THE JEWS AND THEIR LIES
Extracts
from Martin Luther’s booklet:
</span>
“THE
JEWS AND THEIR LIES” OF THE UNKNOWABLE NAME AND THE GENERATIONS OF CHRIST
(1543)
<p class=MsoBodyText>Volume
47: “The Christian in Society” IV, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971).
<p class=MsoBodyText>pp
268-293
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Such
a desperate, thoroughly evil, poisonous and devilish lot are these Jews, who
for these fourteen hundred years have been and still are our plague, our
pestilence, and our misfortune.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>Martin
Luther—Angel to the Fifth or <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Sardis</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> Age 1520-1752
<p class=MsoBodyText>Jewish
authorities are well aware of the two phases of Luther’s ministry: that wherein
he wrote his “Jesus Christ was Born A Jew,” filled
with sympathy for their long unbelief which he laid on the unsympathetic
attitude of the Roman Catholic church. Luther’s study of the TALMUD became the
dividing line. His second and last phase was one of warning against the
self-styled Jews as destroyers of Christianity and of Christians. After Luther
became conversant with the TALMUD and the ritual cursings of Judaism, he
declared that a person who condones such blasphemies partakes of them. “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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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 <st1:country-region><st1:place>Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and they declared, ‘He
has a demon’ [Matt <st1:time Minute="18" Hour="11">11:18</st1:time>]. Our Lord calls them a
‘brood of vipers’; furthermore in John 8 [: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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText><o:p> </o:p>
<p class=MsoBodyText> “They are the real liars and bloodhounds, who
have not only perverted and falsified the entire Scriptures from beginning to
end and without ceasing with their interpretations. And all of the anxious
sighing, longing and hoping of their hearts is directed to the time when some day
they would like to deal with us heathen as they dealt with the heathen in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Persia</st1:place></st1:country-region> at the time of Esther .
. .
<p class=MsoBodyText>“
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Oh
how they love the book of Esther, which so nicely agrees with their
bloodthirsty, revengeful and murderous desire and hope. The sun never did shine
on a more bloodthirsty and revengeful people as they, who imagine to be the
people of God, and who desire to and think they must murder and crush the
heathen. And the foremost undertaking which they expect of their Messiah is
that he should slay and murder the whole world with the sword. As they at first
demonstrated against us Christians and would like to do now, if they only
could; have also tried it often and have been repeatedly struck on their snouts
. . .”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Their
breath stinks for the gold and silver of the heathen; since no people under the
sun always have been, still are, and always will remain more avaricious than
they, as can be noticed in their cursed usury. They also find comfort with
this: ‘When the Messiah comes, He shall take all the gold and silver in the
world and distribute it among the Jews.’ Thus, wherever they can direct
Scripture to their insatiable avarice, they wickedly do so.” “Therefore know,
my dear Christians, that next to the Devil, you have
no more bitter, more poisonous, more vehement and enemy than a real Jew who
earnestly desires to be a Jew. There may be some among them who believe what
the cow or the goose believes. But all of them are surrounded with their blood
and circumcision. In history, therefore, they are often accused of poisoning
wells, stealing children and mutilating them; as in Trent, Weszensee and the
like. Of course they deny this. Be it so or not, however, I know full well that
the ready will is not lacking with them if they could only transform it into
deeds, in secret or openly.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“A
person who does not know the Devil, might wonder why they are so at enmity with
the Christians above all others; for which they have no reason, since we only
do good to them.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“They
live among us in our homes, under our protection, use land and highways, market
and streets. Princes and government sit by, snore and have their maws open, let
the Jews take from their purse and chest, steal and rob whatever they will.
That is, they permit themselves and their subjects to be abused and sucked dry
and reduced to beggars with their own money, through the usury of the
Jews. For the Jews, as foreigners,
certainly should have nothing from us; and what they have certainly must be
ours. They do not work, do not earn anything from us, neither do we donate or
give it to them. Yet they have our money and goods and are lords in our land
where they are supposed to be in exile!”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“If
a thief steals ten gulden he must hang; if he robs people on the highway, his
head is gone. But a Jew, when he steals ten tons of gold through his usury is
dearer than God himself!”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Do
not their TALMUD and rabbis write that it is no sin to kill if a Jew kills a
heathen, but it is a sin if he kills a brother in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>? It is no sin if he
does not keep his oath to a heathen. Therefore, to steal and rob (as they do
with their money lending) from a heathen, is a divine
service... And they are the masters of the world and we are their servants -
yea, their cattle!”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“I
maintain that in three fables of Aesop there is more wisdom to be found than in
all the books of the Talmudists and rabbis and more than ever could come into
the hearts of the Jews . . .”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Should
someone think I am saying too much - I am saying much too little! For I see in
[their] writings how they curse us Goyim and wish as all evil in their schools
and prayers. They rob us of our money through usury, and wherever they are
able, they play us all manner of mean tricks . . . No heathen has done such
things and none would to so except the Devil himself and those whom he
possesses - as he possesses the Jews.” “Burgensis, who was a very learned rabbi
among them and by the grace of God became a Christian (which seldom occurs), is
much moved that in their schools they so horribly curse us Christians (as Lyra
also writes) and from that draws the conclusion that they must not be the
people of God.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Now
behold what a nice, thick, fat lie it is when they complain about being
captives among us! <st1:City><st1:place>Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City> was destroyed more than
1,400 years ago during that time we Christians have been tortured and
persecuted by the Jews in all the world. On top of
that, we do not know to this day what Devil brought them into our country. We
did not fetch them from <st1:City><st1:place>Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>! . . . Yes, we have and
hold them captive, as I would like to keep my rheumatism, and all other
diseases and misfortunes, who must wait as a poor
servant, with money and property and everything I have! I wish they were in <st1:City><st1:place>Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City> with the other Jews and
whomsoever they would like to have with them.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Therefore
the blind Jews are truly stupid fools . . .”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Now
just behold these miserable, blind, and senseless people. “
<p class=MsoBodyText>“.
. . their blindness and arrogance are as solid as an
iron mountain. “
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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 <st1:time Minute="39"
Hour="6">6:39</st1:time>]. You cannot learn
anything from them except how to misunderstand the divine commandments . . .”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“.
. . 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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“No,
one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“.
. . 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!”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Over
and above that we let them get rich on our sweat and blood, while we remain
poor and they suck the marrow from our bones.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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 neighbourly deeds.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Therefore
we Christians, in turn, are obliged not to tolerate their wanton and conscious
blasphemy.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“What
shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Let us apply the ordinary wisdom of other
nations like France, Spain, Bohemia, et al., who made them give an account of
what they had stolen through usury, and divided it evenly; but expelled them
from their country; For as heard before, God’s wrath is so great over them that
through soft mercy they only become more wicked, through hard treatment,
however, only a little better. Therefore, away with them!”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“How
much more unbearable it is that we should permit the entire Christendom and all
of us to be bought with our own money, be slandered and cursed by the Jews, who
on top of all that be made rich and our lords, who laugh us to scorn and are
tickled by their audacity!”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“What
a joyful affair that would be for the Devil and his angels, and cause them to
laugh through their snouts like a sow grinning at her little pigs, but
deserving real wrath before God.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“What
then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of 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 blasphemy. 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 practice 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:
<p class=MsoBodyText>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 honour 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.
<p class=MsoBodyText>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. [. . .] 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 (Deuteronomy 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 right 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. . . If you princes and nobles do not close the
road legally to such exploiters, then some troop ought to ride against them,
for they will learn from this pamphlet what the Jews are and how to handle them
and that they ought not to be protected. You ought not,
you cannot protect them, unless in the eyes of God you want to share all their
abomination.
<p class=MsoBodyText>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:
<p class=MsoBodyText>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.
<p class=MsoBodyText>Seventh,
I commend putting a flail, an axe, 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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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:
<p class=MsoBodyText>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.” “To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if
this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we
may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden - the Jews . . .” “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. When you lay eyes on or
think of a Jew you must say to yourself: Alas, that mouth which I there behold
has cursed and execrated and maligned every Saturday my dear Lord Jesus Christ,
who has redeemed me with his precious blood; in addition, it prayed and pleaded
before God that I, my wife and children, and all Christians might be stabbed to
death and perish miserably. And he himself would gladly do this if he were
able, in order to appropriate our goods . . .” “Such a desperate, thoroughly
evil, poisonous, and devilish lot are these Jews, who for these fourteen
hundred years have been and still are our plague, our pestilence, and our
misfortune.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“I
have read and heard many stories about the Jews which agree with this judgment
of Christ, namely, how they have poisoned wells, made assassinations, kidnapped
children, as related before. I have heard that one Jew sent another Jew, and this by means of a Christian, a pot of blood,
together with a barrel of wine, in which when drunk empty, a dead Jew was
found. There are many other similar stories. For their kidnapping of children
they have often been burned at the stake or banished (as we already heard). I
am well aware that they deny all of this. However, it all coincides with the
judgment of Christ which declares that they are venomous, bitter, vindictive,
tricky serpents, assassins, and children of the devil, who sting and work harm
stealthily wherever they cannot do it openly. For this reason, I would like to
see them where there are no Christians. The Turks and other heathen do not
tolerate what we Christians endure from these venomous serpents and young
devils . . . next to the devil, a Christian has no
more bitter and galling foe than a Jew. There is no other to whom we accord as
many benefactions and from whom we suffer as much as we do from these base
children of the devil, this brood of vipers.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“We
are at fault for not slaying them [the Jews].”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Even
with no further evidence than the Old Testament, I would maintain, and no
person on earth could alter my opinion, that the Jews as they are today are
veritably a mixture of all the depraved and malevolent knaves of the whole
world over, who have then been dispersed in all countries, similarly to the
Tartars, Gypsies and such folk.”
<p class=MsoBodyText><o:p> </o:p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><o:p> </o:p>
<p class=MsoBodyText>Here
are excerpts from Luther’s reply to the Talmudic charge that Jesus did His
miracles by magic with the Tetragrammaton, or Shem Hamphorash, the consonants
of the word Jehovah (by which the Rabbis whistle up the demons)? Published in
1543:
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Vom
Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi,”
<p class=MsoBodyText>By
Martin Luther; from
<p class=MsoBodyText>The
Jew in Christian Theology,
<p class=MsoBodyText>Gerhard
Falk, McFarland and Company, Inc., <st1:place><st1:City>Jefferson</st1:City>, <st1:State>NC</st1:State></st1:place> and <st1:City><st1:place>London</st1:place></st1:City>, 1931:
<p class=MsoBodyText>“But
your [God’s] judgment is right, justices Dominie. Yes, so shall Jews, but no
one else be punished, who held your word and miracles in contempt and
ridiculed, insulted and damned it for such a long time without interruption, so
that they will not fall, like other humans, heathens and all the others, into
sin and death, not up in Hell, nor in the middle of Hell but in the pit of
Hell, as one cannot fall deeper . . .”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Even
if they were punished in the most gruesome manner that the streets ran with
their blood, that their dead would be counted, not in the hundred thousands,
but in the millions, as happened under Vespasian in Jerusalem and for evil
under Hadrian, still they must insist on being right even if after these 1,500
years they were in misery another 1,500 years, still God must be a liar and
they must be correct. In sum, they are the devil’s children, damned to Hell.
<p class=MsoBodyText>.
.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Yes,
that tastes good to them, into their hearts, they
smack their lips like swine. That is how they want it. Call more: ‘Crucify him,
crucify him.’ Scream more: ‘His blood come upon us and our children.’ (Matthew
27:25) I mean it came and found you . . .”
<p class=MsoBodyText>“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.
<p class=MsoBodyText>“Even
with no further evidence than the Old Testament, I would maintain, and no
person on earth could alter my opinion, that the Jews as they are today are
veritably a mixture of all the depraved and malevolent knaves of the whole
world over, who have then been dispersed in all countries, similarly to the
Tartars, Gypsies and such folk.”
<p class=MsoBodyText><o:p> </o:p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><o:p> </o:p>
<p class=MsoBodyText><a
href="http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/">http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/</a>