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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMartin Luther Collection: Luther, Martin - Table Talks: 44. Of The Jews
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SUBJECT: 44. Of The Jews
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OF THE JEWS
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DCCCVII.
The Jews boast they are Abraham's children; and, indeed, `twas a higher
honor of them, when the rich glutton in hell said, "Father Abraham," etc.
But our Lord God can well distinguish these children; for to such as the
glutton he gives their wages here in this life, but the rewards and wages
for the others he reserves until the life to come.
DCCCVIII.
The Jews are the most miserable people on earth. They are plagued
everywhere, and scattered about all countries, having no certain resting
place. They sit as on a wheelbarrow, without a country, people, or
government; yet they wait on with earnest confidence; they cheer up
themselves and say: It will soon be better with us. Thus hardened are they;
but let them know assuredly, that there is none other Lord or God, but only
he that already sits at the right hand of God the Father. The Jews are not
permitted to trade or to keep cattle, they are only usurers and brokers;
they eat nothing the Christians kill or touch; they drink no wine; they have
many superstitions; they wash the flesh most diligently, whereas they cannot
be cleansed through the flesh. They drink not milk, because God said: "Thou
shalt not boil the young kid in his mother's milk." Such superstitions
proceed out of God's anger. They that are without faith, have laws without
end, as we see in the papists and Turks; but they are rightly served, for
seeing they refused to have Christ and his Gospel, instead of freedom they
must have servitude.
If I were a Jew, the pope should never persuade me to his doctrine; I
would rather be ten times racked. Popedom, with its abominations and
profanities, has given to the Jews infinite offence. I am persuaded if the
Jews heard our preaching, and how we handle the Old Testament, many of them
might be won, but, through disputing, they have become more and more
stiff-necked, haughty, and presumptuous. Yet, if but a few of the rabbis
fell off, we might see them come to us, one after another, for they are
almost weary of waiting.
DCCCIX.
At Frankfort-on-the-Main there are very many Jews; they have a whole
street to themselves, of which every house is filled with them. They are
compelled to wear little yellow rings on their coats, thereby to be known;
they have no houses or grounds of their own, only furniture; and, indeed,
they can only lend money upon houses or grounds at great hazard.
DCCCX.
I have studied the chief passages of Scripture, that constitute the
grounds upon which the Jews argue against us; as where God said to Abraham:
"I will make my covenant between me and thee, and with thy seed after thee,
in their generations, for an everlasting covenant," etc. Here the Jews brag,
as the papists do upon the passage: "Thou art Peter." I would willingly
bereave the Jews of this bragging, by rejecting the law of Moses, so that
they should not be able to gainsay me. We have against them the prophet
Jeremiah, where he says: "Behold, the time cometh, saith the Lord, when I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah, not as the covenant which I made with their fathers," etc. "But this
shall be the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel; after this
time, saith the Lord, I will give my laws into their hearts, and will write
it in their minds," etc.
Here, surely the Jews must yield, and say: the law of Moses continued
but for awhile, therefore it must be abolished. But the covenant of the
circumcision, given before Moses time, and made between God and Abraham, and
his seed Isaac in his generation, they say, must and shall be an everlasting
covenant, which they will not suffer to be taken from them.
And though Moses himself rejects their circumcising of the flesh, and
presses upon the circumcising of the heart, yet, nevertheless, they boast of
that everlasting covenant out of God's Word; and when they admit that the
circumcision justifies not, yet, nevertheless, say they, it is an
everlasting covenant, thinking it is a covenant of works, therefore we must
leave unto them their circumcision.
I, for my part, with all God-fearing Christians, have this sure and
strong comfort, that the circumcision was to continue but for awhile, until
Messiah came; when he came, the commandment was at an end. Moses was wise;
he kept himself within bounds, for in all his four books after Genesis, he
wrote nothing of physical circumcision, but only of the circumcision of the
heart. He dwells upon the Sacrifices, the Sabbath, and showbread; but leaves
this covenant of circumcision quite out, making no mention thereof; as much
as to say: "Tis little to be regarded. If it had been of such importance and
weight as the Jews make it, he would doubtless have urged it accordingly.
Again, in the Book of Joshua, mention is made of the circumcising of the
heart. The papists, however, blind people, who know nothing at all of the
Scriptures, are not able to confute one argument of the Jews; theirs is
truly a fearful blindness.
DCCCXI.
The verse in the 115th Psalm is masterly: "He shall bless them that
fear the Lord, both small and great." Here the Holy Spirit is a fierce
thunderclap against the proud, boasting Jews and papists, who brag that they
alone are God's people, and will allow of none but of those that are of
their church. But the Holy Ghost says: The poor condemned people are also
God's people, for God saved many of the Gentiles without the law and
circumcision, as without popedom.
The Jews see not that Abraham was declared justified only through
faith: Abraham believed God, and that was imputed unto him for
righteousness. God with circumcision confirmed his covenant with this
nation, but only for a certain time. True, the circumcision of the Jews,
before Christ's coming, had great majesty; but that they should affirm that
without it none are God's people, is utterly untenable. The Jews themselves,
in their circumcision, were rejected of God.
DCCCXII.
Christ drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, not by any
temporal authority, but by the jurisdiction and power of the church, which
authority every High Priest in the Temple had. The glory of this Temple was
great, that the whole world must worship there. But God, out of special
wisdom, caused this Temple to be destroyed, to the end the Jews might be put
to confusion, and no more brag and boast thereof.
DCCCXIII.
There can be no doubt that of old time many Jews took refuge in Italy
and Germany, and settled there.
Cicero, the eloquent Gentile, complains of the superstition of the
Jews, and their multitude in Italy; we find their footsteps throughout
Germany. Here, in Saxony, many names of places speak of them; Ziman, Damen,
Resen, Sygretz, Schvitz, Pratha, Thablon. The Jews inhabited Ratisbon a long
time before the birth of Christ. At Cremona there are but twenty-eight
Christians. It was a mighty nation.
DCCCXIV.
The Jews read our books, and thereout raise objections against us; `tis
a nation that scorns and blasphemes even as the lawyers, the papists, and
adversaries do, taking out of our writings the knowledge of our cause, and
using the same as weapons against us. But, God be praised, our cause has a
sure, good and steadfast ground, namely, God and His Word.
DCCCXV.
Two Jewish rabbis, named Schamaria and Jacob, came to me at Wittenberg,
desiring of me letters of safe conduct, which I granted them, and they were
well pleased; only they earnestly besought me to omit thence the word Tola,
that is, Jesus crucified; for they must needs blaspheme the name Jesus. They
said: `Tis most wonderful that so many thousands of innocent people have
been slaughtered, of whom no mention is made, while Jesus, the crucified,
must always be remembered.
DCCCXVI.
The Jews must be encountered with strong arguments, as where Jeremiah
speaks touching Christ: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will
raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and
shall execute judgment and justice in the earth; in his days Judah shall be
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name, whereby he shall
be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." This argument the Jews are not able
to solve; yet if they deny that this sentence is spoken of Christ, they must
show unto us another king, descended from David, who should govern so long
as the sun and moon endure, as the promises of the prophets declare.
DCCCXVII.
Either God must be unjust, or you, Jews, wicked and ungodly; for ye
have been in misery and fearful exile, a far longer time than ye were in the
land of Canaan. Ye had not the Temple of Solomon more than three hundred
years, while ye have been hunted up and down above fifteen hundred. At
Babylon ye had more eminence than at Jerusalem, for Daniel was a greater and
more powerful prince at Babylon than either David or Solomon at Jerusalem.
The Babylonian captivity was unto you only a fatherly rod, but this last
punishment was your utter extermination. You have been, above fifteen
hundred years, a race rejected of God, without government, without laws,
without prophets, without temple. This argument ye cannot solve; it strikes
you to the ground like a thunderclap; ye can show no other reason for your
condition than your sins. The two rabbis, struck to the heart, silenced, and
convinced, forsook their errors, became converts, and the day following, in
the presence of the whole university at Wittenberg, were baptized
Christians.
The Jews hope that we shall join them, because we teach and learn the
Hebrew language, but their hope is futile. `Tis they must accept of our
religion, and of the crucified Christ, and overcome all their objections,
especially that of the alteration of the Sabbath, which sorely annoys them,
but `twas ordered by the apostles, in honor of the Lord's resurrection.
DCCCXVIII.
There are sorcerers among the Jews, who delight in tormenting
Christians, for they hold us as dogs. Duke Albert of Saxony well punished
one of these wretches. A Jew offered to sell him a talisman, covered with
strange characters, which he said effectually protected the wearer against
any sword or dagger thrust. The duke replied: "I will essay thy charm upon
thyself, Jew," and putting the talisman round the fellow's neck, he drew his
sword and passed it through his body. "Thou feelest, Jew!" said he, "how
`twould have been with me, had I purchased thy talisman?"
DCCCXIX.
The Jews having various stories about a king of Bassan, whom they call
Og; they say he had lifted a great rock to throw at his enemies, but God had
made a hole in the middle, so that it slipped down upon the giant's neck,
and he could never rid himself of it. `Tis a fable, like the rest of the
stories about him, but, perhaps, bears a hidden moral, as the fables of Esop
do, for the Jews had some very wise men among them.
DCCCXX.
The destruction of Jerusalem was a fearful thing; the fate of all other
monarchies, of Sodom, of Pharaoh, the captivity of Babylon, were as nothing
in comparison; for this city had been God's habitation, his garden and bed;
as the Psalm says: "Here will I dwell, for I have chosen her," etc. There
was the law, the priesthood, the temple, there had flourished David,
Solomon, Isaiah, etc.; many prophets were there interred, so that the Jews
had just cause to boast of their privileges. What are we poor miserable folk
- what is Rome, compared with Jerusalem? But the Jews are so hardened that
they listen to nothing; though overcome by testimonies, they yield not an
inch. `Tis a pernicious race, oppressing all men by their usury and rapine.
If they give a prince or a magistrate a thousand florins, they exhort twenty
thousand from the subjects in payment. We must keep on our guard against
them. They think to render homage to God by injuring the Christians, and yet
we employ their physicians; `tis a tempting of God. They have haughty
prayers, wherein they praise and call upon God, as if they alone were his
people, cursing and condemning all other nations, relying on the 23d Psalm:
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing." As if that psalm were
written exclusively concerning them.
DCCCXXI.
`Tis a vain boasting the Jews make of their privileges, after a lapse
of above fifteen hundred years. During the seventy years, when they were
captives at Babylon, they were so confused and mingled together, that even
then they hardly knew out of what tribe each was descended. How should it be
now, when they have been so long hunted and driven about by the Gentiles,
whose soldiers spared neither their wives nor their daughters, so that now
they are, as it were, all bastards, none of them knowing out of what tribe
he is. In 1537, when I was at Frankfort, a great rabbi said to me: My father
had read very much, and waited for the coming of the Messiah, but at last he
fainted, and out of hope said: As our Messiah has not come in fifteen
hundred years, most certainly Christ Jesus must be he.
DCCCXXII.
The Jews above all other nations had great privileges; they had the
chief promises, the highest worship of God, and a worship more pleasing to
human nature than God's service of faith in the New Testament. They agree
better with the Turks than with the Christians; for both Jews and Turks
concur in this, that there is but only one God; they cannot understand that
three persons should be in one divine substance. They are also agreed as to
bathings and washings, circumcision, and other external worshippings and
ceremonies.
The Jews had excelling men among them, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,
David, Daniel, Samuel, Paul, etc. Who can otherwise than grieve that so
great and glorious a nation should so lamentably be destroyed? The Latin
church had no excelling men and teachers, but Augustine; and the churches of
the east none but Athanasius, and he was nothing particular; therefore, we
are twigs grafted into the right tree. The prophets call the Jews,
especially those of the line of Abraham, a fair switch, out of which Christ
himself came.
DCCCXXIII.
In the porch of a church at Cologne there is a statue of a dean, who,
in the one hand, holds a cat, and in the other a mouse. This dean had been a
Jew, but was baptized, and became a Christian. He ordered this statue to be
set up after his death, to show, that a Jew and a Christian agree as little
as a cat and a mouse. And truly, they hate us Christians as they do death;
it galls them to see us. If I were master of the country, I would not allow
them to practice usury.
DCCCXXIV.
The Jews knew well that Messiah was to come, and that they were to hear
him, but they would not be persuaded that our Jesus was the Messiah. They
thought that the Messiah would leave all things as he found them; but when
they saw that Christ took a course contrary to their expectation, they
crucified him: yet they boast of themselves as being God's people.
DCCCXXV.
A Jew came to me at Wittenberg, and said: He was desirous to be
baptized, and made a Christian, but that he would first go to Rome to see
the chief head of Christendom. From this intention, myself, Philip
Melancthon, and other divines, labored to dissuade him, fearing lest, when
he witnessed the offences and knaveries at Rome, he might be scared from
Christendom. But the Jew went to Rome, and when he had sufficiently seen the
abominations acted there, he returned to us again, desiring to be baptized,
and said: Now I will willingly worship the God of the Christians for he is a
patient God. If he can endure such wickedness and vallany as is done at
Rome, he can suffer and endure all the vices and knaveries of the world.