Martin Luther
Werner Sombart on Calvinism-Puritanism (Jewish-styled Christianity):I would also recall the words of Heine, who had a clear insight into most things. “Are not,” he asks in his Confessions, “Are not the Protestant Scots Hebrews, with their Biblical names, their Jerusalem, pharisaistic cant? And is not their religion a Judaism which allows you to eat pork?” Puritanism is Judaism.
... the Jews in England in the 17th century were held in very high esteem by the Puritans. Leading men in England like Oliver Cromwell [he was also the one who let the Jews into England again] built up their religious views on the Old Testament
... Cromwell’s officers suggested to him to appoint seventy members of his Privy Council according to the number of the members of the Synhedrin.
... And in conclusion I would draw attention to a little humorous publication, which appeared in the year 1608 and the contents of which would seem to demonstrate the close connexion between Judaism and Calvinism (which is only Puritanism). It is called, Der Calvinische Judenspiegel (the Calvinistic Jewish Mirror)(Taken from The Jews and Modern Capitalism, ch. 11, part: Judaism and Puritanism)
"This a vain boasting the Jews make of their privileges, after a lapse of above fifteen hundred years. During the seventy years, when they were captives at Babylon, they were so confused and mingled together, that even then they hardly knew out of what tribe each was descended [except that they was Chosen, i.e. of the Judah tribe]. How should it be now, when they have been so long hunted and driven about by the Gentiles, whose soldiers spared neither their wives nor their daughters, so that now they are, as it were, all bastards, none of them knowing out of what tribe he is. In 1537, when I was at Frankfort, a great rabbi said to me: My father had read very much, and waited for the coming of the Messiah, but at last he fainted, and out of hope said: As our Messiah has not come in fifteen hundred years, most certainly Christ Jesus must be he."
(Martin Luther, TT)Martin Luther translated the Old Testament with help of three Rabbis.
The Jews found it a great "privilege" to reform the Catholic and Orthodox Christian church they disliked.
Luther was at first a philo-Jew, but was later labeled "anti-Semite".
Luther wrote a book in 1523, with the title "That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew".
Twenty years later he changed his mind in several matters. He wrote "On the Jews and their lies" where he discusses their anti-Christian position. He had gotten to learn the teachings of the Jews, by his new Hebrew knowledge.
This was a major setback for the Jewish plans of new cooperation between Christian and Jewish theology, today named "Judeo-Christianity". This idea all comes down to Christianity "owing" to Jesus being a Jew killed by Pharisee Jews and the great Sanhedrin. (They succeeded better with Luther's contemporary rival reformer: Calvin, who may have been a Jew himself.)
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was one of the key figures in the Protestant (protest against Catholicism) Reformation and an accomplished scholar in both Hebrew and Aramaic, who after an initial "love affair" with Jews that turned to ashes in his mouth, wrote a startling expose titled "The Jews and their lies".
"Their accursed rabbis, who in deed know better, wantonly poison the minds of their poor youth and of the common man and divert them from the truth. For I believe that if these writings [Talmud etc.] were read by the common man and the youth they would stone all their rabbis and hate them more violently than they do us Christians. But these villains prevent our sincere views from coming to their attention [by oral tradition etc.]."
(Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," 1543, p. 176)"[I]n Deuteronomy 4 [:2] and 12 [:32] he [Moses] commanded very explicitly that nothing is to be added to or subtracted from his law. And Samuel says in I Samuel 15 [:23] that disobedience to God is idolatry. Now the Jews' doctrine at present is nothing but the additions of the rabbis and the idolatry of disobedience, so that Moses has become entirely unknown among them"
(Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," 1543, p. 268)"In brief, all their life and all their deeds, whether they eat, drink, sleep, wake, stand, walk dress, undress, fast, bathe, pray, or praise, are so sullied with rabbinical, foul ordinances and unbelief, that Moses can no longer be recognized among them [and maybe that's why 'Mosaic faith' is now called 'Jewish faith']."
(Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," 1543, p. 253)"The decisions of the Talmud are words of the living God. Jehovah himself asks the opinions of earthly rabbis when there are difficult affairs in heaven."
(Rabbi Menachen, "Comments for the Fifth Book" of the Talmud)
"Three learned Jews came to me, hoping to discover a new Jew in me because we were beginning to read Hebrew here in Wittenberg, and remarking that matters would soon improve since we Christians were starting to read their books. [...] I found out that they called Christ a 'tola', that is, a hanged highwayman. Therefore I do not wish to have anything more to do with any Jew. [...] If the Jews would only let Holy Scripture be God's word, they would also have to admit that there has been a Messiah since the time of Herod (no matter where), rather than awaiting another. But before doing this, they will rather tear and pervert Scripture until it is no longer Scripture. [...] Someone may think that I am saying too much. I am not saying too much, but too little - for I see their writings. They curse us Goyim. In their synagogues and in their prayers they wish us every misfortune. [See also Israel Shahak's book for confirmation.] They . . . play on us every wicked trick they can. And the worst of it is that they still claim to have done right and well, that is, to have done God a service. And they teach the doing of such things. No pagan ever acted thus; in fact, no one acts thus except the devil himself, or whomever he possesses, as he has possessed [certain] Jews. . . . [O]ur bastards and pseudo-Jews, think they must curse us, hate us, and inflict every possible harm upon us, although they have no cause for it. Therefore they surely are no longer God's people. . . . [T]hey would rather surrender such comforting, joyous words and suffer the loss than to have them benefit us. . . . These lies are such as the devil resorts to when he cannot assail the doctrine. Then he turns against the person - lying, maligning, cursing, and ranting against him. . . .
John the Baptist and Christ himself were charged with having a devil [Matt. 11:18; John 8:20] . . . and shortly thereafter John's and Christ's doctrine was shown to be false, and that of the Pharisees true. The same thing happened to all the prophets. . . . [W]hen they utter the word 'Jesu' in their prayer, they spit on the ground three times in honor of our Lord and of all Christians, moved by their great love and devotion. [See Israel Shahak's book.] But when they are conversing with one another they say, 'Deleatur nomen eius', which means in plain words, 'May God exterminate his name', or 'May all the devils take him.' [Comfirmed by Israel Shahak.] . . . Still they claim to be the holy people to whom God must grant the Messiah by reason of their righteousness! . . . [The State of Israel in itself may be the best proof of them NOT being chosen.]
If there were a genuine drop of Israelite blood in such miserable Jews"
(Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," 1543, pp. 190-1, 227, 243, 253, 256 & 259)
"Finally I wish to say this for myself: If God were to give me no other Messiah than such as the Jews wish and hope for, I would much, much rather be a sow than a human being. I will cite you a good reason for this. The Jews ask no more of their Messiah than that he be a Kokhba ['Star', morning star?] and worldly king who will slay us Christians"
--Martin Luther; "On the Jews and Their Lies," p. 292"What harm has the poor Jesus done to the most holy children of Israel that they cannot stop cursing him after his death. . . . They themselves crucified him, and a dead person cannot be the Messiah. Perhaps he is an obstacle to their return into their homeland? [!!! And the negation, the Holocaust brought them there.] . . . What, then, is the reason? I will tell you. As I said before, it is the lightning and thunder of Moses to which I referred before: 'The Lord will smite you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind.' It is the eternal fire of which the prophets speak: 'My wrath will go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it' [Jer. 4:4]. John the Baptist proclaimed the same message to them after Herod had removed their scepter, saying [Luke 3:17]: 'His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into his granary, but his chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.' Indeed, such fire of divine wrath we behold descending on the Jews. We see it burning, ablaze and aflame, a fire more horrible than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. ['Holo-caust' = greek for 'Death by Fire'!]"
(Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," 1543, p. 262)
But as the German leader Adolf Hitler mentioned, Luther still didn't fully understand everything:
"Instead of glorifying the Old Testament [the Jewish Torah], . . . [Martin Luther should] have branded it as the arsenal of the Antichrist [instead of having it 'Christianized']."
--Adolf Hitler, hated German leader of Catholic faith; quoted
by Eckart in his "Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin," 1924
Today the Protestant churches apologize for the words of Luther. Jews apologize for nothing.
One of Luther's main arguments for Jews not being chosen (but punished) by God is that they never get (got) their "Holy land". And that they have begged and begged for it all those years since the Romans (god's will?) took their silver and drove them to Spain and elsewhere in "Diaspora".
