Martin Luther: The Jews and Their Lies(1543)Martin Luther: The Jews and Their Lies
(extracts)
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 [: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.
***
Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools...
***
Now just behold these miserable, blind, and senseless
people.
***
...their blindness and arrogance are as solid as an
iron mountain.
***
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...
***
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 selfglory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming
of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes
on them.
***
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 archthieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security.
***
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.
***
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.
***
...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.
***
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?
***
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.
***
No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat
of their pants.
***
...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!
***
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.
***
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, safeconduct, or communion with us.... .With
this faithful counsel and warning I wish to cleanse and exonerate my
conscience.
***
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.
***
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
***
Therefore we Christians, in turn, are obliged not to
tolerate their wanton and conscious blasphemy.
***
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.
***
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
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. Vengeance 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 (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."
Those 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 safeconduct 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.
***
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.
***
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.
***
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."
***
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.
From Luther's Works, Volume 47: The Christian in Society IV, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971). pp 268293. Source: Internet Medieval Sourcebook |
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