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141 Language: Latin Critical edition: WA 42–44 (here WA 42:651–57) english Translation: LW 1–8 (here LW 3:144–52) Text #19 Lectures on Genesis 17 (1538) For general introductory material on the Genesis lectures, see Text #17. Genesis 17 describes the institution of circumcision as the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham and Abraham’s descendents. Over the centuries, circumcision, Sabbath observance, and the dietary regulations known as kashrut would come to be the defining characteristics of Jewishness.Within Gentile Christianity, attempts to introduce such practices came to be called “Judaizing.”1 early in his lecture on Genesis 17, Luther states: “I hear that in Austria and Moravia some Judaizers are today advocating both the Sabbath and circumcision.”2 Luther had indicated knowledge of such a movement as early as 1532,3 but his formal treatment of the issues at stake derives from 1538. His major treatise Against the Sabbatarians would be written immediately after his extended exegetical engagement with Genesis 17. For more on Sabbatarianism, see the introduction to Text #20. In the section excerpted below, Luther argues that circumcision was a temporal covenant and that it was never intended for anyone but the Jews alone.With the coming of Christ,the covenant of circumsion has ceased,along with the Mosaic law as a whole.This claim, though not explicitly stated, derives directly from Luther’s understanding of Rom. 10:4a—“For Christ is the end of the Law.” Just as the physical promise must now give way to the spiritual promise and Sarah’s child must now give way to Mary’s child, so the Law of Moses must now give way to God’s promise, which is accessed only via faith. He further argues that since the Jews rejected the promised Christ, God has now rejected them.The Jews are no longer the people of God, and their 1,500-year exile proves this. Most striking in this entire section is Luther’s comparison of post-biblical Judaism to a cadaver.All of this anticipates the further elaboration of these same arguments in Against the Sabbatarians. 142 Martin Luther, the Bible, and the Jewish People Genesis 17 {LW 3:144–145, 148–152} 17:15. And God said to Abraham:As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 17:16. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her. We have finished with the command concerning circumcision, which God so surrounded with His own bounds that He excluded not only the Gentiles but also the entire female sex and likewise the males who died before the eighth day. Hence the Jews, who want circumcision to be universal, clamor in vain.The part of the body which is to be circumcised was also designated. Hence the priests of Baal cut and slashed their bodies in vain (1 Kgs. 18:28). When Christ came, this law was abolished; for circumcision was not given as an everlasting law but for the preservation of the seed of Abraham until Christ should be born from it.At His birth not only circumcision but the entire law, with its ceremonies and forms of worship, came to an end. What now follows unfolds the promise concerning Christ,for it gradually began to become clearer and more distinct. First Abraham had doubts concerning an heir, and he came to suspect that if he should die without an heir, his damascene servant would get possession of the blessing.But later on he is assured by a word of God that an heir shall be born to him from his own body.When he has this explanation and assurance about the promise, there follows another uncertainty—about Sarah, who was advancing in years and was barren.Therefore he acquiesces in her plan and lies with the maid Hagar.From her he begets Ishmael,whom he fully expects to become the heir of the blessing. But now at last the saintly couple is delivered even from this error, for Abraham is promised an offspring from the aged and barren Sarah herself. In the course of time the promise is transmitted to Jacob, not to esau; and when Jacob had twelve heirs, the promise falls to Judah alone. eventually david is designated as the heir of the promise. From...

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