1. the Jews fame.
The Jews' Handling and Superstition.
The Jews' fame and stubbornness.
4, Jews are poor people.
Proverbs of the Scriptures Against the Jews.
The pride and glory of the Jews from the word of God lies down.
7. from what violence Christ drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple.
8. from the temple of Solomon.
9. of the disturbance of the temple at Jerusalem, and the Jews' defiance, security and presumption.
10. Germany and Welschland have been full of Jews in the past.
11. Jews are blasphemers.
12. the priests of the Jews, by which they lived and were fed.
The Jews cannot call Jesus the crucified one.
14. powerful argument Against the Jews.
Another argument against the Jews.
16 The Jews think they can keep the law.
17. The destruction of Jerusalem is the most horrible and terrible wrath.
18. the Jews' stubbornness and blasphemous praying.
19 The Jewish Mind.
20. the wickedness of the Jews who pretend to be doctors.
21 The Jews no longer know their tribes.
The Jews have had great privileges before all peoples.
The Jews have had some excellent people.
24. this time ungodliness.
25, Of a baptized Jew who had been dean at Cologne.
The Jews boast of being God's people, yet they have killed the Messiah.
The Jews were commonly blasphemers.
28. take the deceased brother's wife.
29: The Lies of the Jews by King Og.
30. of Jews and Arians.
The tribe of the Jews is corrupt.
The Jews custom with their Easter pancakes.
33. the Jews' deception.
34 The stubbornness of the Jews.
35 The Jews' Sorcery.
36. of the wickedness of the Jews.
37. of a Jew who wanted to be baptized, but first went to Rome.
38. from the Jews argument.
1. the Jews fame.
(Cordatus No. 1575.)
All Jews have boasted that they are Abraham's children, and it has been a great glory to them, and the rich man, after he was buried, still said in hell: "Father Abraham", and on the other hand it is said to him [Luc. 16, 24. 25.]: "Son, you" etc. But our Lord God can separate these children, to some He gives their reward here, to others in the life to come. But the Jews did not boast for Abraham's sake, but for their own glory, just as the clergy now boast of Christ, that they receive great fiefdoms.
2. the Jews' handling and superstition.
Jews are the poorest of all peoples on earth, plagued here and there, scattered to and fro in countries, having no certain place where they can certainly stay, sitting like on a hovel, always worrying that they will be driven out, having neither land nor people, no regiment anywhere etc. And yet they suffer it all, wait with great eagerness, console themselves and say: It will soon be better with us. So stubborn are they that they may still boast in the highest disgrace.
(The following at Cordatus No. 1097.)
I counsel that no lord be made, for he that is made sitteth on the right hand of the Father: for the Jews will make another lord. A wretched people,
They are not allowed to work, nor to trade, nor to keep cattle, but to practice shameful usury and horse trading. They have innumerable statutes, like all those who do not want the One Faith of Christ, like the Papists and the Turks. And since they do not want freedom in Christ, they choose bondage for freedom.
3. the Jews' fame and stubbornness.
(Cordatus No. 1172-1175.)
It is a very certain sign of the exceedingly great wrath of God against the Jews that they have to be in exile like this and are constantly cast out from one country to another. And yet they do not cease to expect their Messiah and to boast about their privileges, which Paul also exalts in his letter to the Romans, but how he belittles them in the same letter, in the second chapter!
To reject the fame and the reputation of the Jews became very sour to St. Paul Rom. 9, [4. 5.]. For since the world still stubbornly holds on to the pope, who sits in the temple of God without any word of God, what should the Jews have done to preserve their Judaism? It was no joy at all for Paul to say [Acts 13:46], "Behold, we turn to the Gentiles."
If I were a Jew, I would rather be wheeled ten times than go to the pope. The papacy has given the Jews a great deal of trouble.
I believe that many Jews would be converted if they heard our preaching and the interpretation of the Old Testament. But by disputing they are only hardened, because they are too presumptuous. If one or the other rabbi would fall away, there should be a fall, they are sheer tired.
4. Jews are poor people.
Jews are the most miserable people on earth, are driven out almost at all ends; and yet they do not become more pious, remain for and for as they are; in few places and cities do they suffer, they must be stuck in each other. I wanted to take fifty of them into this room, so that they could help themselves inside. There are many of them in Frankfurt am Main, they have a gaff in which all the houses are full, they have to wear yellow rings on their coats and clothes in front, so that they are known, they have neither houses nor fields that are their own, only movable or movable goods, no one is allowed to lend on houses or fields, only on vehicles.
5. sayings of the scriptures against the Jews.
(Lauterbach, Feb. 3, 1538, p. 23.)
Afterwards Luther said to Amsdorf: "Mr. Licentiate, give me a lecture on the 17th chapter of Genesis. For I have the highest passages of Scripture in this chapter, which are the foundation and the goal [scopus] of the Jews against us, where God speaks to Abraham: "I will make my covenant between me and you, that it may be an everlasting covenant." Then the Jews stand up and defy, as the Papists do on the spot, "Thou art Peter." This glory I would gladly take and lay. We soon took away Mosi's law from the passage Jeremiah 31:31-33: "I will make a new covenant. I will put my law in their hearts, not as the covenant was which I made with their fathers." There the Jews must give themselves captive and say that the law of Moses is only temporary and must be done away with. But here in the covenant of circumcision before Moses, between God and Abraham and his seed Isaac and his descendants, it becomes a perpetual one.
The covenant is given to them. They stand on the everlasting one, they do not let it be taken away from them. Moses may reject their circumcision alone and insist on the circumcision of the heart, but this [circumcision] and the eternal covenant they praise from the word of God. Even if they concede the argument that circumcision does not justify, but it is a sign of justification, as Paul also calls it. Therefore we must grant them circumcision, only that we may be free from their circumcision. Therefore, if they leave Moses' law the same, they insist on the everlasting covenant: where Moses ceases, let circumcision remain. I have for myself and for the godly a sufficiently tenable solution, that circumcision is only a temporary commandment, which is directed to the future Messiah. When the Messiah comes, this commandment will also cease. Moses is wise, he has taken care, because he does not write anything about circumcision in all four books after Genesis, he only insists on the circumcision of the heart in Deuteronomy. In Genesis he only tells the story. He does not insist on it as a commandment, since on the other hand he insists very much on the sacrifices, the Sabbath, the shewbrot; and this covenant he neglects, as if to say, There is not much in it. If it were so great, he would probably have insisted on it more vehemently. Summa: Christ, another prophet, will come. Him you shall hear. Into his mouth I will put my words. After that, in the book of Joshua, circumcision is mentioned again. The blinded papists, who do not follow the Scriptures, could not refute an argument of the Jews. Ah, dear God, what a horrible blindness!
The Jews' pride and glory in God's word lies low.
(Lauterbach, Feb. 22, 1538, p. 37.)
The verse (13) of the 115th Psalm is set quite appropriately: "He blesses those who fear the Lord, both small and great." It is a thunderbolt against the glorified Jews and also the papists, who want to be God's people alone and do not want to allow any other besides their church; as if he wanted to say: The little children also belong here, God has
"Many of the Gentiles were saved without circumcision and law. In the same way also outside of the Pabstium. But they in their hope do not stop. As still today in Moravia the Jews, dje Sabbathers, force the Christians to circumcision. This circumcision was a big thing with the Jews until Christ. That they should have forced us to it, that will not happen. I do not hope that I will become so foolish as to accept circumcision. Rather, my Käthe and all the women would have to have their left breasts cut off. But they already dare to plague the Christians. I am very angry with Ferdinand, who devastates the Protestant churches and allows those Jews to enter. Great is the hope of the Jews that they boast of righteousness alone and do not see that Abraham was justified in the foreskin. Moreover, the Jews do not consider circumcision according to the commandment of God, but have a very silly argument, namely they say: Therefore man must be circumcised in this part of the body, because otherwise there is no superfluous member in the whole body. Thus these asses want to measure the reason of the divine wisdom according to their carnal opinions. Why should not rather the earlobes be cut off? This part has also no use in the body, or a finger? Fie you of the nonsense! God wanted to confirm his covenant in the people with his sign only for a time, on this part of the body.... ¢÷ñïôïìßá, praeputium, we have translated it Voxhaut, because we could not find a more significant word. The barbers call it Häublein; the ancients translated it Ueberwachsung. In short, I admit that the circumcision of the Jews has great glory; this is true in the sight of Christ. But that they want that without it there is no people of God, we deny. For even in circumcision they are not a people, but rejected. If the Jews had not been rejected fifteen hundred years, and Jerusalem destroyed, no one could have taken it away from the Jews, it has such a great appearance. Therefore the Ebionites, that is, the poor, kept both the Old and New Testaments, circumcision and baptism, and all that is written.
7. from what force Christ drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple.
(Lauterbach, May 26, 1538, p. 86.)
Christ drove the sellers and buyers out of the temple not by temporal authority but by ecclesiastical authority. This right was also given to every high priest [in the Temple] who was commanded to him, and if the Temple in Jerusalem were still standing, there would be a high priest against whom no man would dare to rebel, because Jerusalem is the place that God has chosen and confirmed. The pretense is so great that the whole world would be forced to worship this Temple, but God according to His marvelous grace destroyed this Jerusalem to disgrace the Jews. Rome is nothing against it. Peter came there, did not find a straw cloth there. And Peter is said to have been in the fishery in ancient Rome. If Christ had preached to Rome, what a boast that would have been! Therefore the reputation of Rome is nothing compared to that of Jerusalem.
8. from the temple of Solomon.
Solomon never built such a beautiful temple as Torgau has today. After that, the pagans built a temple to the idol Diana in Ephesus, and perhaps they wanted to imitate and surpass the Jews with such a building.
9. from the disturbance of Jerusalem and the Jews defiance, security and presumption.
(Lauterbach, Aug. 29, Thursday, 1538, p. t24.)
On August 29 he read the history of the destruction of Jerusalem. It was a great city in power and wealth, but it was destroyed by the siege of Titus and Vespasianus. That hurt the Jews very much. For there God had to become a liar, because the Jews understood all promises of God carnally, like this word of Jeremiah (17, 12.): "The place of our sanctuary has always remained firm." The Jews insisted on defiance and many more sayings and even murdered the prophets, but finally they saw that their security and presumption would be put to shame.
10. german and welschland has been stan full of jews.
(Lauterbach, Aug. 29, 1538, p. 125.)
After that they spoke about the flight of the Jews to Italy and Germany. For Cicero in the speech for Flaccus complains about the superstition of the Jews in Italy and we see all over Germany their traces. Is yet no city or village, it has names, signs and gapes [of Jews] and it is said that Jews have been in Regensburg and lived long before the time of Christ. They have been a great, powerful people.
11. Jews are blasphemers.
When it was said of the blasphemies of the Jews, who now at this time read our books and writings, and from the same dispute against us, etc. M. Luther: "They are a people who only blaspheme and blaspheme, just as the jurists, papists and all our adversaries take the knowledge of things from our writings and use the same weapons and weapons against us. But, praise be to God, our cause has a certain, good and lasting reason, namely, God and His Word. We also have fine martyrs over it, for M. Henricus became a martyr in faith for the faith in Ditmars, as did Leonhard Kaiser in Bavaria and the two boys in Brussels.
12. the priests of the Jews, by which they lived and were fed.
A beautiful fruit of good pears and peaches was brought forward. Martinus looked at them with diligence and said: "The priests of the Jews had a surplus of fruits from the decem and first fruits of all kinds, because our Lord God has well provided for the people. Although the twelve tribes were poor, because the people were numerous and the Jewish land was small, they had to give the firstfruits of all the grown fruits and animals, which were the priest's alone. The decem was common to both the priests and Levites, because 1) the Levites had to
1) For that ----- except that. Binding rope 1, 465.
give tithes from their goods to the priests.
But the people did not give it to them gladly, but gave them the most fearful and unprofitable things, so that even the prophet Malachias and Haggaeus thundered and flashed against them, that they sacrificed lame and unprofitable cattle for the decem and firstfruits. But the people of Israel were a poor people, living meagerly; as it is written of David, when he dedicated the tabernacle, he made a great feast, giving to each person a roll, a cup of porridge, and a morsel of flesh. Now it is all done with eating and drinking and all the rest of the splendor.
The Jews cannot hear Jesus called the crucified one.
About two Jewish rabbis, Shamaria and Jacob, came to me, said Doctor Martin Luther, talked with me and asked me to give them letters of support. The same pleased them well, if only I had not put the Tola, that is, Jesus the Crucified, in it. For they cannot help it, they must blaspheme the name of Jesus; and they are exceedingly hostile to the little song "Christ is risen. One gets tired of all the songs with time, but that Christ is risen, one must sing again every year.
Item: Another Jew said: "If so many thousands of innocent people have been killed, all of them are now silent; only Jesus, the crucified one, must always be remembered, whose death cannot be forgotten.
14. powerful argument against the Jews.
The Jews must be met with strong arguments. How this is, said D. M. Luther, Jer. 23, 5. 6. where he speaks of Christ, the offspring of David, "who shall be a righteous offspring, and a king, who shall rule well, and do justice and righteousness. In that day Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this shall be his name, that they shall call him: Lord our righteousness.
The Jews cannot solve this argument. And because they do not want this Christ-
They must give us another king from David, who shall reign because the sun and the moon shine, as the prophets promised.
15 Another Argument Against the Jews.
Either God must be unjust, or you Jews must be wicked; for you have been in misery and outcast, cast out and driven away, longer than in the promised land. For the Jews have not been in the Promised Land for more than three hundred years, while Solomon's temple was still standing, and now they have been in misery and driven out for more than fifteen hundred years. Nor can they be comforted by the example of the Babylonian prisons, when the time was determined to be seventy years, and yet they were not without prophets, nor without rule; yea, they wrought and did more at Babylon than at Jerusalem. For Daniel was a greater and mightier ruler at Babylon than David and Solomon were at Jerusalem. Therefore the Babylonian prison was only a paternal rod. But this last punishment is the real end.
They hope that we will join them, because we are now also dealing with the Ebrew language, and are teaching and learning it; but this is not to happen. They must accept our religion and the crucified Christ, and overcome all the troubles, especially that the Sabbath is postponed, which moves them very much and hits them hard in the head, and the apostles have arranged it this way, in honor of the resurrection of the Lord.
16 The Jews think they can keep the law.
The poor, blind, hardened Jews praise the righteousness of the Law, which they cannot keep; indeed, they blaspheme God with such zeal over the Law, which they are not to keep except in the Promised Land.
Summa, the Jews cannot solve this argument, they have to leave it unbitten, because it strikes them down like thunder: namely, they have to show cause why they have been abandoned for more than fifteen hundred years, a people without regiment, without law, without prophets, without a temple. They can show no other cause than their sin.
17. The destruction of Jerusalem is the most terrible and greatest wrath.
The destruction of Jerusalem was cruel, miserable and terrible, so that all other monarchies and emperors falls and plagues, floods, Sodomae, Pharaonis etc. are nothing compared to this devastation. For this city has been God's city, dwelling place, refuge and bed; as the Psalm says: "Here will I dwell, for I have chosen it" etc., Ps. 132, 14. There was the law, priesthood, the temple, there is David, Solomon, Isaiah etc., there are innumerable prophets buried; so that the Jews may well have defied such great privileges.
What are we poor, wretched Gentiles and Rome against Jerusalem? Our God is not our prisoner. He has not yet drunk much Wittenberg and Torgau beer. Has he handed over the beautiful Jerusalem, which he had thus adorned with his word, law, blood friends etc.: it will, verily, also apply to us. Truly, he will not give it to us either, we may judge ourselves by it.
Summa: This destruction of Jerusalem is more horrible and terrible than all plagues on earth have ever been and will ever be. It was also too much that his own people should lead his own son out of the city and crucify him.
18. the Jews' stubbornness and blasphemous praying.
The Jews still do not want to listen today: although they have been disgraced for more than fifteen hundred years 1) and have been publicly condemned and decided, they still do not believe. It should break a man's heart when he sees the Jews so scattered that the blood of Jesus Christ 2) should almost burn everything in hell: they are scattered everywhere in the kingdom, according to their words, which they said to Pilate: "We have no king but Caesar" etc., Joh. 19, 15. But they are a harmful people, they exhaust everything with usury: where they pay an authority a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders, they pay a thousand guilders.
1) Cf. cap. 2, § 40.
2) I.e. the Jews, who are of the same blood as Jesus Christ. Stangwald offers: that the friendship of Jesus Christ etc.
On the other hand, they suck twenty thousand guilders from the poor inferiors.
After that, the doctor read some of their very proud prayers from a book of the Bible, in which they praise God and call upon Him as if they were His people alone, and curse all other peoples; for this they use the 23rd Psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want"; as if it were actually and primarily written by them. Summa, the poor people are not to be helped, they do not want to hear God's word, but only their thoughts and little bundles.
19. the Jews mind.
On April 12, Luther read in a book of the Bible in which were written the prayers and feasts of the Jews, which they now keep, and was very surprised at the great presumption and hopefulness. There was no knowledge of the Scriptures, but vain glory in dead privileges, which are now gone and extinguished. They understand nothing of God's grace, nor of the righteousness of faith, how God is merciful out of pure grace for Christ's sake, and that faith in Christ makes one righteous, pious and blessed; of this they know less than nothing, but want to be holy by nature and by nature, as the heathen are by the will of the flesh. But the papists seek the means, are neither Jews nor true Christians, want to be righteous neither from the will of the flesh, nor from the blood, but from the will of the man 1). But all this is rejected and condemned; as John says, Cap. 1, 13. that "they are the children of God and are justified who are born of God".
20. the wickedness of the Jews who pretend to be doctors.
The Jews, who pretend to be doctors, deprive the Christians, who need their medicine, of life and property, because they think they are doing God a service, if they only plague the Christians and kill them secretly. And we mad fools still have recourse to our enemies and the repulsive in danger of our lives.
1) I.e. from human assets. Aurifaber asked "name" instead of "man". Bindseil I, 460: viri.
So God is trying them. And he told of the wickedness and infidelity of some Jewish physicians, which they had committed and practiced.
21 The Jews no longer know their tribes.
It is only a vain glory that the Jews make, because they have been deprived of all their privileges for more than fifteen hundred years: for in seventy years, when they were taken captive at Babylon, they were thus made desolate and mixed, and went among themselves, so that at that time they could scarcely know and discern which tribe one was of; what then should have happened so long ago, since they were so often driven away, chased out, and taken captive by the Gentiles? Since the soldiers have not spared their wives and daughters? So that they are now almost all sons of whores, and none knoweth not of what tribe he is.
And D. M. Luther recounted the prophecy of a great rabbi, who was supposed to have said to the bishop of Camin: My father was a great rabbi, who read much, and waited for the Messiah, but finally despaired, without all hope, and indicated: If the Messiah does not come, if one writes fifteen hundred, and does not know how many years (which is over), then Christ Jesus must certainly be the same.
Jews have had great privileges over other peoples.
When it was said how blind and stiff-necked the Jews were, D. M. Luther said: "The Jews have a great privilege above all other peoples and Gentiles, the greatest promises and highest services, which are much more pleasing to reason and human wisdom than the services of faith in the New Testament. The Jews can compare themselves much better with the Turks than with the Christians; for Jews and Turks are one, and confess that there is only One God, but they do not believe that there are three Persons in One Divine Being; item, with washing and bathing, with circumcision and other outward services and ceremonies, in this they agree.
Jews have had some excellent people.
We love the people (the Jews), said D. M. Luther, and yet they are so hopeful and proud. Truly, this people has had excellent men, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Daniel, Samuel, Paulum etc. Who would not be sorry and grieved that such a great and glorious people should perish and be lost so miserably? The Latin Church has not had a more excellent man and teacher than Augustine, and the Church against tomorrow Athanasius; although he was nothing special. Therefore we are branches grafted into the right vine. The prophets call the Jews, but especially the line of Abraham, a beautiful little vine, and Christ himself had to come from such a beautiful plant. We Gentiles are no longer orthodox, righteous believers. Several of us are washers.
(Here, 6 lines are omitted because transferred to Cap. 7, § 56, where they belong).
24. this time ungodliness.
Now we also do as the Jews do, as is evident; therefore God will also punish us. This is what happens to lost children who do not want to obey their parents; after that, they do not respect them either, and even make them blind. No one has ever written about it, and no one can write about it, because all good talk is too little, indeed nothing, to erase such a wrath of God.
O heavenly Father, let us stay with the sun, and let us not fall from your word. But the Jews still do not listen, but continue to blaspheme. How they ravish the good handmaid Mariam: though she had been a Gentile, the Aenea Sylvia, it were too much and gross: she hath done nothing; yet do they blaspheme and ravish her. Behold, and consider what they have suffered these fifteen hundred years; what will it be in hell? There it will be much more miserable. There is no nation under the sun that is more wickedly dealt with and destroyed than the Jews.
Do not tell a Jew that Christ is the true God, for he will not believe it. Therefore I do not dispute with any Jew. Rabbi Akibl 1) says: Messiah has come, but it would not be the Christ, but a star child, born from the star of Jacob etc. This was also the reason why Jerusalem was besieged. All were under the delusion that Messiah had come; now they deny it. Then the Jews who came after them said that he was a lying child. Then they pretended that there were two of them, Joseph's son and David's son, and that none of them would be among the beggars until he was called God. The third, they dream that he will come, they are waiting for him.
I believe that the present Jews are vain Epicureans, good fellows who have despaired of the Messiah. They believe that whoever does much good will be righteous; whoever hears Moses will be blessed. Messiah comes or does not come, they do not care; they say: Messiah will restore the law, not abolish it. They also think of a worldly kingdom that Messiah will establish.
25: Of a baptized Jew who had been a dean in Cologne.
Doctor Martin Luther said that in a church in Cologne there was a dean who had a cat in one hand and a mouse in the other. This deacon had been a Jew, and had been baptized and converted to Christianity: after his death he had himself hewn in stone on the church door, so that he might show how little the cat can be good to the mouse, so little is a Jew good to a Christian. And it is true, said D. M. Luther, the Jews do not grant us anything good, we are to them as death or as a burnt sorrow. It grieves them that we pass before their eyes. The Jews have no consolation, for only usury sustains them; but if I were a lord of the land, I would also forbid them usury.
1) Cf. Walch, old edition, vol. XX, 2436 f. § 214 ff.
2) So Stangwald instead of "the".
The Jews boast of being God's people, yet they have killed their Messiah.
The Jews knew that the Messiah would come and that he would be heard. But that this Jesus would be the Christ and Messiah, no one could persuade them. But now they have persecuted and murdered him, and yet they boast that they are God's people.
The Jews have always been blasphemers.
The majority of the Jews have blasphemed God, strangled the pious prophets. So the dear arch-fathers and patriarchs had blasphemers in their houses, Abraham had Ishmael, Isaac had Esau, who persecuted his father and mother, and Jacob, his brother, to whom he put all the sorrow of heart, so that he had to escape from him.
28. take the deceased brother's wife.
From the law of Moses, that the brother had to raise up the dead brother's seed, I think that our Lord God wanted to nourish the womenfolk. For the majority of the men perished in war and elsewhere, but the female generation remained, and therefore our Lord God willed to give them this benefit, and so provided for them and fed them. But since one of them did not want to live and sleep with his dead brother's wife, he still had to feed her. And therefore I think that Solomon had so many wives.
29. the Jews lies from the king Og.
(Cordatus No. 742.)
The Jews told of King Og that 1) he took a great mountain to throw at the great multitude of his enemies. But as soon as he brought the mountain down on his head, God dropped it on his neck, and after that great spikes grew out of his mouth for teeth, so that he could never put down the great mass. They have had much finer wisdom.
1) This fable is found in the Talmud in Tractate Berachoth.
30. Jews and Arians.
The Jews cannot stand the teaching that Christ is King, God and Man. The Arians are the most subtle of all heretics. But the articles of faith must be judged by the Holy Spirit, not by our reason. Reason is killed by these articles, must give itself up as a prisoner, and say: The things are indeed unbelievable to me, but because God says it, I will believe it, because he is true, does not lie nor deceive.
The Jews' tribe is corrupted.
(Cordatus No. 725.)
Nothing at all can be made from a vine, as Ezekiel says [Cap. 17.], it only bears wine. So also the Jews. By throwing them into the fire as if they were worthless, like vines, they have given us apostles and great prophets, yes, even Christ himself. But now the tribe is worthless.
The Jews custom with their Easter pancakes.
The Jews have the custom that they put three pancakes on a table, one above the other, and eat nothing from the top and bottom, but they pull out the middle one and break it. This they have, no doubt, from the fathers, and the fathers wanted to indicate the Holy Trinity, but Christ's humanity must be grasped.
33. the Jews deception.
Doctor M. Luther said of a Jew: "What should one grant to the boys who damage people's bodies and property and turn away many Christians with their superstition and superstition?
For in Moravia they have circumcised many Christians and call them by a new name the Sabbath-keepers. 2) So it is in the places where Protestant preachers are driven out, there one must suffer Jews. Thus it is said that H[archduke] Georgen swore that before he would suffer the Lutherans, he would
2) Cf. Cap. 74, § 6.
before all churches, baptism and sacrament are destroyed etc. Just as if we did not also preach Christ, right worship and sacraments. Summa, the world wants to be deceived.
34. jews stubbornness.
(Cordatus No. 260.)
The Jews knew and desired the presence of the Messiah, but they believed all their being would remain untouched. When Christ did not want that, he was crucified.
35. Jews magic.
When the Jews were spoken of, D. M. Luther said: "The Jews have their sorcery as well as other sorcerers. They think: If it is good for us, it is good for us; if not, it is good for a Christian: what do we care? For they regard a Christian as a dog.
But Duke Albrecht of Saxony etc. was right. When a Jew gave him a button with strange characteristics and signs, which was supposed to serve for cold irons, stabbing and shooting, he said: "I will first try this with you, Jew; he led the Jew to the gate, hung the button on his neck, pulled out his sword and stabbed him. So, he said, it would have happened to me, too, if I had trusted you.
As it is impossible that the aglaster 1) leaves its hopping and sneaking 2), the snake its stinging; so little does the Jew leave from his mind to kill and murder Christians wherever he can. They still sit with us in great honor.
36. wickedness of the Jews.
The Lord Doctor said about the wickedness of the Jews. When Christians come to them, they receive the same: Seth wants to come, that is, the devil wants to come. For Seth, or Satan, is called the devil.
If I were in the Lord's presence in N. N., I would call all the Jews together and ask them: Why they call Christ a son of a bitch?
1) d. i. Magpie.
2) d. i. croaking, dudes.
his mother a whore, and Mariam a shithouse? 3) If they could prove it, I would give them a thousand guilders; but if they could not prove it, I would have their tongues torn out from their necks. In sum, the Jews are not to suffer with us; one is not to eat or drink with them.
Then said one, Is it not written, that the Jews shall be converted before the last day? Doctor Martin Luther said, "Where is it written? I do not know of a certain saying. Rom. 9. they do bring forth a saying, but it cannot be proved from that. Then his wife said, "And there will be one sheepfold and one shepherd," John 10:16. Yes, said the doctor, dear Käthe, it has already happened since the Gentiles came to the gospel.
There is a hard people around the Jews. And the prophet Isaiah knows this well, because he says: I know you well, you have iron veins, a rather hard forehead. But they stand badly on this argument, from it one cannot tear them: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the bloom, the nobility: on it they defy very much. But what does God ask on earth about nobility and prosperity?
That is true, there must be a difference between the persons: A man must not be a woman, a master not a servant etc.; but to insist on this, God cannot suffer. And it is no wonder that they are so stiff-necked, for they raise their children to this from their youth. For as soon as a child can speak, they stand there and say: Son, son, listen, the Christians are a maledicted people etc. What is taught to children in their youth, they do not easily forget. So the devil is also there, he has great claws, and whom he seizes, he holds fast. As we learn enough in the priesthood, and it is still seen daily in the mobs, we should always pray and fear God.
37. of a Jew who wanted to be baptized, but first went to Rome.
A Jew who wanted to be baptized and accept the Christian faith confessed to a priest, saying, "He wanted to go to Rome first.
3) Cf. Walch, old edition, vol. XX, 2631, § 3.
He wanted to go and see the supreme head of Christianity before he was baptized, which the priest tried hard to prevent, because he feared that if he saw the trouble and evil in Rome, he would be deterred from Christianity. But the Jew went to Rome, and when he had seen enough horrible things, he came again to the priest and asked for baptism, saying: "Now I will gladly worship the Christian God, for he is patient enough: if he can suffer such evil and wickedness at Rome, he can also suffer all the wickedness and badness of the world; but God is not cruel enough that he has afflicted us, his people, so much.
According to this history, he, M. Luther, thought about how Rome was situated, which he had passed through and seen with great danger for fourteen days, and the same place, the old Rome, where the best and most beautiful buildings would have been, would have been razed by the Goths and made equal and even to the earth. On the mountain and castle, the Capitolio, would have been a barefoot monastery, and the mountain, called Tarpeius, was higher than the Aventine mountain, Capitolinus and Quirinalis. 1) The theater and playhouse would be built round, fifteen steps high in the round around raised above each other, so that one could sit and watch in layers, in two hundred thousand people: of which stand-
1) In Aurifaber: Capitolium and Quiriter.
The walls and the foundation still exist. After that, there would be a churchyard of St. Calixtus, where several thousand martyrs would be buried.
38. Jews Argument.
Jews and Turks have one argument, that is: Cursed are all those who worship more than one God: Christians do that, therefore they are cursed. The minor and other propositions, they say, are proven by this, because they believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit etc.
Tell them what you want and how you want, so they cannot believe that three are one. But I will keep my faith without all effort and work, even when I am asleep, I know that: and even if I stumble, since God is before me, I will still stick to what I have learned.
A Christian never holds on to his Christ as firmly as a Jew or even a fanatic holds on to his doctrine. For even though a Christian sticks to his doctrine even unto death, he often stumbles and begins to doubt. But this is not the case with the enthusiasts, who stand firm and hold stiffly over their enthusiasm; as Marcus of Zwickau, the devil-prophet, did. I said to him, "He should take care that he does not go astray. Then he said: God shall not bring me from this. etc.