Martin Luther (1483–1546) was a German professor of theology, priest, and seminal leader of the Reformation. His positions on Judaism continue to be controversial. These changed dramatically from his early career, where he showed concern for the plight of European Jews, to his later years, when he became outspoken in his statements and writings denouncing the Jews.
Evolution of his views Luther's attitude toward Jews changed throughout his life. At the beginning of his career, he was influenced by Johann Reuchlin, who was the great-uncle of his friend Philip Melanchthon. Luther relied on Reuchlin to answer questions about Hebrew and used one of his Cabalistic books to help his argument in a debate. Reuchlin had successfully prevented the Holy Roman Empire from burning Jewish books but was racked by heresy proceedings as a result. In the early phase of Luther's career—until around 1536—he expressed concern for their plight in Europe and was enthusiastic at the prospect of converting them to Christianity through his religious reforms. Being unsuccessful in that, in his later career, Luther denounced Judaism and called for harsh persecution of its followers, so that they might not be allowed to teach.
Early years Luther's first known comment on the Jews is in a letter written to George Spalatin in 1514: Conversion of the Jews will be the work of God alone operating from within, and not of man working — or rather playing — from without. If these offences be taken away, worse will follow. For they are thus given over by the wrath of God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as Ecclesiastes says, for every one who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction.Martin Luther, "Luther to George Spalatin ," in Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporaneous Letters, trans. Henry Preserved Smith (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1913), 1:29.
In 1519, Luther challenged the doctrine (), established in by Justinian I from 529 to 534. He wrote: "Absurd theologians defend hatred for the Jews. ... What Jew would consent to enter our ranks when he sees the cruelty and enmity we wreak on them—that in our behavior towards them we less resemble Christians than beasts?"Luther quoted in Elliot Rosenberg, But Were They Good for the Jews? (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1997), p.65.
In his 1523 essay That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, Luther condemned the inhuman treatment of the Jews and urged Christians to treat them kindly. Luther's fervent desire was that Jews would hear the Gospel proclaimed clearly and be moved to convert to Christianity. Thus he argued: If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property. When they baptize them they show them nothing of Christian doctrine or life, but only subject them to popishness and mockery...If the apostles, who also were Jews, had dealt with us Gentiles as we Gentiles deal with the Jews, there would never have been a Christian among the Gentiles ... When we are inclined to boast of our position [as Christians] we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are...If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, that they may have occasion and opportunity to associate with us, hear our Christian teaching, and witness our Christian life. If some of them should prove stiff-necked, what of it? After all, we ourselves are not all good Christians either.Martin Luther, "That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew," Trans. Walter I. Brandt, in Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1962), pp. 200–201, 229.
Anti-Jewish agitation Erasmus had characterized the (Anabaptist) Sabbatarian movements in Bohemia and Moravia as re-judaizing, by analogy; Luther believed further that these movements had re-introduced circumcision (i.e. works of law against faith and grace) and were the result of active Jewish proselytizing.
Some time prior to 1536, Luther had met with three rabbis and presented his Christological interpretation of the Old Testament; the rabbis in turn presented their Talmudic interpretation, which did not mention Christ. In the years following his failure to convince the rabbis, Luther became increasingly anti-Jewish.
Luther successfully campaigned against the Jews in Saxony, Brandenburg, and Silesia. In August 1536 Luther's prince, Elector of Saxony John Frederick, issued a mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business in, or passing through his realm. An Alsatian shtadlan, Rabbi Josel of Rosheim, asked a reformer Wolfgang Capito to approach Luther to obtain an audience with the prince, but Luther refused every intercession.Martin Brecht, Martin Luther (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985–1993), 3:336. In response to Josel, Luther referred to his unsuccessful attempts to convert the Jews: "... I would willingly do my best for your people but I will not contribute to your [Jewish] obstinacy by my own kind actions. You must find another intermediary with my good lord."Luther's letter to Rabbi Josel as cited by Gordon Rupp, Martin Luther and the Jews (London: The Council of Christians and Jews, 1972), 14. According to , this paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther's works. Heiko Oberman notes this event as significant in Luther's attitude toward the Jews: "Even today this refusal is often judged to be the decisive turning point in Luther's career from friendliness to hostility toward the Jews."Heiko Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil (New York: Image Books, 1989), p.293.
In a paragraph from his On the Jews and Their Lies (1543) he deplores Christendom's failure to expel them."Luther, Martin", JewishEncyclopedia.com; cf. Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols., (St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia Publishing House and Fortress Press, 1955–86) 47:267. Moreover, he proposed "What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews": "First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools ... This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians ..." "Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed." "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 ..." "Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside ..." "Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them ..." "Seventh, I recommend 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 ... But if we are afraid that they might harm us or our wives, children, servants, cattle, etc., ... then let us emulate the common sense of other nations such as France, Spain, Bohemia, etc., ... then eject them forever from the country ..."
Rabbi Josel of Rosheim, who tried to help the Jews of Saxony, wrote in his memoir that their situation was "due to that priest whose name was Martin Luther — may his body and soul be bound up in hell!! — who wrote and issued many heretical books in which he said that whoever would help the Jews was doomed to perdition."Marcus, Jacob Rader. The Jew in the Medieval World, p. 198, cited in Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 110. Robert Michael, Professor Emeritus of European History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth writes that Josel asked the city of Strasbourg to forbid the sale of Luther's anti-Jewish works; they refused initially, but relented when a Lutheran pastor in Hochfelden argued in a sermon that his parishioners should murder Jews.Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 117.
Anti-Jewish works Luther's main works on the Jews were his 65,000-word treatise () and Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi () — reprinted five times within his lifetime — both written in 1543, three years before his death.Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 110. It is believed that Luther was influenced by Anton Margaritha's book (). p.18. Margaritha, a convert to Christianity who had become a Lutheran, published his antisemitic book in 1530 which was read by Luther in 1539. In 1539, Luther got his hands on the book and immediately became fond of it: "The materials provided in this book confirmed for Luther that the Jews in their blindness wanted nothing to do with faith and justification through faith." Margaritha's book was decisively discredited by Josel of Rosheim in a public debate in 1530 before Charles V and his court,Jewishencyclopedia.Com – Josel (Joselmann, Joselin) Of Rosheim (Joseph Ben Gershon Loanz): resulting in Margaritha's expulsion from the Empire.
Commentary on the Psalms In his commentary on Psalm 2, Luther writes at length about the betrayal of Jesus by Jews, and likens all Jews to those who voted for his execution.
On the Jews and Their Lies
In 1543 Luther published On the Jews and Their Lies in which he says that the Jews are a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth."Luther, Martin. On the Jews and Their Lies, 154, 167, 229, cited in Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 111. The synagogue was a "defiled bride, yes, an incorrigible whore and an evil slut ..."Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 112. He argues that their synagogues and schools be set on fire, their prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes razed, and property and money confiscated. They should be shown no mercy or kindness,Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46:4, (Autumn 1985), p. 342. afforded no legal protection,Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46:4, (Autumn 1985), p. 343. and these "poisonous envenomed worms" should be drafted into forced labor or expelled for all time.Luther, Martin. On the Jews and Their Lies, Luthers Werke. 47:268–271; Trans. Martin H. Bertram, in Luther's Works. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971). He also seems to advocate their murder, writing "[w]e are at fault in not slaying them".Luther, Martin. On the Jews and Their Lies, cited in Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343–344. Luther claims that Jewish history was "assailed by much heresy", and that Christ swept away the Jewish heresy and goes on to do so, "as it still does daily before our eyes." He stigmatizes Jewish Prayer as being "blasphemous" and a lie, and vilifies Jews in general as being spiritually "blind" and "surely possessed by all devils." Luther has a special spiritual problem with Jewish circumcision.,