„Ment őket az Isten Egyiptomból kihozá"

Abstract

András Farkas's only extant work is a very important Biblical historical song from the early phase of Protestantism in Hungary. This essay examines the author's view of the Jewish people in the poem while rawing a parallel with other sixteenth-century texts, which also rely on the historical approach of the Wittenberg School. After providing an overview of the textual sources of the poem, the essay argues that the poem does not make use of the well-known topói of the cult of King Matthias Corvinus and the so-called good old kings. Instead, similarly to the various articulations of the Wittenberg historical view, it speaks about those old kings drawing a parallel with ancient pagan Hebrew kings. The final conclusion of the poem is that the acceptance of true Christianity (in this case, the acceptance of Protestant doctrines) is the task of the present, and its refusal foreshadows the tragic fate of the Jews for the Hungarian nation.