews, with miraculous signs long enough in all the world, now at 1500 years and still, which they have been and still are guilty of obeying, but they have obdurately always contradicted, blasphemed and cursed for and for. Therefore, we Christians are obliged not to suffer their wanton and deliberate blasphemy, as it is said: "He who hates the Son hates the Father" [John 15:23]. For if we suffer them to do so in the place where we are powerful, and protect and handle them, we are eternally condemned with them for their sins and blasphemies, as if they were others, even though we might be as holy in our own persons as the prophets, apostles or angels, quia faciens et consentiens pari poena, perpetrators, robbers, helpers, abusers, and abusers, one is as 2) pious as the other. And it is of no help to us (the Jews much less) that the Jews do not want to know. For we Christians know it, as I have said, and the Jews owe it to us to know it, as they do with us.
1) "it" is missing in the Wittenberger.
2) "so" is missing in the Wittenberger.
have heard at the same time for 1500 years, and have seen and heard all kinds of miraculous signs, how such teaching has been established by divine power against all devils and all the world.
Since it is certain (through such a long and powerful preaching in all the world) that "he who dishonors the Son, dishonors the Father", and he who does not have the Son, cannot have the Father [Joh. 5, 22. 1 Joh. 2, 23.The Jews nevertheless always blaspheme and curse God the Father, the Creator of all of us, for and on behalf of His Son Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary (whom He has now transfigured for His Son with preaching and miraculous signs for 1500 years in all the world), against all devils and men's power and art, and still transfigured to the end of the world) blaspheme and curse, calling him Hebel Vorik, that is, not only a liar and false, but the lies and falsehood itself, worse than the 3) devil himself: so we Christians are not to suffer such things, before our ears and freely before our noses, in public synagogues, books and prayers, practiced daily in our own country, houses and government, by any means; or must God lose the Father with His dear Son, who bought us so dearly with His holy blood, with, and for the sake of the Jews, and be eternally lost; then God be for.
342 Accordingly, we Christians should not and must not be joking but very serious about seeking counsel against this and saving our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and eternal death. And is that, as said above.
343 First, that their synagogue be burned with fire, and whoever can throw brimstone and pitch; whoever can throw hellish fire would also be good, so that God may see our earnestness and all the world such an example that we have hitherto ignorantly tolerated such a house (in which the Jews have so shamefully blasphemed God, our dear Creator and Father, with His Son), and now have given Him His reward.
344 Secondly, to take away all their books, prayer books, Talmudic books, and the whole Bible, and not to leave them a single page, and
3) In the old edition of Walch and in the Erlanger: "der". Jonas: quam contra diabolum ipsum.
on those who were converted. For they need all of this to blaspheme the Son of God, that is, God Himself the Father, Creator of heaven and earth (as has been said), and will never need it otherwise.
Thirdly, that they be forbidden to praise, thank, pray, teach God publicly in our country and in ours, at the loss of life and limb. In their own country they may do so, or wherever they can, so that 1) we Christians may not hear nor know it; for their praise, thanksgiving, prayer and teaching is blasphemy, cursing, idolatry, because their heart and mouth call God the Father Hebel Vorik, as they call His Son, our Lord Jesus. For as they call and honor the Son, so is the Father called and honored. Does it not help them that they use many beautiful words and glorify God's name. For it is said: "You shall not take God's name in vain" [Exodus 20:7], just as it did not help their ancestors to take God's name, yet they called him Baal in the days of the kings of Israel.
346 Fourth, that they be forbidden to call the name of God before our ears, for we cannot in good conscience hear it, nor suffer it, because you blasphemously call the mouth and heart of God's Son Hebel Vorik, and so must also call His Father, who cannot nor will understand it otherwise; just as we Christians cannot understand it otherwise, who must believe that as the Son is called and honored, so also the Father is honored and called. Therefore the mouth of the Jew is not to be held worthy among us Christians, that it should call God in our ears; but whoever hears it from the Jew, that he should report it to the authorities, or throw a saber at him, if he sees him 2) and chase him away. And let no one be merciful or kind in this. For it affects God's honor and the salvation of us all (the Jews as well).
347) And whether they, or 3) someone on their behalf wanted to pretend that they did not mean it that way.
1) Wittenberger: "that". Jonas: ut. In the other editions: "da wirs Christen".
2) In the Jenaer, with Walch and in the Erlanger: "them". Jonas: petat caput Judaei.
3) Wittenberger: "vber", which is: over; a misprint.
evil, nor would they know that with such blasphemy and cursing they were blaspheming and cursing God the Father; for though they blaspheme Jesus and us Christians, yet they praise and honor God most highly and beautifully: it is said above, as you have heard: If the Jews do not want to know, or pretend to know, we Christians must know. So the Jews are not excused for their ignorance, because God has preached this for 1500 years, that they owe to know this, God also demands this from them. For whoever hears God's word 1500 years and always says: I don't want to know, his ignorance will certainly earn him a bad excuse, that is, a sevenfold guilt.
Yes, they did not know at that time that it was God's word, but now they have heard for 1500 years that it is God's word, and have seen great signs, and have raged against it themselves, even coming to such misery 1500 years later. Well then, let them still hear and believe it, then all things shall be bad; if not, then it is certain that they will not know it eternally, but always want to curse for and for, as their ancestors did these 1500 years; so we Christians (who know) cannot suffer their wanton, eternal ignorance and blasphemy with us, nor take it on our conscience; they may go to their own country, there be ignorant and blaspheme as long as they can, and leave us unburdened with such their abominable sins.
Yes, how shall we do, if we forbid the Jews to burn their synagogue, to praise God, to pray, to teach, to call God's name publicly, etc., nevertheless they will not let it be done secretly. And because we know that they do it secretly, it is just as much as if they did it publicly. For what is known to be done secretly and tolerated does not mean secretly, and yet our conscience is burdened with it before God. Well then, let us be careful. In my opinion, the point is this: if we are to remain pure and not participate in the blasphemy of the Jews, we must be separated, and they must be expelled from our country; they may think of us in their own land.
Fatherland, they must no longer cry out before God about us and lie that we hold them captive, nor must we complain that they weigh us down with their blasphemy and usury. This is the nearest and best counsel that will secure both parties in such a case.
But here they, as they do not like to leave the land (so sour and grievous is this prison, in which they are our tyrants and young lords), will confidently deny everything and anything, and also offer money enough to the rulers, if they want to stay. But woe to those who take such money, and cursed be such money, which they have also cursedly stolen from us by usury. For they deny as much as they lie, and where they can secretly curse, poison, or harm us Christians, they make no conscience of it. If they are apprehended or otherwise accused, they may confidently deny it, even unto death, because they do not esteem us worthy of confessing the truth to, since the holy children of God certainly consider it that whatever evil they can curse and do to us, they do a great service to God by it. Yes, if they could do to us what we can do to them, none of us would have to live an hour. But because they are not able to do it publicly, they still remain in our hearts our daily murderers and bloodthirsty enemies. This is proven by their prayers and cursing, and by so many stories about how they tortured children and practiced all kinds of vices, and how they were often burned and driven out.
351 Therefore I believe that they speak and do much evil secretly, neither the. They do not write the Histories and others about them, but they rely on denial and their money. But even if they could deny everything, they cannot deny that they curse us Christians publicly, not because of our evil life, but because we consider Jesus to be the Messiah, and that they must be imprisoned with us, knowing full well that they are lying about it, and that they rather keep us imprisoned in our country by their usury, but that everyone would like to be rid of them. But because they curse us, they also curse our Lord. If they curse our Lord, they also curse God the Father, Creator.
Heaven and earth; that therefore their denial can help them nothing. They are overcome only by cursing, that one must believe everything that is written evil of them; they certainly do it more and worse, neither we know nor experience. For Christ doth not deny nor confess, who judgeth them serpents and devils' children, that is, his and all his murderers and enemies, where they can. I also hear miracles, how they take revenge on Christians in Turkey, where they have room, and cool their devilish little mouths; which is to be believed, because they are such devils with us, since they are not overlords.
If I had power over the Jews, as our princes and cities have, I would play this serious game with their lying mouths. They have a lie, so that they do great harm to their children and common men, and disgracefully denigrate our faith; namely, they blame us and lie to us among their own, that we Christians worship more than one God; there 1) is no measure nor number of boasting and pride. Thus they hold their people captive, as they alone are the people who worship no more than one God before all the heathen. Oh how certain they are in this matter of theirs!
Whether they know that they do us wrong in this, and lie as desperate, wanton evil-doers; whether they have heard from all Christians for 1500 years, and still hear that we say no to them: nor do they stop their ears like serpents, and knowingly will not hear us, but as they lie and spit upon us, so it must be right with their people. Even if they read in our writings that we, like Moses 5 Mos. 6, 4. says: "Hear, Israel, our God is one Lord", that we thus confess, publicly and secretly, with hearts, tongues, writings, life and death, that there is no more than one God, of whom Moses writes there, and the Jews themselves call; whether they know such (I say), hear such, read such from us, now at 1500 years, it does not help to deny the -
1) Wittenberger: das. Jonas: ibi.
Nor must their lies be right, and we Christians be defiled by them, that we worship many gods.
354 Therefore, if I had power over them, I would gather their scholars and their best, and charge them, with the loss of their tongues, to come out from behind their necks, that within eight days they should convict and convince us Christians, and thus make true this blasphemous lie against us, namely, that we worship more than the right one God. If they could do that, we would all become Jews one day and circumcise ourselves; if not, they should await their deserved reward for such a shameful, wanton, harmful, poisonous lie. For we, praise God, are not so much ducks, logs or stones as the highly knowledgeable rabbis (nonsensical fools) regard us, that we should not know that One God and many gods cannot be believed with truth at the same time.
But the fact that we believe that there are three persons in the one, eternal Godhead does not prove that we believe more than one God, neither Jew nor devil. If the Jews want to pretend that they cannot understand how three persons are one God, why do they deny, condemn and curse their blasphemous lying mouth that does not understand? Such a mouth should be punished in two ways: first, it should confess that it does not understand; second, it should blaspheme that it does not understand. Why do they not ask before? Yes, why have they heard it 1500 years and not wanted to learn nor understand? Therefore such ignorance cannot help nor excuse them, nor us Christians, if we suffer it longer from them, but must force them (as said) to make such blasphemous lies about us true, or suffer their right because of it. For he who in this article idolatrously beseeches and blasphemes us, beseeches and blasphemes Christ, that is, God himself, as an idol, from whom we have learned and received it as his eternal word and truth, confirmed, known and taught with signs and sounds for 1500 years.
No man has ever been born, nor will ever be born, who would want to be born.
They do not understand how leaves come out of wood or trees, and grass out of stone or earth, nor some creatures how they are created. And these insolent, blind, obstinate liars want to judge and know how it is done apart from and above the creature in the hidden, incomprehensible, inscrutable and eternal essence of God, when we hardly and with weak faith grasp what is revealed to us in the dark word; they fall into such terrible blasphemy that they call our faith idolatrous, that is, they call God himself an idol and blaspheme. For we are sure of our faith and doctrine, and we ourselves also owe it to know, as we have now heard for 1500 years that it is through Jesus Christ, of God and from God.
If the coarse people had been a little more careful and said: The Christians worship one God and not many gods, and we lie and do them wrong by saying that they worship more than one God, although they believe in three persons in one Godhead, which we do not understand, they must let their mind rule etc., that would be spoken with reason. But now they fall into 1) the devil's name, like filthy swine into the trough, blaspheming and defiling, which they neither know nor want to understand. Quickly therefore: We Jews do not understand it and do not want to understand it, therefore it must be unjust and idolatrous.
But it is the people, to whom God has always had to be not God, but a liar in all the prophets and apostles, as much as he had them preach. Therefore, again, they must not be his people, no matter how much they teach, cry out and pray. They do not hear him, so again he does not hear them, as the 18th Psalm, v. 27. says: "With the perverse you consort." The wrath of God has come upon them, which I do not like to think about, and I have not been able to write this book happily, so that I have had to, now with anger, now with mockery against the Jews, tear the terrible look out of my eyes,
1) Thus the Wittenbergers. Jenaer and Erlanger: "herein des". Jonas: irruunt Satanico impetu.
and it grieves me that I had to mention their terrible blasphemous words about our Lord and his dear mother, which we Christians do not like to hear at all; and I understand well what St. Paul means Rom. 10, 1.1) that his heart is grieved when he thinks of them; which I consider to be the case for every Christian who thinks of them seriously, not because of the temporal misfortune and misery about which they, the Jews, complain, but because they are given to blaspheme, to curse, to spit at God Himself and all that is God's, to their eternal condemnation, and yet do not want to hear or know such things, but do them as out of a zeal for God. O God, Heavenly Father, turn and let your wrath on them be enough and be an end, for the sake of your dear Son, amen.
I wish and ask our overlords, who have Jews among them, that they would exercise a sharp mercy against these wretched people, as I said above, if it would help a little (although it is unfortunate), as the faithful physicians do, when the holy fire 2) has come into the legs, they proceed with ruthlessness and cut, saw, burn off flesh, veins, bone and marrow. So also do here, burn their synagogues, forbid all that I have said above, force them to work, and deal with them according to all unmercifulness; as Moses did in the wilderness, and slew three thousand, lest the whole multitude perish. They truly do not know what they are doing, nor do they want to know, hear or learn, like the possessed people. Therefore, no mercy can be shown here to strengthen them in their nature. If that does not help, we must chase them out like mad dogs, so that we do not deserve God's wrath with them and be condemned, being partakers of their abominable blasphemy and all vices. I have done my part; let each one see how he does his part. I am pardoned.
1) Wittenberger: thut.
2) The holy fire, that is, the red run or the rose. Jonas has not translated this, but says: in morbis gravioribus.
The fourth part of this book, what a difference between the Christians and Jews Messiah, and what both people at her
Messia search. 3)
I will say this for myself: If God would not give me another Messiah than the one the Jews desire and hope for, I would much, much rather be a sow than a man. I will tell you this for a good reason: The Jews do not desire more from their Messiah than that he should be a Kochab and worldly king, who kills us Christians, divides the world among the Jews and makes them lords, and finally also dies, like other kings, his children after him also. For thus saith a Rabbi, Thou shalt not suppose that in the days of Messiah things shall be different from those which were made in the beginning of the world, 2c, that is, there will be days, night, year, moons, summer, winter, sowing, reaping, childbearing and dying, eating, drinking, sleeping, watching, 5) threshing and casting out, and everything will go as it goes now, without the Jews being masters, having all the gold, goods, joy and pleasure of the world, but we Christians must be their servants; However, as Mahomet also thought and taught, who kills us Christians (as the Jews would gladly do) and takes land, goods, pleasure and joy, and if he were a Jew, not an Ishmaelite, the Jews would have long since accepted him as Messiah, or made him Kochab.
361 If I had all this, or could now become the Turkish emperor, or the Messiah, as the Jews hope, myself, I would rather become a sow. For what use would all this be to me if I could not be sure of it for an hour? Nevertheless, the terrible burden and plague of all men, death, would remain upon me, from which I would not be safe, would fear it every moment, would tremble before hell and God's wrath.
3) This superscription is found in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
4) i. e. to say goodbye.
5) Thus the Wittenbergers. Jenaer, Walch and the Erlanger: grow. Jonas did not translate this, but says: dormire etc..
2016 Erl. SS, 2S0-SSS. 51. L.'s writing of the Jews and their lies. W. XX, 2510-2513. 2017
and lift, and that all this should know no end, but should wait eternally; as the tyrant Dionysius showed such fine to one who praised him blessedly, he set him over a table, splendidly dressed, over him he hung a mere sword on a silken thread, under him a fiery blaze, and said: Eat, be merry etc. Likewise would be the joy of this Messiah also. And I know that he who has ever felt the terror or burden of death would gladly be a sow for it, before he would ever bear such for and for.
For a sow lies in her downy feather bed on the street or dung, rests securely, snores softly, sleeps sweetly, fears no king nor lord, no death nor hell, no devil nor God's wrath, lives so completely without worry that she does not even think where the little ones are. And if the Turkish emperor were to march along with all power and wrath, she should be so proud that she would not stir a bristle for his sake; if one were to urge her on, she should probably crown herself and (if she could speak) say: "Behold, how you rage, you fool; you do not have the tenth part as well as I do, and never live an hour as safely, gently and quietly as I always live for and for, if you were still ten times as great and rich. Summa, she remembers no dying, is vain safe gentle life with her.
When the butcher comes upon her, she thinks that a wood or a stone is holding her up; she does not think of dying until the moment she is dead; she has not felt death for a moment, neither before, nor in death, nor after, but has felt vain and eternal life. No king, nor the Jew Messiah himself, will do this to her, nor any man, no matter how wise, high, rich, holy and powerful he is. She has not eaten of the apple that taught us wretched men in paradise the difference between good and evil.
What should the Jew Messiah do for me? If he could not help me, a poor man, against this great horrible fault and damage, and could not make my life the tenth part as good as the sow has? I would say: Dear Lord God, keep your Messiah, or give it to whoever wants it, but make me a sow for it. For it is better to be a living sow than an eternal one.
dying man, yes, as Christ says: "It would be better for man that he had never been born" [Matth. 26, 24.].
But if I had such a Messiah, who could heal this damage, so that I would not have to fear death, would be sure of life always and forever, could strike a cliff against the devil and hell, and would no longer have to tremble before the wrath of God, my heart would leap for joy and become drunk with vain delight; a fire of love for God would be kindled, praise and thanksgiving would never cease. If he did not give me gold, silver and other riches after that, all the world would be paradise to me, even if I should live in prison.
We Christians have such a Messiah and thank God, the Father of all mercy, with the full exuberant joy of our hearts, happily and gladly forgetting all the suffering and harm that the devil inflicted on us in paradise. For he has been amply atoned for and repaid through this Messiah. So the apostles sang and praised before such joys in dungeons and all misfortunes, also young maidens, as Agatha, Lucia etc. For this the wretched Jews, who did not want to have this Messiah, have languished and become corrupt in the fear of their hearts, worries, citations, anger, impatience, malice, blasphemy and cursing, as Isaiah, Cap. 65, 14. 15. says: "Behold, my servants shall shout for good cheer; but you shall cry out for sorrow of heart, and howl for mourning, and leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones. And the Lord shall kill you, and call his servants by another name." Item v. 1. 2.: "I am sought by them that ask not for me; I am found by them that sought me not: and unto the heathen that called not on my name (that is, that were not my people) I say, Here am I, here am I! For I have stretched out my hand all day long to the people who would not listen" etc.
367. Yes, we have such a Messiah, who speaks to us like this, Joh. 11, 25: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die"; and Joh. 8, 51:
2018 Grl. 3s, E-ss4. I. Luther's writings against the Jews. W. xx. Wi3-ssis. 2019
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that keepeth my word shall never see death." After such Messiah the Jews and Turks ask nothing. And what is he to them? They must have one from the land of the sleeping monkeys to fill their stinking bellies, and die with them like a cow or a dog.
Nor can they be anything against death, for they themselves are holy enough to come before God with their repentance and piety, to obtain such and all things. But the Christians are such fools and pusillanimous rascals, who fear God so much, who esteem their sin and His wrath so highly, that they do not dare to appear before the eyes of His divine majesty without a mediator or messiah to represent them and offer Himself on their behalf. But the Jews are holy and bold heroes and knights, and are allowed to appear before God even without a mediator or messiah, and to ask and obtain everything they desire, so that the angels and God Himself must of course be pleased when a Jew humbles himself so highly that he wants to pray; then the angels must sit in prayer and place God's crown on his divine head; as we see that this has happened 1500 years ago. So high does God think of the noble blood and circumcised saint, that they can call his son Hebel Vorik.
369 Further, since we senseless, pusillanimous Christians and cursed goyim think so highly of our Messiah that he must deliver us from death by himself without our holiness, we wretched people fall into such great, terrible blindness that we believe he does not need a sword or worldly power to do so. For we cannot understand how God's wrath, sin, death and hell can be driven away with the sword, since we see that from the world until now death has not asked for the sword, all emperors, kings, and whoever wielded the sword has been eaten as well as the most miserable infant 1) in the cradle.
The great deceivers, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets, who charm us mad goyim, do us great harm.
1) Thus the Wittenbergers. Jenaer, Walch and the Erlanger: child. Jonas: infantulum.
With their false teaching, when they say that the kingdom of Messiah shall not have a sword. Oh, that the holy rabbis and chivalrous, bold heroes of the Jews would come to our aid and help us out of these terrible errors, since Isaiah 2:2. prophesies of Messiah, how "the Gentiles shall run to the house and mountain of the Lord", and want to be taught (no doubt not with the sword, otherwise they would not run, and probably remain outside) and says v. 4: "He (Messiah) will judge among the Gentiles, and punish many nations. 2) Then they will turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. For no nation shall lift up a sword against another, neither shall they learn to fight any more."
In the same way he does magic with us poor Goyim also Isaiah 11, 9: "Nowhere will one perish on my holy mountain, for the land is full of the knowledge of the Lord". Here we poor blind goyim understand: "Knowledge of the Lord", not a sword, but the teaching, by which one learns to know God, as above Isaiah 2. is also said before teaching, which the Gentiles are to follow. For knowledge must not come by the sword, but by teaching and hearing, as we foolish goyim think. And Isa. 53, 11: "By his knowledge he will make many righteous", that is, by teaching, hearing and believing in him; what else can his knowledge mean? Summa, to know Messiah must come through preaching.
372 See the work before your eyes. The apostles did not use swords or spears, but only tongues; and this has been done throughout the world for 1500 years by all bishops, pastors and preachers, and is still going on. See whether the priest wields a sword or a spear when he goes into the church, preaches, baptizes, administers the sacrament, binds and loosens sins, controls the wicked, comforts the pious, and teaches, feeds and corrects everyone's soul. Does he not do all this with the tongue or word alone? In the same way, the people do not bring a sword or a spear to such an office, but only their ears.
2) In the German editions: "among many peoples". Jonas: multos populos; likewise the German Bible.
373 Then behold the miraculous signs. The Roman Empire and all the world were full of idols, which the heathen held fast; the devil was mighty, and resisted confidently; yet the tongue alone, without a sword, cleansed the whole world from all the same idols, against all swords; it also cast out innumerable devils, raised the dead, healed all kinds of sick people, and performed and rained down miracles, after which it purged all heresy and error, as it still does daily before our eyes. And, which is the greatest of all, forgives and cancels all sin, makes happy, peaceful, patient hearts, devours death, closes hell, opens heaven, gives eternal life. And who can tell all the good that God's Word works, Summa, making God's children and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven all those who hear and believe it? Does not this mean a kingdom, power, might, dominion, glory? Yes, indeed, a comforting kingdom, and the right Chemdath of all the Gentiles. And I should desire or accept for such kingdom a bloodthirsty Kochab with the Jews ? Marriage and I would rather be a sow than a man (as I said).
374 All the writings of the prophets rhyme very finely with this understanding, that the nations have fallen to Shiloh (as Jacob says Gen 49:10), both of Jews and Gentiles, after the scepter was taken away from Judah; item, the seventy weeks of Daniel completed; item, the temple of Haggai destroyed, and David's house and throne remained until then, and must remain forever. Again, after the Jews (so God rejected) wanton denial, lying and cursing; none of which can be understood, much less fulfilled.
First of all, speaking of the saying of Jacob, Genesis 49:10, we have heard above how the Jews have invented lazy, unrhymed fables about it, and yet have not hit anything certain. But if we confess our Lord Jesus and let him be the Shiloh or Messiah, he sends, gives, rhymes, and everything meets in the finest and funniest way. For in the days of Herod, when the scepter was taken away from Judah, he was quickly there, and began his regiment of peace, without a sword (as Isaiah and Zachariah prophesy), and all the people fell to him.
Peoples, both Jews and Gentiles, so that even in one day at Jerusalem three thousand souls became believers, and many of the priesthood and princes of the people came, as St. Lucas writes Apost. 2, 41 and 4, 4.
376 And from the time that Jesus rose from the dead, that is, from the eighteenth year of Tiberius the Emperor to the eighteenth year of Hadrian the Emperor, who waged the other and last battle against the Jews, defeated Kochab, and drove the Jews out of their land completely and purely, that is, for more than a hundred years, there have always been bishops in Jerusalem from the tribe of the children of Israel, whom 1) our Eusebius lib. 4, Eccl. hist. cap. 5; see St. James the Apostle and count fifteen of them, all of whom preached the gospel with great diligence, performed miracles, and lived holy lives, so that they converted many thousands of Jews and children of Israel to their promised and manifested Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth; without what is still converted by St. Paul, other apostles, and their disciples outside the country, scattered among the Gentiles, together with the Gentiles. Although the other part, the blind, stubborn, of these present Jewish fathers, raged, raged, raged, shed much blood of their own tribe, both in and out of the country among the Gentiles, as is also said above about the Kochab, without ceasing and without 2) stopping.
377 Since Hadrian had driven the Jews out of the country, bishops had to be taken at Jerusalem from the Gentiles who had become Christians, because no more Jews were found in the country, nor were they suffering, because of Kochab and his rebellious Jews, from whom the Romans could have no peace. So the other pious, converted Jews, scattered among the Gentiles, converted many of the children of Israel, as we see in St. Paul's Epistles and Histories; but besides this, they always suffered persecution from the Kochabites in all places, so that the pious children of Israel had no worse enemies than their own blood friends; as they still have, where they are converted.
1) In the editions: "which they". Jonas: quos.
2) "without" is missing in the Miltenberger.
378 To such pious converted children of Israel also the heathen of all the world smote, and did it with such multitudes and with such earnestness, that they left over not only their idols and their own wisdom, but also wife and child, friends, goods and honor, life and limb; suffered all that the devil and all other heathen, even the raging Jews, could devise. They did not seek the food, nor the gold, the silver, the goods, the dominion, the land or the people, but the eternal, and another than this life; they were gladly poor and miserable, but joyful and confident; not bitter nor revengeful, but kind and merciful; they prayed for their enemies, and did many and great miracles. This has endured from that time to us who are now, and will endure to the end of the world.
Now it is a great and strange thing that the Gentiles of all the world, without sword and compulsion, for no temporal gain, gladly and willingly accepted a poor man of the Jews, whom they themselves, his own people, had crucified, condemned, cursed, persecuted without ceasing, for the right Messiah, so much for his sake and suffered, forsaking all idolatry, only that they might live with him forever. And now this has been granted for 1500 years; no false worship has ever stood so long, nor all the world suffered so much over it, or held so firmly to it. And this is probably one of the greatest signs, that no other God has ever endured such hard resistance as this Messiah, against whom alone all other gods and nations raged, and could well be one among themselves, how diverse and unequal they were. Whom this strange miracle does not move, it serves him right to remain blind or to become a damned Jew.
380 We Christians see that this work is in accordance with the saying of Jacob, Genesis 49: "The nations will obey Shiloh or Messiah (when the scepter of Judah has fallen). The work is there before our eyes, which fulfilled this saying, that the nations, that is, not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles, are together and in one accord obedient to this Shiloh, and one people, that is,
Christians. No other can be given nor conceived, to whom the saying of Jacob rhymes and applies so finely, as this is our dear Lord Jesus. And there must have been one from the time after the scepter, or the Holy Spirit must have lied through the holy patriarch Jacob, and God must have forgotten his promise. This say the devil, and who wants to be a damned Jew.
381 Thus also the saying of the eternal house and throne of David [2 Sam. 7, 13. 16.] rhymes with no one but this our Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. For after the kings of the tribe of Judah since the time of Herod there is no son of David to be thought of who sat on his throne, and still sits to keep his throne forever; as it should be, and still must be, because God promised it with an oath. But when this son of David had risen from the dead, many, many thousands of the children of Israel, both at Jerusalem and in all the world, fell to him and accepted him as their king and Messiah, as the right seed of Abraha and her blood; these were, and still are, the house, kingdom and throne of David. For they are the descendants of the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraha, over whom David was king.
382 But that they are dead and buried, it is not so; they are yet before him his kingdom and his people. To us and to the world they are dead, but to him they are alive and not dead. Whether the blind Jews know not this, it is right. For he that is blind shall see nothing everywhere. But we Christians know that he says, Joh. 8, 56. Matth. 22, 32.: "God is not God of the dead, but God of the living", that is, Abraham lives; item, Joh. 11, 26.: "He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." So David's house and throne stand firm, and he has a son sitting on it forever, who will never die, nor let die all who are in his kingdom, and accept him as king with true faith. This means the saying is fulfilled: "David's throne shall be forever." Let all the devils and the Jews and the Turks, and those who will not give, give one son of David or more,
On whom this saying of the house of David rhymes so finely and sweetly, is from the time of Herod, so let us praise them.
383 To such a kingdom and throne of David also belong all of us Gentiles, who have accepted such a Messiah and Son of David for a king with the same faith, and still accept him until the end of the world and for eternity. As Jacob's saying, Gen 49:10, says, "The nations will obey him," that is, not one people alone, as the children of Israel are, but what else is also called nations. And before that Gen. 22, 18. "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." In this saying is the word Goyim, which is commonly understood in the Scriptures of the Gentiles, without, where the Jews are also thus called by the prophets almost contemptuously. And the summa is: the blessing of God shall not only remain on his blood descendants through the seed of Abraham, but shall also be spread among all the Gentiles; therefore God himself calls Abraham "father of many Gentiles", Gen. 17, 5. There are many more sayings in the Scriptures.
384 But that the Scripture calls such a kingdom "David's throne," and the king Messiah "Abraham's seed," is the reason that such a kingdom of David and king Messiah did not come from us Gentiles to the children of Abraham and Israel, but from the children of Abraham and Israel to us Gentiles, as the Lord himself says John 4:22: "Salvation came from the Jews. And even though we all come from Adam of the same birth, all other nations are set apart, and only Abraham's seed is chosen, from whom the Messiah should come. After Abraham only Isaac, after Isaac only Jacob, after Jacob only Judah, after Judah only David; the other brothers aside, any time, not chosen to the line, from which Messiah should come. But all and all was done for Messiah's sake. Therefore the whole seed of Abraha, especially those who believed in such Messiah, are highly honored 1) by God, as St. Paul Apost. 13, 17.
1) "are" is missing in the Jenaer, in Walch and in the Erlanger.
says: "God has exalted this people". For it must be a great honor and glory to be able to boast that he is the Messiah's cousin and blood friend; and the closer, the higher.
But so far that such glory does not grow from the reason that Abraham's and his descendants' blood was worthy of such honors, for that would be to spoil it all for the reason, but only from the reason that God, out of pure grace and mercy, chose Abraham's flesh and blood for this, since it would have deserved otherwise, and other flesh would have known how to find its equal. 2) The same is true for us Gentiles. Just as we Gentiles are very highly honored to have been made partakers of the Messiah and Kingdom and to enjoy the blessings promised in Abraham's seed. But if we wanted to boast as if we were worthy of it, and did not want to recognize ourselves as having been blessed by mere grace, so that God alone might have the glory, then all would be spoiled and lost. It is said in 1 Cor. 4:7: "What do you have that you have not received? But if thou hast received it, why dost thou boast? Just as if you were the man who had not received it."
386 Therefore the dear Son of David, Jesus Christ, is also our King and Messiah, and we boast of his kingdom and people as well as David himself and all the children of Israel and Abraham. For we know that he is set over the living and the dead as Lord, King and Judge. "If we live, we live unto him; if we die, we die unto him," that is, we must live even after death, as we have now heard St. Paul preach Rom. 14:8. And look for no bloodthirsty Kochab in him, but the true Messiah, who is able to give life and salvation. That means a son of David, sitting on his throne for eternity, of which the blind Jews and Turks know nothing at all. May God have mercy on them, as He has done and will do for us, amen.
387 Therefore, there can be no Messiah to whom the saying Dan. 9. rhymes,
2) "would have" is missing in the Jenaer, in Walch and in the Erlanger.
For this JEsum of Nazareth alone, and the devil with all his angels and Jews should become mad and foolish. For how foul the lie of the Jews was from the king Cores and Agrippa, is heard above. But as the angel Gabriel says there, so it came to pass, and so we see the work before our eyes. "Seventy weeks (saith he) are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city." He does not call the city by its name, Jerusalem; but bad: "thy holy city," neither, God's people, but bad: "thy people." For this people's and this city's holiness should now be over, and with the seventy weeks have come to an end, but a new people, a new Jerusalem, and another holiness should come, since one would not have to atone for sin annually by sacrifice, worship and holiness in the temple, and yet could never become righteous or thoroughly holy, because every year atonement had to be repeated and sought through sacrifice.
The Messiah was supposed to bring eternal righteousness, to seal up iniquity, to control transgression, to make atonement for sin, to fulfill the prophecies and visions etc. Now that sin is eternally gone and eternal righteousness is here, there is no need for sacrifice for sin or for righteousness. Why would one sacrifice for sin when it is no more? Why would one seek righteousness through worship when it is already there? But if sacrifice and worship are no longer necessary, why should the priests and the temple? if priests and temple are no longer necessary, why should such a people and city be served by them? There must become another people and city, which may not have such priests, temples, sacrifices and services; or must the useless temple and services of priests and sacrifices become desolate and futile, as the seventy weeks give the final judgment and last end, with city and temple, together with priests, sacrifices and services.
389. Such a new people and new Jerusalem is now the Christian church, gathered from Jews and Gentiles, who know that through Jesus Christ sin has been purged away, all prophecy fulfilled, eternal righteousness established.
For whosoever believeth in him is righteous for ever, and all his sins are eternally sealed unto him, made an atonement for, forgiven him: as the New Testament abundantly sheweth unto us, especially St. John, St. Peter, and St. Paul. It is no longer said: "He who offers at Jerusalem the trespass offering, the sin offering and other sacrifices, is justified or has atoned for sin; but it is said: "He who believes and is baptized is blessed; he who does not believe is condemned" [Marc. 16, 16.], he may not run to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem has come to him, wherever he wants in the whole world.
390 David also proclaimed this in Ps. 40:7 ff: "Sacrifices and grain offerings are not pleasing to you, but you have opened my ears (that is, the ears of the world, that they may hear and believe, and thus be saved without sacrifice, temple or priest). You do not want burnt offerings or sin offerings. Then said I, Behold, I come, in the book is written of me; thy will, O God, will I gladly do. "etc. Yes, this is the Messiah who brought righteousness by his will and obedience; such is the will of the book of Moses and of all the prophets. So also here Gabriel says that the sacrifices shall not do, and says: Messiah shall be killed, and have nothing. What will he have nothing of? Ask what he is talking about: He speaks with Daniel of his people, and of his holy city; of which he shall have nothing, that with him and in him of that holiness shall be nothing: as Ps. 16:4 saith also, I will not drink their libation with their blood, neither will I put their name in my mouth."
391 Thus says Isaiah 33:24: "The people that shall dwell in the new Jerusalem shall be called, Nesu owon" [xxxxxx] Ievatus peccato, a people of forgiveness of all sins; as also Jeremiah 32:40. promises another new covenant, wherein Moses shall not reign with his covenant; but "I will (saith he) be merciful to their sin, and will never remember it." Yes, this is a covenant of grace, of forgiveness, of remission of all sins forever. This cannot be done by the sword, as the bloodthirsty Kochabites desire; but with true grace through the slain Messiah in the
unworthy world, to eternal righteousness and blessedness, as Gabriel says here.
392 But the saying is too rich (as was said above), and the whole New Testament is briefly contained in it; therefore it takes more time and space to cut it out. Now it is enough that we are sure that it is impossible to understand it from another Messiah or king than from our Lord Jesus Christ 1) of Nazareth, because also at the same time in the last week no other Messiah is killed than this one, and Daniel must have a killed Messiah at the same time, as his words stand brightly there.
393 Finally, the saying Haggai does not rhyme with any other. For there is no one to be seen from the time of Haggai, who would be called with the slightest appearance "Chemdath of all the Gentiles", pleasure or comfort, without this Jesus Christ alone. In him the Gentiles have had their comfort, joy and pleasure for 1500 years, as the work is still before our eyes, and the Jews themselves 2) prove with their cursing until now. For why do they curse us? Only because we have not seen this Jesus, the true Messiah, our own.
1) "Christo" is missing in the Wittenberg and the Erlanger.
2) Wittenberger: still himself.
Comfort, joy and pleasure, confess, boast and praise, from whom we will not be torn nor parted, neither love nor sorrow, but live and die in him and over him confidently and willingly. And the more the Jews, Turks, and all enemies blaspheme and revile him, the more firmly we hold to him, and the dearer he has us, as he says, "Blessed are ye when ye are persecuted and reviled for my sake; be ye glad, your reward is great in heaven" [Matt. 5:11, 12.]. To Him be praise and thanksgiving, honor and glory, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one, true, right God, amen.
So much writing, dear sir and good friend, you have forced me to do with your booklet, as a Jew proves his art against an absent Christian in conversation. He should not do it to me at present, praise God. So also in this (I hope) a Christian, who otherwise has no desire to become a Jew, has so much that he can not only well ward off the blind poisonous Jews, but must also become hostile to the Jews' malice, lies, cursing, and grasp that their faith is not only false, but that they are certainly possessed with all devils. Christ, our dear Lord, mercifully convert them and keep us firm and immovable in his knowledge, which is eternal life, amen.