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Martin Luther:
The Jews and Their Lies
At the beginning of his career scholars believe Martin Luther
was sympathetic to the Jews because of the Jewish resistance to the
Catholic Church. However, Luther had expected
Jews to convert to his purified Christianity. When they did not, he
turned violently against them, as the following excerpts from Luther's
writings make clear:
I had made up my mind to write no more either
about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these
miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to
themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published
this little book, so that I might be found among those who
opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews who warned the
Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not have
believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews into
taking their exile and wretchedness upon himself. However, the
devil is the god of the world, and wherever God's word is
absent he has an easy task, not only with the weak but also
with the strong. May God help us. Amen. |
He did not call them Abraham's children, but a "brood of
vipers" [Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that was too insulting for the noble
blood and race of Israel, and they declared, "He has a
demon"
[Matt 11:18]. Our Lord also calls them a "brood of vipers";
furthermore in John 8 [v 39,44] he states: "If you were Abraham's
children ye would do what Abraham did... You are of your father the
devil." It was intolerable to them to hear that they were not Abraham's
but the devil's children, nor can they bear to hear this today.
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If I had to refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I
should be obliged to write against them as much and for as long a time
as they have used for inventing their lies - that is, longer than two
thousand years.
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Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no
morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen and
pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury. Thus they live from
day to day, together with wife and child, by theft and robbery, as
arch-thieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security.
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Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever
they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in
which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God
and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them.
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Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools...
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Now just behold these miserable, blind, and senseless people.
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...but then eject them forever from this country. For, as we have
heard, God's anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only
tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them
but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!
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Learn from this, dear Christian, what you are doing if you permit
the blind Jews to mislead you. Then the saying will truly apply,
"When a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the
pit" [cf. Luke 6:39]. You cannot learn anything from them except
how to misunderstand the divine commandments...
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Over and above that we let them get rich on our sweat and blood,
while we remain poor and they such the marrow from our bones.
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Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a noble, precious
jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?
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No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their
pants.
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I brief, dear princes and lords, those of you who have Jews under
your rule - if my counsel does not please your, find better advice, so
that you and we all can be rid of the unbearable, devilish burden of
the Jews, lest we become guilty sharers before God in the lies,
blasphemy, the defamation, and the curses which the mad Jews indulge
in so freely and wantonly against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ,
this dear mother, all Christians, all authority, and ourselves. Do not
grant them protection, safe-conduct, or communion with us... With
this faithful counsel and warning I wish to cleanse and exonerate my conscience.
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...their blindness and arrogance are as solid as an iron mountain.
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What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned
people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate
their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling
and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies,
cursing and blaspemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable
fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we
convert the Jews. With prayer and the fear of God we must
pratice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a
few from the glowing flames. We dare not avenge ourselves.
Vengenance a thousand times worse than we could wish them
already has them by the throat. I shall give you my sincere
advice:
First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury
and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will
ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in
honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that
we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such
public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his
Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly -
and I myself was unaware of it - will be pardoned by God. But if
we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a
house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in
which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame
Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if
we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well
know.
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and
destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their
synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a
barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they
are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are
living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and
lament about us before God.
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic
writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy
are taught, be taken from them. (remainder omitted)
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach
henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. For they have
justly forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor
Jews captive with the saying of Moses (Deuternomy 17 [:10 ff.])
in which he commands them to obey their teachers on penalty of
death, although Moses clearly adds: "what they teach you in
accord with the law of the Lord." Thoses villains ignore
that. They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience contrary
to the law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison,
cursing, and blasphemy. In the same way the pope also held us
captive with the declaration in Matthew 16 {:18], "You are
Peter," etc, inducing us to believe all the lies and
deceptions that issued from his devilish mind. He did not teach
in accord with the word of God, and therefore he forfeited the
righ to teach.
Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be
abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in
the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen,
or the like. Let they stay at home. (...remainder omitted).
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that
all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and
put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is
that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a
livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed
from us all they possess. Such money should now be used in no
other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is sincerely
converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or
three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest.
With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the
support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of
the old or feeble. For such evil gains are cursed if they are
not put to use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.
Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a
distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and
Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their
brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen 3[:19]}. For
it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in
the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away
their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of
all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the
Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these
lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.
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Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter
but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our
souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death.
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Let the government deal with them in this respect, as I have
suggested. But whether the government acts or not, let everyone at
least be guided by his own conscience and form for himself a
definition or image of a Jew.
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But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues
and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter
God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that
they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it
publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration
of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our
conscience is encumbered with it before God.
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...Christ and his word can hardly be recognized because of the
great vermin of human ordinances. However, let this suffice for the
time being on their lies against doctrine or faith.
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Alas, it cannot be anything but the terrible wrath of God which
permits anyone to sink into such abysmal, devilish, hellish, insane
baseness, envy, and arrogance. If I were to avenge myself on the devil
himself I should be unable to wish him such evil and misfortune as
God's wrath inflicts on the Jews, compelling them to lie and to
blaspheme so monstrously, in violation of their own conscience.
Anyway, they have their reward for constantly giving God the lie.
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Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling
matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and
to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and
from eternal death. My advice, as I said earlier, is:
First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who
are able toss in sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone
could also throw in some hellfire. That would demonstrate to God
our serious resolve and be evidence to all the world that it was
in ignorance that we tolerated such houses, in which the Jews
have reviled God, our dear Creator and Father, and his Son most
shamefully up till now but that we have now given them their due
reward.
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However, they have not acquired a perfect mastery of the art of
lying; they lie so clumsily and ineptly that anyone who is just a
little observant can easily detect it. But for us Christians they
stand as a terrifying example of God's wrath.
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My essay, I hope, will furnish a Christian (who in any case has no
desire to become a Jew) with enough material not only to defend
himself against the blind, venomous Jews, but also to become the foe
of the Jews' malice, lying, and cursing, and to understand not only
that their belief is false but that they are surely possessed by all
devils. May Christ, our dear Lord, convert them mercifully and
preserve us steadfastly and immovably in the knowledge of him, which
is eternal life.
Amen.
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Therefore we Christians, in turn, are obliged not to tolerate their
wanton and conscious blasphemy.
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However, we must avoid confirming them in
their wanton lying, slandering, cursing, and defaming. Nor dare
we make ourselves partners in their devilish ranting and raving
by shielding and protecting them, by giving them food, drink,
and shelter, or by other neighborly deeds."
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I wish and I ask that our rulers who have Jewish subjects exercise
a sharp mercy toward these wretched people, as suggested above, to see
whether this might not help (though it is doubtful). They must act
like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in, proceeds without
mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a
procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their
synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work,
and deal harshly with them, as Moses did in the wilderness, slaying
three thousand lest the whole people perish. They surely do not know
what they are doing; moreover, as people possessed, they do not wish
to know it, hear it, or learn it. There it would be wrong to be
merciful and confirm them in their conduct. If this does not help we
must drive them out like mad dogs, so that we do not become partakers
of their abominable blasphemy and all their other vices and thus merit
God's wrath and be damned with them. I have done my duty. Now let
everyone see to his. I am exonerated."
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We are at fault for not slaying them.
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Perhaps, one of the merciful Saints among us
Christians may think I am behaving too crude and disdainfully
against the poor, miserable Jews in that I deal with them so
sarcastically and insulting. But, good God, I am much too mild
in insulting such devils. I would fain to do so, but they are
far greater adepts at mockery than I and possess a god who is
master in this art. It is the Evil One himself.
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The Jews too got what they deserved. They had
been called and elected to be God's mouth as Jeremiah says. . .
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it; they however, kept
tightly closed their muzzles, eyes, ears, nose, whole heart and
all senses, so he polluted and squirted them so full that it
oozes from them in all places and devil's filth comes from them.
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Source: Luther's Works, Volume 47: The Christian in Society
IV, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971). pp 268-293; "Vom Schem
Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi"
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