Jews And Their Lies by Martin Luther

Author:Martin Luther [Martin Luther]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Med Reda
Published: 2014-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

I must break off here and leave the last part of Haggai to others, the section in which he

prophesies that the Lord, as he says, "will give peace in this place" [cf. Hag. 2:9b]. Can it be

possible that this applies to the time from Antiochus up to the present during which the Jews have

experienced every misfortune and are still in exile? For there shall be peace in this place, says the

Lord. The place is still there; the temple and peace have vanished. No doubt the Jews will be able

to interpret this. The history books inform me that there was but little peace prior to Antiochus for

about three hundred years, and subsequent to that time none at all down to the present hour,

except for the peace that reigned at the time of the Maccabees. As I have already said, I shall

leave this to others.

Finally we must lend ear to the great prophet Daniel. A special angel with a proper name Gabriel

talks with him. The like of this is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament. The fact that the angel

is mentioned by name marks it as something extraordinary. This is what he tells Daniel: "Seventy

weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression,

to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both

vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place" [Dan. 9:24].

We cannot now discuss this rich text, which actually is one of the foremost in all of Scripture. And,

as is only natural, everybody has reflected on it; for it not only fixes the time of Christ's advent but

also foretells what he will do, namely, take away sin, bring righteousness, and do this by means of

his death. It establishes Christ as the Priest who bears the sin of the whole world. This, I say, we

must now set aside and deal only with the question of the time, as we determined to do, whether

such a Messiah or Priest has already come or is still to come. [This we do] for the strengthening

of our faith, against all devils and men.

In the first place, there is complete agreement on this: that the seventy weeks are not weeks of

days but of years; that one week comprises seven years, which produces a sum total of four

hundred and ninety years. That is the first point. Second, it is also agreed that these seventy weeks

had ended when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. There is no difference of opinion on

these two points, although many are in the dark when it comes to the matter of knowing the

precise time of which these seventy weeks began and when they terminated. It is not necessary for

us to settle this question here, since it is generally assumed that they were fulfilled about the time of

the destruction of Jerusalem. This will suffice us for the present.

If this is true, as it must be true, since after the destruction of Jerusalem none of the seventy weeks

was left,

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