Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Luther was only joking, right???

Whoa! I came across this quotation from Martin Luther today, which, shall we say, gave me pause:
Christ committed adultery first of all with the woman at the well about whom St. John tells us. Was not everybody about Him saying: "Whatever has he been doing with her?" Secondly, with Mary Magdalene, and thirdly with the woman taken in adultery whom he dismissed so lightly. Thus even Christ, who was so righteous, must have been guilty of fornication before He died. (D. Martin Luthers Werke, kritische Gesamtausgabe [Hermann Bohlau Verlag, 1893], vol. 2, no. 1472, April 7 - May 1, 1532, p. 33)
The supposition seems to be that Luther must have intended his remark sarcastically. There's no telling. Much of what was taken down and later recorded in his Tischreden (Table Talk) was uttered when he had downed a few tankards of ale and was fully 'lit.' For the full knock-down blow-out discussion of the data, see the following post from a discussion board: "Did Martin Luther Believe That Jesus Had Carnal Relations With Mary Magdalene and Others?"

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