1  ---
 2  id: 9a83da93-781b-4578-90c5-dc6927750094
 3  ---
 4  
 5  > [!meta]+ Metadata
 6  > - title:: Martin Luther's unacknowledged debt to the Jews - The Jewish Chronicle
 7  > - author::  Dr Harry Freedman
 8  > - itemType:: web article
 9  > - date_published:: 2017-10-30 06:47:48
10  > - date_saved:: 2023-12-27 08:18:57
11  > - tags:: #source
12  > - omnivore_url:: [Read on Omnivore](https://omnivore.app/me/martin-luther-s-unacknowledged-debt-to-the-jews-the-jewish-chron-18cab6da04a)
13  > - original_url:: [Read Original](https://www.thejc.com/judaism/martin-luthers-unacknowledged-debt-to-the-jews-iegqmv3z)
14  
15  # Martin Luther's unacknowledged debt to the Jews - The Jewish Chronicle
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17  ## Highlights
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19  > Pico was the first Christian scholar to take an interest in Kabbalah. He asserted that of all the sources he used, Kabbalah was the one that most clearly offered an indisputable proof of Christianity. The discipline he founded, known unsurprisingly as Christian Kabbalah, became an object of serious study. Newton, Milton, Liebnitz and Shakespeare were all familiar with its principles. As was Martin Luther. [⤴️](https://omnivore.app/me/martin-luther-s-unacknowledged-debt-to-the-jews-the-jewish-chron-18cab6da04a#9b90dcf8-98f3-4d53-9f41-5b1e8a98d565)  ^9b90dcf8
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21  > Jews had been analysing and interpreting the Hebrew Bible for centuries, based on a thorough understanding of the language and its grammar. Luther feared that if he encouraged people to read the Bible in the way that Jews read it, they may end up believing what Jews believed.
22  > 
23  >  To overcome this, Luther created an artificial distinction between grammatical and spiritual Hebrew. Grammatical Hebrew was what Jews used; but in relying on it, he claimed, they missed the spiritual connotations of the language. In Luther’s eyes Hebrew could only be a tool for understanding the original sense of the Bible if one transcended the simple grammatical meaning of the language and understood the spiritual context, which he believed to be its Christian message. [⤴️](https://omnivore.app/me/martin-luther-s-unacknowledged-debt-to-the-jews-the-jewish-chron-18cab6da04a#33ef9e9a-bca6-4425-98ae-168f44b4adbf)  ^33ef9e9a
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