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I’m here collecting relevant quotations from Martin Luther related to boasting in blood.
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To be sure, before the world one person is properly accounted nobler than another by reason of his birth, or smarter than another because of his intelligence, or stronger and more handsome than another because of his body, or richer and mightier than another in view of his possessions, or better than another on account of his special virtues. For this miserable, sinful, and mortal life must be marked by such differentiation and inequality; the requirements of daily life and the preservation of government make it indispensable.
But to strut before God and boast about being so noble, so exalted, and so rich compared to other people—that is devilish arrogance, since every birth according to the flesh is condemned before him without exception in the aforementioned verse, if his covenant and word do not come to the rescue once again and create a new and different birth, quite different from the old, first birth. So if the Jews boast in their prayer before God and glory in the fact that they are the patriarchs’ noble blood, lineage, and children, and that he should regard them and be gracious to them in view of this, while they condemn the Gentiles as ignoble and not of their blood, my dear man, what do you suppose such a prayer will achieve? This is what it will achieve: Even if the Jews were as holy as their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob themselves, yes, even if they were angels in heaven, on account of such a prayer they would have to be hurled into the abyss of hell. How much less will such prayers deliver them from their exile and return them to Jerusalem!
Why should so much ado be made of this? After all, if birth counts before God, I can claim to be just as noble as any Jew, yes, just as noble as Abraham himself, as David, as all the holy prophets and apostles. Nor will I owe them any thanks if they consider me just as noble as themselves before God by reason of my birth. And if God refuses to acknowledge my nobility and birth as the equal to that of Isaac, Abraham, David, and all the saints, I maintain that he is doing me an injustice and that he is not a fair judge. For I will not give it up and neither Abraham, David, prophets, apostles nor even an angel in heaven, shall deny me the right to boast that Noah, so far as physical birth or flesh and blood is concerned, is my true, natural ancestor, and that his wife (whoever she may have been) is my true, natural ancestress; for we are all descended, since the Deluge, from that one Noah. We did not descend from Cain, for his family perished forever in the flood together with many of the cousins, brothers-in-law, and friends of Noah.
I also boast that Japheth, Noah’s firstborn son,13 is my true, natural ancestor and his wife (whoever she may have been) is my true, natural ancestress; for as Moses informs us in Genesis 10, he is the progenitor of all of us Gentiles. Thus Shem, the second son of Noah, and all of his descendants have no grounds to boast over against his older brother Japheth because of their birth. Indeed, if birth is to play a role, then Japheth as the oldest son and the true heir has reason for boasting over against Shem, his younger brother, and Shem’s descendants, whether these be called Jews or Ishmaelites or Edomites. But what does physical primogeniture help the good Japheth, our ancestor? Nothing at all. Shem enjoys precedence—not by reason of birth, which would accord precedence to Japheth, but because God’s word and calling are the arbiter here.
I could go back to the beginning of the world and trace our common ancestry from Adam and Eve, later from Shem, Enoch, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; for all of these are our ancestors just as well as the Jews’, and we share equally in the honor, nobility, and fame of descent from them as do the Jews. We are their flesh and blood just the same as Abraham and all his seed are. For we were in the loins of the same holy fathers in the same measure as they were, and there is no difference whatsover with regard to birth or flesh and blood, as reason must tell us. Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools, much more absurd than the Gentiles, to boast so before God of their physical birth, though they are by reason of it no better than the Gentiles, since we both partake of one birth, one flesh and blood, from the very first, best, and holiest ancestors. Neither one can reproach or upbraid the other about some peculiarity without implicating himself at the same time.
13 Japheth is listed third in the enumeration of Noah’s sons in Gen. 9:18, but in the further tables of lineage in 10:2 ff., his offspring are listed first.
In the third place, one should note that in this history the Holy Spirit points out that although God receives and chooses the seed of Abraham in this way, He nevertheless does not reject the Gentiles according to the flesh. It is not a case of the Jews having reason to boast that they alone are the seed of Abraham. For after Isaac they are not the only seed of Abraham; for Rebecca derived her origin not from Abraham but from Nahor. Thus Leah and Rachel are offspring of Bethuel. Here the seeds were mingled; Gentile seed was mixed with that of Abraham. Likewise, Tamar is a Canaanite woman. Therefore Christ did not despise His Canaanite mother but was willing to be born from the seed of a rejected nation, lest the Jews exalt themselves beyond measure and boast of their blood. For it is necessary for them to confess that they are also Idumaeans, Parthians, etc., and that the Gentiles are also by natural right mothers, brothers, cousins on their fathers’ and mothers’ side, and sisters of Christ, at least on account of their mothers. For they all descended from this Tamar, who is the mother of the whole tribe of Judah; and the flesh of Perez was produced from and made up of the seed of a Canaanite and from that of Abraham. Therefore Israel must acknowledge the Gentiles as blood relations or kinsmen and their own brothers on account of their mothers. For the mother, too, no less than the father, determines who are sisters, brothers, and wives. Although the genealogical order is not derived from mothers and mothers are not enumerated among the descendants, they are nevertheless included; and of these indeed express and special mention is made of Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, and Bathsheba. By this avenue the Gentiles come into communion and fellowship with the people of Israel, not only in the matter of religion but also in the matter of the same flesh. For man and woman certainly become one flesh (Gen. 2:24). Therefore Jews and Gentiles are now one flesh and born from one flesh.
In this manner God wanted to restrain the foolish arrogance of the exceedingly proud nation of the Jews, who hated the Gentiles worse than a dog and a snake. For they will be compelled to concede, even though unwillingly, that Jews and Gentiles are brothers even naturally and according to the flesh. For they will not reject this mother Tamar, although paternity and the genealogy are not derived from mothers. Moab says of Ruth: “This is my sister and a mother of the Messiah. Therefore the Messiah is my son.” Canaan could say the same thing about Tamar. Finally, were not Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph, born of an Egyptian mother? Therefore the royal tribe in Israel is Egyptian, and Egypt has dominion over the people of Israel, if not from the father’s line, nevertheless from blood relationship and nature. Furthermore, physicians say that the mother gives more nourishment than the father; for the mother nourishes the fetus for 10 months in the womb on nothing but her own blood, and afterwards, when the blood has been changed into milk, she suckles the infant.14
Accordingly, the Jews have no grounds for boasting; they should humble themselves and acknowledge their maternal blood. For on their father’s side they are Israelites; but on their mother’s side they are Gentiles, Moabites, Assyrians, Egyptians, Canaanites. And by this God wanted to point out that the Messiah would be a brother and a cousin of both the Jews and the Gentiles, if not according to their paternal genealogy, at least according to their maternal nature. Consequently, there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, except that Moses later separated this people from the Gentiles by a different form of worship and political regime.
Moreover, these things were written to make it known to all that the Messiah would gather the Gentiles and the Jews into one and the same church, just as they are joined by nature and consanguinity. Therefore I concluded above that the word “Canaan” should be explained appellatively, because Christ wanted to be born from the Canaanites, a heathen nation, and in this way to begin making peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. For in Christ all things must be gathered up again and brought back into one order, as it were, because He is the God not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles (Rom. 3:29). To be sure, we heathen, properly speaking, are descended from Japheth; but Ham and Canaan are joined by blood to Shem. Therefore although we are somewhat more foreign, yet we have come to the fellowship and unity of Christ by the same right as the Assyrians and the Egyptians.
14 Much of the obstetrical information in this chapter came from Pliny, Natural History, Book VII, ch. v, 38 ff.