Page 181 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

Alfred Rosenberg

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Testament". That, unfortunately, has been the case, but Christ is
not responsible for that. He consciously sets himself against that
which has been traditionally accepted: "You have heard that it was
382
said to the Elders, but I say to you ,.." "You children of the Devil,
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you brood of snakes and vipers".
Already the fact of the thousand year old hatred of Christ is
the most undeceiving evidence that the Jewish essence is far removed
from the personality of Christ. But we must still wave the banner of
the Old Testament? No, as long as our children have to continue to
respect the sanitised stories of the arch swindles of Jacob, Laban,
Judah as religious documents, as long as the spirit of the Pentateuch
and Ezekiel still blows through our churches, so long is a religion
suited to us not yet born. "The Gospel is not even an independent
self-enclosed religious doctrine", says the same Rabbi, "Jesus could
not and did not wish to offer such a religion. A Christianity without
a solid basis in the Old Testament floats in the wind and dissolves
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into clouds that constantly change their form".
Here again is the Jewish anxiety before a form that is not
laced in Spanish boots, and here again it is not religion as an image
ofthe human psyche that is spoken of, but technical laws, principles,
etc.
According to Rabbi Back, there is no characteristic which
was not announced by a Jew as its prophet; he has been the preacher
of reverence, the idea of duty, loyalty and humanity derive from
him, selflessness of attitude, tolerance with regard to those of
different mind have always been native to the Jews ? All this is
stated with trimmings ofTalmud quotes that sound fine taken out of
context: the Jew appears in great glory. According to Back, the power
of Jesus rests especially on the fact that he appealed only to the
Jews. 385 Otherwise the wise rabbi thinks that it is not necessary to
mention Christ. Ifone examines his work more closely, one observes
381 Das Judentum und das Wesen des Christentums, Berlin, 1905, p. 92. [Josef
Eschelbacher (1848-1916) was a rabbi in Baden and Berlin.]
382
[See Matt 5:21-24.]
383 [See John 8:44; Matt 23:33]
m
Ibid., p.9.
385
Wesen des Judentums, Berlin, 1905, p. 52.
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