THOSE LOVING
CHRISTIANS!
Words of
Martin Luther1 & John
Calvin2
(“real”
Christians?)
ON THE JEWS
AND THEIR LIES: 1543
By
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
What
then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us and
we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we can not tolerate
them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy. In this way we cannot quench the inextinguishable
fire of divine rage nor convert the Jews. We must prayerfully and reverentially
practice a merciful severity. Perhaps we may save a few from the fire and
flames [of hell]. We must not seek vengeance. They are surely being punished a
thousand times more than we might wish them. Let me give you my honest advice.
First,
their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered
or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or
stone of it. And this ought to be done for the honor of God and of Christianity
in order that God may see that we are Christians, and that we have not
wittingly tolerated or approved of such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming
of His Son and His Christians.
Secondly,
their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed. For they perpetrate the same
things there that they do in their synagogues. For this reason they ought to be
put under one roof or in a stable, like gypsies, in order that they may realize
that they are not masters in our land, as they boast, but miserable captives,
as they complain of incessantly before God with bitter wailing.
Thirdly,
they should be deprived of their prayer-books and Talmuds
in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught.
Fourthly,
their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more...
Fifthly,
passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews. For they have no business in
the rural districts since they are not nobles, nor officials, nor merchants,
nor the like. Let them 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...
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.
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.
OF THE
UNKNOWABLE NAME AND THE GENERATIONS OF CHRIST: 1543
By
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
But your [God’s]
judgment is right, justus es
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
A RESPONSE TO
QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIONS OF A CERTAIN JEW2
By John Calvin (1509-1564)
Their
[the Jews] rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed
unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in
their misery without the pity of anyone.
Footnotes:
1. Translated
by Martin H. Bertram, On The Jews and Their Lies, Luther's Works,
Volume 47;
2. Excerpts from “Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi,” By Martin Luther and an excerpt
from “Ad Quaelstiones
et Objecta Juaei Cuiusdam Responsio,” by John
Calvin; The Jew in Christian Theology,
Gerhard Falk, McFarland and Company, Inc.,