March 1543.
Doctor Martinus Luther.
(1) In the next booklet I promised that I would run down what the frenzied, wretched Jews lie and blaspheme about their Shem Hamphorah, as it writes
Purchetus in his book, called Victoria. This is what I want to have done here, in honor of our faith and against the devil's lies of the Jews, so that those who want to become Jews may also see what beautiful articles they have written.
*This writing appeared, about March 1543 (because on March 7 Luther wrote to Justus Jonas that he had finished it), with Georg Rau (Rhaw) in Wittenberg and was printed by him again in the same year. Then in 1544 by Nickel Schirlentz in Wittenberg. In the collections it is found: in the Wittenberger (1556), vol. V, p. 509b; in the Jenaer (1562), vol. VIII, p. 108b; in the Altenburger, vol. VIII, p. 277; in ver Leipziger, vol. XXI, p. 614 and in the Erlanger, vol. 32, p. 275. It is also printed in Georgii Nigrini "Judenfeind", Frankfurt am Main, 1605. The Erlanger gives the text according to the latter original edition by Nickel Schirlentz. We share it with you, comparing the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
must believe and hold with the damned Jews. For as I state in that booklet, my opinion is not to write against the Jews, as if I hoped to convert them, therefore I did not want to call the same book "against the Jews", but, "about the Jews and their lies", that we Germans historically would also like to know what a Jew is, to warn our Christians against them, as against the devils themselves, to strengthen and honor our faith; not to convert the Jews, which is just as possible as to convert the devil.
(2) For as we must teach and write of the devil, hell, death, and sin, what they are and do, not that we would make of the devil an angel, of hell a heaven, of death a life, of sin holiness, which is impossible; but that we would beware of them: so also I write of the Jews. For a Jew or Jewish heart is so hard as a rock, so hard as an iron devil, that [it] cannot be moved in any way. If Moses came with all the prophets, and did all the miraculous works before their eyes, that they should leave their hardness of mind, as Christ and the apostles did before them, it would be in vain. Even if they were punished so horribly that the streets would run with blood, that their deaths would have to be counted not with a hundred thousand, but with ten hundred thousand 1) and counted, as happened in Jerusalem under Vespasiano and in Bitter under Adriano, nevertheless they must be right, even if they should be in misery for another 1500 years beyond these 1500 years, nevertheless God must be a liar, but they must be truthful.
Summa, they are young devils, condemned to hell; but if there is anything human left in them, such a letter may come in handy: of the whole bunch, whoever wants to may hope, I have no hope, I don't know any scripture about it either. If we cannot convert our Christians, the great multitude, we must be content with the small group; how much less is it possible to convert all these devil children! For
1) In the old editions written: "rechen", which Walch had resolved with "rächen".
The fact that some people draw such a delusion from the epistle to the Romans in chapter 11, as if all Jews should be converted at the end of the world, is nothing; St. Paul means something else.
From the eleventh chapter in the first part of the book Purcheti, translated by
D. M. Luther.
1 We will see again how the Jews have always been so hostile to the miraculous deeds of Christ that they ascribe them to Beelzebub, the prince of devils. For he has done as many and as great miracles as no one else has ever done, as he himself says John 15. Nor has it ever been heard that anyone else in his name has made the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the dumb speak, as Isaiah prophesied earlier on the 35th, v. 4. 5: "God, the Rewarder, will come and help you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the lame lick, 2) as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak praise."
(2) In addition to these four miraculous signs, he did many others, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers, and healed many other sick people, and did such signs that no one but God alone could do; nor did the wickedness of the Jews, who always dealt in evil wiles, dare to blaspheme and defile them with lies, inventing a book against Christ in which they wrote these lies:
It came to pass in the days of Halani, 3) the queen that reigned over all the land of Israel, that Jesus HaNozri came to Jerusalem, and found in the temple of the Lord the stone, whereon the ark of the Lord was set aforetime; on the same stone was written Shem Hamphorah; whosoever learned and understood the letters of the name thereof, could do whatsoever he would.
004 And our wise men were anxious, lest, when the children of Israel should learn such a name, they should turn the world by the power thereof. Therefore they made two dogs of brass, and set them upon two pillars before the
2) Written in the old editions: "lick".
3) Afterwards, in § 21, the queen is called "Helena".
Door of the sanctuary. If someone went in and learned the letters of the aforementioned name and went out again, the dogs of brass would attack him so horribly that he would forget the name and the letters he had learned.
005 So Jesus HaNozri came and went into the temple, and learned the letters, and wrote them upon a parchment. Then he tore open the flesh on his leg and put the letters inside. And when he had spoken the name, he was not hurt, but his skin was as it was before: and when he was gone out of the temple, the dogs of brass barked at him, and he forgot the name; and when he was come home, he tore open his leg with a knife, and took out the writing which had the letters of the pretence of Hamphorah, and learned them again.
006 And afterward he gathered unto him 310 young men of Israel, and said unto them, Behold, the wise men say that I am a whore child, because they will reign over Israel: but ye know that all the prophets prophesy of Messiah; the same am I, it is true. And Isaiah prophesied of me, "Behold, Alma is with child, and shall bring forth a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel" [Isa. 7:14].So also my grandfather David prophesied of me, saying, "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee" [Ps. 2:7].Thus my mother bare me without man's help, by the power of God alone. Therefore not I, but they themselves, are harlot children, as Hosea says: "I will not have mercy on their children, for they are harlot children" [Hos. 2, 4Z.
007 And the young men of Israel answered him, If thou be Messiah, give us a sign. What sign do you want from me? They said: Make a lame man standing, as we are. And he said, Bring one to me. As soon as they brought to him a lame man who had never trodden on his feet, he spoke Shem Hamphorah over him, and at the same hour he arose and stood on his feet. Then they all bowed down before him and said: He is without a doubt Messiah. They also brought to him a leper, and he spoke his name over him and laid his hand on him.
on him, and he was healed as soon as possible. Therefore, many loose people from our nation fell to him.
008 But the wise men, when they saw that Israel began to believe in him, caught him, and brought him to Halani the queen, which at that time held the land of Israel, and said unto her, Madam, this man practiseth sorcery, and deceiveth the world. Jesus Ha Nozri answered, "Madam, the prophets prophesied about me in ancient times; one of them says, "A branch will grow out of the tribe of Jesse" [Isa. 11:1], and I am that branch, but David says of this branch, "Blessed is he who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked" [Ps. 1:1].
009 And she said, Is this written in your law, which this man saith? They answered: Yes, it is in our law, but it is not said of him, but so is it written of him Deut. 13:5: "The prophet shall be put to death, because he hath taught unrighteousness against God," but of Messiah it is thus written [Jer. 23:6]: "In his time Judah shall be helped." Then this wicked man answered and said unto the queen, I am he, for I can raise the dead.
010 And the queen sent with them her most faithful servants, and the wicked made a dead man alive by Shem Hamphorah: and from that time the queen was astonished, and said, Verily this is a great miracle; and she made a great mockery of the wise, that they departed from her in shame: and it grieved them and them of Israel exceedingly. And Jesus Nozri went into upper Galilee.
011 And the wise men went again unto the queen, and said unto her, Madam, this man dealeth with sorcery, and perverteth creatures. And she sent her soldiers to take him: but the men of Galilee would not suffer it, but fought against her. And he said: Ye shall not fight for me: for the power of my Father from heaven, and the signs which he hath given me, shall surely defend me. And the men of Galilee made birds of clay before him, and he spake over them Shem Hamphorah: and the birds flew straightway, and fell on their faces, and worshipped him.
012 And at the same hour he brought a great millstone, and cast it into the sea: and when it was done, the wicked man spake the Shem of Hamphorah, and made the stone lie still upon the sea; and he sat upon it, and said unto the soldiers: Go to your wife and tell her what you have seen. Then he stood up before her eyes and walked on the sea.
013 And the soldiers went and told Halani the queen all that they had seen. The queen was very shocked and called the wise men and said to them: You say that this man Jesus Nozri is a sorcerer, but you should know that the signs he performs prove that he is the true Son of God. But they said: Madam, let him come here, and we will expose his mischievousness. Then the elders of Israel went and let one named Judas Sharioth enter into the temple into the holy of holies, and he learned the letters of Shem Hamphorah in the same way that Jesus Nozri had learned them, and he tore open the flesh of the leg, and all that he had done.
014 So Jesus Nozri came with his company, and the queen called the wise men also to come. And he stood before the queen, and said, David prophesied of me, Dogs have compassed me about, and the assembly of the wicked have compassed me about [Ps. 22:17]. But this is said of me also, Jer. 1:8: "Fear them not, for I am with thee, that I may deliver thee, saith the Lord." But the wise men contradicted him.
015 And he said unto the queen, I will go up to heaven: for so David said of me, Arise, O God, above the heavens; [Ps. 57:12] and lifted up his hands like wings by the name of Shem Hamphorah, and flew between heaven and earth. When the wise men saw this, they told Judah Sharioth to say Shem Hamphorah, and to go up after him. He went up and wrestled with him, so that they both fell down together; and the wicked man broke an arm: this is what the Christians mourn over every year before their Easter.
016 And the same hour the children of Israel took him, and covered him with cloths, and smote him with rods of grenadiers. And they said unto Halani the queen, If he be the son of God, let him tell who smote him: but he could not tell. And the queen said unto the wise men: Behold, he is in your hands; do to him as you please.
017 Then they took him, and led him to the gallows: but what tree or beam they hanged him upon, it brake in twain at once: for he had adjured all the trees and woods by Shem Hamphorah, that they could not receive him. So they went and got a cabbage stalk, which grows not on the tree but on the herb, and they hung it on that. This is not a miracle. For in the sanctuary a stalk grows every year, and a hundred pounds of seed hang on it. Haec ille.
Where are they now, the loose Christians who have become Jews or want to become Jews? Here to kiss, the devil has thrown into the N., and emptied the belly again, that is a right sanctuary, which the Jews, and what wants to be a Jew, should kiss, eat, drink and worship, and again the devil also eat and drink, what such his disciples can spit, throw out above and below. Here the right guests and landlords have come together, have cooked and served it right. Oh how right it has happened to them both! The devil was created a beautiful angel, that he should sing the eternal Te Deum laudamus with his holy angelic mouth together with the other holy angels. He could not stand that, and became a devil, who now eats with his angelic trunk and eats with pleasure what the lower and upper mouths of the Jews spit and spatter, yes, that has become his speech 1) in which he feeds like a sow behind the fence around St. Margaret's Day; right, right, that's how he wanted it.
(19) So it was done to the Jews, O rightly. They were called and chosen to be the mouth of God, as Jeremiah says [Jer. 15:19] and Ps. 81:11: Open wide your mouth, and I will open it.
1) Galrede - jelly. - Margaret's Day is July 13.
But they kept their mouths shut, their eyes, their ears, their noses, their whole hearts, and all their strength. Then the devil came, and they shut his eyes, his throat, his ears, his heart and all his senses, and he poured and splashed them so full that it spilled out of them in all places and washed away the devil's filth; yes, it tasted them in the heart, and they smacked their lips like swine. That is how they want it. Shout now more, crucify him, crucify him! Cry out more, "His blood come upon us and our children" [Matth. 27, 25.]. I mean, it has come and found you.
20. Nevertheless, we want to look at the beautiful articles of the Jewish faith, given in this text, one after the other, so that the desire (to become a Jew) may be atoned for whoever has it. Now, if you want to become a true Jew, listen here and learn the Catechism of the Holy Mixed Faith, not in God's name.
First, you must believe that Helen was queen in the land of Israel or Canaan, where our Lord Jesus Christ lived, taught and performed miracles. If not only the evangelists and apostles resist this, but also the whole Roman empire, as it then stood; in addition to the testimony and misery of the Jews themselves, which began in the time of Vespasiani, 250 years before Helen was born; you must not let yourself be mistaken, but think: The rabbis (masters of this book) cannot err, heaven and earth must err much before God and all angels and creatures. You must believe this if you want to become a true Jew.
22 You must also believe everything that is written here about Queen Helen, how she acted and had acted with Jesus HaNozri 250 years before she was born; for this is part of the catechism who wants to become a Jew. If someone wanted to say against it: The Jews did not exist in the country at the time of Helen, at 200 years, but were scattered all over the world, and Jerusalem had neither temple nor regiment; against it you must sneer against the cursed Goyim, and thus say: Our rabbis write it, therefore it must be so, even if God Himself with all Scripture and creature says otherwise; he must well what the rabbis want.
23 Secondly, you must believe that two dogs of brass were able to bark at that time, even without Hamphorah's Shem; before and now no one can do it anymore; even with their eyes of brass they saw so sharply who had gone out and who had come in, and who had written the letters engraved on the stone: they must have had very sharp eyes, especially because they were made of brass, and could see through such thick walls, doors and curtains. Here, perhaps, you would object that all the living dogs of the world, which can bark naturally, would not believe this if they heard and understood it, much less the iron dogs themselves etc. But let it not be disputed; what the rabbis say is right, ask no further, if you want to be a pious Jew.
(24) Thou must think that the wise men of Israel in those days were not wiser than to keep the Shem Hamphorah with two barking dogs of brass, so that the accursed goyim might have found other ways than with iron doors, bars, and the like. If it occurs to you that the sages of Israel had much less sense in this than the iron dogs themselves, you must reject such thoughts and think: Dear, what the rabbis say is right and cannot be a lie.
25) Thirdly, you must believe that in the sanctuary of Jerusalem grew annually such 2) large cabbages that they were stronger than any 3) beam on the gallows, and grew at 100 pounds of seed. Here you must believe that 200 years after the destruction there was a sanctuary in Jerusalem, not only that, but that it was a cabbage garden and a sanctuary at the same time. If all the histories, Moses and all the prophets, even God with all the angels, say otherwise, it is a lie, but the faith of the Jews must be right; know this well if you want to become a Jew.
Finally, you must surrender to what a rabbi says, no matter how strange it may be, so you must believe it is right, regardless of whether God Himself commanded and said otherwise.
1) "the" is missing in the Erlanger.
2) "so" is missing in the Erlanger.
3) Instead of "none" it says "so" in the Erlanger.
For so Moses commanded them Deut. 17:8 ff: "If they do not understand a matter, they shall go up to the priests and judges who are in the place which God has chosen etc. They shall pronounce judgment upon thee (saith he); according to the law which they teach thee thou shalt do, and according to the law which they tell thee thou shalt keep, that thou depart not from the same, to the right hand or to the left." Here it is decided (I would almost have said, shitty) that everything the rabbis say, a Jew should believe and not deviate from it. Therefore they say now, they must believe their Rabbins, if the same said, the right hand would be the left, and the left would be the right, as Purchetus writes. Also the three Jews, 1) who were with me, did the same to me: when I wanted to force them to the text, they said that they had to believe their rabbis, but did not want to confess any text to me; therefore I have to believe Purcheto all the more in this, according to my own experience.
27) If you want to become a devout, faithful Jew, surrender, as I have said, that you believe what the rabbis say, whether it is against God, reason, angels or all creatures. For here you hear that a Jew should believe that the right hand is not the right hand, when a rabbi says so. God has indeed said, yes, he has created, ordered and named it by his eternal word, that the right hand should be and be called the right hand, as all angels and creatures confess. But this may well be the truth, until a rabbi comes and says, no, it is not so, but what I call the right hand, that is the right hand. What should God's word and work, together with all angels and creatures, be witness against a rabbi who is so far higher and better than God and all creatures?
28. so you must believe here that the queen Helena, with her wise men, and Jesus did this thing 200 years before she was born; item, that cabbages grow yearly in the sanctuary, thicker than a beam, bearing a hundred pounds of seed; item, that dogs of brass bark; item, that Jesus by
1) Compare § 125 of the previous paper.
2) "nun" is missing in the Erlanger.
Shem Hamphoras did miracles, Judas Sharioth also; as it is said above. If a rabbi were to put thick and thin into the bowl in front of your nose and say, "Here is a delicious almond paste," you would have to say that you had never eaten better paste in your life. Defy thy throat, and say otherwise. For he who has the power to say that what is right is left and what is left is right, in spite of God and all his creatures, can also say that his back mouth is his front mouth, and his belly is a broad mouth, and his belly is a broad mouth.
29 If thou hast learned these things, and canst believe them, run quickly, and be hastily circumcised, before the dogs of brass see them, and come from Jerusalem, and bark out of thee such high understanding of the most holy Jewish faith, or before the deceiver HaNozri with his Shem Hamphoras beguile thee into believing a Christian. Because you are a righteous, fine, holy, clever Jew, you will now be able to be called right, and make the belly a broad head, so that you have enough to eat with all Jews all your life long, if you already invite all devils as guests. Thank also such high heavenly rabbis, by whom you are so highly learned and deeply sanctified, that God Himself and all the angels of your holiness must be astonished, the cursed Goyim are not worth judging 4) nor hearing anything about it.
(30) Well, perhaps one of the merciful saints among us Christians would think that I have been too rude and unkind 5) to the poor miserable Jews by mocking and scoffing at them. Ah, Lord God, I am much too low to mock such devils; I would gladly do it, but they are too far superior to me in mocking, they also have a God, who is a master in mocking, and is called the wretched devil and evil spirit. What I could mock him to his annoyance, that I should do justly, he would have well deserved it. I want the
3) Jenaer, Walch and the Erlanger: müssest.
4) Jenaer: richen.
5) unesse - what you can't eat, inedible, disgusting.
show a little (who otherwise would not notice) what an unspeakable mocker he is here.
The arrogant evil spirit mocks three things in this book. First, he mocks God, the Creator of heaven and earth, with His Son Jesus Christ, as you can see for yourself, if you believe as a Christian that Christ is the Son of God. Secondly, he mocks us, the whole of Christendom, for believing in such a Son of God. Thirdly, he also mocks his own Jews, giving them such disgraceful, foolish, foolish things, of dogs of brass and sticks of coal, that all dogs would bark themselves to death, if they understood, at such raging, raving, senseless, raging, mad fools. Is this not a master of mockery, who with a single mockery can perform such great three mockeries? The fourth mockery is that he has mocked himself with this, as we, praise God, will see with joy on that day.
(32) Thus the Jews also mock themselves the most, that they obey the devil, their God, in such mockery and become such raging fools. For they do it not in error, but because they know it well, and also natural reason, given by God, warns them, instructs them and convinces them that such cannot be true; nor do they tickle themselves with it, it does them good, and they do it with pleasure, so that they may hear, learn and preach such tangible shameful lies and blasphemy against us Christians and Jesus HaNozri of the devil. O right, right, master and disciple have come together in the right school.
33 Further. Over such mockery they first of all prove their supernatural mastery, because they say that Jesus HaNozri (that should be called Jesus of Nazareth) has done his miraculous signs through Shem Hamphoras, which should be called "the interpreted name". Here they confess (as they must) that the miraculous signs of Jesus HaNozri were real true signs, and herewith they testify and condemn themselves, like their ancestors in the Gospel, that he raised the dead. He made the lame walk and cleansed the lepers etc. [Matth. 11, 5.], which are such works, which only the one can do,
The first thing that must be said is that they are the result of the eternal, divine power and are possible; men, even angels, are not able to do them, as little as creatures can create from nothing. All reason must say this.
Now behold the tender little fruits, the circumcised saints; such divine works and miracles they ascribe to 1) the Shem Hamphoras, that is, to the single, dead, wretched letters, which are written in ink in the book, or hover on the tongue, or are carried in the heart, even of the wicked. For the Shem Hamphorah be what he will; so they are, and can be, nothing else, but corrupt, dead, impotent letters, even if it were God's holy Scripture itself (which is all the worse), of which the Jews prattle much, and know not what they prattle. What should letters be able to do, as letters, from their own strength, where nothing more would come to it? What do they help the devil, Turks, Jews and all the wicked, who misuse such letters, even God's name, without ceasing against the other commandment? Satan and all the wicked names and works are also written in holy letters.
(35) But the frenzied Jews give the Shem Hamphorah divine power as a mere, empty letter, without any promise or commandment from God. For they say here that even the wicked and deceivers can do many miracles and divine works through these letters. Where then are they, the circumcised saints, who boast against us Christians that they alone are those who honor the one true God, since the accursed HaNozriim worship three gods? Here they give the divine power and honor to the mere, empty, dead letters in the Shem of Hamphorah so completely that even the godless and deceivers, against God's will and prohibition (in the Ten Commandments), can do divine majesty's own works. O2) these are holy children of God, who make over the one God as many gods as there are letters in the Shem of Hamphorah, which shall be 216, as follows; that is, they worship 216 thousand devils, and not the right God,
1) "to" is missing in the Erlanger.
2) Erlanger "Ob", although the old editions offer "Oh". This is not a misprint in the Erlanger edition, because "O" is given as Walch's variant.
whom they so shamefully blaspheme with the Shem Hamphoras and steal his divine honor, appropriating the same1) to the wretched letters.
(36) How right it was for the furious Jews! They did not want to accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and Son of God, so that they would remain with the one, true God, as we Christians have remained. For it is impossible that he should or could accept more than one, the right one God, who accepts Jesus Christ for the Messiah with right faith; Again, it is impossible that he should remain with the one right God, who does not accept Jesus Christ for Messiah with right faith, but he must (as the devil wills) accept strange and other more gods, and should they be mere, dead, void letters, or Shem Hamphoras, that is, great sacks full of heaped devils. Yes, such gods the Jews wanted to have for the right God in Jesus Nazarene.
(37) They might say, "If you Christians do this yourselves, speaking words over water, it must be baptism, which washes away all sin and makes newborn men. Item, bread and wine you make body and blood with words; item, you lay your hand on the sinner's head and absolve him of sins with words. Thus your Luther writes: Whoever lifts up a straw in God's word does a better work, neither all monks, nuns, bishops, Pope etc. Now the words are nothing else but living, bare, poor letters: to which you nevertheless give the works that are proper to divine majesty, as forgiveness of sin, new birth and redemption from death.
38 We Christians have been well and sufficiently taught and told about this, that it is not necessary to act here; but recently we Christians say that water is nothing but water, words are nothing but empty letters, do and help nothing beyond their nature, much less do they work divine works in us; for water and letters do not make baptism. I have often seen a horse or an ox drink up a bucket full of water, and if you
1) In the editions: the same.
2) Erlanger: "with water".
If you speak the words of baptism over it, the horse would not be baptized and would not be born again from it; there is more to it. But baptism is such a thing that all devils must not swallow a drop of it, for it would become a cellar neck for them, which would burn them like hellish fire; but they flee, if they can, where they see baptism, must not come to it, nor stay with it. Why is that? They certainly do not respect water and letters.
39) But because God has commanded and commanded that we should use our hands and tongues, and pour the water over the person to be baptized with the words or letters that He has commanded, He has promised and assured us in the most certain way that He Himself will be present with His divine grace and power and do this work Himself. Here you grasp that we Christians do not give divine power to the water and the letter, nor do we say that [it] is our doing, but confess that it is and remains God's alone, who wants to show and prove in us such a way that has pleased him, namely through the water and the word or the letter. This does not mean that the letters are not alive or just water that the cow drinks, but that God is united in this, so that he will exercise his grace and power on us and through us as his instrument. And so both water and letters in baptism are full and rich in God's grace and power, because He promised and revealed that He Himself would do it. "Go, baptize" (he says), not in your name, but "in the name" etc. that it is a work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
40 Therefore we also reject the pope and his whole church, who has filled all the world with the same jugglery, sorcery, idolatry, because he also has his special Shem Hamphoras; there he goes, bewitches the water with loose, mere, empty letters, pretends that it is holy water, which washes away sin, chases away the devil, and others have much virtue; wants to imitate God, like a monkey. Item, likewise enchants the dear wax with empty, single letters, ver-
3) Erlanger: and.
buys it for emperors and kings for holy Agnus Dei, 1) which shall have much, much virtue, thus feeds himself with it, yes, became rich in the world, quite like a blasphemous juggler, magician and idolater. So he also bewitched caps and plates and all the world with mere words or letters, so that they become monks, nuns, priests, say mass and sell, call and celebrate saints, solve indulgences, tread dead men's legs, serve the devil, and by their own works earn heaven, namely heaven, since the devil is abbot and pope inside.
41) That he needs good words of Scripture and God's name for this is all the more annoying; God did not command him, but rather strictly forbade it. It 2) says: "You shall not take God's name in vain"; therefore, his power is not involved, but are empty, mere, impotent letters. But if something happens through it, it is not God's work, but the devil's, to strengthen his lies and sorcery (by God's decree) and to seduce the unbelievers, but to tempt and warn the believers with it; as we see that the milk thieves 3) and other sorceresses often do great harm. The Turks, too, have among themselves such curses, and carry with them in war letters in Arabic, very beautifully written (of which I have seen several), that they want to be safe from weapons and danger by such empty, mere letters, or, as they call them, good holy words. Thus the devil fills the whole world with sorcery, idolatry and incense, as if he had nothing more to do than to create strange appearances of Hamphoras in every place.
Here, I think, it would be time, and the reader should be moved by the desire to know what the Jews Shem Hamphorah is. I know and am certain, as I have said, that it is nothing else, nor may it be, but vain, mere, poor letters. But to expose their foolishness and the devil's wickedness, I will show it here as much as I can and know: may he who has it no other way,
1) Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, vol. XIX, 1018 ff.
2) Erlanger: "he".
3) Compare Luther's Table Talks, Cap. 25, § 5. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 783.
read Antonium Margaritam. It stands 2 Mos. at the 14, 19. 20. 21. a text, which reads thus:
43] "And the angel of God, which went before the host of Israel, rose up, and stood behind them; and the pillar of cloud also departed out of their sight, and stood behind them, and came between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was a dark cloud, and it lighted up the whole night, so that they could not come together all the night, neither this night nor that night. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused it to pass away with a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry, and the waters were parted from one another."
44 This text has 216 letters in Hebrew, which divide it into three groups 4) or verses, so each verse has seventy-two letters. One could make six good verses out of it, but the rabbis do not want it that way. Now notice the high art of Shem Hamphora. If you write the three rows under each other, so that just one letter is under the other, then do so: Take the foremost letter in the first row, and the rearmost in the other row, and the foremost in the third row, put them together, and you have a word of three letters; in this way do with all the letters in the three rows or rows, and you will find seventy-two words, since each one has three letters.
They can do it finely in the Hebrew alphabet, since all letters are digits or number letters; for they count with letters, like the Greeks. But we have no more than seven number letters, C. D. I. L. M. V. X. But I will try it as a rough example to show us Germans, and put three rows of twelve letters, that the text is this:
46 Here I take the foremost letter L in the first tier, and the rearmost I in the other tier, and the foremost I in the second tier.
4) Squads - rows.
third row, it becomes the word LII. If you do the same with the other letters after that, it becomes the word VMV; if you do the same with the third letters, it becomes the word CVD. If you do the same with the fourth letters, you have the word IDI and so on, as the Jews do with the three verses of Moses, and make seventy-two words out of them, each with three letters. These three literal words, which are made from such art, mean nothing, should also mean nothing, just as you see an example here that the four words LII, VMV, CVD, IDI mean nothing to us Germans. However, the text of Moses stands for itself in its natural interpretation, as it is read.
I would have liked to make my example clearer, but the number letters cannot make it so pure, but help him with a little reflection, because so much should be said:
Luci milks the Ku, Luxli1 ) kum du zu mir, Jude kau du die Klien.
48. but because k. a. e. n. etc. are not number letters, I had to leave them out, and so speak wicked Wendish or Danish German.
49. Now you ask: What then are the seventy-two three-letter words, made from the text of Moses? Then listen to the other piece of great art. They are to be ziphra or number letters, no longer reading letters; not grammatically, as one reads them in the school, but arithmetically, as one reads them in the arithmetic school. So, in my example, you must not read 141, as in school, but as in the retirement or arithmetic school, where one does not read LII, but fifty-two. The other word is not VMV, but thousand and ten. The third word is not CVD, but six hundred and five. The fourth word does not read IDI, but five hundred and two, and 2) so
1) The old edition of Walch and the Erlanger: Luxie. 2) "and" is missing in the Erlanger.
henceforth. So all letters in the text of Mosi must become arithmetic, because grammatically they do not serve to the Shem Hamphorah.
50 Further and thirdly you must learn that such three-letter seventy-two words, made from the text of Moses, are names of seventy-two angels (how almost the word devil would have escaped me), as if I spoke in my example the four words LII, VMV, CVD, IDI, that four angels are thus named, that one is called arithmetically fifty-two, the other thousand and ten, the third six hundred and five, the fourth five hundred and two. So there the seventy-two angels are called also with vain number names, the one seventeen, the other twenty-two; item seventy-nine and so on.
What are the seventy-two names of angels, understood arithmetically? Clear your throat, here it will be, here we come to the right main part. You have now heard 3) that the whole text of Moses 2 Mos. 14, 19. 20. 21. has been divided arithmetically or numerically into three times seventy-two angel names. Now you must learn that these same arithmetical letters again become grammatical or reading letters, but nevertheless remain arithmetical; namely: the first angel VII is called arithmetically fifty-two. Now you must go and look for another word or two that also understands fifty-two, but so that it calls God, or says something about God's powers or works. Rather than following my example, "It is God's love." Here you hear an understandable speech, that the love of God does and is able to do everything, and the letters are all grammatical or reading letters; nevertheless, inside you find the angel's VII name arithmetically, that is one L and two I4) , which are fifty-two. Such examples you may look for yourself more than: "God helps fine", "God gives salvation" etc. There you hear an understandable speech according to the grammatica or reading letters, and yet at the same time you have inside the arithmetic or number letters LII, which give the first angel's name. So you must
3) Wittenberger: now right.
4) In the issues: II.
with the other names of the seventy-two angels, that is, with the whole text of Genesis 2:14, which is divided into these seventy-two angels' names, as you heard above.
52 Now here you see how God's name, or what is spoken of His doing, is mixed in with the seventy-two angels' names. And so there is an interpreted or spread out name through the whole text of Moses, that is, through all the seventy-two angels' names, that is, Shem Hamphorah, the interpreted 1) name. Such alphabetship is fine in Hebrew, since they can make all letters arithmetic, and give LII, that is fifty-two, with other and other words, which we are not able to do in our ABC, which we have little, that is, only seven arithmetic letters, C. D. I. L. M. V. X. Therefore, although I can write LII with these letters xxxxxii, or xl and xij, I cannot make a grammatical word or speech out of it, as they can do in Hebrew. For x is, especially for us Germans, strange in usage, and could well be dispensed with in the German language. Therefore, in this speech: "God's love is complete," we must also borrow more grammatical letters, so that the angel's LII name, the fifty-two, are written arithmetically and yet also grammatically.
53) Whether you want to argue here, one could also make another from the number books, both in Hebrew and Latin or German, namely: "Satan helps fine", "Satan gives salvation. There is also LII, the first angel's name, that is, fifty-two; or thus: "Hans helps fine" etc. Hie would become Shem Hamphoras also of the devil and man interpreted name, and all that I wanted. But dear Goy, you have heard above, you must believe and do what the rabbis say and want; if not, then the brazen dogs of Jerusalem would come, and bark you to death 2) and, which is even more dangerous, the cabbage stalk of one in the sanctuary with
1) In the editions in the text: "laid out". The Jena edition has as a conjecture in the margin: "laid out".
2) In the old edition of Walch and in the Erlanger: zu todt.
the 100 pounds of seed will fall on you and beat you to death.
54 Finally, to make the Shema of Hamphorah complete, they do the Benedicite or prayer for it, putting a verse from the Psalter to each of the names of the seventy-two angels, so that there are seventy-two verses. With this high devotion (3) pay attention to it), that in each verse the great name of God Jehovah, called Tetragrammaton, is written; but that you do not call the letters, but speak Adonai for it, because it is unpronounceable. Now you have the Shem Hamphoras completely and perfectly, now you are not only a circumcised, right Jew, now you can do all kinds of miraculous signs, as the deceiver, Jesus Nozri, did through it. Now quickly run to Jerusalem, and 4) commanded by the Shem Hamphorah the dogs of brass to beget a hundred thousand young dogs of brass, each barking ten times brighter than the two old ones, so that they may bark the cursed goyim all over the world deaf, blind, foolish, and straight to death, and thus concede the world to the holy children of Israel, even before their Messiah Kochab comes.
How is it that they have not used such art and power of Shem Hamphorah for 1500 years in the misery, especially since they were destroyed by the Romans through Vespasianum (because it was time to do miracles), and afterwards, since they were slain and scattered with their Messiah Kochab under Adriano? The answer of the rabbis is that they are not pious enough now, that they are in the misery and disgrace of God, that they have forgotten the power of the seventy-two angels in such a long time. But how is that possible? They are eternally the noble blood and circumcised saints, God's own people before all the world, the dearest children of Israel, who worship no more than One God. Such cannot be in disgrace (the Scripture would have to be wrong) like the cursed Goyim who worship more than One God and consider Jesus HaNozri as Messiah, they must be in disgrace that no Shem Hamphorah can help them.
3) Erlanger: "I did."
4) "and" is missing in the Erlanger.
(56) How could the wise men have been so foolish as to forget the power of the angels in the Shem of Hamphorah, who were so wise as to keep the treasure with two iron dogs, and so powerful as to let Judas Sharioth enter? Rather, they went in themselves when they desired, and became like Judas Sharioth in everything they do, as they still are. Therefore, the great treasure of such art must certainly still be with them, inherited from Judas Sharioth and their ancestors, and cannot be so lost. Otherwise, how could they so surely still write and speak of it?
(57) Thou cursed goyim, for thou art a rough fellow, thou wilt not and canst not learn. Have you not heard above that when a rabbi says the right hand is left, it is left; when he says the left hand is right, it is right? Thus, if a rabbi here says that the art of Shem Hamphora is lost, it is lost; but if he says they still have it, they still have it; if he says they are in disgrace, they are in disgrace; if he says they are the dear chosen people of God alone, they certainly are.
58. Here you will perhaps ask me: Where did the Jews get this high wisdom, that one should divide Mosi's text, the holy innocent letters, into three verses and make arithmetic or counting letters out of them, also call seventy-two angels, and summa, put the whole Shem Hamphorah in this way? Leave me alone, ask the rabbis about it, they will tell you. - Yes, I want to hear your opinion before I become a Jew, because then I know that I must believe the rabbis; but you promised me the Catechismum of the Jews, that also holds.
(59) Well, I don't particularly know where they got it, but close to it I will well advise. Here in Wittenberg, near our parish church, there is a sow carved in stone, and there are young piglets and Jews lying underneath, sucking; behind the sow stands a rabbi, who lifts the sow's right leg, and with his left hand he pulls the pirzel over himself, bends down, and with great diligence peers under the sow's
Pirzel in the Talmud, as if he wanted to read and see something sharp and special; there they certainly have their Shem Hamphoras. For there have been many Jews in these lands in the past, as the names of villages, towns, citizens and peasants, which are Hebrew, prove to this day, that a learned, honest man, who was hostile to the dishonest lies of the Jews, has had such an image stated and torn down. For so the Germans speak of one who pretends to great wisdom without reason: Where did he read it? The sow in (roughly out) the butt.
60 To this one would easily draw and turn the word Schem Hamphoras, namely Peres schama, or, as they do, boldly master and make Scham HaPeres, 1) so it reads close together. Just as if a German in hearing or reading understood närren for nourish; item, he has finely improved my goodness, yes, watered it. So the wicked spirit of his captive Jews mocks, makes them say Shem Hamphoras, and believe and hope great things within; but he means Scham Haperes, that is, "hie Dreck", not which lies in the street, but comes out of the belly. Shame means "here or there", peres, which is in the intestines of the sow and all animals, as Moses needs it in the third book [Cap. 8, 17.]2) when he commands to burn the sin offering with skin and hair, and with his peres, dung etc.
(61) For the devil has possessed and imprisoned the Jews, so that they must be of his will (as St. Paul says), to deceive, lie, blaspheme, even to curse God and all that is God's. For this he gives them as a reward his mockery, shame of Haperes, and helps them to believe that this and all their lying and fooling is delicious thing. About such a terrible prison they do not complain and cry, they also do not desire with the slightest sigh to come out of it, but are happy to be inside, consider it a special great freedom, wanted to
1) In the old editions, probably erroneous "Shamha Peres".
2) Here the Erlanger edition has reprinted the wrong Bible quote from Walch'. "3 Mos. 8, 27." In addition, the Erlangen edition has ten other false citations from Walch in this scripture.
They also like to have us Christians inside. But they cry out about the Roman prison, since they are not imprisoned by us, but we are imprisoned by them in our country, money and goods; because they are too comfortable, they deal with us in the same way as the devil deals with them, mocking us to our detriment, as the devil mocks them, to their eternal damnation.
(62) But in order that it may be clear how the foolish Jews deal with incense, they leave the previous text, where God gives must and promises that he shall divide the sea with the rod and lead the children of Israel through it (2c). Yes, this is the right main text that does it, since God promises and gives that it shall be done. But the nonsensical Jews ask nothing about this, take history before them, want to imitate (like monkeys) with mere letters what God has done at that time by His word and commandment, make no distinction between God's power and word, and between their nonsensical, nonsensical hypocrisy.
63 Also, they say that whoever knows the power and virtue of the seventy-two angels can force them to prove their power through the shame of Haperes. First of all, they are right in saying that whoever knows the power of these seventy-two angels can certainly do all miracles through them; just as it is certainly true that whoever has an ass that throws out gold can have florins, but where is such an ass? In the land of the sleeping monkey. So these seventy-two angels of the Jews are nowhere except in the land of the sleeping monkeys, they were never created, and they will never be created again; therefore they say rightly that whoever knows the power of these angels, he also does miracles as much as he wants and when he wants. We will also see that by such angels' power they will wrest their Messiah from God without his thanks and win Jerusalem; how can they fail?
. On the other hand, we see how the frenzied, senseless fools would like to charm the angels and force them under themselves with loose, mere letters, and put themselves above God, so that the angels would have to do what they want. These are they, the saints of all saints, who alone worship One God. For worshipping One God means, with them, to be with the
Mouths call One God, and with knees or bows show themselves to be against One God, but with the heart also worship mere letters, that is, many thousand lies and devils; for in what a heart relies and trusts, that is its God; Just as we Christians, the great cursed goyim, say that even if the mouth is silent and the knees do not bend, nevertheless, because the heart bends without ceasing, that is, places its confidence, comfort and trust in the one God, it is called without ceasing rightly and finely worshipping the one God.
But this is pure foolishness in these circumcised saints, who can sometimes call One God with their mouths (that is enough), but make angels and gods out of letters, as much as they want, in which they not only trust (which we mad goyim call worshipping), but also charm, for what they want. Should not a goy gladly become a Jew, since such great power is found, that one can make gods and angels of our liking, so we cursed goyim can nothing more than believe that the one God has made us all, and the angels rule us, not we them. Summa, a Jew is as full of idolatry and sorcery as nine cows have hair, that is, innumerable and infinite, as the devil, their god, is full of lies.
66. If they had to use such a way of learning with letters, as children are taught in school to know the letters, that they have to say the Abc in front of them and behind them, move the letters this way and that, so that they learn to make syllables and practice reading, or make pictures and figures with the letters, as some boys are skilled at, and did in the past; It would be to suffer as a merry children's game, as one could do better with Hebrew letters than with other letters; but to give power to the mere, empty, poor letters, and such power that can do wonders, even through the wicked and enemies of God, that is not only "Fie on you" and shame on Haperes, but the wretched, blasphemous devil himself with all his malice out of hell. For with 1) the wise pray
1) "with" is missing in the Erlanger.
The Jews believe so many devils, yes, so many thousand devils, as much as they lie to angels in their shame of Haperes (as said above). For they build on this and believe it to be the truth, which is a lie. This is what the prophets call idolatry, confidere in mendacio, trusting in lies, which honor belongs to God alone.
Now behold, how fine saints the Jews are; they condemn us cursed goyim for worshipping more than One God, but they, the given fruit of noble blood and circumcised saints, worship only the One God. That is true, if the seventy-two lying angels, that is, seventy-two thousand devils are called one God, then they certainly worship one God. See also what a great new miraculous saint you have become, when you have denied Christ and become a Jew. For you can by shame make Haperes that all devils are one God, which 1) God Himself is not able to do. Therefore, think and be grateful to the rabbis for their almighty shit, ah, shame Haperes I was going to say. Yes, that's how it goes, if you don't want to hear God's word, but blaspheme without stopping, you have to hear all the devils and worship them, as our Lord Christ speaks, Joh. 5, 43: "I have come in my Father's name, and you have not accepted me; another will come in his name, and you will accept him."
(68) Even if they let such falsehood and folly be bad lies, as the jesters or 2) jugglers lie, and confess that it would not be true miraculous signs, what should happen through the shame of Haperes: so one could still hope that they would get tired of the folly with time and once desist from it themselves. Now, however, they hang on to the wicked 3) click that they trust in it as in the truth of God Himself, make a worship and idolatry out of it, do not want to consider it as false miraculous signs, what happens through Shem Hamphoras; it should be serious, and real divine power should work in it, as it
1) Erlanger: because it.
2) Erlanger: "and".
3) Wittenberger and Erlanger: single bare.
In the text above they say that Jesus, the wicked, raised a dead man in front of the servants of Queen Helen; as their ancestors also confessed that Jesus cast out devils rightly, and was no jugglery, but in Beelzebub's name [Luc. 11, 15]. For their Shem Hamphoras shall be able to do everything and anything, righteously.
Lastly, it is a blasphemy beyond measure that they attribute such divine power in the Shem of Hamphorah to perform miraculous signs, even to the wicked, as Judas Sharioth and the deceiver (as they blaspheme) Jesus HaNozri, teaching it knowingly. This piece also moves Lyra, Burgensis and many others, without them not being angry enough about it. I do not know how to speak or write about this. If I say that the Jews are mad, blind, insane (as Moses says of them), full of devils, then it is all too little said by those who want to worship the one God, and are allowed to spit out such blasphemy, and also teach such as a right. Understand, whoever can, what this is said, that the divine, eternal Majesty, our all dear 4) Creator, praised and to be praised forever, is to be scolded by these damned young devils, that he by his miraculous works, which he alone does and can do, Psalm 72:18.He is a witness, a confirmer, a super-helper of all the lies, seduction, error, idolatry, blasphemy, and all the abominations that they lay on our Lord Jesus Christ, or cannot and will not defend himself against the shame of a false prophet, Haperes.
I cannot understand this in any other way than that they make God Himself the devil, yes, the servant of all devils, who helps to do, strengthen, accomplish all evil that the devil wants, who has the desire and love to deceive poor souls, to disgrace Himself with His own miraculous works, and to rage against Himself, summa, worse than all Jews, yes, than all devils. Oh my God, my dear Creator and Father, you will graciously grant me that I must speak so shamefully of your divine eternal majesty against your cursed enemies, devils and Jews. You know that I do it out of
4) Walch and the Erlanger: allerlieber.
Fervor of my faith and in honor of your divine majesty, for it goes through my body and life.
71 But your judgment is right, justus es, Domino. Yes, so shall the Jews and no one else be punished, who have so long without ceasing despised, mocked, blasphemed and condemned your word and miraculous work, so that they do not have to fall, like other human children, pagans and whoever they are, into sin and death, not up into hell, nor in the middle of hell, but into the abyss of hell, where one cannot fall any lower. For this is also their sin, which cannot be worse, since they not only despise you, the true eternal God, with disobedience and blasphemy of your word, but also want to make you a devil and a servant among all devils, that you with your glorious divine power should be a witness and serve the devil in his lies, blasphemies, murder, and what more devilish works are; right, right are your judgments, heavenly Father, they wanted to blaspheme, they got enough of it.
72. Moses writes, Deut. 18, 20. ff., that God will not let miracles or signs happen on the word of a false prophet, and says: "You should know that if the word of the false prophet does not come, then be sure that the Lord has not spoken such a word. But these devils say that Jesus HaNozri is a deceiver and a false prophet; nevertheless, true miraculous signs are, as raising the dead, walking the lame. Making lepers clean (which no one but God is able to do) have been done by such a deceiver. It would not be surprising that Christians who suffer such blasphemers, cursed by God, would have long since been sunk by God's wrath with hellish fire into the abyss of hell with the Jews, without it having helped us that we did not have to and are therefore innocent of their atrocious deeds. But now watch, dear princes and lords, if Jews protect themselves and suffer what you do, I will be excused. Here is not only Christ our Lord, and the Father in Christ, but God the Father Himself in Himself, that is, reviled in His divine majesty worse than Christ, and made a devil and servant of all devils.
makes. Cry out now more, Jew, cry out now: Crucify him, his blood be upon us and upon our children; it is done that you would have it.
Enough has been said about this; a Christian's heart and ears must want to hear and remember nothing of it, for it is too horrible, terrible and inordinate.
74. against this abomination it is a little less, what they from the name TETRA
GRAMMATON fool and slobber, of which I must also say a little, to reveal their foolishness to us Germans. In the Holy Scriptures God has many names, but in particular they count ten, among which is one they call the great and TETRAGRAMMATON the
They keep the most holy name, so that the others are sometimes also given to the angels and other creatures, but this one is always given to God alone. Here they are so holy and spiritual that they do not call the same name with their mouths, but instead of it another, or the four letters of the same name, Jod, He, Vof, He, because it is supposed to be unpronounceable. Therefore St. Jerome says: The Greeks, because they did not know these letters, have read them PJPJ, the He for a P considered.
First of all, I leave out the ten names, as this is not new, but is also indicated by St. Jerome in epistola ad MarceIIam, where he counts them thus: El, Elohim, Elohe, Zebaoth, Eljon, Ehje, Adonai, Iah, Jehovah, Schadai. Others do it differently; I don't think anything of it. There are probably more names of God in Scripture than these, as, Ab, Bore, Or, Chai etc., Father, Creator, Light, Life, Salvation, and the like. And what good thing can be called or be, that must not be assigned to God beforehand, but he who has it in himself, as Christ says: "God alone is good, and we receive from him all that we are and have. But now we will deal with the One Name, called Jehovah, with which the devil and the Jews practice much sorcery and all kinds of abuse and idolatry.
This name Jehovah, according to the Grammatica, comes from the word Haja, or Hava, 1) which means Latin: fuit, in praeterito,
1) In the old editions: "Haio" and "Hauo".
6886; German: wesen 1) or sein; and this can be nota nominis verbalis, like Josaphat, Jesaias, Jeremias and many other names, and is so much, as in Latin ens, in Greek on. We Germans must speak: "he is"; and thus becomes trigrammaton in Latin, dygrammaton in Greek, hexagrammaton in German, or, if we want to take "is" badly, it is also trigrammaton. That they now pretend that the name Jehovah should be unpronounceable, they do not know what they slur; if they mean the letters, it cannot be true, because he is called Jehovah. And if he can be written with feathers and ink, why should he not also be called with the mouth, which is much better than feathers and ink? Or why do they not 2) also call him unwritable, illegible, unthinking? Summa, it is a lazy thing. But if they do it in honor, they should do it in all other names as well, and let them also be unpronounceable. For it is said, "Thou shalt not take God's name in vain," therefore it is also evil. The Scriptures do not say that some of God's names should be unspeakable, otherwise all those who take God's name in vain would be innocent, because they would say that they could not have called His name, let alone take it in vain.
She says that God's essence, power, wisdom, goodness, and what else can be said of God is inexpressible, immeasurable, infinite, incomprehensible, etc. that not the letters or syllables, but that which is meant by them, is inexpressible. Yes, so one would have to speak of the ineffable name of God. For he has his being from no one, has neither beginning nor end, but is from eternity, in and of himself, so that his being cannot be called "has been" or "will be," for he has never begun, cannot begin to be, has never ceased, cannot cease to be; but it is called with him vain or "being," that is, Jehovah [Ex. 3:14]. Since the creature was created, there is already his essence, and what is yet to come, there he is ready with his essence.
1) "Being" is another form for "to be", which is still in use in Low German.
2) Erlanger: make.
In this way Christ speaks of His divinity, Joh. 8, 58.: "Before Abraham was, I am"; does not say: I was then, as if he would not be afterwards; but: "I am", that is, my being is eternal, has not been, will not be, but is a vain reality.
Therefore, as his Is, Am, or essence is incomprehensible, so it is also inexpressible, for no creature can comprehend that which is eternal. 3. Therefore the angels are eternally blessed, for they cannot see and rejoice in the eternal essence of God, nor comprehend it; and where it could be comprehended, it could not be eternal, would itself also have to have an end or beginning, and no one could give or receive a being, because it would itself be uncertain of its essence. Further, his wisdom, power, goodness etc. is also eternal and incomprehensible, because it must be nothing else than his divine being itself. Thirdly, which is probably higher, that in the divine essence God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three persons in one, eternal, incomprehensible essence. Yes, to say all this about God might be called an incomprehensible, inexpressible name. Who wants to name such a strange being, to think it out, to pronounce it, to write it out? In this way, perhaps, the ancients would have called the name Jehovah unpronounceable, because it means God's essence, according to the Grammatica, which (as heard) is one, from eternity, and is called three persons.
79. With this one should be concerned, and learn to recognize such Jehovah, that is, divine essence, and seek it in the Scriptures, as he has revealed himself, through his word, in this life, and will reveal himself there, without word, in that life. But this is too high for the Jews, yes, nothing at all, but this is what the tender saints do: with their mouths they honor the letters of the name Jehovah, which should and must be unspeakable, but the divine essence, which is signified by the letters, they comprehend and measure it with cubits, pounds and bushels, that it must be as large, long, wide, deep, heavy and full as they want it to be. Note that God had promised them the Messiah, whom He also sent, according to His divine, miraculous, incomprehensible, and unbelievable nature.
3) "can" is missing in the Erlanger.
They go to him and paint him a picture or a form, a measure and a concept of his wisdom, how he should send the Messiah, namely, as the Kochab made a way, not as Jesus of Nazareth; for their Messiah is not to be crucified, but to put to death the Gentiles and make the Jews rulers in the world.
No other way shall the eternal divine essence and his eternal incomprehensible wisdom find or meet, but in this imagined way let men compel, comprehend and embrace him; if not, he shall not be their God. For it is they who can give God purpose, measure, weight, manner and form, not only in his works, but also in his eternal divine being, so that he does not have to be three persons in one being. For they stand there with their compasses and angle irons, with cubits and lead, they will not suffer God to be such an incomprehensible being, and will not let them be much wiser, wiser and more understanding than God Himself is. Why is it that the Jews do not name or pronounce the literal Name with their mouths, but with their hearts they not only name, pronounce and judge His divine essence, the true Jehovah, but also force and compel Him into their sheaf? So they must do, is their way (as Isaiah prophesies in 29, 13.), with the mouth they honor the letters, and with the heart they defile and blaspheme; nor shall God always be fooled, that they thus devour the kernels, and spit the husks under his eyes.
81. they are given to do nothing righteous, to live nor speak, but to lead vainly perverse, blind, furious, senseless beings, as Moses says. It must be a great thing that they do not call the name of Jehovah, because they do not see that they use it in shameful abuse for their shame of Haperes, that they adorn, honor and strengthen their seventy-two invented angels, that is, seventy-two lies and devils, with the same holy name of God, and do all kinds of sorcery, incense and idolatry with it. I would, and they would be
It is also worthwhile that they not only do not mention the name of Jehovah, but also do not have to name, read, write, hear, or have a letter in all of Scripture, because they need it to disgrace God, to dishonor Scripture, and to condemn themselves.
82) And how can it be otherwise, dear brother? if God's word does not shine on us and show us the way, Ps. 119, 105, and his light 2) does not shine on us in the dark place, 2 Petr. 1, 19, then there can be nothing else but darkness, error, lies that we invent for ourselves. Look at our experience, when under the papacy we had put his divine word out of our sight and took the doctrine of men for it, what thick darkness, lies and abominations we worshipped with masses, purgatory, holy service, monasticism and our own works etc. Now the Jews have no word of God, therefore there must be darkness, because circumcision and Mosi's law is not valid any longer than until Messiah, who should teach them another, Deut. 18, 15, as he has done; they did not want to accept that, so they have to do it, that they do not do what God wants, but God should do what they want. At the time when Mosiah's law was commanded to them, they did not want to do it, they killed all the prophets over it; now, when it is no longer commanded, they want to do it, and they kill Messiah and all his Christians over it; before with the deed, now with the full will, desire and wish of their heart. The wrath of God has come upon them, as they deserved.
The other part.
From the beginning of the Gospel, as described by St. Matthew and St. Lucas, the question has arisen: Why the two evangelists tell so unequally (or, as many have interpreted it, so contrary to each other) the persons or members of the family of our Lord Jesus Christ, and especially that they both lead the line or line of persons in the family and end with Joseph, and not with Mary and Christ?
1) Erlanger: and.
2) Erlanger: Leucht.
The tribe of David, because it does not come from Joseph, which the evangelists well lead finely, according to the line of the family of David, and suddenly leave the same Joseph, put Mariam instead.
Here they all have to do, especially the Jews, then Julianus the emperor with his pagans; item, many of the old teachers, also the new ones not a little; the latter have to master here, the latter to wonder, as if our Christian faith were wrong, uncertain or completely dark in this. Therefore we also want to speak something about it, but with leave, because we want to let everyone make everything better.
First of all, to answer the Jews, if someone wants to talk to them. After the Jew, who moved me to write about the Jews the next time, also started this piece: it could not be proven that Jesus was of the tribe of Judah, because the evangelist Matthew traced the tribe of Judah to Joseph and not to Mary; therefore he could not be Messiah, of the tribe of Judah and David. 1) The serpents are thorny and poisonous, and they look closely to see if they can make our books false. For they ask not that they might learn of us, and know the truth; but with such questions they flatter and provoke us to scorn and ridicule of our faith, as which we cannot prove.
(86) Therefore one should tread on the head of the poisonous, prickly serpents and answer them in the most blunt and harsh way, in defiance of the devil: "That Mary, the mother of Jesus, is of the tribe of Judah and of the house of David, says not only Matthew the Evangelist, but also Moses, the very first, and after him all the prophets unanimously. And if we Christians had nothing else from the Old Testament, but only Moses, we would have enough and plenty to prove that Mary must be from the tribe of Judah and the house of David, so that all the devils and all the world (not to mention the wretched, raging Jews) should not overthrow this.
87 Thus says Moses, Gen 49:10: "The scepter shall not be taken away from Judah.
until Shiloh comes. Here it is decided that Shiloh or Messiah shall come from the tribe of Judah, just as there is no doubt about the snakes, no matter how poisonous they are. Item, 5 Mos. am 18, 15., he thus speaks, "God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brethren, like me, whom you shall hear." Follows [v. 18. f.], "I will (saith God) raise up unto them a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him: and whatsoever man will not hear him, that will I myself avenge."
Here it is written that Mary is of the tribe of Judah and David, no more proof is needed; the Jews are obligated to obey this shiloh and prophet before others, as Moses commanded here and God Himself commanded. Now this Shiloh and prophet said that his mother Mary was of the tribe of Judah and David, so he commanded his evangelist Matthew to write it. Therefore the prickly Jews herewith have their answer: If they do not believe Mosi that he speaks such things of Mary, then it is not necessary, nor are they worthy that they should believe Matthew or hear some Christians nor believe some truth, but Shem Hamphoras, yes, Sham Haperes 2) they should believe. Such faith belongs to such saints.
We Christians know (and no devil nor Jew can deny) that Messiah or Shiloh must come from the tribe of Judah and the house of David. If he now has no father, but only a mother, then the mother must certainly also be David's daughter. There can be no doubt about that, because her son, Messiah, must be from the house of David. Summa, whoever believes that Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, is the right Messiah, has already confessed, sealed and proved that his mother Mary must be of the house of David, as well and certainly as Joseph, her bridegroom, and much more certainly.
90 Yes, here we have a clash with the Jews: they do not want to have Jesus as their Messiah, so they flicker at us with their venomous, blasphemous barbed words about Joseph and his family.
1) "beweiset" is missing in the Wittenberg.
2) In the editions: Hamperes.
Mary; for they care not much whether Mary be of the house of David or not. And if they had seen for themselves that she was born of David, like Solomon and other of his children, yet they would not believe that Jesus, their son, was Messiah. They do not care about the son, they do not want it; they know well, the husks and false mouths, if Jesus is Messiah, that it is no longer necessary to ask whether Mary is of the house of David.
(91) It is about this same son that we Christians are concerned. For if he is not Messiah, we do not ask where his mother Mary comes from, no more than where Sarah (Isaac's mother) or other unknown women come from. But if he is Messiah, God says to the Jews through Moses, "Him you shall hear." And do we Christians believe the evangelists and apostles the high, some, great main piece, that Jesus is Christ or Messiah, why should we not also believe all the other lesser 1) pieces? For he who does not believe nor want to believe that Jesus is Messiah, does not need to know who or where his mother is; indeed, it would be good for him if he had never heard a word from the whole Scripture, even better if he had never been born. For God hath put all things upon the man, hath ordained all things, hath directed all things, hath given all things into his hand: he that hath, the same shall have all things; he that hath not, the same shall have nothing; so it is said.
And how would we do, if Saint Matthew and Saint Lucas had not described such a cord of birth? How many things are undescribed, as St. John speaks at the last. And to landmarks he himself writes much that Matthew, Marcus, Lucas have omitted. Which Christian would not like to know what the Lord did the thirty years before his baptism? St. Paul alone has described Jesus much more gloriously and abundantly, as he is Messiah, than all others; nor does he go through with his mother and gender so briefly, that he only indicates her once, yet without a name, Gal. 4, 4: "He was born of a woman," and Rom. 1, 3: "Who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh." He knows, the dear
1) Wittenberger: low.
Apostles, if this main thing is that Jesus Messiah is believed, then everything that is the truth must be found, or must not be necessary to find: "For in Him (says He) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" [Col. 2, 3.], so that the Holy Spirit then does not allow anything false to be taught or believed.
But the Jews, the circumcised saints, are proud, boastful, and stiff-necked against us cursed, wretched Gentiles, thinking that not we, but they alone have the holy Scriptures; therefore, what we teach about baptism, sacrament, keys, and other articles of the New Testament is ridiculous to them, because they do not find it in their book. They think that everything must be in their book alone, or could not be right. So also, because they do not find in their book these words: Mary is David's daughter, or of the house of David, they grumble and reproach themselves against it, as if they were sure that it must be nothing.
94 I will pay them in their own coin and say that they are not Jews either, for there is not a letter in the holy Scriptures about these Jews, and they are not able to prove from their book that they are Jews or Israel's seed; I dare to deny them that. Further I say with right earnestness and on my conscience: If there were nothing more than the Old Testament, I would conclude, and no man shall persuade me otherwise, that these present Jews must be about a basic soup of all loose bad boys, flowed together from all over the world, who have gathered and scattered to and fro in the countries, and scattered to and fro in the countries, like the Tattern or Gypsies and the like, to burden the people with usury, to explore and betray the countries, to poison water, to burn, to steal children, and to do other all kinds of assassinating harm; as brother Richardus writes in the Alcoran, 2) of the assassins who are sent by the Saracens all over the world to cunningly strangle the worldly lords and to murder what they can, whether they have thus
2) This paper is included in No. 56 of this volume.
They are called Ishmaelites, and they are able to take over lands that are not their own and without lords. You may read about them in the 10th chapter of the Alkoran.
95 Such an opinion should be strengthened for me by the histories written about the Jews, which are learned more and more every day all over the world, about which they are often expelled, burned and slain, as is reported in that book. Thus one sees also how gladly they intrude themselves with the lords and noblemen, give medicine before; item, art with signs and letters against all kinds of weapons and iron, so that they have filled Christendom. For even the village priests and sextons with such smokehouse circumvented, with which we found in the visitation many of the books of the name Tetragrammaton, Ananisapta, and many strange prayers, signs, names of angels and devils, which are certainly Hebrew. So we also learned how they helped the noblewomen from the diseases to the churchyard, that they undoubtedly laughed in their fists.
I heard about thirty years ago how a Jew had infiltrated Duke Albrecht of Saxony, who also taught him such art against all kinds of weapons that he should not be able to be stabbed, hewn, shot etc. Oh, these are fine arts, to lead the lords in such a way that they should perish cunningly. But Duke Albrecht was wise, wanted to be sure of the art beforehand, rode out into the field with the 1) Jew and said: "Jew, I must try the art on you, go out and stab the Jew, so that he lay there dead, and even his Shem Hamphoras, Tetragrammaton, and others could not help his smokehouse. That you (said the duke), you knave, how should you have led me away for my life! Yes, he might even have laughed softly in his fist. Now it was better that the duke tried on the Jew, than that the Jew should have intertwined with the duke. I also have a crystal with me, which was Duke Frederick of Saxony's, which my present most gracious lord, Duke John Frederick 2) has given me, which is with golden Hebrew letters and signs,
1) Wittenberg and Erlangen: den.
2) Thus the Wittenberg edition correctly. In the other editions, "Friedrich" is missing.
no doubt also to the blow. But the same prince was much too clever for such a smokehouse. But nevertheless, the boys tried it.
(97) Yes, I say, I would consider these Jews to be such loose, bad boys, and not true Israelites, if there were nothing more than the Old Testament. For the Old Testament tells us about Jews who were in the land of Canaan and still should be, and if they were led away because of their sin, they should have come back home long ago, according to the promise of Moses 5 Mos. 4, 31. 3 Mos. 26, 44. But since this did not happen, there is no other way to think, than that they perished in time, and perished completely (like Moab, Ammon and other nations), or even changed into another nation, and remained nothing 5) but a lazy bunch of foreign boys or gypsies, who circumcise themselves and pretend to be Jews, because they do not keep any part of Moses or the prophets. But that they praise the Old Testament, we have better neither them. That they circumcise themselves, the Turks also do, and there is no longer any sign of Jewish kind or blood, but a real pit of murder, full of all kinds of wickedness and malice, to damage and weigh down country and people. Thus one also finds in the "Beggars' Book" that they speak Rothwelsch, since there is much Hebrew among them, as a sign that they are with or from the Jews.
98. but because the New Testament testifies that the Jews shall be scattered among all the Gentiles, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (that is, until the end of the world), as our Lord saith, Luc. 21:24, for Christ shall sit for ever, and no other Messiah shall come: therefore I must believe that yet .Some, and very few, of the Jews must remain in the world, but shall not have dominion of their own, but shall sit on an uncertain footing, as the 59th Psalm v. 11. 12. prophesies, in the spirit and person of Christ and his people: "God maketh me to see my air in mine enemies. He-
3) Wittenberger: versuchens.
4) "in" is missing in the Wittenberger and in the Erlanger.
5). Erlanger: "remain".
choke them not, that my people forget not; but scatter them with thy might, O Lord our shield, and thrust them down." And must go to them, as Cain, thy fratricide, Gen. 4, 14.: "Thou shalt be Nogvonod [xxx xx] upon the earth, inactive and fugitive, that we call nowhere home, sitting on the cuckold and scales, having neither certain foot nor room.
99) Nevertheless, because they are so eager to pick up and collect the loose, renegade, defective Christians, in whom they certainly gather nothing good, and have now done so for many years, the Israelite blood will have become quite mixed, impure, watery and savage, who have very soon learned from them to attack and murder the Christians. Again, the Jews did not learn anything good from them, so masters and disciples practiced among themselves, sharpened and improved until they became such a murdering pit and the devil's basic soup; for a renegade Christian becomes a bitter enemy of the Christians.
Let this be said of the pride of the wretched Jews, who boast of their holy Scriptures as if no one else had them; yet they must enjoy our New Testament, where they are supposed to be Jews, and have nothing else to prove it. Neither is there anyone who has less holy scripture than the Jews; let us see.
If the Jews had ears or eyes to hear or see, they would easily be told and shown that there must be more than one book of the holy Scriptures, and not the Old Testament alone, since they have heard and understood Moses and the prophets, and yet do not understand. For they must confess that the Messiah is promised in the holy Scriptures. Now when he comes, he will not be dumb or lame, but will speak and do better than Moses, David, Solomon, or any of the prophets. From such speech and deeds a book will be written. For he shall cause it to be written, even as Moses wrote his preaching and doings, and Isaiah his, and so on. This book of Messiah must now be much better, holier and more glorious than Moses and all the Old Testament.
Testament, because Messiah must not only be holy, like Moses and the prophets, but must be the most holy and prophet above all prophets. Therefore, his book must also be the most holy, above all the holy books in the Bible.
We cursed goyim do not invent such things, but Moses has announced such things clearly to his people, namely that another book of the holy scripture should come, which they should accept. For so he speaks 5 Mos. am 18, 15. (as said): "A prophet from your brothers will God raise up for you, like me, you shall hear him." I hope that the Jews, as poisonous evil worms they are, will not be able to say that we have invented this saying. Now let us hear the words, we want to carry in nothing from own Kops, as they are used to carry into the scripture their raving, insane glosses.
Moses does not speak in that place of his person, as he was born of his father, but of his office, as he was called or raised up by God to be a prophet; that is, as God raised me up from among your brethren to be a prophet, so will he raise up another prophet from among your brethren. This other prophet cannot be Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, or any of those who were in the Old Testament; For they were all under Moses, teaching what Moses (as a prophet of God) commanded and promised or proclaimed, namely circumcision, the Ten Commandments, the laws of the priesthood, principality, worship, temple and what was to be taught in the whole state and regiment and to the people and Old Testament, none may teach or promise anything else without what Moses commanded and promised.
If this other prophet is to do with his prophecy as Moses did, he must establish other commandments, laws and rights, other priesthood, principality, worship, temple and government. But if he should teach nothing else than what Moses taught, then it would be Moses himself, or the
1) Erlanger: from.
old prophets who have been under Moses, and would not be like Moses is. What is Moses doing, that he promises with useless words, "God will raise up another prophet like him, whom they shall hear"? So much more would he have said: When that prophet comes, you shall hear me (that is, my prophecy). But now he gives up his mastery, office, and prophetia, and sends them to that prophet, saying, "Him shalt thou hear." For that they should hear Moses and his prophets, he had done before, and all the prophets have done after, to the point of great weariness.
105) The same testifies when he introduces God Himself, who says Deut. 18:18: "I will raise up a prophet for them from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall preach the things which I will call him" etc. These words and sermon of the other prophet must be other words and sermon than Moses' word and sermon; for they are to be future words and not yet given, because Moses' word was put into Moses' mouth on Mount Sinai forty years before, and was also written by Moses at that time. Therefore Moses took good care against the naughty Jews, because he announced to them brightly enough that another book, more holy than his, would have to come through the other prophet, and thus also another priesthood, worship, people and law would have to be established.
Accordingly, all the prophets cry out in unison with Moses that Messiah should be a prophet and priest who should preach a different and new message, as Moses preached here. Isa. 2, 3. 4, 2. Many Gentiles will say, "Let us go up to the house of the Lord, that he may teach us his ways; for from Zion shall go forth a law, and from Jerusalem the word of the Lord." Do you hear here that it has not gone out, like Mosi's law and word, but it shall go out in the future, and be a new and different word. Isa. 61, 1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore hath he anointed me (to the Messiah, or
1) "in" is missing in the Erlanger.
2) Walch and the Erlanger: shouted.
Anointed One), that I should preach the gospel to the wretched, to heal the afflicted hearts" etc. Ps. 110, 4: "You are a priest forever, after the manner of Melchizedek." Zach. 9, 10.: "He shall preach peace from sea to sea, even to the end of the world." Isa. 9, 6.: "He will be a prince of peace," that is, as Zechariah also says on 9, 10., "putting away horse and chariot," and, Isa. 11, 4., "ruling without sword."
107. If he is to rule without a sword, and yet last and keep peace, he will not have to be a king like David and all other kings (who cannot rule without a sword), nor teach about their worldly law, and thus his kingdom must be far different from another kingdom, neither a worldly kingdom, which is nothing without a sword and its law, and can have no peace. Also, if he is to be a priest, preacher and prophet, who is to rule in peace, how can he maintain such a regime, which must have no peace, and so far right, especially no eternal peace, as yet the prophets say of him? Israel had peace under Solomon, but so far that they themselves cried out about him, 3) that he had overestimated them 4) and sucked them dry; nevertheless it was no eternal peace. Summa, it must be another thing with this other prophet, as it was with Moses, all prophets, kings and all the world, and still is; or Moses must be a liar with all his prophets. He should not be like other prophets or kings, that is what the holy scripture of the Old Testament wants; therefore his book, the New Testament, must also be different and higher than the Old Testament.
108. but no one is so gross and nonsensical as to confirm all these things in Moses and the prophets, as Jeremiah 31:31, who, after all, despises too much these high-souled, shitty (circumcised) saints, and may without leave of all the Talmudists and rabbis (O, that this and that might pass him!) lead out and say, "Behold, the time cometh, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah." O, Jere-
3) Jenaer, Walch and the Erlanger: scream.
4) Erlanger: "übersetzet".
2072 Erl. ss, 3LO-3LS. 52. Luther's writing of the Shem Hamphoras. W. xx, ssW-ssss. 2073
mia, drive beautifully, where do you want to go? You don't know how the rabbis will turn your nose after 2000 years with their glosses, which are better than your bright text. Shall a new covenant and testament come? Where will the old one remain? Where will the circumcised saints remain, who do not want to know anything else nor suffer, also with the Christians, the cursed goyim, because only the old one? Shall you be so bold and throw away Moses with the whole holy old scripture, in addition with the Talmudists, and so highly and deeply learned saints, that you may prophesy before their nose of a new book and testament?
And, what is even worse, you insolent heretic may say thus: "Not as the covenant was, which I made with their fathers, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" etc. O Lord God! God have mercy on you, poor Jeremiah, how mad you have become that you so purely abolish the old covenant, which surely was made by God Himself, as you yourself confess and say: "which I made with their fathers"; you also mention the time, as if you were not mad, "when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt". Well, you can't be helped, you want to be condemned by the circumcised saints; so I won't ask for you, nor interpret your words differently, because the circumcised saints couldn't stand it, might make it worse. 1)
110) But here the learned Jews give us cursed goyim a good haircut, 2) because they write that our Jesus himself said, Matth. 5, 17: "he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them, and not one letter nor one tittle should pass away, everything must happen, before heaven and earth pass away" etc. There you have it, you cursed goyim. Well, which man could have provided more and more that the Jews would have been so highly instructed to teach us Christians also the New Testament? Surely a brazen dog at Jerusalem will make them so wise with barking, or a fresh shame will make them so wise.
1) This proverb otherwise also in the form: "Uebel wird Aergeres. Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 365, § 11.
2) Give hair off - prepare a delicate defeat.
Haperes have filled with great smoke (spirit I would say) that they understand so powerfully what fulfilling the law means.
The wretched Jews have never known all their lives what the least law is, much less what the fulfillment of the law is, and they can never understand it (as long as they are such Jews). Other people belong to this group, as St. Paul, Rom. 3, 21: "God's righteousness is revealed, testified by the law and the prophets", and Joh. 1, 17: "The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"; St. Peter, Apost. 15, 10. 11.: "This is the burden which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear, but believing, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved, even as they were saved." Dear one, tell me how it is possible that the rangers (rabbis, I would say) and the Jews in their school should understand such high words, who have done nothing all their lives, and still do nothing but dig in the shame of Haphre with their rebuke?
I will say something less, how can a Jew understand what is said, Matth. 7, 12: "What you want people to do to you, you also do to them; this is the law and the prophets. Here almost all of Mosi's laws are lost. Item, Matth. 22, 37. ff: "Love your neighbor as yourself; the commandment is equal to the first: You shall love God with all your heart. In these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Moses understood it well, as he says 2 Mos. 34, 6: "Lord, Lord, merciful God, who forgives sin and no one is innocent before you", and David, Ps. 130, 3: "Lord, where you will look upon sin, who can remain before you?" Item, Ps. 51, 8: "Behold, thou lovest the truth in secret, and teachest me the secret wisdom." Jeremiah also says that he will not write the new covenant on tablets of stone, like the covenant that never entered the heart of any fleshly Jew, nor did he understand it, much less keep it; as Jeremiah says, "They did not keep that covenant," but that he will write the new covenant on living tablets, in the hearts, so that there will be living, burning books of the new covenant.
The words shall be, and so may God's will be done.
Now, of such living Scripture written in the heart, it will be necessary to speak outwardly and to write a book, as Moses had to write a book of the Scripture in the tablets of stone; for there will be so little, and much less, that will be done secretly, which this New Testament or Scripture would do in the heart, neither that Testament which is written in tablets of stone and not in the heart. But of this we speak and know, 1) if we are true Christians; for even the pope with his church knows nothing of this, neither does he respect it. The Jews know as much about it as a sow knows about the Psalter.
This certainly proves that a new testament should have come over the old, so that the pride and glory of the Jews is nothing but a peres and fie on you, since they want no testament nor holy scripture to be without the old. But it does not help them; their own Old Testament is against them, condemns them with its glory, because it prophesies so aridly that the old covenant should not do it, Moses' regiment should be over, Messiah should not rule according to it, but the New Testament must do it. Just as Moses gave up his office and gave way to the new prophet. Therefore, the Jews must accept the New Testament, baptism and our faith, or be eternally lost. The Old Testament, Moses himself and all the prophets will not help them, but stand against them and condemn them to hell.
(115) But here comes the question again, whether Messiah is come? If he has come, then Jews, Gentiles and all the world are obliged to accept the New Testament, not only as a holy scripture, but as the most holy scripture above the old holy scripture. Now it is sufficiently proved that Messiah came 1500 years ago; then we Christians, first of all many thousand children of Israel, then we Gentiles, accepted such a New Testament, also 1500 years ago, and will accept it until the end of the world; but the Gentiles, the other Israelites, they would not accept it,
1) Erlanger: "will". This is not a misprint, because "we" is given as a variant.
spurned them such a small thing. They have thus spoiled the food and mangled the joy, out of great arrogance and stubbornness; after that they wanted to pout and grunt, since 2) they found nothing in their hunger. So it is that those who 3) proudly boast and boast that they alone have the holy Scriptures before all the world, they have not one leaf nor 4) letter of them, as far as the mind is concerned, for the soul's use and good; we do not speak of the body's and the body's use. For that which they seek in the Scriptures they shall never find; it is not in them, neither is it ever found in them, so waveless as in the most vile book that is made upon the earth. Messiah is promised inside, but not the Messiah they want and dream of.
We Christians have both books of the holy scriptures, the old and the holy, and the new and most holy. The old promises the Messiah and says: he shall surely come and be given. The new one calls and says: he shall surely come and be given. Now if the Jews could accept the new book, the most holy scripture, as many did 1400 years ago, they would understand that circumcision and all old holiness should give way to baptism and the new holiness that is above that holiness. 5) For at the time when Messiah and his book were still in the old book, that is, in the promise, there was certainly no holy scripture but the old book, in which promise all the saints were saved who hoped for such promised Messiah. For he is the same Messiah, the one who promised those, but who came and appeared to us, so that no one else could be hoped for, nor could come.
But after the Messiah and his book have come forth and been given to us, there is no longer any promise to wait for. And if the old book is a certain witness to God that the Messiah has come to us, the new book is still much more of a promise.
2) Erlanger: that.
3) Wittenberger: they.
4) Erlanger: another.
5) "is" is missing in the Erlanger.
sure witness of God that the Messiah has come. So the two cherubim look with their faces towards each other into the mercy seat, that is, Old and New Testament, say that Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, is the Savior of the world and the right mercy seat before God, against our sin, death, devil and hell. Thus is fulfilled that which is said: "Israel shall dwell safely", which the Gentiles want to have understood from the yeasts of this life.
But now the Jews do not accept these things, they have neither old nor new book, neither God the Promiser, nor Messiah the Messenger, they hover between heaven and earth, and touch nowhere, neither old nor new book, as Zechariah 5:1 shows the flying letter, which he calls maledictio, curse; for their teaching is vain cursing; otherwise they truly know nothing in the Scriptures. For first of all, it is certain that they do not understand the promises of Messiah. Secondly, they do not understand the Ten Commandments, because without Messiah they cannot be understood. Thirdly, they cannot understand what the ceremonies mean. In addition, because the priesthood is fallen, they also do not understand the manner or the form of the ceremonies. Fourth, no Jew understands the noble, exquisite examples or lives of the fathers, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Summa, the whole people of Israel. For they do not know what right faith and right good works are. This is proven by their blind, stupid, miserable Talmud glosses, Commentary, and finally also their Grammatica. That is why they have nothing left in the Old Testament. It is said: "I am the light" (says Messiah [Joh. 8, 12]), where this is not, what else can there be but vain darkness?
119) Let this be said of the blunt and harsh answer that one should give to the stiff-necked Jews to their prickly poisonous question, namely that Moses 1 Mos. 49, 10. and 5 Mos. 18, 15. testifies powerfully, and with him all the prophets unanimously and abundantly, that Mary is Messiah's mother, and must be from the tribe of Judah and the house of David. If they do not believe Mosi, they believe much less the evangelists. Also we know Chri-
1) In the issues: from.
s even such an answer is good and certain enough, as said, because the son Messiah must come from David, and we believe that his mother is a virgin, then she must of course also be David's flesh and blood and natural daughter: otherwise her son Messiah would not have to be David's, but of another blood, because his mother would be of another blood, especially if she, a virgin, should give birth without man's blood and flesh:
120) Over such testimony of the Old Testament we will now see the New Testament, how abundantly and powerfully it testifies that Mary must be David's daughter. First, St. Matthew begins his book, Matth. 1:1: "This is the book of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Here you hear that Jesus Christ or Messiah is David's son and Abraham's son; so his mother must be David's and Abraham's daughter, because she is a virgin who gave birth without a man, as the evangelist proves afterwards. And if St. Matthew had not written a word more about this than this beginning of his book, this would be enough to prove that Mary must be from the house of David. For the son Messiah proves where the mother is from, not the mother (as the foolish Jews seek), where the son is from, or that he is from the tribe of Judah. Now the evangelist does abundantly well, and counts three times fourteen members of Abraham, that is forty-two members, so that it may be said of any one member, Whose daughter is Mary, and Jesus is his son, as he is David's and Abraham's son; that thus forty-two times Matthew alone in the line of the lineage confesses that Mary is of the tribe of Judah and of the blood of David. And summa, as often as Jesus is called Christ or Messiah in the Old and New Testament, so often Mary, his mother, is proved there to be David's daughter.
(121) But that some are troubled, why the evangelist turns the words in the last parts in such a way, Joseph leaves, puts Mariam, whom he does not lead down in the cord from David, as he leads Joseph: here we should (if we knew nothing else) give glory to the Holy Spirit and think that Matthew is very much in favor of the friendship of Mary.
2078 Erl. SS, ssa-sss. I. Luther's writings against the Jews. W. XX, 2SSV-2SSS. 2079
He knew Joseph, her husband, so well with his friendship, and it is not to be believed that he should bear witness forty-two times alone in the line of the family that Christ is David's son, and yet lead the mother from a foreign tribe, as if he had become mad and foolish in the last generation.
But let us consider the words of the evangelist, whether he could also lead Mariam from David, as well as Joseph. It is certain that St. Matthew leads the cord through Solomon, and St. Lucas through his brother Nathan: these are two cords, but of the same blood as two brothers, from David; but in King Jehoash they come together, and must come together in one cord, because 2 Chron. 22, 9. 10. it says that Athaliah killed all the royal seed except Joash, and as the text says, "There was none left of the house of Ahaziah to be king." Here Solomon's line goes down, that Christ indeed comes from his blood, as according to the line of his brothers and fathers, but not from his body's descendants, but, as Lucas says, from Nathan his brother.
nach gemeiner Laien Sprache genannt sei, wie wir Deutschen Johannes, Hans, Hänsel, Henno Einen Namen machen. Item, Nicolaus, Nickel, Claus etc. We Germans pronounce the name Matthes scantily and rightly, as it is written in Hebrew, Matthath, Thaf raphato, et A puro vel Italico [that is, with an x, provided with Raphe, and with a pure or Italian A].
Let us remember this Matthes, it is because of him that Abraham and David's blood are close to. Messiah, almost in the last Hans. For Messiah has now come down from above to this Matthes' house, and we have him in this house for sure; and from this house alone he must come, putting behind him what is left of brothers or
Cousin 1) Houses are none of our business; Matthes' house is where he is. If we now had nothing more than this Matthes, we would have plenty to answer those who are concerned about Mary and Joseph being of one tribe and house. For since Messiah is in Matthes' house, and must come from Matthes' house, the evangelist has thus clearly and brightly enough proved that both Mary and Joseph must not only be of the tribe of Judah and of the house of David, but also of one house of Matthes, the grandfather Joseph; because Messiah must come from Matthes' house. But if Messiah is in Matthes' house, then his mother is certainly also inside, as she, a virgin, shall give birth to Messiah from Matthes', David's, Abraham's house. For in whichever father or house Messiah is, in the same his mother Mary must certainly be beforehand (as said above), which means she is a virgin, has no husband; virginity does, which leads Messiah with his mother through all fathers, except himself.
What was the reason that St. Matthew could not prove to us how Mary and Joseph are of one stock, house and father? It is because we have not noticed in which father the Messiah is, in which his mother should also be, because she is supposed to be a virgin and cannot give her child to anyone but herself and her father. For Jerome, Lyra and others write that Joseph and Mary are therefore of one sex, to prove that he took them in marriage according to the law of Moses, Numbers 36:6, 7, so that the property would not be separated into foreign tribes, this is much too cold and too lazy, also too high up, above David, and yet it helps nothing; as Burgensis also rightly and well refutes. Why did we not look at this Matthes? We would have come closer to it, and so close that [it] cannot be closer.
For since Messiah must come from Matthes' house and nowhere else, let us see what comes from the same Hanse. First, Jacob, his son, comes out, as Matthew writes. From this Jacob's house
1) Wittenberg wrong: Veter.
Messiah did not come out, nor did he come in, but Joseph, his son, came out. Now we must look again at Matthew's house, which comes out the other time. Mary cannot come out yet, nor can she be his daughter, although she is inside with her son Messiah; otherwise Joseph would have taken his father's sister or his grandfather's natural daughter, which God forbade through Moses, Deut. 18:12. Much less can it be another daughter of Matthes who will be the mother of Messiah, which must be Mary alone. For the daughters leave the father's house for other houses, therefore the scripture does not count a woman's cord. So Matthes must have another son (at least), in whom Messiah comes from him, who is Eli, as Lucas writes. This begat a daughter, Maria Jakobi, it is not; and after it a younger daughter, Maria, it is. If he has more sons or daughters, go his way; for Messiah must come from a virgin, Eli's daughter.
Here we have the mother of Messiah, who is a sibling with Joseph, and both are niftel of one grandfather, Matthes. So, I think, it is strong enough to prove that Mary and Joseph are of one stock and blood, because they are of one grandfather's sibling, two brothers' children, and cannot be closer, they would be bodily brothers and sister. But it was permitted by Moses in this people that siblings would marry each other, that is, a grandfather would give his two nieces or two brothers would give their children together in this people, so that the evangelist also calls Joseph Mary's husband and Mary Joseph's bride; as if he wanted to say: Because you hear that Joseph is Mary's husband, you know them 1) well, that they are of one blood and siblings according to the common way.
So the evangelist brought the Messiah, his mother with him, from above, through all the fathers' houses, to Matthew's house, then to Eli's house, and from there to Joseph's house, where he was born and brought up, not from his own body, but from the body of his bride in marriage, or in his married state,
and Messiah is his legitimate son, and Joseph his legitimate father, but only from the virgin Mary. Since we now have 2) so much, that Joseph and Mary are niftel of the great father Matthes, we have enough, and it is certain that Mary is of the house of David with Joseph. Whoever now wants to continue to argue about the two brothers Jacob and Eli, whether Jacob took his brother's daughter Mary and gave her to his son Joseph, or whether Eli took his brother's son Joseph and gave him to his daughter Mary, may do so; it is sufficient for us that they, the two fathers of Joseph and Mary, were sons of Matthes.
129) Jerome writes that Jacob is Joseph's natural father according to St. Matthew's text, but Eli, whom he also calls Eliakin and Joakim (for all three should be one name, as with us Nicolaus, Nickel, Claus), is his father according to Lucas' text, that is, his sister-in-law or cousin according to the way in which daughter-husband is also called son, and son-wife is also called daughter, and according to the law in which a brother must allow himself to be called and be the father of his deceased brother's children. That pleases me well, and better than Eusebius with Lyra, who means, Jacob took his brother Eli widow, and with the same Joseph begot. Since Mary (Joakim or Eli daughter) and Joseph would be children of the same mother and natural siblings, Moses does not suffer, 3 Mos. 18, 6.
130 Here falls the old question: Which evangelist among the two, Matthew and Lucas, describes the paternal cord, because it is obvious that Matthew leads the fraternal cord from Solomon down to Ochosias, as is proven above. First of all, Lyram and his part must be let go with their opinion, because they go too far from the path, so that he also holds that Nathan is not David's natural son, but the prophet (who was probably as old as David himself), and is with the other two brothers, Shimea and Shobab, 1 Chron. 3:5, of Uriah and Bethsaba's descent, whom David afterwards chose to be his sons, 3) and only Sa-
1) "they" is missing in the Wittenberger.
2) "nun" is missing in the Erlanger.
3) Körkinder --- adopted children.
lomo was Bethsaba son of David; there he leads the saying, Proverbs 4, 3: "I was a certain son of my mother" etc. This is nothing; in this way Christ would be Uriah's son, who was a Hittheus, a Gentile, though more pious than many thousand Israelites.
On the other hand, it is enough for a Christian that both evangelists introduce children of David, whether father or brother, and both remain in the house of David, counting no children of the body or foreign blood. From which then Christ comes, he comes from David. I keep it with those who give Lucas the paternal line, except for Eli; For since the cord from Matthes, the grandfather, 1) points one part to Jacob, the other to Eli, he must probably put Joseph, Eli's son, that is, son-in-law, for the reason, as he himself says, that Joseph is putativus Pater, putative father of Christ, not natural father, as the cord would have demanded, since Mary, his bride, would not have been a virgin mother, and the scriptural way does not suffer him to carry the woman's cord; nor is he putativo, supposed way, One Body with his bride Mary, as he is also supposed Father of Christ. Summa, as said, the great father Matthes makes it all bad, that Mary and Jesus are one house and father's children.
132) It moves those that Matthew always says, genuit, genuit, he has begotten or given birth to; therefore they think that Matthew speaks of the natural cord that follows from birth from father to son for and for; but Lucas speaks of the fraternal or paternal cord, which they call legalem, not adoptivam, as Lyra thinks, but since a brother according to the law (as is said) must adopt his deceased brother's children as if he were their father. This I do not believe. St. Matthew does not believe it himself and thinks nothing of it. For he knowingly leaves three members out among the kings and says: Joram begat Uzziah; which is impossible, because Uzziah was born in the fourth member of Joram at 100 years after Joram's death, in addition in the brotherly line.
1) "zwieset" ---- splits into two. Jenaer, Walch and the Erlanger: "zwieset".
comes from Nathan, not from Solomon, since Joram is the origin. Likewise he does among the princes after the Babylonian prison, since he leaves much outside, counts alone fourteen, so Lucas counts probably twenty-two, and could not be called: Asar begat Zadok, so perhaps in between two or three are omitted; therefore the genuit does nothing Hiezu that Matthew should lead the paternal cord.
He has his way of speaking, genuit, he begat him etc. So that he does not mean anything else than: he is born from him or from his blood, as we also speak in German: Carolus is of Maximilian origin or born. He shows this also with these words in the title: "This is the book of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Christ is not born nor begotten of David; nor is he his son, because he comes from him by blood. So birth here cannot only mean the personal birth of Christ, if he counts forty births of his ancestors. But Lucas leads the paternal cord. For he boasts in the beginning that he has diligently investigated everything and wants to write it properly, which we must believe, because we believe the greater and everything else. For such registers were well known among the Jews, have it all (as their way gewest) diligently written, as there are two examples Chronica [and] Ezra; also Moses, who describes Jacob's and Esau's family diligently.
134 But Matthew freely confesses that he does not want to count everything properly, saying that he wants to count three times.
fourteen, from Abraham to Christ. And because he found fourteen patriarchs, he would take no more than fourteen kings and fourteen princes. 2) Although the scribes, through no fault of the evangelist, omitted one king, Jehoiakim, the father of Jechoniah, and there are only thirteen kings, as St. Jerome also shows the lack in the Greek books. Lucas, however, makes four times fourteen, taking them all, even those who were not kings, as Nathan and his descendants. To the same Luca is also by the scribes the fourth member after Noah.
2) Erlanger: name.
Kenan, which cannot be, after all. Therefore, I consider it a futile effort to compare all names against each other, because we do not have the registers. And it is not written to us Gentiles in particular (but to the Jews), who knew it well. That is enough.
Levi.
Aaron. |
Zadok. |
Jojada. |
John Baptista.
This Mary, our Lord's mother's sister or his mother's wife, is called in the Gospels Mary Jacobi, from the son; is also called Mary Cleopheh, from the other man, who was still alive on the Easter day of Christ, Luke 24:18. So Judah is also called Jacobi, perhaps that he is Jacobi's brother, from Alphaeo, the first husband of Mary Jacobi. These are called our Lord's brothers because they are children of his mother's sister.
137 The angel Gabriel also says, Luc. 1, 36, that Elizabeth is Mary's mother or friend; this cannot be otherwise than that Mary's mother was Elizabeth's sister, which we will call Anna, as she is called everywhere. But because Elizabeth is from the priestly tribe, as the angel says, from the daughters of Aaron, therefore I place the two sisters, Anna and Elizabeth, in the line of Aaron, so Joachim or Eli 1) takes the one sister from the tribe of David.
1) "or Eli" is missing in the Erlanger.
that we compare them as much as we can; there you may ask Joseph[us] and Philo.
I want to set the whole friendship, according to my idea or concept; whoever does it better, have thanks.
Abraham.
David.
| Joas.
| Zerubabel. | Matthes.
Eli. Jacob.
Maria Cleophä. Mary. Joseph. Salome. Zebedee.
1st Jacob. 2. Simon. Jesus. 1. jacobus major.
Annam, and Zacharias from the priestly tribe the other one, Elizabeth. Thus Mary is Aaron's daughter from the priestly tribe by her mother, and David's daughter from the royal tribe by her father; thus Christ is also of royal and priestly blood. And if Elizabeth is her mother and the Lord's great mother, Mary would be a sibling of John the Baptist, and he would be a near cousin of our Lord Jesus Christ in the third generation.
Now Salome wants to be something special, misses an advantage with the Lord, because she asks him to place her two sons, one on the right and the other on the left in his kingdom [Matth. 20, 21], that I think she must have listened to him very closely. Therefore I set her as Joseph's sister; she thought that Mary Jacobi was her mother's sister, but I am her father's sister; therefore I have the right of way with my children over the mother's sister with her children. Because Joseph is no longer a child
*)This A indicates the priestly tribe, while the other line indicates the royal tribe. **) In the editions erroneously (just as afterwards in § 144) "Joseph" instead of: Joses.
my two sons are the closest friends of Jesus, and she thinks that Jesus is Joseph's son, as everyone thought at that time [Luc. 3, 23]. Against this the others grumbled, without doubt the children of the mother-sister, and perhaps some more with them, who also wanted to be the greatest, as we read in the Gospel. Hereby Jacobus the Great and John Evangelista also become cousins of the Lord, with the name as close as Jacobus and Simon, Juda and Joseph, but one limb further according to the blood. For Joseph is not the natural father of the Lord, only his mother Mary and Salome are daughters of two brothers etc.
139 From this it can be seen how the Lord's closest friends have approached him in a human way, and again he presents himself as another human being, Phil. 2:7, and he also holds himself friendly and brotherly to them. And there shines no splendor of majesty, but the utmost servile form.
Some, like Bonaventure, have their devotion here, but with a free conscience, that John Evangelista and Mary Magdalene were bridegroom and bride in the wedding at Cana, as the sequence of St. John Evangelista reads. On the other hand, another one may have his (but free) opinion that Simon or Juda was the bridegroom, and the bride was also a near mermaid in the other or third member; for the Evangelia call Simon of Cana and Juda Zealots, that is, of Cana. And it is well to think that bride and bridegroom must have been close friends of the Mother Mary, because she herself is there and helps to rule. For she would not so lightly mix herself in foreign or far friendship wedding, since probably other closer women would be.
But the final opinion of the evangelists, especially Matthew, with such a cord of sex, is that he wants to teach and strengthen the ignorant weak Jews, but to shut up the stiff-necked ones with these two articles: Jesus is Messiah, and Mary is a virgin. For these articles were very difficult for the pious to believe, but impossible for the stiff-necked to believe; because he was very well attended in Nazareth with father, mother and all his friendship.
He was raised and lived there for thirty years, carpentered with his father Joseph like a journeyman, did not go to school, learned nothing, likewise after his father's death he and his poor mother continued to feed each other in this way, and did not let himself be particularly remembered, but kept himself badly and quietly, like another journeyman of his kind, so that she was quite used to him and could not bear in her heart that the unlearned, coarse, poor carpenter should be taught all his life, let alone become a preacher.
Suddenly, when the thirty years were up, he left the trade, ran away, was baptized with others by St. John, and began to preach, to interpret and teach the Scriptures, and to perform miracles, to the horror of the whole world, because all the priests and teachers were lazy, cold, lumpen preachers against him. 1) This was a strange incomprehensible thing in their eyes and ears. It was even stranger that he should not only be a prophet, but the Messiah himself. O how strangely contemptuous speeches were made about it! Dear, be silent, should Jesus preach, do you think I do not know him? I have lived with him for thirty years, I know who he is and what he can do.
If you had lived, worked, eaten, and drunk with Hans N., the son of a poor citizen, from his youth until thirty years, and you knew him as well as yourself, that he had never known a letter, and that same year he wandered off to another country, where you heard that he preached and was more learned than all the doctors in the world, and that he performed miracles, you would answer the announcer. There you would hear of him that he preached and was more learned than all the doctors in the whole world, and that he performed miracles; then you would answer the announcer, "Are you foolish or are you joking? Do you think I do not know Hans N., with whom I have eaten bread for thirty years? If the clamor were great that some would begin to believe and boast that he was king or Roman emperor, you would say, "Well, he has become foolish, and the world is mad and wants to be mad; I should not be persuaded of this, I know him too well. It is the same for the Nazarenes with Jesus.
144. as he comes home again, about barely
1) Erlanger: been.
After half a year, he goes to school, stands up, takes the book of Isaiah in his hand, reads from it, sits down, and preaches a beautiful sermon, so that they are all amazed; then they all see him themselves, cannot deny that it is Jesus, whom they know very well, and look at him and say, Matth. 13, 54. ff: "Where does this wisdom and power come from? Is he not the son of a carpenter? Is not his mother's name Mary? And his brothers Jacob and Joses, Simon and Judah? and his sisters, are they not all 1) with us? Whence came all this unto him? And were vexed with all him." Why did they fret? They could not believe that it was full of God what they heard and saw. They knew the person too well, and it was too small; therefore they thought that he had surrendered to the devil, who must do such outrageous things through him. And since the first one touched him with a word, they took him at the same hour, led him out to the city, and wanted to cut off his neck, down the rock, as a harmful person.
For he had let it be known in the lection of Isaiah that he was Messiah, since he said that the same saying was fulfilled in him, Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, therefore the Lord hath anointed me," that is, made me a Messiah, and yet he was a beggar, as they knew him. For this he scolded them, as if they were not worthy of his miraculous deed, as Lucas indicates on the 4th, B. 16. Then they were angry and thought: Away with such a Messiah, he will cause misfortune; we know that he is a beggar and wants to be Messiah. The boy who recently helped to build a house and read shavings with us has suddenly become Messiah, that is, king of kings, and despises us, the holy people of Israel, because he does not want to do what we like etc.
146. but it is all the more grievous, since he rose from death and ascended into heaven (but they thought that he was now dead, as he deserved to be, as a deceiver), that they should now consider this Jesus, with whom they had played (as they say) the Köten (2), not only to be the true Messiah, but also
1) "all" is missing in the Wittenberger.
2) "To play the Koten" - to deal with someone according to favor. - The Köhde - the ankle on the horse's foot.
to accept him as Lord of heaven and earth after death; this was an unpleasant and unbearable sermon to them; they were offended by it and fell, the greater multitude, until this day; for their thoughts had to be right, God had to lie and be wrong, as they still do, and so they have lied to and broken down against Jesus, so that it cannot be said nor written.
(147) Yes, this is (as I began) the evangelist's main final work, that he would like to present Jesus to the Jews, so that they would accept him as the Messiah, and that they would let go of all the anger and would not let themselves be hindered, because he had lived so despicably with them for thirty years and had been crucified so shamefully afterwards. For he was the son of Abraham, David, and of all the fathers, counted by the cord, except for the mother Mary, who was attested a virgin by Isaiah and the Holy Spirit; not a bad son of David and of the fathers, as others were, such as Joseph, Simon, Judah, Jacob; but the only, peculiar, miraculous son, in whom the prophecy and promise made to Abraham and David and all the prophets were fulfilled. If they would accept this son, that is, the fulfillment of the prophecy and promise, then they would have grasped the right Messiah, then they would let the old testament go, with circumcision, priesthood, principality, temple, Jerusalem and all laws, which go and belong to it, because they would no longer need it. On the other hand, they would cheerfully accept the New Testament, baptism, sacrament, and all that Messiah has taught and ordained, and also hold it much, much 3) holier than the Old Testament has been, and not dwell on the fact that no holy scripture or book is more than the Old Testament, as they dream. Testament, as they dream.
The evangelist did not work in vain, along with other apostles and evangelists. Many have been converted who have accepted Jesus with great joy, and cannot be sufficiently surprised that God has fulfilled His promise so wonderfully, and yet so sweetly and kindly, before they
3) A "much" is missing from Erlanger.
could understand it. The others kept and still keep the saying of Isa. 53, 2. 3.: "We saw him, but there was no form that we could have desired him. He was the most despised and worthless, full of pain and sickness, so despised that people hid their faces from him: therefore we did not respect him" etc. But whoever wants to be Kochab or Messiah to the Jews, he does not have to be shaped like that nor to be looked at, they certainly despise him, says Isaiah here:
149) That we come to the end, the Jews, as I have said, easily believe that the line which Matthew leads is right from Abraham to Jesus, and so they stand still and listen. For at that time all the men and women of the whole tribe of Judah, of whom there were many thousands, were of Judah, and the greater part of the house of David, as well as Joseph, Mary, and their son Jesus. But when the evangelist hangs on it: "from whom is born Jesus, who is called Messiah," they recoil as if thunder struck them down, there is no more hearing, although the evangelist has introduced so many members into the string, whom he might well have taken less; as he then omits some to indicate that it is not necessary to name all of them (for they were quite happy to hear their family boast), so that this salutary article should also come to them neatly and gently.
150 St. Matthew does not only want to say from his spirit (as he has power, right and command) that Mary, a young woman, has given birth, but also brings in the prophet Isaiah to entice her kindly by her own scripture. But what does it help with the stubborn, gnarled, stiff-necked, damned Jews? They have here many marterns in this saying, as they have in all others, and yet they can accomplish nothing without always tinkering with the mallet, and would gladly make one lie true with seven lies. But, as said above, let the Jews go, and ask nothing of what the devil rages through them. If there is a man's heart among them, 1) that will
1) Erlanger "jenen". Should the "jnen" of the old prints have been dissolved in this way?
With the others it is said according to the proverb: Lost like the soul of a Jew. Therefore, to strengthen and adorn our faith, let us see how ridiculous (yet poisonous) the devil acts through them this saying against St. Matthew.
From the word Alma, and the Virgin Mary.
151. first. "Behold (says Isaiah), the virgin is with child" etc. Here the word Alma is written, of which many others, I also have written, that it is called a virgin or maid, who still walks in hair and in wreath, and has not become a woman. And if a Jew or Hebrew can show me that Alma is called a woman in the Scriptures, he shall have a hundred florins with me, God grant where I find them. For four times, and no more, is the word Alma found in the holy Scriptures. First, Genesis 24:16, about Rebekah, who describes to Moses in many words that she is not indebted to a man. Secondly, Exodus 2:8, about Moses' sister Miriam: "Then Alma went and called her mother" etc. But Miriam could not have been ten years old at that time, as the Jews themselves must confess. Third, here Isaiah 7:14: "Behold, Alma is with child." In these three places there is an article which means singularitor unam, and no other. To the fourth, Proverbs 30:18 ff: "Three things are too strange for me, and the fourth I know not: the way of the eagle in heaven, the way of the ship in the sea, the way of the serpent upon the rock, and the way of a man upon a maid. So is the way of an adulteress, which swalloweth up and wipeeth her mouth, saying, I have done no evil."
Here, here stands (they say) Alma with a man. I do not ask whether Alma is standing there with a man; for I see it very well myself, praise God, I must not ask a Jew to show it to me. I say that one should prove to me that Alma here is called a woman and not a virgin; I would like to hear the master and admit a hundred guilders. How, if Solomon in the place (as the cursed Goj, Doctor Luther, understands it, and will not let him take it easily, if it's
(not even a hundred guilders) spoke of the vexatious misfortune in the world? since a "giver", that is, a husband, cannot find the wife's bed in God's name, and creeps after a maid or virgin, for instance, in the devil's name. Again "Gebirah" (the woman) cannot find the man's bed, in God's name, and creeps to the servant or other companion, the devil's name, has a clear 1) conscience, swallows adultery like a wolf swallows a mosquito, wipes the mouth afterwards, and no one may call her a whore. Who wants to prove it?
Because such things must be played out in darkness and secretly plotted, there are strange ways, handles and intrigues, which no Solomon nor regent can devise, or forbid, or convince, as little as he can dictate the way to the bird in the air, because the whole sky is its way, and the whole sea is the way of the ship, and goes where the wind wants to go, and the snake on the rock, which also has no cord nor straightedge, it can bend too much. It is a pity of this life that one cannot prevent secret adultery, and that (unfortunately) the husband likes a maid better than the wife, and the wife's servant better than the master; as the poet also says: Quod licet, ingraturn est. Nitimur in vetitum. Lex occasio peccati. This is what Potiphar's whore wanted to do to Joseph. Gen. 39, 7.
Nevertheless, Alma here is called a maid of the virgin, whom the man creeps after; if he brings her down, she is never a maid; if she is firm, she remains an Alma, as I have well heard in the histories that the pious virgins have cunningly brought the horny men to the women, under her name. So the Jews cannot prove that Alma here in Isaiah 7 is called a woman, because the word Alma in all Scripture means a virgin or maid; also in plurali numero, Alamoth, they cannot prove that it is called anything else but virgins or maids. Prove it otherwise, but drive nicely, so that I do not have to lose my hundred guilders so shamefully. And before that, that St. Mat-
1) space - spacious, wide.
thaeus not become a liar; otherwise the Holy Spirit would have to be circumcised himself; that would be a pity for the beautiful feathers, that they should become Jewish.
(155) Secondly, says Isaiah, that such Alma is with child, and this should be a miracle or sign; does not say she will become pregnant, as some ravens would have liked to interpret: they had 2) to be ashamed of their own grammatica, that Hara is called concepit,
est praegnans, she is pregnant, she has conceived. But they want to turn to this, that the Prophet took a young maiden in his old age and made her pregnant; then he starts and says: Behold, Alma is pregnant and will bear a son, so that the opinion is: This is not the sign that Alma is pregnant, that the Prophet has beautifully arranged; he is her husband, but that she bears a son, and not a maiden.
Whom shall we believe now? God says: This is a sign that Alma is pregnant. The Jew says: Oh no, God denies, this is not a sign, because the prophet has made Alma pregnant. So we have here two texts; the text of Isaiah stands bright and clear: God will give you a sign, behold, Alma is with child etc. But the Jewish text is this: "Behold, Alma has a husband and is with child by the prophet; God will give you a sign that she will bear a son, and not a daughter. You may want to ask where the high art came into the Jews, that they can dice the text and God's word so masterfully, as if they were on a double game, and put the hindmost first; also give Alma a husband, since Isaiah does not write anything about it, but says that Alma is pregnant, does not say that the prophet did it.
157. i cursed goy cannot understand from where they have such high art, without that i must think, since Judas Sharioth had suffered that his intestines were torn, and, as happens to the exalted, the bladder 4) burst: then perhaps the Jews have provided their servants with golden pots and silver
2) Erlanger: must.
3) d. i. fraudulent dice game.
4) Walch and the Erlanger: Bläse.
They had bowls with them, caught the Zudas piss (as it is called) together with the other sanctuary, then ate and drank the earth 1) underneath each other, from which they get such sharp eyes that they see such and such glosses in the scriptures, which neither Matthew, nor Isaiah himself, nor all the angels, not to mention us cursed goyim, can see. Or have looked their God, the Sched, in the butt, and in the same smoke hole found such written. It is not written in the Scriptures, that is certain; so it cannot be taken out.
158. Therefore we cursed goyim must leave the most holy Jews their heavenly 2) wisdom, which they have found apart from the Scriptures in Judas' piss and in their Jews' sweat, so that they alone remain wise, and meanwhile let us be fools with Isaiah and Matthew, that we remain in and with the poor, meager, dry text, since no such art is in it, if Judas' piss and the Jews' sweat is out, namely, that this Alma is pregnant without man's consent, and bears a son without loss of her virginity. For in the whole of Scripture no woman is given a child unless the man or father of the child is named; just as it is said that the child must have a father, except for this Alma, where no man is mentioned, and yet she is promised a son.
To prevent the evil and dangerous example, that virgins and widows could not boast, if they had children without men, that they had it, like the woman and the woman in the Scriptures, who also had no men. For it would be a strange thing if our daughters, virgins, and widows should set the house full of children for us, and say that they had licked the snow, and had no other father. Oh no, one does not lick the children at the snow. Moses says, Gen. 1, 27, that a male and a female belong to it; God also did not want to give the blessing to the fruit of the womb until he had created them both and given them together.
160 But this certain Mary has no husband to whom she can give the child, but
1) Merde - porridge, mixture, dung.
2) Erlanger: clandestine.
must stand there alone and without a husband, and hear that she is pregnant and will bear a son; but it shall be a special, a sign and wonder (says God), not the common way; yes, it shall be my sign, I will give it and do it, I will be father and husband, she shall be mother. Now it is well known (it should be known by a cow) that it is not a sign when a young wife is pregnant; what else would or should they do, the young women, with their husbands, but to become pregnant? what else are they made for? It is considered neither a sign nor a miracle, but a common way and example, which is rarely lacking.
It is neither a sign nor a miracle that a pregnant woman bears and gives birth to a son, because it is the common way, ordained by God, that they should not bear vain daughters; but that the Jews want to make God such a frivolous fool that he should call it a sign, which they invent a sign according to their Judaic piss, since the women themselves and the physicians can easily guess whether it is a son or a daughter. But if this sign is that Alma is pregnant without a man, then it is already nothing with the Jewish gloss but Jewish piss and Jewish sweat; they feel this well themselves, therefore they contest the first part of the impregnation of Alma. For it is because of him that the mother is a virgin.
If Isaiah were not a prophet, and Matthew not an evangelist, whom one is obliged by God to believe, but bad historians, then one should still believe them, as one does Joseph and Philo, and more than the lying, blasphemous, obdurate Jews, who in the whole of Scripture now almost at two thousand years have flown and practiced to invent one lie after another, that one should not believe a word of them. For a lying mouth is not believed, even if he saws the truth (as one speaks), even if God gives him a true word, no one believes it. Et illud: Si mentiris, etiam, quod verum dicis, mentiris. Christ, our Lord, would not let the devils speak, even though they spoke the truth.
the Jews also hold, badly lying like the devils, before where two pious honest men or historici say otherwise; how much more where a prophet and evangelist say otherwise. For it is not good to put the piss of Judaism and the sweat of the Jews over the ointment of the Holy Spirit.
Nor is it Isaiah alone who proclaims the mother of Christ a virgin; God proclaimed it in the beginning of the world after the fall of Adam, when He gave the first promise of the New Testament or Gospel, saying: "I will put enmity between you and a woman, between your seed and her seed; she shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise her heel" etc. [God the Lord could have spoken so much that He could have said, "A man's seed shall bruise your head," or "Name the man whose seed is the woman." But now He is silent about the man and gives the child or seed to the woman alone; this can be no one but Mary, the mother of Christ, for all children and seed are otherwise attributed to men.
Although all the saints from Adam onward, and we Christians to the end, are also such seed as trample the devil's head, we are not of ourselves, but of the seed of the woman in whom we believe, just as after him we are called Christians and children of God, and are, because we abide in him, that is, in Christ and the Son of God; we must become like him. Through such faith of the promised seed, Adam, Eve, Abel, at the same time, rose again from the serpent's power, and became his head-kickers. What now here some fathers play in this saying with allegories, we leave aside. For one part is of no use at all: that Adam should be portio superior rationis, Eve inferior portio. Such philosophia does not belong here. One part makes the church out of Eve, the Christians her seed. But this is a piece of right understanding, namely, as said, that all saints are also such seed through faith in the one seed of the one woman. And if someone wants to pretend that this does not prove that the woman must be a virgin, she could be a widow:
God did not want to pour it all out at once, but to make it clearer and clearer as time went on; it is enough now that Christ should be the seed of a woman without the seed of a man; virginity is indicated. It all depends on the seed. Afterwards Isaiah shall express it, that [it] is an Alma, a virgin. The New Testament shall freely state that she is called the Virgin Mary of Nazareth, the bride of Joseph and the mother of Christ.
165. this is where (as the grammatici tells us) the
Hebrews admonish) the patriarch Jacob with the word Shiloh, Gen. 49, 10.: "The scepter of Judah shall not depart until Shiloh come." For it is very well to reckon that the fathers from Adam have daily and well practiced the promise of the woman's seed, when it was their life and blessedness, after the lamentation and fall of Adam. But Silo comes from Silva or Siljah (as they say), and is called secundinam, 1) since the child is in the womb, or recently born child, continens pro contento, as seems to be the case in Deut. 28, v. 53, since it brings such grief to the Jews that a woman with great hunger will eat her Siljah, which goes out from her womb, that is, her child, recently born, per synecdoche, which figure is common in all languages. As when we say, he can drink out of a barrel, eat out of a pot, when it is not the barrel nor the pot, but what is inside, that is eaten and drunk. Item: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets" [Matt. 23:37], when the stones and wood do not do this, but the people inside do. It is a wicked house when wicked men are in it.
166 Therefore Jacob will say: until Shiloh comes, that is, until her (the woman's, not the man's) child comes, which she alone has conceived, carried and born in her womb, of which it was said to our father Adam: a woman's seed etc., in German, until the virgin's son comes. For he was not to be conceived and born in sins, as other Adam's children; therefore his mother had to be a virgin, whom no man touched.
1) d. i. secundae [partus], the afterbirth.
Nor a widow who had a husband before and served and helped to increase the original sin. Psalm 51:7.
167 And if the devil might have had this cause, that. Mary was a widow, he should have made us so many Christos, as a widow would have carried children, that we would not have known which one it was, and thus would have lost the right one among so many sons. Otherwise, it was difficult for us to keep the only one from his rage. For he already began, through his mania, to make another Christ, who would not be Mary's natural son, but would come from her as a ghost. Thus Helvidius, the fool, also wanted to give Mary more sons after Christ, from these words of the evangelist: "and Joseph did not recognize his bride Mary until she gave birth to her first son"; he wanted to understand this as if she had had more sons after the first son; the coarse fool. To this St. Jerome answered finely. Summa, he is hostile to the seed of the woman, and would like to make it null and void, or at least uncertain. Therefore, the evangelists describe the line of the lineage so diligently that the Jews should not be angry and think that there must be another Jesus of whom such great things were said, but this one (whom they knew well), the Son of Mary, could not be. Ah yes (they say), it is the same one, the only Jesus, the son of Mary, the son of David Abraham and of all ancestors.
Therefore it was necessary that his mother should be a virgin, a young virgin, a holy virgin, redeemed from original sin and cleansed by the Holy Spirit, bearing no more than One Son, One Jesus, who could be her Siljah, fruit, her womb seed, without a father, an only Christ for us. But here is not time to strike out such things; for I would have to preach how the seed of the woman must be a blessing, promised to Abraha, that is, how he must be God. I have written and spoken of this elsewhere, so I will leave it at that.
169. that the rabbis would insist on the He and Cholem in the Shiloh, does not concern me, I can well do away with the Cholem: if Shiloh should not read Silah.
feminino genere, yet the fruit of the woman would be alone, because there is no man, and would have to be called the virgins' son of Judah, or of Judah. But Deut. 28, 53, the man stands with the woman who eats her children; here the fruit of the woman alone, Silo, stands without a man. Many fine sermons will be preached and books written, which are forgotten and lost in time; as we now see that a good book or sermon hardly lasts a year, and, as they say, a new song is sung for a year, without which there are few people who keep it for their descendants; the crowd lets it pass, and always waits for a new one; thus the devil keeps the world forever in error, the small crowd stays with the one it has received, John 8:31. 8, 31. 1) So it has happened, so it goes, from the beginning to the end of the world, that great things happen, and yet little is respected; the others let it go and forget it.
(170) Now Isaiah is a fine vocabulary, who, as a master, interpreted to us the word silo, and the seed of the woman, as if to say, "Do you want to know what silo means, what the seed of the woman means? I will tell you: It is a miraculous sign that Messiah shall be the son of a virgin, and his mother shall be an Alma, who conceives in her virginal siljah, or womb, without the help of a man. St. Elisabeth is also fine, when she joyfully received Mariam and said: "Giving is the fruit of your womb" [Luc. 1, 42.], that is Silo, the fruit matricis tuae, your Siljah, or your womb alone, and no man; because my womb child has a father, called Zachariä.
So David also sings Psalm 22:10 in the person of Christ: "You have pulled me out of my mother's womb. Here he calls himself Silo, who was drawn from his mother's womb (not from his father's loins, like all other children). Item v. 11: "Upon you I am drawn from my mother's womb; you are my God from my mother's womb." Such cannot be said of any child of Adam, all of whom were born in wrath and sin, and without God.
1) In the editions "Joh. 2.", which cannot be correct. Other passages that would fit here are: 1 Joh. 2, 27. 28. 2 Tim. 3, 14.
This one alone is God's child and in grace, the moment he is taken from his mother's womb, and yet has to suffer such great torture, which is worthy of the grace of God etc.
Further David says Psalm 110, 3: "Out of the mother, out of the dawn comes the dew of your birth. Just as the dew falls from the dawn, so your birth comes from the mother (mother does not mean the whole person of the woman, as in the fourth commandment, but that the women are called mother in her body, matricem or Siljah). Now the dew falls from heaven without the help of all men, Mich. 5, 6. yes, even without clouds, even when the sky is bright and the dawn is most beautiful, it falls most sweetly; no one can say from where or where it begins to fall. So also Christ came out of the mother, who is in the womb of the virgin Mary, that no father knows, indeed no man, nor she herself can tell nor know how it happened that this beautiful dew, Christ, was conceived and born in her mother or womb. It is called: conceived by the Holy Spirit, from above.
Accordingly, all Christians are called "born as the dew from heaven", Mich. 5, 6. Because we believe in Him, we are made like Him and are respected. Joh. 1, 12.: "He gave them power to become children of God, born not of the flower, but of God." For no one can tell nor know where a Christian comes from; "for he is born of spirit and water," Jn. 3, 5. The water is seen as one feels the dew, but the birth no one sees. So we also are children, conceived and born of the Holy Spirit, like unto Christ, except that we come by grace and for his sake: but he hath it for his own person, lest he, the Son of God, should be born otherwise, being not in the old birth of sins and death, as we prodigals of Adam.
174 To this we add the saying of Jeremiah 31:22: "The Lord shall create a new thing in the earth, and a woman shall compass a man about her. This has been read and understood throughout Christianity by Christ.
and the Virgin Mary, his mother, as is right and just. There shall be a new thing," he says, "which has not been before on earth. From the beginning children were born, regiments were established, evil and good people lived, improved and worsened, as it is still going on, and will go on until the end of the world: but here the new miracle shall happen, which never happened before, namely a Nekefa [xxxx] a woman, who is not a man, shall surround a man, that is, Mary shall conceive and give birth to God's Son.
For this must be, if our faith is to be correct, that Christ, our Lord, at the moment when Mary gave her full word to the angel Gabriel and said: "Let it be done to me according to your word", was both God and perfect man in one person, as the dear Fathers received in the Concilio Ephesino against the Nestorium. For if this were not the case, she could not be called theotocos, God's Mother, nor could Christ be called her Son; this has been discussed elsewhere, and is too long to discuss here. Now let this be a new strange man, who is both God and man, in his mother's womb a child, however small it may be. He must have been small, as the Doctors, Damascenus, and more afterwards, calculate the same. Accordingly, Elizabeth calls Mariam the mother of the Lord from the full spirit, although Mary was perhaps barely a fortnight pregnant at that time, at which time no child can live in other women, as is known.
Finally, I cannot leave it, I must show what fine thoughts St. Bernard spins out of Moses, Deut. 12, 2. where he says: "If a woman is inseminated and gives birth to a child, she shall be unclean for seven days" etc. Here St. Bernard wonders why Moses lets his mouth run over with such vain words: if a woman is inseminated; why does he not say briefly: "Every woman who bears a child shall be unclean for seven days"? For it is well known that all women must be inseminated if they are to bear children, and none bears a child that is not inseminated. Then he smelled that Moses had kept his mouth shut and had not burned himself on the mother of the Lord, whom he had exempted from his commandment.
Laws, that she should not be unclean like other women; that she might proclaim that the mother would come one day to bear a babe unprocreated, that is, to bear the silo, a mother's child without a father.
All these things I have written this time in honor, praise and thanksgiving to our dear Lord, to strengthen our faith, to scorn and annoy the wretched devil and his circumcised saints. For I know very well how they disgrace and blaspheme these 1) introduced sayings, so that no one may say that I do not know their thing, condemn them unheard, and I would not do such an outrage against them if I knew their mind. No (praise God), I know well what their wisdom is in the Scriptures, I have proved it in that 2) booklet, in the saying of Jacob Gen 49, Haggai 2, Daniel 9, and in the article of circumcision and of the nobility of blood; in this booklet in the shame of Haperes, 3) Isaiah 9, and the like. I did not want to act anything unconscious.
178. their art in the saying Jeremiah 31:22, where they say: "A woman will surround a man" should mean so much: the people of Israel is the woman, God the man, Now Israel has been a whore in idolatry; then she has converted and repented, so that the man, that is, God, again surrounded and reconciled. If now the words could give that, than cannot be, how can such a thing be called a new thing created on earth? Has the people of Israel never been such a whore and been converted again? Then ask the book of the judges. Here it will come that what a rabbi calls new, that is new, what he calls old, that is old, as above the rule gives full of the "left and right hand.
179. but this is still much higher, finer art; in this place they speak that the woman is the whore of Israel to understand; but when they have wedding, they lead the bride three times around the bridegroom, so that they do this saying of Jeremiah enough, a woman surrounds the
1) Erlanger: the.
2) In the book Von den Juden und ihren Lügen, No. 51 in this volume.
3) I.e., in the first part of this book, which deals with the Shem Hamphorah.
Man. Here Nekefa, the woman, must be called a virgin, there a whore. Why? Because the rabbis cannot fail to say that a whore is a virgin, and a virgin is a whore, according to the rule that the left hand is right when it is called a raven right. And also before never such new thing must have happened, when a woman or bride is led around the man three times, because Jeremiah speaks: "there shall be a new thing on earth, created by the Lord." But here a rabbi soon helped the matter and said that what he calls new is new, but what he calls old is old, ut supra.
The desperate devil-mongers think that the Holy Scripture is their own, like a piece of paper, from which they can carve little men, little birds, little houses, little cat chairs, as they like; and what they say, both their Jews and we Christians should accept as true.
Therefore, I will again pronounce judgment on the accursed rabbis. First of all: The holy scriptures are not of the Jews, not of the Gentiles, nor of the angels, much less of the devils, but of God alone, who alone spoke and wrote them, who alone shall interpret and interpret them where it is necessary; devils and men shall be pupils and listeners.
182 Secondly, we Christians are forbidden, in case of loss of divine graces and eternal life, to believe the Rabbis' reasoning and glosses in the Scriptures, or to consider them right. We may read it, to see what damned devilish work they do among themselves, to beware of it. For thus says Moses, Deut. 28, 28: "God will strike you with madness, blindness and a raging heart." Moses did not say this about the cursed Goyim, but about his circumcised saints, the noble blood, princes of heaven and earth, who call themselves Israel. Hereby is condemned by God Himself all their understanding, gloss and interpretation in the Scriptures as vain madness, blindness, frenzy, that all what they have worked these 1500 years in the Scriptures, God Himself speaks and judges not only false and lies, but also vain blindness,
4) Erlanger: the.
mad, insane thing. And as such a judgment is found in the work and in the deed, as you have seen above in the saying of Jacob Gen. 49, 10. Hagg. 2, 7. Dan. 9, 24. in the Shema of Hamphorah; Isa. 7, 14. of Alma; Jer. 31, 22. of Nekefa. Summa, they do the same in all sayings that speak of Messiah and right faith. A raging man must rage.
183) This judgment is confirmed by Is 29:13,14: "Therefore this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and they fear me according to the commandment of men, which they teach: so will I deal strangely with this people, most strangely and oddly, that the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. This is not said of us Goyim, but of the people of Israel, who had excellent, wise, prudent men and prophets, and still have books of them; But because they have become a false, hypocritical lying people, who praise God with their mouths and go to the devil with their hearts, they shall also lose and not have the wisdom and understanding of the prophets, but as they pay God with their mouths (that is, with the shells) and serve the devil with their hearts (that is, with the core), so they shall also have the letters (the empty shells) in 1) the Scriptures, but they shall not smell the core, the right understanding.
184 Just before that, in the same chapter, v. 11, he says: "Let the prophecies of all the prophets be to you as the words of a sealed book or letter, which one gives to read [to] one who can read or not; [he] must say, I cannot read it, for it is sealed" etc. Such is also the work in the blind raving Jews; for they have the book well, but there is no understanding, neither of the Messiah, nor Law of Moses in some verse, that the heathen and poets teach much better thing, neither the Jews, since they are also best. The sayings are much more in the prophets, especially the Psalm 69, 23. f., which St. Paul introduces Rom. 11,9.: "Their table must become a rope before them.
become a retribution and a trap. Their face must become dark so that they do not see" etc.
But 2 Cor. 3, 14. 15. 16. paints St. Paul right, since he speaks of these Jews from the time of Christ (because it cannot be understood by anyone else): "Until this day, when Moses is read, the covering remains over their hearts, because their minds are hardened. But if they turned to the Lord, the covering would be removed." So the Lord Himself also proclaimed to them Matt. 8:12: "The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into darkness"; and John 8:21: "I go, and ye shall seek Me, and die in your sins: for whither I go ye cannot come." And what does St. Paul do in all his epistles, but to call the Jews dogs, cuttings, and all blinded and hardened, from whom one should beware?
(186) Now, if a Christian wants to seek understanding in the Scriptures from the Jews over such a judgment and condemnation of the Jews, what else does he do but seek the face of the blind, the wisdom of the mad, the life of death, the grace and truth of the devil? It serves him right, if he also becomes insane, blind and furious, as his masters are, condemned by God 2). That one learns the language and grammar from them, that is fine and well done, just as they also do, learn from us the German language, from whales the French, and where they are, there they learn the language of the country; but our faith and understanding of the Scriptures they do not learn. So we should also learn the language from them, but avoid their faith and understanding, condemned by God.
187 Therefore, our Hebrew scholars (for which I have also asked them herewith for God's sake) should let this work be commanded to them and be concerned to purify the holy old Bible from the Jews' peres and Judas' slopes, where they could change the points, distinction, conjugation, construction, signification, and what more the grammatica has, and turn it from the Jews' mind, so that it may turn into the and
1) "in" is missing in the Erlanger.
2) "of God" is missing in the Erlanger.
with the New Testament, that they would do so confidently and with joy, as St. Paul teaches in Romans 12:7, that prophetia should be analogous to faith. For so they have done to us, that is, to the Bible these 1500 years. Where they have been able to turn the Bible away from our Messiah and faith with points, distinction, conjugation etc. and make it dissimilar to the New Testament, they have done this with great and furious diligence, as can be seen above in the examples Gen 49:10, Haggai 2:7, Daniel 9:24, Isaiah 7:14 and the like.
188. as, 1) Isaiah 9, 5. as they make the text so, Vajikra Shemo, Pele etc.: The Wonderful, Council, God, Hero, Eternal Father will call the Messiah Prince of Peace. Here one sees their courage, therefore one should discard their points and construction, and read as we read it, because there is the Grammatica of the letters gladly, so one for Vajikra liefet Vajikare, and all names in the Rominativo can stand. The Hebrewists will probably find more of these, so that the thieves may be given back with honor what they have stolen with shame these 1500 years, perhaps even longer. For the main thing must be true, that the old holy scripture goes and testifies to Messiah and our faith; whoever does not understand it then cannot have it.
For this reason I have said that Moses and the Scriptures are not known among the present Jews, nor is the old true Moses, so shamefully have they defiled him with their Judaic piss. For Moses wants to be a witness of the Messiah, that is certain. But because they disgrace the Messiah so much, it is impossible that they should understand Moses correctly in a pasuk. I would like to see this work charged to my dear lord and friend, M. Bernhard Ziegler at Leipzig, Hebrew professor, so that he would also excel once, as the other Hebrewists (praise to God) have not let themselves be seen without great fruit; for he is especially hostile to the Jewish Judaic piss, and could well do something, if the other Hebrewists were drawn to him, and purified the Hebrew Bible for us. For it shall be pure and good Hebrew again.
1) Erlanger: So.
Christians who have the mind of Messiah must do so, as Paul says, 1 Cor. 1:24, "We have the mind of Messiah," and Luc. 24:45, "He opened their minds so that they might understand the Scriptures," and Matt. 13:11, "It has been given to you to understand the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven.
190 Whether one would have to attack and reproach me, who sometimes lacked in interpretation, I will accept with thanks. For how often Jerome has failed! And I see how the two fine men, Sanctes 2) and Müllster have studio incredibili et diligentia inimitabili interpreted the Bible, done much good with it. But the rabbis are about too powerful for them, that they have also lacked the aualogia of faith, the rabbis' glosses too much. For I myself have followed their translation about too much, that I must recant, especially 2 Sam. 23, 3) in verbis novissimis David, as I will soon do.
In this way, the Jews' understanding of the Bible could be finely weakened, and there is the advantage that Moses and the prophets did not write with points that a new man's mind brought up after their time; therefore it is not necessary to keep them as rigid as the Jews would like, especially where they are used contrary to the New Testament. The same should be done with the aequivocatio and distinctio, where they serve against the New Testament. The Jews have a desire to make all their things doubtful and not certain. Therefore, where the aequivocatio occurs in a vocabulo, take the significatio that agrees with the New Testament, and it becomes certain; and the right significatio has a strong witness and support in the New Testament; so the Jews are left with the other significatio, that is, the empty shell and peres, without witness and support.
2) Sanctes Pagninus is mentioned in the "Interpretation of the First Book of Moses", Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. I, 363, § 202 and ibidem, Col. 451, § 46. - Sebastian Münster published the Biblia hebraica with his Latin translation at Basel in 1534. Cf. Lauterbach, p. 47, note Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. XXII, 1704.
3) In the editions: "2 Sam. 22." Luther's interpretation of the last words of David" is found Walch, old edition, vol. Ill, 2780 ff.
2108 Eri. ss, "58. 31, S2 f. 52. Luther's Schrist vom Schem Hamphoras. W. xx, 262s f. ,633 f. 2109
192 Let these things be commanded to the Hebrews. Here I will leave it and have nothing more to do with the Jews, nor write any more about them or against them; they have had enough. To those who want to convert, God grant
his grace, that they (yet some) may know and praise with us God the Near, our Creator, together with our Lord JESUS CHRIST, and the Holy Spirit forever and ever, Amen.
The writing, which follows in the old edition of Walch here: "D. Luthers Vermahnung Wider die Juden, womit er seine zu Eisleben, kurz vor seinem Abschied aus diesem Leben Anno 1546 gehaltenen vier Predigten beschlossen" (Luther's admonition against the Jews, with which he concluded his four sermons delivered at Eisleben shortly before his departure from this life in 1546), is already included in the St. Louis edition, Vol. XII, 1264 ff, and therefore omitted here.