''Vom Schem Hamphoras'', full title: ''Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi'' (''Of the Unknowable Name and the Generations of Christ''), was a

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical ...

written by German

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

leader

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

in 1543, in which he equated

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

with the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

and described them in vile language. '' Schem Hamphoras'' is the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

nic name for the

ineffable Ineffability is the quality of something that surpasses the capacity of language to express it, often being in the form of a taboo or incomprehensible term. This property is commonly associated with philosophy, aspects of existence, and similar ...

name of God, the

tetragrammaton The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ...

. Luther's use of the term was in itself a taunt and insult to Jewish sensitivities. He wrote the 125-page text several months after publishing '' On the Jews and Their Lies''. In ''Hamphoras'' (pp. 34-35) he wrote: Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the

chosen people Throughout history, various groups of people have considered themselves to be the chosen people of a deity, for a particular purpose. The phenomenon of a "chosen people" is well known among the Israelites and Jews, where the term ( he, עם ס� ...

but "the devil's people". An English translation of ''Vom Schem Hamphoras'' was first published in 1992 as part of ''The Jew In Christian Theology'' by Gerhard Falk. Historians have noted Luther's writings contributed to

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

within the German provinces during his era. Historical evidence shows that the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in the 1930s and 1940s used Luther's writings to build up antisemitism under their rule, by exerting pressure on schools to incorporate it into the curriculum, and the Lutheran church to incorporate it into sermons. Whether or not Luther's writings were a leading force for antisemitism in Europe over the past 500 years is currently being debated by historians. Nevertheless, it is clear that his writings were used extensively by the Nazis.''Lutheran Quarterly'', n.s. 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72-97. Grunberger, Richard. ''The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi German 1933-1945'' (NP:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 465.

References

{{Antisemitism topics, state=collapsed 1543 books 16th-century Christian texts Works by Martin Luther Antisemitic publications Lutheranism and antisemitism

See also

References