07/06/2023 – “The Saintly Men of Saved” – 1559 C.E. – Level III – Chapter Fourteen – Post 1 of 2 // Group Fellowship and Discussion
“The Saintly Men of Saved” – 1559 C.E. – Level III – Chapter Fourteen //
In fact, what a evil and tragic about face for Luther, from his 1523: “Jesus was Born a Jew” (pg # 793 of our chapter) to the 1543 Pamphlet entitled: “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies” (pg # 807), with consequences that have run for nearly half a milllenium. (See link to article below)
https://momentmag.com/martin-luthers-anti-semitic-legacy-500-years-later/
I will excerpt Luther’s discourse from each in our chapter:
1523 – “Jesus Was Born a Jew”
“Our fools and jackasses, these priests, bishops, sophists, and monks have treated the Jews in such a fashion that if a man wanted to become a true Christian he might better become a Jew. Were I a Jew and saw what block deadheads and windbags rule and guide Christendom, I would rather become a sow than a Christian. For they have treated the Jews more like dogs than men. Yet the Jews are kith and kin and brothers-in-blood of our Saviour. If we are going to boast about the virtues of race, Christ belongs more to them than to us. To no other people has God shown such favor in entrusting them with His Holy Word.”
1543 Pamphlet – “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies” : I am going to pull out our text from the chapter. I have read this before, I would like to double check first the ending phrase “God is three not one”. But my experience with Michener’s novels over the years is that his track record is very good when it comes to bringing in key accurate historical information.
Here is our text – pgs. # 806 – 807:
“Then in 1543 even optimistic Jews like Isaac Gottes Mann learned what the future was to be, for Martin Luther, their one-time champion against the Church, turned on them with a fury that only a sage like Rabbi Eliezer could have predicted. Having tried vainly to convert the stiff-necked Jews to Lutheranism, and having found them as obdurate against Protestants as they had been with Catholics, Luther surrendered all hope for them and lashed out in rantings that came close to monomania or downright idiocy. ‘Well prisoners, ritual murders, spreaders of the plague, practicers of black magic’ were some of the milder forms he flung at them. Jewish bankers, he said, stole the lifeblood of the community while Jewish doctors poisoned Gentile patients. Synagogues must be destroyed, the Torah burned wherever it could be found, homes torn down brick by brick and Jews sent into the field to live like Gypsies. ‘I would threaten to rip their tongues from their throats,’ said the prince of Protestantism, ‘if they do not accept the proof that God is three and not one,’ and her urged all God-fearing men to hound the Jews like wild beast from the land.’ It was a shattering blow, the final closing of the door, for these charges would reverberate along the Rhine for centuries, finding voice at last in the strange and hideous quarters. So that night Rabbi Eliezer announced to his family, ’Tomorrow we start for Turkey.’
Stay tuned for Post # 2 of 2 of this chapter! It will posted not July 16th. It will excerpt from a fascinating discussion between
Eliav (Jewish), Cullinance (Christian) and Jemail (Muslim) in the Tell modern day, looking back over history. My post excerpt will be from the middle of page #813 through the end of page # 815. Here is one paragraph premise from Eliav in the middle of page # 813 as a preview: “My thought is that in those critical years Judaism went back to the basic religious precepts by which men can live together in a society, whereas Christianity rushed forward to a magnificent personal religion which never in ten thousand years will teach men how to live together. Your Christians will have beauty, passionate intercourse with God, magnificent buildings, frenzied worship and exaltation of the spirt. But you will never have that close organization of society, family life and the little community that is possible have come up with an invention like the Inquisition – an essentially anti-social concept.”
The Old Testament and New Testament are not two books, but one Book, His Holy and infallible word. The Jewish and Christian faiths are not two faiths, but one, that will come together before Christ’s 2nd coming, one remnant body in Christ. (Again , I reference Romans Chapter 11)
Pg. 787 – Reference to Diego. Ximeno’s study of “Zohar” mysticism:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/zadok_
See more below – one more link…
Pg. 789 – Re: Rabbi Eliezer bar Zadok – Read about he Priestly line of Zadok up to around 170 B.C.: