The Reformation and the Jewish People: Part VII

by Jeffrey Gutterman

     In the previous article we discussed the early years of Martin Luther’s reformation. Luther made many pro- Jewish comments but this would not last for too long. In 1523 Luther wrote a very pro-Jewish piece titled, That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew. Just twenty years later, in 1543, he wrote, On the Jews and Their Lies, an anti-Semitic article that had and has far-reaching negative effects. The opening paragraph of On The Jews And Their Lies, states,

     Luther’s purpose for writing this piece is given in the second chapter,

      "I have received a treatise in which a Jew engages in dialog with a Christian. He dares to pervert the scriptural passages, which we cite in testimony to our faith, concerning our Lord Christ and Mary his mother, and to interpret them quite differently. With this argument he thinks he can destroy the basis of our faith.

     This is my reply to you and to him. They have failed to learn any lesson from the terrible distress that has been theirs for over fourteen hundred years in exile. Listen, Jew, are you aware that Jerusalem and your sovereignty, together with your temple and priesthood, have been destroyed for over 1,460 years? For this year, which we Christians write as the year 1542 since the birth of Christ, is exactly 1,468 years, going on fifteen hundred years, since Vespasian and Titus destroyed Jerusalem and expelled the Jews from the city. Let the Jews bite on this nut and dispute this question as long as they wish."

     In On the Jews and Their Lies, Luther affirms that Jews have been guilty of poisoning wells, and kidnapping children to stab them with an awl, then chopping the children to pieces. This, Luther said was done to "cool their (the Jews’) wrath."

     Johann Eck, who was a Catholic opponent of Luther’s, spread this false rumor from a report. He told of an alleged eyewitness, telling of two Jews who had murdered a Christian boy in a ritual where they had bled the child to death. The truth of the matter was that the father had taken blood from the boy with the intent of selling it to Jews to make some money, because the boy’s father believed that they used it in Jewish rituals. Unfortunately, the father had caused so much bleeding that he could not stop it and the boy died. When he realized that he could be executed for murder, he blamed the Jews for the death of the boy. Eck blamed the Jews even though they never admitted to committing this crime even under torture. When the father finally confessed his crime, Eck still blamed the Jews and in his eyes they were guilty. This lie was believed by many who hated the Jews.

     Luther included in his suggestions for dealing with the Jews:

1. burn all Jewish synagogues
2. destroy Jewish holy books
3. forbid rabbis to teach
4. destroy Jewish homes
5. ban Jews from roads and markets
6. forbid Jews to make loans
7. seize Jewish property
8. force Jews to do hard labor
9. expel Jews from Christian towns

     Those who followed Luther’s writings and teachings continually pressured the Jews and often acted against them. For example, in 1572, the synagogue was destroyed in Berlin and in 1573 Jews were banned in all of Germany. Now it is clear that Luther was not directly responsible for the holocaust in the 1940’s , however, Martin Luther’s most devastating legacy was the influence that he had on Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party that came to power in the 1930’s

• Julius Streicher, part of Hitler’s propaganda machine who was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death at Nuremberg trials in 1960 said, "I never said anything about the Jews that Martin Luther had not said 400 years earlier."
• In Hitler’s book Mein Kampf which means My World, Hitler wrote that along with Frederick the Great and Richard Wagner, Martin Luther was one of the three greatest men in German history. In 1918 Hitler wrote that that Luther, "saw the Jew as we are only beginning to see him."
• On November 9-10, 1938 the Nazis unleashed "Kristallnacht", when they smashed the windows of Jewish owned stores, looted Jewish businesses, killed scores of Jews, as well as destroying most synagogues in Germany. The Nazis publicly stated that the pogrom was done to honor the birthday of Martin Luther.

     Some have stated that Luther’s work, On The Jews And Their Lies, was Luther’s rejection of the Jewish people based upon their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. They had rejected Jesus when He walked the earth and now they were rejecting Jesus again. Luther believed that the barrier for Jews coming to faith was the Catholic Church with all of its corrupt practices. That did make sense but that was not the only barrier. In fact it was probably only a minor barrier. The major barrier was a church that had lost touch with its Jewish roots and had become one of the greatest enemies of the Jewish people. When Jews did not flock to this new movement, Protestantism, Luther’s sympathy for the Jews, that he had displayed twenty years earlier, turned to hatred. No matter what Luther’s motives were, his statements in "On The Jews and Their Lies", are patently anti-Semitic.

     Jean Calvin did not display any hatred of the Jewish people. In Calvin’s Commentaries, Calvin wrote, "I extend the word Israel to all the people of God, according to this meaning, When the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith; and thus shall be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of God, which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that the Jews shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first born in God's family.

     Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560). While he opposed Judaism and the Mishnah and the Talmud, he opposed those who were anti-Semitic and spoke against the accusation of Blood Libel. This may have been an influence of his uncle, Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522) who was a student of Hebrew. Reuchlin opposed the universities, the Inquisition and the Dominican Friars who wanted all Jewish books destroyed except for the Old Testament. A converted Jew by the name of Pfefferkorn led this call for the destruction of the books because he felt that this was necessary to provoke Jews to convert. Melanchthon, however, was a close friend to Luther and he did not come out against Luther anti-Semitic writings late in his life.

     Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) saw Jewish studies as very dangerous. He said that, "nothing more adverse and inimical to Christ can be found than this plague." Also he wrote about the Jews, " Who is there among us that does not hate this race of men?… If it is Christian to hate the Jews, here we are all Christians in profusion."

     Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) was a Reformer who saw the importance of the covenantal teaching of the Old Testament. He saw the Torah as "Godly Law" and he saw that this had value.

     Martin Bucer- criticized the lack of mission work on the part of the Reformers. He wrote specifically about Jewish missions,. He said, "Exactly through the sinful neglect of mission work among the Jews, now the Jews became usurers in the midst of Christianity."

     As the Reformation began, the Jews welcomed it. They were no longer the only target of the church. We have seen that Luther at first appears to take up the Jewish cause in 1523 but within twenty years he become anti-Semitic. Throughout the Jewish history in Catholic and Protestant Europe the kings and nobles used the Jews to serve as bankers and moneylenders, since they were usually not allowed to own land or to have any other kind of business. When a king or noble’s debt was large there was a very simple way for that debt to be forgiven. The Jewish lender was falsely accused of a crime and then they were executed or deported.

     The Jews were used as pawns and they found themselves starting out well in an area but as soon as a society began to have problems, the Jews became the convenient scapegoat. (Remember Deuteronomy 29:24-28.)

     In the next article we will discuss Dispensationalism and the Jewish People.