,,the ,,antichrist   ,,borzoi ,,pocket  
,,books  ,a complete list to date of    
this series of popular reprints1 bound  
uniformly with a design and endpapers by
 ,claude ,bragdon1 may be found at the  
back of this volume4 ,one book will     
appear each month1 numbered for         
convenience in ordering4                
,,the ,,antichrist                      
by                              ,f4 ,w4 
,,nietzsche                             
,translated from the ,german            
with an introduction by                 
,h4 ,l4 ,,mencken                       
,new ,york                              
,,alfred ,a4 ,,knopf                    
,,copyright1 #aiah1 ,,by ,,alfred ,a4   
,,knopf1 ,,inc4              ,pocket    
,book ,edition1 ,published ,september1  
#aibc                     ,second       
,printing1 ,november1 #aibd         ,set
 up1 electrotyped1 and printed by the   
,vail-,ballou ,press1                   
,binghamton1 ,n4 ,y4       ,paper       
manufactured by ,w4 ,c4 ,hamilton       

,sons1 ,miquon1 ,pa41 and               
furnished by ,w4 ,f4 ,etherington  ,co41
 ,new ,york4                            
,,manufactured ,,in ,,the ,,united      
,,states ,,of ,,america4     ,,contents 
,,page     ,,introduction ,,by ,h4 ,l4  
,,mencken              #g               
,,author',s ,,preface                   
#cg     ,,the ,,antichrist              
#da     ,,introduction   ,save for his  
raucous1 rhapsodical autobiography1     
,ecce ,homo1 ,the ,antichrist is the    
last thing that ,nietzsche ever wrote1  
and so it may be accepted as a statement
 of some of his most salient ideas in   
their final form4 ,notes for it had been
 accumulating for years and it was to   
have constituted the first volume of his
 long-projected magnum opus1 ,the ,will 
to ,power4 ,his full plan for this work1
 as originally drawn up1 was as follows3
    ,vol4   ,i4  ,the ,antichrist3 an   
,attempt at a ,criticism of             
,christianity4    ,vol4  ,,ii4  ,the    
,free ,spirit3 a ,criticism of          

,philosophy as a ,nihilistic            
,movement4    ,vol4 ,,iii4  ,the        
,immoralist3 a ,criticism of ,morality1 
the ,most ,fatal              ,form of  
,ignorance4    ,vol4  ,,iv4  ,dionysus3 
the ,philosophy of ,eternal ,recurrence4
  ,the first sketches for ,the ,will to 
,power were made in #ahhd1 soon after   
the publication of the first three parts
 of ,thus ,spake ,zarathustra1 and      
thereafter1 for four years1 ,nietzsche  
piled up notes4 ,they were written at   
all the places he visited on his endless
 travels in search of health--at ,nice1 
at ,venice1 at ,sils-,maria in the      
,engadine 7for long his favourite       
resort71 at ,cannobio1 at ,zrich1 at    
,genoa1 at ,chur1 at ,leipzig4 ,several 
times his work was interrupted by other 
books1 first by ,beyond ,good and ,evil1
 then by ,the ,genealogy of ,morals     
7written in twenty days71 then by his   
,wagner pamphlets4 ,almost as often he  
changed his plan4 ,once he decided to   
expand ,the ,will to ,power to ten      

volumes1 with ,an ,attempt at a ,new    
,interpretation of the ,world as a      
general sub-title4 ,again he adopted the
 sub-title of ,an ,interpretation of    
,all ,that ,happens4 ,finally1 he hit   
upon ,an ,attempt at a ,transvaluation  
of ,all ,values1 and went back to four  
volumes1 though with a number of changes
 in their arrangement4 ,in ,september1  
#ahhh1 he began actual work upon the    
first volume1 and before the end of the 
month it was completed4 ,the ,summer had
 been one of almost hysterical creative 
activity4 ,since the middle of ,june he 
had written two other small books1 ,the 
,case of ,wagner and ,the ,twilight of  
the ,idols1 and before the end of the   
year he was destined to write ,ecce     
,homo4 ,some time during ,december his  
health began to fail rapidly1 and soon  
after the ,new ,year he was helpless4   
,thereafter he wrote no more4  ,the     
,wagner diatribe and ,the ,twilight of  
the ,idols were published immediately1  
but ,the ,antichrist did not get into   

type until #ahie4 ,i suspect that the   
delay was due to the influence of the   
philosopher's sister1 ,elisabeth        
,frster-,nietzsche1 an intelligent and  
ardent but by no means uniformly        
judicious propagandist of his ideas4    
,during his dark days of neglect and    
misunderstanding1 when even family and  
friends kept aloof1 ,frau               
,frster-,nietzsche went with him farther
 than any other1 but there were bounds  
beyond which she1 also1 hesitated to go1
 and those bounds were marked by        
crosses4 ,one notes1 in her biography of
 him--a useful but not always accurate  
work--an evident desire to purge him of 
the accusation of mocking at sacred     
things4 ,he had1 she says1 great        
admiration for the elevating effect of  
,christianity 444 upon the weak and     
ailing1 and a real liking for sincere1  
pious ,christians1 and a tender love for
 the ,founder of ,christianity4 ,all his
 wrath1 she continues1 was reserved for 
,st4 ,paul and his like1 who perverted  

the ,beatitudes1 which ,christ intended 
for the lowly only1 into a universal    
religion which made war upon            
aristocratic values4 ,here1 obviously1  
one is addressed by an interpreter who  
cannot forget that she is the daughter  
of a ,lutheran pastor and the           
grand-daughter of two others2 a touch of
 conscience gets into her reading of    
,the ,antichrist4 ,she even hints that  
the text may have been garbled1 after   
the author's collapse1 by some more     
sinister heretic4 ,there is not the     
slightest reason to believe that any    
such garbling ever took place1 nor is   
there any evidence that their common    
heritage of piety rested upon the       
brother as heavily as it rested upon the
 sister4 ,on the contrary1 it must be   
manifest that ,nietzsche1 in this book1 
intended to attack ,christianity        
headlong and with all arms1 that for all
 his rapid writing he put the utmost    
care into it1 and that he wanted it to  
be printed exactly as it stands4 ,the   

ideas in it were anything but new to him
 when he set them down4 ,he had been    
developing them since the days of his   
beginning4 ,you will find some of them1 
clearly recognizable1 in the first book 
he ever wrote1 ,the ,birth of ,tragedy4 
,you will find the most important of all
 of them--the conception of             
,christianity as ressentiment--set forth
 at length in the first part of ,the    
,genealogy of ,morals1 published under  
his own supervision in #ahhg4 ,and the  
rest are scattered through the whole    
vast mass of his notes1 sometimes as    
mere questionings but often worked out  
very carefully4 ,moreover1 let it not be
 forgotten that it was ,wagner's        
yielding to ,christian sentimentality in
 ,parsifal that transformed ,nietzsche  
from the first among his literary       
advocates into the most bitter of his   
opponents4 ,he could forgive every other
 sort of mountebankery1 but not that4   
,in me1 he once said1 the ,christianity 
of my forbears reaches its logical      

conclusion4 ,in me the stern            
intellectual conscience that            
,christianity fosters and makes         
paramount turns against ,christianity4  
,in me ,christianity 444 devours itself4
  ,in truth1 the present philippic is as
 necessary to the completeness of the   
whole of ,nietzsche's system as the     
keystone is to the arch4 ,all the curves
 of his speculation lead up to it4 ,what
 he flung himself against1 from         
beginning to end of his days of writing1
 was always1 in the last analysis1      
,christianity in some form or           
other--,christianity as a system of     
practical ethics1 ,christianity as a    
political code1 ,christianity as        
metaphysics1 ,christianity as a gauge of
 the truth4 ,it would be difficult to   
think of any intellectual enterprise on 
his long list that did not1 more or less
 directly and clearly1 relate itself to 
this master enterprise of them all4 ,it 
was as if his apostasy from the faith of
 his fathers1 filling him with the fiery

 zeal of the convert1 and particularly  
of the convert to heresy1 had blinded   
him to every other element in the       
gigantic self-delusion of civilized man4
 ,the will to power was his answer to   
,christianity's affectation of humility 
and self-sacrifice2 eternal recurrence  
was his mocking criticism of ,christian 
optimism and millennialism2 the superman
 was his candidate for the place of the 
,christian ideal of the good man1       
prudently abased before the throne of   
,god4 ,the things he chiefly argued for 
were anti-,christian things--the        
abandonment of the purely moral view of 
life1 the rehabilitation of instinct1   
the dethronement of weakness and        
timidity as ideals1 the renunciation of 
the whole hocus-pocus of dogmatic       
religion1 the extermination of false    
aristocracies 7of the priest1 of the    
politician1 of the plutocrat71 the      
revival of the healthy1 lordly innocence
 that was ,greek4 ,if he was anything in
 a word1 ,nietzsche was a ,greek born   

two thousand years too late4 ,his dreams
 were thoroughly ,hellenic2 his whole   
manner of thinking was ,hellenic2 his   
peculiar errors were ,hellenic no less4 
,but his ,hellenism1 ,i need not add1   
was anything but the pale neo-,platonism
 that has run like a thread through the 
thinking of the ,western world since the
 days of the ,christian ,fathers4 ,from 
,plato1 to be sure1 he got what all of  
us must get1 but his real forefather was
 ,heraclitus4 ,it is in ,heraclitus that
 one finds the germ of his primary view 
of the universe--a view1 to wit1 that   
sees it1 not as moral phenomenon1 but as
 mere aesthetic representation4 ,the    
,god that ,nietzsche imagined1 in the   
end1 was not far from the ,god that such
 an artist as ,joseph ,conrad           
imagines--a supreme craftsman1 ever     
experimenting1 ever coming closer to an 
ideal balancing of lines and forces1 and
 yet always failing to work out the     
final harmony4  ,the late war1 awakening
 all the primitive racial fury of the   

,western nations1 and therewith all     
their ancient enthusiasm for religious  
taboos and sanctions1 naturally focused 
attention upon ,nietzsche1 as upon the  
most daring and provocative of recent   
amateur theologians4 ,the ,germans1 with
 their characteristic tendency to       
explain their every act in terms as     
realistic and unpleasant as possible1   
appear to have mauled him in a belated  
and unexpected embrace1 to the horror1  
,i daresay1 of the ,kaiser1 and perhaps 
to the even greater horror of           
,nietzsche's own ghost4 ,the folks of   
,anglo-,saxondom1 with their equally    
characteristic tendency to explain all  
their enterprises romantically1         
simultaneously set him up as the        
,antichrist he no doubt secretly longed 
to be4 ,the result was a great deal of  
misrepresentation and misunderstanding  
of him4 ,from the pulpits of the allied 
countries1 and particularly from those  
of ,england and the ,united ,states1 a  
horde of patriotic ecclesiastics        

denounced him in extravagant terms as   
the author of all the horrors of the    
time1 and in the newspapers1 until the  
,kaiser was elected sole bugaboo1 he    
shared the honors of that office with   
von ,hindenburg1 the ,crown ,prince1    
,capt4 ,boy-,ed1 von ,bernstorff and von
 ,tirpitz4 ,most of this denunciation1  
of course1 was frankly idiotic--the nave
 pishposh of suburban ,methodists1      
notoriety-seeking college professors1   
almost illiterate editorial writers1 and
 other such numskulls4 ,in much of it1  
including not a few official hymns of   
hate1 ,nietzsche was gravely discovered 
to be the teacher of such spokesmen of  
the extremest sort of ,german           
nationalism as von ,bernhardi and von   
,treitschke--which was just as          
intelligent as making ,george ,bernard  
,shaw the mentor of ,lloyd-,george4 ,in 
other solemn pronunciamentoes he was    
credited with being philosophically     
responsible for various imaginary crimes
 of the enemy--the wholesale slaughter  

or mutilation of prisoners of war1 the  
deliberate burning down of ,red ,cross  
hospitals1 the utilization of the       
corpses of the slain for soap-making4 ,i
 amused myself1 in those gaudy days1 by 
collecting newspaper clippings to this  
general effect1 and later on ,i shall   
probably publish a digest of them1 as a 
contribution to the study of war        
hysteria4 ,the thing went to            
unbelievable lengths4 ,on the strength  
of the fact that ,i had published a book
 on ,nietzsche in #aijf1 six years after
 his death1 ,i was called upon by agents
 of the ,department of ,justice1        
elaborately outfitted with badges1 to   
meet the charge that ,i was an intimate 
associate and agent of the ,german      
monster1 ,nietzsky4 ,i quote the        
official procs verbal1 an indignant but 
often misspelled document4 ,alas1 poor  
,nietzsche6 ,after all his laborious    
efforts to prove that he was not a      
,german1 but a ,pole--even after his    
heroic readiness1 via                   

anti-anti-,semitism1 to meet the        
deduction that1 if a ,pole1 then        
probably also a ,jew6  ,but under all   
this alarmed and preposterous tosh there
 was at least a sound instinct1 and that
 was the instinct which recognized      
,nietzsche as the most eloquent1        
pertinacious and effective of all the   
critics of the philosophy to which the  
,allies against ,germany stood          
committed1 and on the strength of which1
 at all events in theory1 the ,united   
,states had engaged itself in the war4  
,he was not1 in point of fact1 involved 
with the visible enemy1 save in remote  
and transient ways2 the ,german1        
officially1 remained the most ardent of 
,christians during the war and became a 
democrat at its close4 ,but he was      
plainly a foe of democracy in all its   
forms1 political1 religious and         
epistemological1 and what is worse1 his 
opposition was set forth in terms that  
were not only extraordinarily           
penetrating and devastating1 but also   

uncommonly offensive4 ,it was thus quite
 natural that he should have aroused a  
degree of indignation verging upon the  
pathological in the two countries that  
had planted themselves upon the         
democratic platform most boldly1 and    
that felt it most shaky1 one may add1   
under their feet4 ,i daresay that       
,nietzsche1 had he been alive1 would    
have got a lot of satisfaction out of   
the execration thus heaped upon him1 not
 only because1 being a vain fellow1 he  
enjoyed execration as a tribute to his  
general singularity1 and hence to his   
superiority1 but also and more          
importantly because1 being no mean      
psychologist1 he would have recognized  
the disconcerting doubts underlying it4 
,if ,nietzsche's criticism of democracy 
were as ignorant and empty1 say1 as the 
average evangelical clergyman's         
criticism of ,darwin's hypothesis of    
natural selection1 then the advocates of
 democracy could afford to dismiss it as
 loftily as the ,darwinians dismiss the 

blather of the holy clerks4 ,and if his 
attack upon ,christianity were mere     
sound and fury1 signifying nothing1 then
 there would be no call for anathemas   
from the sacred desk4 ,but these        
onslaughts1 in point of fact1 have      
behind them a tremendous learning and a 
great deal of point and                 
plausibility--there are1 in brief1      
bullets in the gun1 teeth in the        
tiger1--and so it is no wonder that they
 excite the ire of men who hold1 as a   
primary article of belief1 that their   
acceptance would destroy civilization1  
darken the sun1 and bring ,jahveh to    
sobs upon ,his ,throne4  ,but in all    
this justifiable fear1 of course1 there 
remains a false assumption1 and that is 
the assumption that ,nietzsche proposed 
to destroy ,christianity altogether1 and
 so rob the plain people of the world of
 their virtue1 their spiritual          
consolations1 and their hope of heaven4 
,nothing could be more untrue4 ,the fact
 is that ,nietzsche had no interest     

whatever in the delusions of the plain  
people--that is1 intrinsically4 ,it     
seemed to him of small moment what they 
believed1 so long as it was safely      
imbecile4 ,what he stood against was not
 their beliefs1 but the elevation of    
those beliefs1 by any sort of democratic
 process1 to the dignity of a state     
philosophy--what he feared most was the 
pollution and crippling of the superior 
minority by intellectual disease from   
below4 ,his plain aim in ,the           
,antichrist was to combat that menace by
 completing the work begun1 on the one  
hand1 by ,darwin and the other          
evolutionist philosophers1 and1 on the  
other hand1 by ,german historians and   
philologians4 ,the net effect of this   
earlier attack1 in the eighties1 had    
been the collapse of ,christian theology
 as a serious concern of educated men4  
,the mob1 it must be obvious1 was very  
little shaken2 even to this day it has  
not put off its belief in the essential 
,christian doctrines4 ,but the          

intelligentsia1 by #ahhe1 had been      
pretty well convinced4 ,no man of sound 
information1 at the time ,nietzsche     
planned ,the ,antichrist1 actually      
believed that the world was created in  
seven days1 or that its fauna was once  
overwhelmed by a flood as a penalty for 
the sins of man1 or that ,noah saved the
 boa constrictor1 the prairie dog and   
the pediculus capitis by taking a pair  
of each into the ark1 or that ,lot's    
wife was turned into a pillar of salt1  
or that a fragment of the ,true ,cross  
could cure hydrophobia4 ,such notions1  
still almost universally prevalent in   
,christendom a century before1 were now 
confined to the great body of ignorant  
and credulous men--that is1 to          
ninety-five or ninety-six percent4 of   
the race4 ,for a man of the superior    
minority to subscribe to one of them    
publicly was already sufficient to set  
him off as one in imminent need of      
psychiatrical attention4 ,belief in them
 had become a mark of inferiority1 like 

the allied belief in madstones1 magic   
and apparitions4  ,but though the       
theology of ,christianity had thus sunk 
to the lowly estate of a mere delusion  
of the rabble1 propagated on that level 
by the ancient caste of sacerdotal      
parasites1 the ethics of ,christianity  
continued to enjoy the utmost           
acceptance1 and perhaps even more       
acceptance than ever before4 ,it seemed 
to be generally felt1 in fact1 that they
 simply must be saved from the          
wreck--that the world would vanish into 
chaos if they went the way of the       
revelations supporting them4 ,in this   
fear a great many judicious men joined1 
and so there arose what was1 in essence1
 an absolutely new ,christian cult--a   
cult1 to wit1 purged of all the         
supernaturalism superimposed upon the   
older cult by generations of            
theologians1 and harking back to what   
was conceived to be the pure ethical    
doctrine of ,jesus4 ,this cult still    
flourishes2 ,protestantism tends to     

become identical with it2 it invades    
,catholicism as ,modernism2 it is       
supported by great numbers of men whose 
intelligence is manifest and whose      
sincerity is not open to question4 ,even
 ,nietzsche himself yielded to it in    
weak moments1 as you will discover on   
examining his somewhat laborious effort 
to make ,paul the villain of ,christian 
theology1 and ,jesus no more than an    
innocent bystander4 ,but this           
sentimental yielding never went far     
enough to distract his attention for    
long from his main idea1 which was this3
 that ,christian ethics were quite as   
dubious1 at bottom1 as ,christian       
theology--that they were founded1 just  
as surely as such childish fables as the
 story of ,jonah and the whale1 upon the
 peculiar prejudices and credulities1   
the special desires and appetites1 of   
inferior men--that they warred upon the 
best interests of men of a better sort  
quite as unmistakably as the most       
extravagant of objective superstitions4 

,in brief1 what he saw in ,christian    
ethics1 under all the poetry and all the
 fine show of altruism and all the      
theoretical benefits therein1 was a     
democratic effort to curb the egoism of 
the strong--a conspiracy of the chandala
 against the free functioning of their  
superiors1 nay1 against the free        
progress of mankind4 ,this theory is the
 thing he exposes in ,the ,antichrist1  
bringing to the business his amazingly  
chromatic and exigent eloquence at its  
finest flower4 ,this is the conspiracy  
he sets forth in all the panoply of his 
characteristic italics1 dashes1         
sforzando interjections and exclamation 
points4  ,well1 an idea is an idea4 ,the
 present one may be right and it may be 
wrong4 ,one thing is quite certain3 that
 no progress will be made against it by 
denouncing it as merely immoral4 ,if it 
is ever laid at all1 it must be laid    
evidentially1 logically4 ,the notion to 
the contrary is thoroughly democratic2  
the mob is the most ruthless of tyrants2

 it is always in a democratic society   
that heresy and felony tend to be most  
constantly confused4 ,one hears without 
surprise of a ,bismarck philosophizing  
placidly 7at least in his old age7 upon 
the delusion of ,socialism and of a     
,frederick the ,great playing the hose  
of his cynicism upon the absolutism that
 was almost identical with his own      
person1 but men in the mass never brook 
the destructive discussion of their     
fundamental beliefs1 and that impatience
 is naturally most evident in those     
societies in which men in the mass are  
most influential4 ,democracy and free   
speech are not facets of one gem2       
democracy and free speech are eternal   
enemies4 ,but in any battle between an  
institution and an idea1 the idea1 in   
the long run1 has the better of it4     
,here ,i do not venture into the        
absurdity of arguing that1 as the world 
wags on1 the truth always survives4 ,i  
believe nothing of the sort4 ,as a      
matter of fact1 it seems to me that an  

idea that happens to be true--or1 more  
exactly1 as near to truth as any human  
idea can be1 and yet remain generally   
intelligible--it seems to me that such  
an idea carries a special and often     
fatal handicap4 ,the majority of men    
prefer delusion to truth4 ,it soothes4  
,it is easy to grasp4 ,above all1 it    
fits more snugly than the truth into a  
universe of false appearances--of       
complex and irrational phenomena1       
defectively grasped4 ,but though an idea
 that is true is thus not likely to     
prevail1 an idea that is attacked enjoys
 a great advantage4 ,the evidence behind
 it is now supported by sympathy1 the   
sporting instinct1 sentimentality--and  
sentimentality is as powerful as an army
 with banners4 ,one never hears of a    
martyr in history whose notions are     
seriously disputed today4 ,the forgotten
 ideas are those of the men who put them
 forward soberly and quietly1 hoping    
fatuously that they would conquer by the
 force of their truth2 these are the    

ideas that we now struggle to           
rediscover4 ,had ,nietzsche lived to be 
burned at the stake by outraged         
,mississippi ,methodists1 it would have 
been a glorious day for his doctrines4  
,as it is1 they are helped on their way 
every time they are denounced as immoral
 and against ,god4 ,the war brought down
 upon them the maledictions of vast     
herds of right-thinking men4 ,and now   
,the ,antichrist1 after fifteen years of
 neglect1 is being reprinted4444  ,one  
imagines the author1 a sardonic wraith1 
snickering somewhat sadly over the fact4
 ,his shade1 wherever it suffers1 is    
favoured in these days by many such     
consolations1 some of them of much      
greater horsepower4 ,think of the facts 
and arguments1 even the underlying      
theories and attitudes1 that have been  
borrowed from him1 consciously and      
unconsciously1 by the foes of           
,bolshevism during these last thrilling 
years6 ,the face of democracy1 suddenly 
seen hideously close1 has scared the    

guardians of the reigning plutocracy    
half to death1 and they have gone to the
 devil himself for aid4 ,southern       
,senators1 almost illiterate men1 have  
mixed his acids with well water and     
spouted them like affrighted geysers1   
not knowing what they did4 ,nor are they
 the first to borrow from him4 ,years   
ago ,i called attention to the debt     
incurred with characteristic            
forgetfulness of obligation by the late 
,theodore ,roosevelt1 in ,the ,strenuous
 ,life and elsewhere4 ,roosevelt1 a     
typical apologist for the existing      
order1 adeptly dragging a herring across
 the trail whenever it was menaced1 yet 
managed to delude the native boobery1 at
 least until toward the end1 into       
accepting him as a fiery exponent of    
pure democracy4 ,perhaps he even fooled 
himself2 charlatans usually do so soon  
or late4 ,a study of ,nietzsche reveals 
the sources of much that was honest in  
him1 and exposes the hollowness of much 
that was sham4 ,nietzsche1 an infinitely

 harder and more courageous intellect1  
was incapable of any such confusion of  
ideas2 he seldom allowed sentimentality 
to turn him from the glaring fact4 ,what
 is called ,bolshevism today he saw     
clearly a generation ago and described  
for what it was and is--democracy in    
another aspect1 the old ressentiment of 
the lower orders in free function once  
more4 ,socialism1 ,puritanism1          
,philistinism1 ,christianity--he saw    
them all as allotropic forms of         
democracy1 as variations upon the       
endless struggle of quantity against    
quality1 of the weak and timorous       
against the strong and enterprising1 of 
the botched against the fit4 ,the world 
needed a staggering exaggeration to make
 it see even half of the truth4 ,it     
trembles today as it trembled during the
 ,french ,revolution4 ,perhaps it would 
tremble less if it could combat the     
monster with a clearer conscience and   
less burden of compromising theory--if  
it could launch its forces frankly at   

the fundamental doctrine1 and not merely
 employ them to police the transient    
orgy4  ,nietzsche1 in the long run1 may 
help it toward that greater honesty4    
,his notions1 propagated by cuttings    
from cuttings from cuttings1 may        
conceivably prepare the way for a       
sounder1 more healthful theory of       
society and of the state1 and so free   
human progress from the stupidities     
which now hamper it1 and men of true    
vision from the despairs which now      
sicken them4 ,i say it is conceivable1  
but ,i doubt that it is probable4 ,the  
soul and the belly of mankind are too   
evenly balanced2 it is not likely that  
the belly will ever put away its hunger 
or forget its power4 ,here1 perhaps1    
there is an example of the eternal      
recurrence that ,nietzsche was fond of  
mulling over in his blacker moods4 ,we  
are in the midst of one of the perennial
 risings of the lower orders4 ,it got   
under way long before any of the current
 ,bolshevist demons was born2 it was    

given its long1 secure start by the     
intolerable tyranny of the              
plutocracy--the end product of the      
,eighteenth ,century revolt against the 
old aristocracy4 ,it found resistance   
suddenly slackened by civil war within  
the plutocracy itself--one gang of      
traders falling upon another gang1 to   
the tune of vast hymn-singing and yells 
to ,god4 ,perhaps it has already passed 
its apogee2 the plutocracy1 chastened1  
shows signs of a new solidarity2 the    
wheel continues to swing 'round4 ,but   
this combat between proletariat and     
plutocracy is1 after all1 itself a civil
 war4 ,two inferiorities struggle for   
the privilege of polluting the world4   
,what actual difference does it make to 
a civilized man1 when there is a steel  
strike1 whether the workmen win or the  
mill-owners win8 ,the conflict can      
interest him only as spectacle1 as the  
conflict between ,bonaparte and the old 
order in ,europe interested ,goethe and 
,beethoven4 ,the victory1 whichever way 

it goes1 will simply bring chaos nearer1
 and so set the stage for a genuine     
revolution later on1 with 7let us hope7 
a new feudalism or something better     
coming out of it1 and a new ,thirteenth 
,century at dawn4 ,this seems to be the 
slow1 costly way of the worst of        
habitable worlds4  ,in the present case 
my money is laid upon the plutocracy4   
,it will win because it will be able1 in
 the long run1 to enlist the finer      
intelligences4 ,the mob and its maudlin 
causes attract only sentimentalists and 
scoundrels1 chiefly the latter4         
,politics1 under a democracy1 reduces   
itself to a mere struggle for office by 
flatterers of the proletariat2 even when
 a superior man prevails at that        
disgusting game he must prevail at the  
cost of his self-respect4 ,not many     
superior men make the attempt4 ,the     
average great captain of the rabble1    
when he is not simply a weeper over     
irremediable wrongs1 is a hypocrite so  
far gone that he is unconscious of his  

own hypocrisy--a slimy fellow1 offensive
 to the nose4 ,the plutocracy can       
recruit measurably more respectable     
janissaries1 if only because it can make
 self-interest less obviously costly to 
amour propre4 ,its defect and its       
weakness lie in the fact that it is     
still too young to have acquired        
dignity4 ,but lately sprung from the mob
 it now preys upon1 it yet shows some of
 the habits of mind of that mob3 it is  
blatant1 stupid1 ignorant1 lacking in   
all delicate instinct and governmental  
finesse4 ,above all1 it remains somewhat
 heavily moral4 ,one seldom finds it    
undertaking one of its characteristic   
imbecilities without offering a sonorous
 moral reason2 it spends almost as much 
to support the ,y4 ,m4 ,c4 ,a41         
vice-crusading1 ,prohibition and other  
such puerilities as it spends upon      
,congressmen1 strike-breakers1 gun-men1 
kept patriots and newspapers4 ,in       
,england the case is even worse4 ,it is 
almost impossible to find a wealthy     

industrial over there who is not also an
 eminent non-conformist layman1 and even
 among financiers there are praying     
brothers4 ,on the ,continent1 the day is
 saved by the fact that the plutocracy  
tends to become more and more ,jewish4  
,here the intellectual cynicism of the  
,jew almost counterbalances his social  
unpleasantness4 ,if he is destined to   
lead the plutocracy of the world out of 
,little ,bethel he will fail1 of course1
 to turn it into an aristocracy--i4 e41 
a caste of gentlemen--1 but he will at  
least make it clever1 and hence worthy  
of consideration4 ,the case against the 
,jews is long and damning2 it would     
justify ten thousand times as many      
pogroms as now go on in the world4 ,but 
whenever you find a ,davidsbndlerschaft 
making practise against the             
,philistines1 there you will find a ,jew
 laying on4 ,maybe it was this fact that
 caused ,nietzsche to speak up for the  
children of ,israel quite as often as he
 spoke against them4 ,he was not blind  

to their faults1 but when he set them   
beside ,christians he could not deny    
their general superiority4 ,perhaps in  
,america and ,england1 as on the        
,continent1 the increasing ,jewishness  
of the plutocracy1 while cutting it off 
from all chance of ever developing into 
an aristocracy1 will yet lift it to such
 a dignity that it will at least deserve
 a certain grudging respect4  ,but even 
so1 it will remain in a sort of         
half-world1 midway between the gutter   
and the stars4 ,above it will still     
stand the small group of men that       
constitutes the permanent aristocracy of
 the race--the men of imagination and   
high purpose1 the makers of genuine     
progress1 the brave and ardent spirits1 
above all petty fears and discontents   
and above all petty hopes and ideals no 
less4 ,there were heroes before         
,agamemnon2 there will be ,bachs after  
,johann ,sebastian4 ,and beneath the    
,judaized plutocracy1 the sublimated    
bourgeoisie1 there the immemorial       

proletariat1 ,i venture to guess1 will  
roar on1 endlessly tortured by its vain 
hatreds and envies1 stampeded and made  
to tremble by its ancient superstitions1
 prodded and made miserable by its      
sordid and degrading hopes4 ,it seems to
 me very likely that1 in this           
proletariat1 ,christianity will continue
 to survive4 ,it is nonsense1 true      
enough1 but it is sweet4 ,nietzsche1    
denouncing its dangers as a poison1     
almost falls into the error of denying  
it its undoubtedly sugary smack4 ,of all
 the religions ever devised by the great
 practical jokers of the race1 this is  
the one that offers most for the least  
money1 so to speak1 to the inferior man4
 ,it starts out by denying his          
inferiority in plain terms3 all men are 
equal in the sight of ,god4 ,it ends by 
erecting that inferiority into a sort of
 actual superiority3 it is a merit to be
 stupid1 and miserable1 and sorely put  
upon--of such are the celestial elect4  
,not all the eloquence of a million     

,nietzsches1 nor all the painful        
marshalling of evidence of a million    
,darwins and ,harnacks1 will ever empty 
that great consolation of its allure4   
,the most they can ever accomplish is to
 make the superior orders of men acutely
 conscious of the exact nature of it1   
and so give them armament against the   
contagion4 ,this is going on2 this is   
being done4 ,i think that ,the          
,antichrist has a useful place in that  
enterprise4 ,it is strident1 it is often
 extravagant1 it is1 to many sensitive  
men1 in the worst of possible taste1 but
 at bottom it is enormously apt and     
effective--and on the surface it is     
undoubtedly a good show4 ,one somehow   
enjoys1 with the malice that is native  
to man1 the spectacle of anathemas      
batted back2 it is refreshing to see the
 pitchfork employed against gentlemen   
who have doomed such innumerable        
caravans to hell4 ,in ,nietzsche they   
found1 after many long years1 a foeman  
worthy of them--not a mere fancy        

swordsman like ,voltaire1 or a mob      
orator like ,tom ,paine1 or a pedant    
like the heretics of exegesis1 but a    
gladiator armed with steel and armoured 
with steel1 and showing all the         
ferocious gusto of a mediaeval bishop4  
,it is a pity that ,holy ,church has no 
process for the elevation of demons1    
like its process for the canonization of
 saints4 ,there must be a long roll of  
black miracles to the discredit of the  
,accursed ,friedrich--sinners purged of 
conscience and made happy in their      
sinning1 clerics shaken in their        
theology by visions of a new and better 
holy city1 the strong made to exult1 the
 weak robbed of their old sad romance4  
,it would be a pleasure to see the      
,advocatus ,diaboli turn from the table 
of the prosecution to the table of the  
defence1 and move in solemn form for the
 damnation of the ,naumburg             
hobgoblin4444  ,of all ,nietzsche's     
books1 ,the ,antichrist comes nearest to
 conventionality in form4 ,it presents a

 connected argument with very few       
interludes1 and has a beginning1 a      
middle and an end4 ,most of his works   
are in the form of collections of       
apothegms1 and sometimes the subject    
changes on every second page4 ,this fact
 constitutes one of the counts in the   
orthodox indictment of him3 it is cited 
as proof that his capacity for          
consecutive thought was limited1 and    
that he was thus deficient mentally1 and
 perhaps a downright moron4 ,the        
argument1 it must be obvious1 is        
fundamentally nonsensical4 ,what        
deceives the professors is the          
traditional prolixity of philosophers4  
,because the average philosophical      
writer1 when he essays to expose his    
ideas1 makes such inordinate drafts upon
 the parts of speech that the dictionary
 is almost emptied these defective      
observers jump to the conclusion that   
his intrinsic notions are of            
corresponding weight4 ,this is not      
unseldom quite untrue4 ,what makes      

philosophy so garrulous is not the      
profundity of philosophers1 but their   
lack of art2 they are like physicians   
who sought to cure a slight hyperacidity
 by giving the patient a carload of     
burned oyster-shells to eat4 ,there is1 
too1 the endless poll-parrotting that   
goes on3 each new philosopher must prove
 his learning by laboriously rehearsing 
the ideas of all previous               
philosophers4444 ,nietzsche avoided both
 faults4 ,he always assumed that his    
readers knew the books1 and that it was 
thus unnecessary to rewrite them4 ,and1 
having an idea that seemed to him to be 
novel and original1 he stated it in as  
few words as possible1 and then shut    
down4 ,sometimes he got it into a       
hundred words2 sometimes it took a      
thousand2 now and then1 as in the       
present case1 he developed a series of  
related ideas into a connected book4    
,but he never wrote a word too many4 ,he
 never pumped up an idea to make it     
appear bigger than it actually was4 ,the

 pedagogues1 alas1 are not accustomed to
 that sort of writing in serious fields4
 ,they resent it1 and sometimes they    
even try to improve it4 ,there exists1  
in fact1 a huge and solemn tome on      
,nietzsche by a learned man of ,america 
in which all of his brilliancy is       
painfully translated into the windy     
phrases of the seminaries4 ,the tome is 
satisfactorily ponderous1 but the meat  
of the cocoanut is left out3 there is   
actually no discussion of the           
,nietzschean view of ,christianity6444  
,always ,nietzsche daunts the pedants4  
,he employed too few words for them--and
 he had too many ideas4         99      
99       99       99       99  ,the     
present translation of ,the ,antichrist 
is published by agreement with ,dr4     
,oscar ,levy1 editor of the ,english    
edition of ,nietzsche4 ,there are two   
earlier translations1 one by ,thomas    
,common and the other by ,anthony ,m4   
,ludovici4 ,that of ,mr4 ,common follows
 the text very closely1 and thus        

occasionally shows some essentially     
,german turns of phrase2 that of ,mr4   
,ludovici is more fluent but rather less
 exact4 ,i do not offer my own version  
on the plea that either of these is     
useless2 on the contrary1 ,i cheerfully 
acknowledge that they have much merit1  
and that they helped me at almost every 
line4 ,i began this new ,englishing of  
the book1 not in any hope of supplanting
 them1 and surely not with any notion of
 meeting a great public need1 but simply
 as a private amusement in troubled     
days4 ,but as ,i got on with it ,i began
 to see ways of putting some flavour of 
,nietzsche's peculiar style into the    
,english1 and so amusement turned into a
 more or less serious labour4 ,the      
result1 of course1 is far from          
satisfactory1 but it at least represents
 a very diligent attempt4 ,nietzsche1   
always under the influence of ,french   
models1 wrote a ,german that differs    
materially from any other ,german that  
,i know4 ,it is more nervous1 more      

varied1 more rapid in tempo2 it runs to 
more effective climaxes2 it is never    
stodgy4 ,his marks begin to show upon   
the writing of the younger ,germans of  
today4 ,they are getting away from the  
old thunderous manner1 with its long    
sentences and its tedious grammatical   
complexities4 ,in the course of time1 ,i
 daresay1 they will develop a ,german   
almost as clear as ,french and almost as
 colourful and resilient as ,english4   
,i owe thanks to ,dr4 ,levy for his     
imprimatur1 to ,mr4 ,theodor ,hemberger 
for criticism1 and to ,messrs4 ,common  
and ,ludovici for showing me the way    
around many a difficulty4               
,h4 ,l4 ,,mencken4     ,,preface   ,this
 book belongs to the most rare of men4  
,perhaps not one of them is yet alive4  
,it is possible that they may be among  
those who understand my ,zarathustra3   
how could ,i confound myself with those 
who are now sprouting ears8--,first the 
day after tomorrow must come for me4    
,some men are born posthumously4  ,the  

conditions under which any one          
understands me1 and necessarily         
understands me--,i know them only too   
well4 ,even to endure my seriousness1 my
 passion1 he must carry intellectual    
integrity to the verge of hardness4 ,he 
must be accustomed to living on mountain
 tops--and to looking upon the wretched 
gabble of politics and nationalism as   
beneath him4 ,he must have become       
indifferent2 he must never ask of the   
truth whether it brings profit to him or
 a fatality to him4444 ,he must have an 
inclination1 born of strength1 for      
questions that no one has the courage   
for2 the courage for the forbidden2     
predestination for the labyrinth4 ,the  
experience of seven solitudes4 ,new ears
 for new music4 ,new eyes for what is   
most distant4 ,a new conscience for     
truths that have hitherto remained      
unheard4 ,and the will to economize in  
the grand manner--to hold together his  
strength1 his enthusiasm4444 ,reverence 
for self2 love of self2 absolute freedom

 of self4444  ,very well1 then6 of that 
sort only are my readers1 my true       
readers1 my readers foreordained3 of    
what account are the rest8--,the rest   
are merely humanity4--,one must make    
one's self superior to humanity1 in     
power1 in loftiness of soul1--in        
contempt4                               
,,friedrich ,w4 ,,nietzsche4     ,,the  
,,antichrist   #a4  --,let us look each 
other in the face4 ,we are              
,hyperboreans--we know well enough how  
remote our place is4 ,neither by land   
nor by water will you find the road to  
the ,hyperboreans3 even ,pindar1#a in   
his day1 knew that much about us4       
,beyond the ,north1 beyond the ice1     
beyond death--our life1 our             
happiness4444 ,we have discovered that  
happiness2 we know the way2 we got our  
knowledge of it from thousands of years 
in the labyrinth4 ,who else has found   
it8--,the man of today8--,i don't know  
either the way out or the way in2 ,i am 
whatever doesn't know either the way out

 or the way in--so sighs the man of     
today4444 ,this is the sort of modernity
 that made us ill1--we sickened on lazy 
peace1 cowardly compromise1 the whole   
virtuous dirtiness of the modern ,yea   
and ,nay4 ,this tolerance and largeur of
 the heart that forgives everything     
because it understands everything is a  
sirocco to us4 ,rather live amid the ice
 than among modern virtues and other    
such south-winds6444 ,we were brave     
enough2 we spared neither ourselves nor 
others2 but we were a long time finding 
out where to direct our courage4 ,we    
grew dismal2 they called us fatalists4  
,our fate--it was the fulness1 the      
tension1 the storing up of powers4 ,we  
thirsted for the lightnings and great   
deeds2 we kept as far as possible from  
the happiness of the weakling1 from     
resignation444 ,there was thunder in our
 air2 nature1 as we embodied it1 became 
overcast--for we had not yet found the  
way4 ,the formula of our happiness3 a   
,yea1 a ,nay1 a straight line1 a        

goal4444  #a ,cf4 the tenth ,pythian    
ode4 ,see also the fourth book of       
,herodotus4 ,the ,hyperboreans were a   
mythical people beyond the ,rhipaean    
mountains1 in the far ,north4 ,they     
enjoyed unbroken happiness and perpetual
 youth4   #b4  ,what is good8--,whatever
 augments the feeling of power1 the will
 to power1 power itself1 in man4  ,what 
is evil8--,whatever springs from        
weakness4  ,what is happiness8--,the    
feeling that power increases--that      
resistance is overcome4  ,not           
contentment1 but more power2 not peace  
at any price1 but war2 not virtue1 but  
efficiency 7virtue in the ,renaissance  
sense1 virtu1 virtue free of moral      
acid74  ,the weak and the botched shall 
perish3 first principle of our charity4 
,and one should help them to it4  ,what 
is more harmful than any                
vice8--,practical sympathy for the      
botched and the weak--,christianity4444 
#c4  ,the problem that ,i set here is   
not what shall replace mankind in the   

order of living creatures 7--man is an  
end--73 but what type of man must be    
bred1 must be willed1 as being the most 
valuable1 the most worthy of life1 the  
most secure guarantee of the future4    
,this more valuable type has appeared   
often enough in the past3 but always as 
a happy accident1 as an exception1 never
 as deliberately willed4 ,very often it 
has been precisely the most feared2     
hitherto it has been almost the terror  
of terrors2--and out of that terror the 
contrary type has been willed1          
cultivated and attained3 the domestic   
animal1 the herd animal1 the sick       
brute-man--the ,christian4444   #d4     
,mankind surely does not represent an   
evolution toward a better or stronger or
 higher level1 as progress is now       
understood4 ,this progress is merely a  
modern idea1 which is to say1 a false   
idea4 ,the ,european of today1 in his   
essential worth1 falls far below the    
,european of the ,renaissance2 the      
process of evolution does not           

necessarily mean elevation1 enhancement1
 strengthening4  ,true enough1 it       
succeeds in isolated and individual     
cases in various parts of the earth and 
under the most widely different         
cultures1 and in these cases a higher   
type certainly manifests itself2        
something which1 compared to mankind in 
the mass1 appears as a sort of superman4
 ,such happy strokes of high success    
have always been possible1 and will     
remain possible1 perhaps1 for all time  
to come4 ,even whole races1 tribes and  
nations may occasionally represent such 
lucky accidents4   #e4  ,we should not  
deck out and embellish ,christianity3 it
 has waged a war to the death against   
this higher type of man1 it has put all 
the deepest instincts of this type under
 its ban1 it has developed its concept  
of evil1 of the ,evil ,one himself1 out 
of these instincts--the strong man as   
the typical reprobate1 the outcast among
 men4 ,christianity has taken the part  
of all the weak1 the low1 the botched2  

it has made an ideal out of antagonism  
to all the self-preservative instincts  
of sound life2 it has corrupted even the
 faculties of those natures that are    
intellectually most vigorous1 by        
representing the highest intellectual   
values as sinful1 as misleading1 as full
 of temptation4 ,the most lamentable    
example3 the corruption of ,pascal1 who 
believed that his intellect had been    
destroyed by original sin1 whereas it   
was actually destroyed by               
,christianity6--   #f4  ,it is a painful
 and tragic spectacle that rises before 
me3 ,i have drawn back the curtain from 
the rottenness of man4 ,this word1 in my
 mouth1 is at least free from one       
suspicion3 that it involves a moral     
accusation against humanity4 ,it is     
used--and ,i wish to emphasize the fact 
again--without any moral significance3  
and this is so far true that the        
rottenness ,i speak of is most apparent 
to me precisely in those quarters where 
there has been most aspiration1         

hitherto1 toward virtue and godliness4  
,as you probably surmise1 ,i understand 
rottenness in the sense of dcadence3 my 
argument is that all the values on which
 mankind now fixes its highest          
aspirations are dcadence-values4  ,i    
call an animal1 a species1 an individual
 corrupt1 when it loses its instincts1  
when it chooses1 when it prefers1 what  
is injurious to it4 ,a history of the   
higher feelings1 the ideals of          
humanity--and it is possible that ,i'll 
have to write it--would almost explain  
why man is so degenerate4 ,life itself  
appears to me as an instinct for growth1
 for survival1 for the accumulation of  
forces1 for power3 whenever the will to 
power fails there is disaster4 ,my      
contention is that all the highest      
values of humanity have been emptied of 
this will--that the values of dcadence1 
of nihilism1 now prevail under the      
holiest names4   #g4  ,christianity is  
called the religion of pity4--,pity     
stands in opposition to all the tonic   

passions that augment the energy of the 
feeling of aliveness3 it is a           
depressant4 ,a man loses power when he  
pities4 ,through pity that drain upon   
strength which suffering works is       
multiplied a thousandfold4 ,suffering is
 made contagious by pity2 under certain 
circumstances it may lead to a total    
sacrifice of life and living energy--a  
loss out of all proportion to the       
magnitude of the cause 7--the case of   
the death of the ,nazarene74 ,this is   
the first view of it2 there is1 however1
 a still more important one4 ,if one    
measures the effects of pity by the     
gravity of the reactions it sets up1 its
 character as a menace to life appears  
in a much clearer light4 ,pity thwarts  
the whole law of evolution1 which is the
 law of natural selection4 ,it preserves
 whatever is ripe for destruction2 it   
fights on the side of those disinherited
 and condemned by life2 by maintaining  
life in so many of the botched of all   
kinds1 it gives life itself a gloomy and

 dubious aspect4 ,mankind has ventured  
to call pity a virtue 7--in every       
superior moral system it appears as a   
weakness--72 going still further1 it has
 been called the virtue1 the source and 
foundation of all other virtues--but let
 us always bear in mind that this was   
from the standpoint of a philosophy that
 was nihilistic1 and upon whose shield  
the denial of life was inscribed4       
,schopenhauer was right in this3 that by
 means of pity life is denied1 and made 
worthy of denial--pity is the technic of
 nihilism4 ,let me repeat3 this         
depressing and contagious instinct      
stands against all those instincts which
 work for the preservation and          
enhancement of life3 in the rle of      
protector of the miserable1 it is a     
prime agent in the promotion of         
dcadence--pity persuades to             
extinction4444 ,of course1 one doesn't  
say extinction3 one says the other      
world1 or ,god1 or the true life1 or    
,nirvana1 salvation1 blessedness4444    

,this innocent rhetoric1 from the realm 
of religious-ethical balderdash1 appears
 a good deal less innocent when one     
reflects upon the tendency that it      
conceals beneath sublime words3 the     
tendency to destroy life4 ,schopenhauer 
was hostile to life3 that is why pity   
appeared to him as a virtue4444         
,aristotle1 as every one knows1 saw in  
pity a sickly and dangerous state of    
mind1 the remedy for which was an       
occasional purgative3 he regarded       
tragedy as that purgative4 ,the instinct
 of life should prompt us to seek some  
means of puncturing any such            
pathological and dangerous accumulation 
of pity as that appearing in            
,schopenhauer's case 7and also1 alack1  
in that of our whole literary dcadence1 
from ,st4 ,petersburg to ,paris1 from   
,tolstoi to ,wagner71 that it may burst 
and be discharged4444 ,nothing is more  
unhealthy1 amid all our unhealthy       
modernism1 than ,christian pity4 ,to be 
the doctors here1 to be unmerciful here1

 to wield the knife here--all this is   
our business1 all this is our sort of   
humanity1 by this sign we are           
philosophers1 we ,hyperboreans6--   #h4 
,it is necessary to say just whom we    
regard as our antagonists3 theologians  
and all who have any theological blood  
in their veins--this is our whole       
philosophy4444 ,one must have faced that
 menace at close hand1 better still1 one
 must have had experience of it directly
 and almost succumbed to it1 to realize 
that it is not to be taken lightly      
7--the alleged free-thinking of our     
naturalists and physiologists seems to  
me to be a joke--they have no passion   
about such things2 they have not        
suffered--74 ,this poisoning goes a     
great deal further than most people     
think3 ,i find the arrogant habit of the
 theologian among all who regard        
themselves as idealists--among all who1 
by virtue of a higher point of          
departure1 claim a right to rise above  
reality1 and to look upon it with       

suspicion4444 ,the idealist1 like the   
ecclesiastic1 carries all sorts of lofty
 concepts in his hand 7--and not only in
 his hand672 he launches them with      
benevolent contempt against             
understanding1 the senses1 honor1 good  
living1 science2 he sees such things as 
beneath him1 as pernicious and seductive
 forces1 on which the soul soars as a   
pure thing-in-itself--as if humility1   
chastity1 poverty1 in a word1 holiness1 
had not already done much more damage to
 life than all imaginable horrors and   
vices4444 ,the pure soul is a pure      
lie4444 ,so long as the priest1 that    
professional denier1 calumniator and    
poisoner of life1 is accepted as a      
higher variety of man1 there can be no  
answer to the question1 ,what is truth8 
,truth has already been stood on its    
head when the obvious attorney of mere  
emptiness is mistaken for its           
representative4444   #i4  ,upon this    
theological instinct ,i make war3 ,i    
find the tracks of it everywhere4       

,whoever has theological blood in his   
veins is shifty and dishonourable in all
 things4 ,the pathetic thing that grows 
out of this condition is called faith3  
in other words1 closing one's eyes upon 
one's self once for all1 to avoid       
suffering the sight of incurable        
falsehood4 ,people erect a concept of   
morality1 of virtue1 of holiness upon   
this false view of all things2 they     
ground good conscience upon faulty      
vision2 they argue that no other sort of
 vision has value any more1 once they   
have made theirs sacrosanct with the    
names of ,god1 salvation and eternity4  
,i unearth this theological instinct in 
all directions3 it is the most          
widespread and the most subterranean    
form of falsehood to be found on earth4 
,whatever a theologian regards as true  
must be false3 there you have almost a  
criterion of truth4 ,his profound       
instinct of self-preservation stands    
against truth ever coming into honour in
 any way1 or even getting stated4       

,wherever the influence of theologians  
is felt there is a transvaluation of    
values1 and the concepts true and false 
are forced to change places3 whatever is
 most damaging to life is there called  
true1 and whatever exalts it1           
intensifies it1 approves it1 justifies  
it and makes it triumphant is there     
called false4444 ,when theologians1     
working through the consciences of      
princes 7or of peoples--71 stretch out  
their hands for power1 there is never   
any doubt as to the fundamental issue3  
the will to make an end1 the nihilistic 
will exerts that power4444   #aj4       
,among ,germans ,i am immediately       
understood when ,i say that theological 
blood is the ruin of philosophy4 ,the   
,protestant pastor is the grandfather of
 ,german philosophy2 ,protestantism     
itself is its peccatum originale4       
,definition of ,protestantism3          
hemiplegic paralysis of                 
,christianity--and of reason4444 ,one   
need only utter the words ,tbingen      

,school to get an understanding of what 
,german philosophy is at bottom--a very 
artful form of theology4444 ,the        
,suabians are the best liars in         
,germany2 they lie innocently4444 ,why  
all the rejoicing over the appearance of
 ,kant that went through the learned    
world of ,germany1 three-fourths of     
which is made up of the sons of         
preachers and teachers--why the ,german 
conviction still echoing1 that with     
,kant came a change for the better8 ,the
 theological instinct of ,german        
scholars made them see clearly just what
 had become possible again4444 ,a       
backstairs leading to the old ideal     
stood open2 the concept of the true     
world1 the concept of morality as the   
essence of the world 7--the two most    
vicious errors that ever existed671 were
 once more1 thanks to a subtle and wily 
scepticism1 if not actually             
demonstrable1 then at least no longer   
refutable4444 ,reason1 the prerogative  
of reason1 does not go so far4444 ,out  

of reality there had been made          
appearance2 an absolutely false world1  
that of being1 had been turned into     
reality4444 ,the success of ,kant is    
merely a theological success2 he was1   
like ,luther and ,leibnitz1 but one more
 impediment to ,german integrity1       
already far from steady4--   #aa4  ,a   
word now against ,kant as a moralist4 ,a
 virtue must be our invention2 it must  
spring out of our personal need and     
defence4 ,in every other case it is a   
source of danger4 ,that which does not  
belong to our life menaces it2 a virtue 
which has its roots in mere respect for 
the concept of virtue1 as ,kant would   
have it1 is pernicious4 ,virtue1 duty1  
good for its own sake1 goodness grounded
 upon impersonality or a notion of      
universal validity--these are all       
chimeras1 and in them one finds only an 
expression of the decay1 the last       
collapse of life1 the ,chinese spirit of
 ,knigsberg4 ,quite the contrary is     
demanded by the most profound laws of   

self-preservation and of growth3 to wit1
 that every man find his own virtue1 his
 own categorical imperative4 ,a nation  
goes to pieces when it confounds its    
duty with the general concept of duty4  
,nothing works a more complete and      
penetrating disaster than every         
impersonal duty1 every sacrifice before 
the ,moloch of abstraction4--,to think  
that no one has thought of ,kant's      
categorical imperative as dangerous to  
life6444 ,the theological instinct alone
 took it under protection6--,an action  
prompted by the life-instinct proves    
that it is a right action by the amount 
of pleasure that goes with it3 and yet  
that ,nihilist1 with his bowels of      
,christian dogmatism1 regarded pleasure 
as an objection4444 ,what destroys a man
 more quickly than to work1 think and   
feel without inner necessity1 without   
any deep personal desire1 without       
pleasure--as a mere automaton of duty8  
,that is the recipe for dcadence1 and no
 less for idiocy4444 ,kant became an    

idiot4--,and such a man was the         
contemporary of ,goethe6 ,this          
calamitous spinner of cobwebs passed for
 the ,german philosopher--still passes  
today6444 ,i forbid myself to say what  
,i think of the ,germans4444 ,didn't    
,kant see in the ,french ,revolution the
 transformation of the state from the   
inorganic form to the organic8 ,didn't  
he ask himself if there was a single    
event that could be explained save on   
the assumption of a moral faculty in    
man1 so that on the basis of it1 the    
tendency of mankind toward the good     
could be explained1 once and for all    
time8 ,kant's answer3 ,that is          
revolution4 ,instinct at fault in       
everything and anything1 instinct as a  
revolt against nature1 ,german dcadence 
as a philosophy--that is ,kant6--   #ab4
  ,i put aside a few sceptics1 the types
 of decency in the history of           
philosophy3 the rest haven't the        
slightest conception of intellectual    
integrity4 ,they behave like women1 all 

these great enthusiasts and             
prodigies--they regard beautiful        
feelings as arguments1 the heaving      
breast as the bellows of divine         
inspiration1 conviction as the criterion
 of truth4 ,in the end1 with ,german    
innocence1 ,kant tried to give a        
scientific flavour to this form of      
corruption1 this dearth of intellectual 
conscience1 by calling it practical     
reason4 ,he deliberately invented a     
variety of reasons for use on occasions 
when it was desirable not to trouble    
with reason--that is1 when morality1    
when the sublime command thou shalt1 was
 heard4 ,when one recalls the fact that1
 among all peoples1 the philosopher is  
no more than a development from the old 
type of priest1 this inheritance from   
the priest1 this fraud upon self1 ceases
 to be remarkable4 ,when a man feels    
that he has a divine mission1 say to    
lift up1 to save or to liberate         
mankind--when a man feels the divine    
spark in his heart and believes that he 

is the mouthpiece of supernatural       
imperatives--when such a mission        
inflames him1 it is only natural that he
 should stand beyond all merely         
reasonable standards of judgment4 ,he   
feels that he is himself sanctified by  
this mission1 that he is himself a type 
of a higher order6444 ,what has a priest
 to do with philosophy6 ,he stands far  
above it6--,and hitherto the priest has 
ruled6--,he has determined the meaning  
of true and not true6444   #ac4  ,let us
 not underestimate this fact3 that we   
ourselves1 we free spirits1 are already 
a transvaluation of all values1 a       
visualized declaration of war and       
victory against all the old concepts of 
true and not true4 ,the most valuable   
intuitions are the last to be attained2 
the most valuable of all are those which
 determine methods4 ,all the methods1   
all the principles of the scientific    
spirit of today1 were the targets for   
thousands of years of the most profound 
contempt2 if a man inclined to them he  

was excluded from the society of decent 
people--he passed as an enemy of ,god1  
as a scoffer at the truth1 as one       
possessed4 ,as a man of science1 he     
belonged to the ,chandala#b4444 ,we have
 had the whole pathetic stupidity of    
mankind against us--their every notion  
of what the truth ought to be1 of what  
the service of the truth ought to       
be--their every thou shalt was launched 
against us4444 ,our objectives1 our     
methods1 our quiet1 cautious1           
distrustful manner--all appeared to them
 as absolutely discreditable and        
contemptible4--,looking back1 one may   
almost ask one's self with reason if it 
was not actually an aesthetic sense that
 kept men blind so long3 what they      
demanded of the truth was picturesque   
effectiveness1 and of the learned a     
strong appeal to their senses4 ,it was  
our modesty that stood out longest      
against their taste4444 ,how well they  
guessed that1 these turkey-cocks of     
,god6  #b ,the lowest of the ,hindu     

castes4   #ad4  ,we have unlearned      
something4 ,we have become more modest  
in every way4 ,we no longer derive man  
from the spirit1 from the godhead2 we   
have dropped him back among the beasts4 
,we regard him as the strongest of the  
beasts because he is the craftiest2 one 
of the results thereof is his           
intellectuality4 ,on the other hand1 we 
guard ourselves against a conceit which 
would assert itself even here3 that man 
is the great second thought in the      
process of organic evolution4 ,he is1 in
 truth1 anything but the crown of       
creation3 beside him stand many other   
animals1 all at similar stages of       
development4444 ,and even when we say   
that we say a bit too much1 for man1    
relatively speaking1 is the most botched
 of all the animals and the sickliest1  
and he has wandered the most dangerously
 from his instincts--though for all     
that1 to be sure1 he remains the most   
interesting6--,as regards the lower     
animals1 it was ,descartes who first had

 the really admirable daring to describe
 them as machina2 the whole of our      
physiology is directed toward proving   
the truth of this doctrine4 ,moreover1  
it is illogical to set man apart1 as    
,descartes did3 what we know of man     
today is limited precisely by the extent
 to which we have regarded him1 too1 as 
a machine4 ,formerly we accorded to man1
 as his inheritance from some higher    
order of beings1 what was called free   
will2 now we have taken even this will  
from him1 for the term no longer        
describes anything that we can          
understand4 ,the old word will now      
connotes only a sort of result1 an      
individual reaction1 that follows       
inevitably upon a series of partly      
discordant and partly harmonious        
stimuli--the will no longer acts1 or    
moves4444 ,formerly it was thought that 
man's consciousness1 his spirit1 offered
 evidence of his high origin1 his       
divinity4 ,that he might be perfected1  
he was advised1 tortoise-like1 to draw  

his senses in1 to have no traffic with  
earthly things1 to shuffle off his      
mortal coil--then only the important    
part of him1 the pure spirit1 would     
remain4 ,here again we have thought out 
the thing better3 to us consciousness1  
or the spirit1 appears as a symptom of a
 relative imperfection of the organism1 
as an experiment1 a groping1 a          
misunderstanding1 as an affliction which
 uses up nervous force unnecessarily--we
 deny that anything can be done         
perfectly so long as it is done         
consciously4 ,the pure spirit is a piece
 of pure stupidity3 take away the       
nervous system and the senses1 the      
so-called mortal shell1 and the rest is 
miscalculation--that is all6444   #ae4  
,under ,christianity neither morality   
nor religion has any point of contact   
with actuality4 ,it offers purely       
imaginary causes 7,god1 soul1 ego1      
spirit1 free will--or even unfree71 and 
purely imaginary effects 7sin1          
salvation1 grace1 punishment1           

forgiveness of sins74 ,intercourse      
between imaginary beings 7,god1 spirits1
 souls72 an imaginary natural history   
7anthropocentric2 a total denial of the 
concept of natural causes72 an imaginary
 psychology 7misunderstandings of self1 
misinterpretations of agreeable or      
disagreeable general feelings--for      
example1 of the states of the nervus    
sympathicus with the help of the        
sign-language of religio-ethical        
balderdash--1 repentance1 pangs of      
conscience1 temptation by the devil1 the
 presence of ,god72 an imaginary        
teleology 7the kingdom of ,god1 the last
 judgment1 eternal life74--,this purely 
fictitious world1 greatly to its        
disadvantage1 is to be differentiated   
from the world of dreams2 the latter at 
least reflects reality1 whereas the     
former falsifies it1 cheapens it and    
denies it4 ,once the concept of nature  
had been opposed to the concept of ,god1
 the word natural necessarily took on   
the meaning of abominable--the whole of 

that fictitious world has its sources in
 hatred of the natural 7--the real6--71 
and is no more than evidence of a       
profound uneasiness in the presence of  
reality4444 ,this explains everything4  
,who alone has any reason for living his
 way out of reality8 ,the man who       
suffers under it4 ,but to suffer from   
reality one must be a botched           
reality4444 ,the preponderance of pains 
over pleasures is the cause of this     
fictitious morality and religion3 but   
such a preponderance also supplies the  
formula for dcadence4444   #af4  ,a     
criticism of the ,christian concept of  
,god leads inevitably to the same       
conclusion4--,a nation that still       
believes in itself holds fast to its own
 god4 ,in him it does honour to the     
conditions which enable it to survive1  
to its virtues--it projects its joy in  
itself1 its feeling of power1 into a    
being to whom one may offer thanks4 ,he 
who is rich will give of his riches2 a  
proud people need a god to whom they can

 make sacrifices4444 ,religion1 within  
these limits1 is a form of gratitude4 ,a
 man is grateful for his own existence3 
to that end he needs a god4--,such a god
 must be able to work both benefits and 
injuries2 he must be able to play either
 friend or foe--he is wondered at for   
the good he does as well as for the evil
 he does4 ,but the castration1 against  
all nature1 of such a god1 making him a 
god of goodness alone1 would be contrary
 to human inclination4 ,mankind has just
 as much need for an evil god as for a  
good god2 it doesn't have to thank mere 
tolerance and humanitarianism for its   
own existence4444 ,what would be the    
value of a god who knew nothing of      
anger1 revenge1 envy1 scorn1 cunning1   
violence8 who had perhaps never         
experienced the rapturous ardeurs of    
victory and of destruction8 ,no one     
would understand such a god3 why should 
any one want him8--,true enough1 when a 
nation is on the downward path1 when it 
feels its belief in its own future1 its 

hope of freedom slipping from it1 when  
it begins to see submission as a first  
necessity and the virtues of submission 
as measures of self-preservation1 then  
it must overhaul its god4 ,he then      
becomes a hypocrite1 timorous and       
demure2 he counsels peace of soul1      
hate-no-more1 leniency1 love of friend  
and foe4 ,he moralizes endlessly2 he    
creeps into every private virtue2 he    
becomes the god of every man2 he becomes
 a private citizen1 a cosmopolitan4444  
,formerly he represented a people1 the  
strength of a people1 everything        
aggressive and thirsty for power in the 
soul of a people2 now he is simply the  
good god4444 ,the truth is that there is
 no other alternative for gods3 either  
they are the will to power--in which    
case they are national gods--or         
incapacity for power--in which case they
 have to be good4444   #ag4  ,wherever  
the will to power begins to decline1 in 
whatever form1 there is always an       
accompanying decline physiologically1 a 

dcadence4 ,the divinity of this         
dcadence1 shorn of its masculine virtues
 and passions1 is converted perforce    
into a god of the physiologically       
degraded1 of the weak4 ,of course1 they 
do not call themselves the weak2 they   
call themselves the good4444 ,no hint is
 needed to indicate the moments in      
history at which the dualistic fiction  
of a good and an evil god first became  
possible4 ,the same instinct which      
prompts the inferior to reduce their own
 god to goodness-in-itself also prompts 
them to eliminate all good qualities    
from the god of their superiors2 they   
make revenge on their masters by making 
a devil of the latter's god4--,the good 
god1 and the devil like him--both are   
abortions of dcadence4--,how can we be  
so tolerant of the navet of ,christian  
theologians as to join in their doctrine
 that the evolution of the concept of   
god from the god of ,israel1 the god of 
a people1 to the ,christian god1 the    
essence of all goodness1 is to be       

described as progress8--,but even ,renan
 does this4 ,as if ,renan had a right to
 be nave6 ,the contrary actually stares 
one in the face4 ,when everything       
necessary to ascending life2 when all   
that is strong1 courageous1 masterful   
and proud has been eliminated from the  
concept of a god2 when he has sunk step 
by step to the level of a staff for the 
weary1 a sheet-anchor for the drowning2 
when he becomes the poor man's god1 the 
sinner's god1 the invalid's god par     
excellence1 and the attribute of saviour
 or redeemer remains as the one         
essential attribute of divinity--just   
what is the significance of such a      
metamorphosis8 what does such a         
reduction of the godhead imply8--,to be 
sure1 the kingdom of ,god has thus grown
 larger4 ,formerly he had only his own  
people1 his chosen people4 ,but since   
then he has gone wandering1 like his    
people themselves1 into foreign parts2  
he has given up settling down quietly   
anywhere2 finally he has come to feel at

 home everywhere1 and is the great      
cosmopolitan--until now he has the great
 majority on his side1 and half the     
earth4 ,but this god of the great       
majority1 this democrat among gods1 has 
not become a proud heathen god3 on the  
contrary1 he remains a ,jew1 he remains 
a god in a corner1 a god of all the dark
 nooks and crevices1 of all the         
noisesome quarters of the world6444 ,his
 earthly kingdom1 now as always1 is a   
kingdom of the underworld1 a souterrain 
kingdom1 a ghetto kingdom4444 ,and he   
himself is so pale1 so weak1 so         
dcadent4444 ,even the palest of the pale
 are able to master him--messieurs the  
metaphysicians1 those albinos of the    
intellect4 ,they spun their webs around 
him for so long that finally he was     
hypnotized1 and began to spin himself1  
and became another metaphysician4       
,thereafter he resumed once more his old
 business of spinning the world out of  
his inmost being sub specie ,spinozae2  
thereafter he became ever thinner and   

paler--became the ideal1 became pure    
spirit1 became the absolute1 became the 
thing-in-itself4444 ,the collapse of a  
god3 he became a thing-in-itself4   #ah4
  ,the ,christian concept of a god--the 
god as the patron of the sick1 the god  
as a spinner of cobwebs1 the god as a   
spirit--is one of the most corrupt      
concepts that has ever been set up in   
the world3 it probably touches low-water
 mark in the ebbing evolution of the    
god-type4 ,god degenerated into the     
contradiction of life4 ,instead of being
 its transfiguration and eternal ,yea6  
,in him war is declared on life1 on     
nature1 on the will to live6 ,god       
becomes the formula for every slander   
upon the here and now1 and for every lie
 about the beyond6 ,in him nothingness  
is deified1 and the will to nothingness 
is made holy6444   #ai4  ,the fact that 
the strong races of northern ,europe did
 not repudiate this ,christian god does 
little credit to their gift for         
religion--and not much more to their    

taste4 ,they ought to have been able to 
make an end of such a moribund and      
worn-out product of the dcadence4 ,a    
curse lies upon them because they were  
not equal to it2 they made illness1     
decrepitude and contradiction a part of 
their instincts--and since then they    
have not managed to create any more     
gods4 ,two thousand years have come and 
gone--and not a single new god6         
,instead1 there still exists1 and as if 
by some intrinsic right1--as if he were 
the ultimatum and maximum of the power  
to create gods1 of the creator spiritus 
in mankind--this pitiful god of         
,christian monotono-theism6 ,this hybrid
 image of decay1 conjured up out of     
emptiness1 contradiction and vain       
imagining1 in which all the instincts of
 dcadence1 all the cowardices and       
wearinesses of the soul find their      
sanction6--   #bj4  ,in my condemnation 
of ,christianity ,i surely hope ,i do no
 injustice to a related religion with an
 even larger number of believers3 ,i    

allude to ,buddhism4 ,both are to be    
reckoned among the nihilistic           
religions--they are both dcadence       
religions--but they are separated from  
each other in a very remarkable way4    
,for the fact that he is able to compare
 them at all the critic of ,christianity
 is indebted to the scholars of         
,india4--,buddhism is a hundred times as
 realistic as ,christianity--it is part 
of its living heritage that it is able  
to face problems objectively and coolly2
 it is the product of long centuries of 
philosophical speculation4 ,the concept1
 god1 was already disposed of before it 
appeared4 ,buddhism is the only         
genuinely positive religion to be       
encountered in history1 and this applies
 even to its epistemology 7which is a   
strict phenomenalism74 ,it does not     
speak of a struggle with sin1 but1      
yielding to reality1 of the struggle    
with suffering4 ,sharply differentiating
 itself from ,christianity1 it puts the 
self-deception that lies in moral       

concepts behind it2 it is1 in my phrase1
 beyond good and evil4--,the two        
physiological facts upon which it       
grounds itself and upon which it bestows
 its chief attention are3 first1 an     
excessive sensitiveness to sensation1   
which manifests itself as a refined     
susceptibility to pain1 and secondly1 an
 extraordinary spirituality1 a too      
protracted concern with concepts and    
logical procedures1 under the influence 
of which the instinct of personality has
 yielded to a notion of the impersonal4 
7--,both of these states will be        
familiar to a few of my readers1 the    
objectivists1 by experience1 as they are
 to me74 ,these physiological states    
produced a depression1 and ,buddha tried
 to combat it by hygienic measures4     
,against it he prescribed a life in the 
open1 a life of travel2 moderation in   
eating and a careful selection of foods2
 caution in the use of intoxicants2 the 
same caution in arousing any of the     
passions that foster a bilious habit and

 heat the blood2 finally1 no worry1     
either on one's own account or on       
account of others4 ,he encourages ideas 
that make for either quiet contentment  
or good cheer--he finds means to combat 
ideas of other sorts4 ,he understands   
good1 the state of goodness1 as         
something which promotes health4 ,prayer
 is not included1 and neither is        
asceticism4 ,there is no categorical    
imperative nor any disciplines1 even    
within the walls of a monastery 7--it is
 always possible to leave--74 ,these    
things would have been simply means of  
increasing the excessive sensitiveness  
above mentioned4 ,for the same reason he
 does not advocate any conflict with    
unbelievers2 his teaching is            
antagonistic to nothing so much as to   
revenge1 aversion1 ressentiment         
7--enmity never brings an end to enmity3
 the moving refrain of all              
,buddhism44447 ,and in all this he was  
right1 for it is precisely these        
passions which1 in view of his main     

regiminal purpose1 are unhealthful4 ,the
 mental fatigue that he observes1       
already plainly displayed in too much   
objectivity 7that is1 in the            
individual's loss of interest in        
himself1 in loss of balance and of      
egoism71 he combats by strong efforts to
 lead even the spiritual interests back 
to the ego4 ,in ,buddha's teaching      
egoism is a duty4 ,the one thing        
needful1 the question how can you be    
delivered from suffering1 regulates and 
determines the whole spiritual diet4    
7--,perhaps one will here recall that   
,athenian who also declared war upon    
pure scientificality1 to wit1 ,socrates1
 who also elevated egoism to the estate 
of a morality74   #ba4  ,the things     
necessary to ,buddhism are a very mild  
climate1 customs of great gentleness and
 liberality1 and no militarism2         
moreover1 it must get its start among   
the higher and better educated classes4 
,cheerfulness1 quiet and the absence of 
desire are the chief desiderata1 and    

they are attained4 ,buddhism is not a   
religion in which perfection is merely  
an object of aspiration3 perfection is  
actually normal4--  ,under ,christianity
 the instincts of the subjugated and the
 oppressed come to the fore3 it is only 
those who are at the bottom who seek    
their salvation in it4 ,here the        
prevailing pastime1 the favourite remedy
 for boredom is the discussion of sin1  
self-criticism1 the inquisition of      
conscience2 here the emotion produced by
 power 7called ,god7 is pumped up 7by   
prayer72 here the highest good is       
regarded as unattainable1 as a gift1 as 
grace4 ,here1 too1 open dealing is      
lacking2 concealment and the darkened   
room are ,christian4 ,here body is      
despised and hygiene is denounced as    
sensual2 the church even ranges itself  
against cleanliness 7--the first        
,christian order after the banishment of
 the ,moors closed the public baths1 of 
which there were #bgj in ,cordova       
alone74 ,christian1 too1 is a certain   

cruelty toward one's self and toward    
others2 hatred of unbelievers2 the will 
to persecute4 ,sombre and disquieting   
ideas are in the foreground2 the most   
esteemed states of mind1 bearing the    
most respectable names1 are epileptoid2 
the diet is so regulated as to engender 
morbid symptoms and over-stimulate the  
nerves4 ,christian1 again1 is all deadly
 enmity to the rulers of the earth1 to  
the aristocratic--along with a sort of  
secret rivalry with them 7--one resigns 
one's body to them2 one wants only one's
 soul44474 ,and ,christian is all hatred
 of the intellect1 of pride1 of courage1
 of freedom1 of intellectual            
libertinage2 ,christian is all hatred of
 the senses1 of joy in the senses1 of   
joy in general4444   #bb4  ,when        
,christianity departed from its native  
soil1 that of the lowest orders1 the    
underworld of the ancient world1 and    
began seeking power among barbarian     
peoples1 it no longer had to deal with  
exhausted men1 but with men still       

inwardly savage and capable of          
self-torture--in brief1 strong men1 but 
bungled men4 ,here1 unlike in the case  
of the ,buddhists1 the cause of         
discontent with self1 suffering through 
self1 is not merely a general           
sensitiveness and susceptibility to     
pain1 but1 on the contrary1 an          
inordinate thirst for inflicting pain on
 others1 a tendency to obtain subjective
 satisfaction in hostile deeds and      
ideas4 ,christianity had to embrace     
barbaric concepts and valuations in     
order to obtain mastery over barbarians3
 of such sort1 for example1 are the     
sacrifices of the first-born1 the       
drinking of blood as a sacrament1 the   
disdain of the intellect and of culture2
 torture in all its forms1 whether      
bodily or not2 the whole pomp of the    
cult4 ,buddhism is a religion for       
peoples in a further state of           
development1 for races that have become 
kind1 gentle and over-spiritualized     
7--,europe is not yet ripe for it--73 it

 is a summons that takes them back to   
peace and cheerfulness1 to a careful    
rationing of the spirit1 to a certain   
hardening of the body4 ,christianity    
aims at mastering beasts of prey2 its   
modus operandi is to make them ill--to  
make feeble is the ,christian recipe for
 taming1 for civilizing4 ,buddhism is a 
religion for the closing1 over-wearied  
stages of civilization4 ,christianity   
appears before civilization has so much 
as begun--under certain circumstances it
 lays the very foundations thereof4     
#bc4  ,buddhism1 ,i repeat1 is a hundred
 times more austere1 more honest1 more  
objective4 ,it no longer has to justify 
its pains1 its susceptibility to        
suffering1 by interpreting these things 
in terms of sin--it simply says1 as it  
simply thinks1 ,i suffer4 ,to the       
barbarian1 however1 suffering in itself 
is scarcely understandable3 what he     
needs1 first of all1 is an explanation  
as to why he suffers4 7,his mere        
instinct prompts him to deny his        

suffering altogether1 or to endure it in
 silence47 ,here the word devil was a   
blessing3 man had to have an omnipotent 
and terrible enemy--there was no need to
 be ashamed of suffering at the hands of
 such an enemy4--  ,at the bottom of    
,christianity there are several         
subtleties that belong to the ,orient4  
,in the first place1 it knows that it is
 of very little consequence whether a   
thing be true or not1 so long as it is  
believed to be true4 ,truth and faith3  
here we have two wholly distinct worlds 
of ideas1 almost two diametrically      
opposite worlds--the road to the one and
 the road to the other lie miles apart4 
,to understand that fact                
thoroughly--this is almost enough1 in   
the ,orient1 to make one a sage4 ,the   
,brahmins knew it1 ,plato knew it1 every
 student of the esoteric knows it4      
,when1 for example1 a man gets any      
pleasure out of the notion that he has  
been saved from sin1 it is not necessary
 for him to be actually sinful1 but     

merely to feel sinful4 ,but when faith  
is thus exalted above everything else1  
it necessarily follows that reason1     
knowledge and patient inquiry have to be
 discredited3 the road to the truth     
becomes a forbidden road4--,hope1 in its
 stronger forms1 is a great deal more   
powerful stimulans to life than any sort
 of realized joy can ever be4 ,man must 
be sustained in suffering by a hope so  
high that no conflict with actuality can
 dash it--so high1 indeed1 that no      
fulfilment can satisfy it3 a hope       
reaching out beyond this world4         
7,precisely because of this power that  
hope has of making the suffering hold   
out1 the ,greeks regarded it as the evil
 of evils1 as the most malign of evils2 
it remained behind at the source of all 
evil47#c--;,in order that love may be   
possible1 ,god must become a person2 in 
order that the lower instincts may take 
a hand in the matter ,god must be young4
 ,to satisfy the ardor of the woman a   
beautiful saint must appear on the      

scene1 and to satisfy that of the men   
there must be a virgin4 ,these things   
are necessary if ,christianity is to    
assume lordship over a soil on which    
some aphrodisiacal or ,adonis cult has  
already established a notion as to what 
a cult ought to be4 ,to insist upon     
chastity greatly strengthens the        
vehemence and subjectivity of the       
religious instinct--it makes the cult   
warmer1 more enthusiastic1 more         
soulful4--,love is the state in which   
man sees things most decidedly as they  
are not4 ,the force of illusion reaches 
its highest here1 and so does the       
capacity for sweetening1 for            
transfiguring4 ,when a man is in love he
 endures more than at any other time2 he
 submits to anything4 ,the problem was  
to devise a religion which would allow  
one to love3 by this means the worst    
that life has to offer is overcome--it  
is scarcely even noticed4--,so much for 
the three ,christian virtues3 faith1    
hope and charity3 ,i call them the three

 ,christian ingenuities4--,buddhism is  
in too late a stage of development1 too 
full of positivism1 to be shrewd in any 
such way4--  #c ,that is1 in ,pandora's 
box4   #bd4  ,here ,i barely touch upon 
the problem of the origin of            
,christianity4 ,the first thing         
necessary to its solution is this3 that 
,christianity is to be understood only  
by examining the soil from which it     
sprung--it is not a reaction against    
,jewish instincts2 it is their          
inevitable product2 it is simply one    
more step in the awe-inspiring logic of 
the ,jews4 ,in the words of the         
,saviour1 salvation is of the           
,jews4#d--,the second thing to remember 
is this3 that the psychological type of 
the ,galilean is still to be recognized1
 but it was only in its most degenerate 
form 7which is at once maimed and       
overladen with foreign features7 that it
 could serve in the manner in which it  
has been used3 as a type of the ,saviour
 of mankind4--  #d ,john iv1 #bb4  ,the 

,jews are the most remarkable people in 
the history of the world1 for when they 
were confronted with the question1 to be
 or not to be1 they chose1 with         
perfectly unearthly deliberation1 to be 
at any price3 this price involved a     
radical falsification of all nature1 of 
all naturalness1 of all reality1 of the 
whole inner world1 as well as of the    
outer4 ,they put themselves against all 
those conditions under which1 hitherto1 
a people had been able to live1 or had  
even been permitted to live2 out of     
themselves they evolved an idea which   
stood in direct opposition to natural   
conditions--one by one they distorted   
religion1 civilization1 morality1       
history and psychology until each became
 a contradiction of its natural         
significance4 ,we meet with the same    
phenomenon later on1 in an incalculably 
exaggerated form1 but only as a copy3   
the ,christian church1 put beside the   
people of ,god1 shows a complete lack of
 any claim to originality4 ,precisely   

for this reason the ,jews are the most  
fateful people in the history of the    
world3 their influence has so falsified 
the reasoning of mankind in this matter 
that today the ,christian can cherish   
anti-,semitism without realizing that it
 is no more than the final consequence  
of ,judaism4  ,in my ,genealogy of      
,morals ,i give the first psychological 
explanation of the concepts underlying  
those two antithetical things1 a noble  
morality and a ressentiment morality1   
the second of which is a mere product of
 the denial of the former4 ,the         
,judaeo-,christian moral system belongs 
to the second division1 and in every    
detail4 ,in order to be able to say ,nay
 to everything representing an ascending
 evolution of life--that is1 to         
well-being1 to power1 to beauty1 to     
self-approval--the instincts of         
ressentiment1 here become downright     
genius1 had to invent an other world in 
which the acceptance of life appeared as
 the most evil and abominable thing     

imaginable4 ,psychologically1 the ,jews 
are a people gifted with the very       
strongest vitality1 so much so that when
 they found themselves facing impossible
 conditions of life they chose          
voluntarily1 and with a profound talent 
for self-preservation1 the side of all  
those instincts which make for          
dcadence--not as if mastered by them1   
but as if detecting in them a power by  
which the world could be defied4 ,the   
,jews are the very opposite of dcadents3
 they have simply been forced into      
appearing in that guise1 and with a     
degree of skill approaching the non plus
 ultra of histrionic genius they have   
managed to put themselves at the head of
 all dcadent movements 7--for example1  
the ,christianity of ,paul--71 and so   
make of them something stronger than any
 party frankly saying ,yes to life4 ,to 
the sort of men who reach out for power 
under ,judaism and ,christianity1--that 
is to say1 to the priestly              
class--dcadence is no more than a means 

to an end4 ,men of this sort have a     
vital interest in making mankind sick1  
and in confusing the values of good and 
bad1 true and false in a manner that is 
not only dangerous to life1 but also    
slanders it4   #be4  ,the history of    
,israel is invaluable as a typical      
history of an attempt to denaturize all 
natural values3 ,i point to five facts  
which bear this out4 ,originally1 and   
above all in the time of the monarchy1  
,israel maintained the right attitude of
 things1 which is to say1 the natural   
attitude4 ,its ,jahveh was an expression
 of its consciousness of power1 its joy 
in itself1 its hopes for itself3 to him 
the ,jews looked for victory and        
salvation and through him they expected 
nature to give them whatever was        
necessary to their existence--above all1
 rain4 ,jahveh is the god of ,israel1   
and consequently the god of justice3    
this is the logic of every race that has
 power in its hands and a good          
conscience in the use of it4 ,in the    

religious ceremonial of the ,jews both  
aspects of this self-approval stand     
revealed4 ,the nation is grateful for   
the high destiny that has enabled it to 
obtain dominion2 it is grateful for the 
benign procession of the seasons1 and   
for the good fortune attending its herds
 and its crops4--,this view of things   
remained an ideal for a long while1 even
 after it had been robbed of validity by
 tragic blows3 anarchy within and the   
,assyrian without4 ,but the people still
 retained1 as a projection of their     
highest yearnings1 that vision of a king
 who was at once a gallant warrior and  
an upright judge--a vision best         
visualized in the typical prophet 7i4   
e41 critic and satirist of the moment71 
,isaiah4--,but every hope remained      
unfulfilled4 ,the old god no longer     
could do what he used to do4 ,he ought  
to have been abandoned4 ,but what       
actually happened8 ,simply this3 the    
conception of him was changed--the      
conception of him was denaturized2 this 

was the price that had to be paid for   
keeping him4--,jahveh1 the god of       
justice--he is in accord with ,israel no
 more1 he no longer vizualizes the      
national egoism2 he is now a god only   
conditionally4444 ,the public notion of 
this god now becomes merely a weapon in 
the hands of clerical agitators1 who    
interpret all happiness as a reward and 
all unhappiness as a punishment for     
obedience or disobedience to him1 for   
sin3 that most fraudulent of all        
imaginable interpretations1 whereby a   
moral order of the world is set up1 and 
the fundamental concepts1 cause and     
effect1 are stood on their heads4 ,once 
natural causation has been swept out of 
the world by doctrines of reward and    
punishment some sort of un-natural      
causation becomes necessary3 and all    
other varieties of the denial of nature 
follow it4 ,a god who demands--in place 
of a god who helps1 who gives counsel1  
who is at bottom merely a name for every
 happy inspiration of courage and       

self-reliance4444 ,morality is no longer
 a reflection of the conditions which   
make for the sound life and development 
of the people2 it is no longer the      
primary life-instinct2 instead it has   
become abstract and in opposition to    
life--a fundamental perversion of the   
fancy1 an evil eye on all things4 ,what 
is ,jewish1 what is ,christian morality8
 ,chance robbed of its innocence2       
unhappiness polluted with the idea of   
sin2 well-being represented as a danger1
 as a temptation2 a physiological       
disorder produced by the canker worm of 
conscience4444   #bf4  ,the concept of  
god falsified2 the concept of morality  
falsified2--but even here ,jewish       
priest-craft did not stop4 ,the whole   
history of ,israel ceased to be of any  
value3 out with it6--,these priests     
accomplished that miracle of            
falsification of which a great part of  
the ,bible is the documentary evidence2 
with a degree of contempt unparalleled1 
and in the face of all tradition and all

 historical reality1 they translated the
 past of their people into religious    
terms1 which is to say1 they converted  
it into an idiotic mechanism of         
salvation1 whereby all offences against 
,jahveh were punished and all devotion  
to him was rewarded4 ,we would regard   
this act of historical falsification as 
something far more shameful if          
familiarity with the ecclesiastical     
interpretation of history for thousands 
of years had not blunted our            
inclinations for uprightness in         
historicis4 ,and the philosophers       
support the church3 the lie about a     
moral order of the world runs through   
the whole of philosophy1 even the       
newest4 ,what is the meaning of a moral 
order of the world8 ,that there is a    
thing called the will of ,god which1    
once and for all time1 determines what  
man ought to do and what he ought not to
 do2 that the worth of a people1 or of  
an individual thereof1 is to be measured
 by the extent to which they or he obey 

this will of ,god2 that the destinies of
 a people or of an individual are       
controlled by this will of ,god1 which  
rewards or punishes according to the    
degree of obedience manifested4--,in    
place of all that pitiable lie reality  
has this to say3 the priest1 a          
parasitical variety of man who can exist
 only at the cost of every sound view of
 life1 takes the name of ,god in vain3  
he calls that state of human society in 
which he himself determines the value of
 all things the kingdom of ,god2 he     
calls the means whereby that state of   
affairs is attained the will of ,god2   
with cold-blooded cynicism he estimates 
all peoples1 all ages and all           
individuals by the extent of their      
subservience or opposition to the power 
of the priestly order4 ,one observes him
 at work3 under the hand of the ,jewish 
priesthood the great age of ,israel     
became an age of decline2 the ,exile1   
with its long series of misfortunes1 was
 transformed into a punishment for that 

great age--during which priests had not 
yet come into existence4 ,out of the    
powerful and wholly free heroes of      
,israel's history they fashioned1       
according to their changing needs1      
either wretched bigots and hypocrites or
 men entirely godless4 ,they reduced    
every great event to the idiotic        
formula3 obedient or disobedient to     
,god4--,they went a step further3 the   
will of ,god 7in other words some means 
necessary for preserving the power of   
the priests7 had to be determined--and  
to this end they had to have a          
revelation4 ,in plain ,english1 a       
gigantic literary fraud had to be       
perpetrated1 and holy scriptures had to 
be concocted--and so1 with the utmost   
hierarchical pomp1 and days of penance  
and much lamentation over the long days 
of sin now ended1 they were duly        
published4 ,the will of ,god1 it        
appears1 had long stood like a rock2 the
 trouble was that mankind had neglected 
the holy scriptures4444 ,but the will of

 ,god had already been revealed to      
,moses4444 ,what happened8 ,simply this3
 the priest had formulated1 once and for
 all time and with the strictest        
meticulousness1 what tithes were to be  
paid to him1 from the largest to the    
smallest 7--not forgetting the most     
appetizing cuts of meat1 for the priest 
is a great consumer of beefsteaks72 in  
brief1 he let it be known just what he  
wanted1 what the will of ,god was4444   
,from this time forward things were so  
arranged that the priest became         
indispensable everywhere2 at all the    
great natural events of life1 at birth1 
at marriage1 in sickness1 at death1 not 
to say at the sacrifice 7that is1 at    
meal-times71 the holy parasite put in   
his appearance1 and proceeded to        
denaturize it--in his own phrase1 to    
sanctify it4444 ,for this should be     
noted3 that every natural habit1 every  
natural institution 7the state1 the     
administration of justice1 marriage1 the
 care of the sick and of the poor71     

everything demanded by the              
life-instinct1 in short1 everything that
 has any value in itself1 is reduced to 
absolute worthlessness and even made the
 reverse of valuable by the parasitism  
of priests 7or1 if you chose1 by the    
moral order of the world74 ,the fact    
requires a sanction--a power to grant   
values becomes necessary1 and the only  
way it can create such values is by     
denying nature4444 ,the priest          
depreciates and desecrates nature3 it is
 only at this price that he can exist at
 all4--,disobedience to ,god1 which     
actually means to the priest1 to the    
law1 now gets the name of sin2 the means
 prescribed for reconciliation with ,god
 are1 of course1 precisely the means    
which bring one most effectively under  
the thumb of the priest2 he alone can   
save4444 ,psychologically considered1   
sins are indispensable to every society 
organized on an ecclesiastical basis2   
they are the only reliable weapons of   
power2 the priest lives upon sins2 it is

 necessary to him that there be         
sinning4444 ,prime axiom3 ,god forgiveth
 him that repenteth--in plain ,english1 
him that submitteth to the priest4      
#bg4  ,christianity sprang from a soil  
so corrupt that on it everything        
natural1 every natural value1 every     
reality was opposed by the deepest      
instincts of the ruling class--it grew  
up as a sort of war to the death upon   
reality1 and as such it has never been  
surpassed4 ,the holy people1 who had    
adopted priestly values and priestly    
names for all things1 and who1 with a   
terrible logical consistency1 had       
rejected everything of the earth as     
unholy1 worldly1 sinful--this people put
 its instinct into a final formula that 
was logical to the point of             
self-annihilation3 as ,christianity it  
actually denied even the last form of   
reality1 the holy people1 the chosen    
people1 ,jewish reality itself4 ,the    
phenomenon is of the first order of     
importance3 the small insurrectionary   

movement which took the name of ,jesus  
of ,nazareth is simply the ,jewish      
instinct redivivus--in other words1 it  
is the priestly instinct come to such a 
pass that it can no longer endure the   
priest as a fact2 it is the discovery of
 a state of existence even more         
fantastic than any before it1 of a      
vision of life even more unreal than    
that necessary to an ecclesiastical     
organization4 ,christianity actually    
denies the church4444  ,i am unable to  
determine what was the target of the    
insurrection said to have been led      
7whether rightly or wrongly7 by ,jesus1 
if it was not the ,jewish church--church
 being here used in exactly the same    
sense that the word has today4 ,it was  
an insurrection against the good and    
just1 against the prophets of ,israel1  
against the whole hierarchy of          
society--not against corruption1 but    
against caste1 privilege1 order1        
formalism4 ,it was unbelief in superior 
men1 a ,nay flung at everything that    

priests and theologians stood for4 ,but 
the hierarchy that was called into      
question1 if only for an instant1 by    
this movement was the structure of piles
 which1 above everything1 was necessary 
to the safety of the ,jewish people in  
the midst of the waters--it represented 
their last possibility of survival2 it  
was the final residuum of their         
independent political existence2 an     
attack upon it was an attack upon the   
most profound national instinct1 the    
most powerful national will to live1    
that has ever appeared on earth4 ,this  
saintly anarchist1 who aroused the      
people of the abyss1 the outcasts and   
sinners1 the ,chandala of ,judaism1 to  
rise in revolt against the established  
order of things--and in language which1 
if the ,gospels are to be credited1     
would get him sent to ,siberia          
today--this man was certainly a         
political criminal1 at least in so far  
as it was possible to be one in so      
absurdly unpolitical a community4 ,this 

is what brought him to the cross3 the   
proof thereof is to be found in the     
inscription that was put upon the cross4
 ,he died for his own sins--there is not
 the slightest ground for believing1 no 
matter how often it is asserted1 that he
 died for the sins of others4--   #bh4  
,as to whether he himself was conscious 
of this contradiction--whether1 in fact1
 this was the only contradiction he was 
cognizant of--that is quite another     
question4 ,here1 for the first time1 ,i 
touch upon the problem of the psychology
 of the ,saviour4--,i confess1 to begin 
with1 that there are very few books     
which offer me harder reading than the  
,gospels4 ,my difficulties are quite    
different from those which enabled the  
learned curiosity of the ,german mind to
 achieve one of its most unforgettable  
triumphs4 ,it is a long while since ,i1 
like all other young scholars1 enjoyed  
with all the sapient laboriousness of a 
fastidious philologist the work of the  
incomparable ,strauss4#e ,at that time  

,i was twenty years old3 now ,i am too  
serious for that sort of thing4 ,what do
 ,i care for the contradictions of      
tradition8 ,how can any one call pious  
legends traditions8 ,the histories of   
saints present the most dubious variety 
of literature in existence2 to examine  
them by the scientific method1 in the   
entire absence of corroborative         
documents1 seems to me to condemn the   
whole inquiry from the start--it is     
simply learned idling4444  #e ,david    
,friedrich ,strauss 7#ahjh-gd71 author  
of ,das ,leben ,jesu 7#ahce-f71 a very  
famous work in its day4 ,nietzsche here 
refers to it4   #bi4  ,what concerns me 
is the psychological type of the        
,saviour4 ,this type might be depicted  
in the ,gospels1 in however mutilated a 
form and however much overladen with    
extraneous characters--that is1 in spite
 of the ,gospels2 just as the figure of 
,francis of ,assisi shows itself in his 
legends in spite of his legends4 ,it is 
not a question of mere truthful evidence

 as to what he did1 what he said and how
 he actually died2 the question is1     
whether his type is still conceivable1  
whether it has been handed down to      
us4--,all the attempts that ,i know of  
to read the history of a soul in the    
,gospels seem to me to reveal only a    
lamentable psychological levity4 ,m4    
,renan1 that mountebank in              
psychologicus1 has contributed the two  
most unseemly notions to this business  
of explaining the type of ,jesus3 the   
notion of the genius and that of the    
hero 7hros74 ,but if there is anything  
essentially unevangelical1 it is surely 
the concept of the hero4 ,what the      
,gospels make instinctive is precisely  
the reverse of all heroic struggle1 of  
all taste for conflict3 the very        
incapacity for resistance is here       
converted into something moral3 7resist 
not evil6--the most profound sentence in
 the ,gospels1 perhaps the true key to  
them71 to wit1 the blessedness of peace1
 of gentleness1 the inability to be an  

enemy4 ,what is the meaning of glad     
tidings8--,the true life1 the life      
eternal has been found--it is not merely
 promised1 it is here1 it is in you2 it 
is the life that lies in love free from 
all retreats and exclusions1 from all   
keeping of distances4 ,every one is the 
child of ,god--,jesus claims nothing for
 himself alone--as the child of ,god    
each man is the equal of every other    
man4444 ,imagine making ,jesus a        
hero6--,and what a tremendous           
misunderstanding appears in the word    
genius6 ,our whole conception of the    
spiritual1 the whole conception of our  
civilization1 could have had no meaning 
in the world that ,jesus lived in4 ,in  
the strict sense of the physiologist1 a 
quite different word ought to be used   
here4444 ,we all know that there is a   
morbid sensibility of the tactile nerves
 which causes those suffering from it to
 recoil from every touch1 and from every
 effort to grasp a solid object4        
,brought to its logical conclusion1 such

 a physiological habitus becomes an     
instinctive hatred of all reality1 a    
flight into the intangible1 into the    
incomprehensible2 a distaste for all    
formulae1 for all conceptions of time   
and space1 for everything               
established--customs1 institutions1 the 
church--2 a feeling of being at home in 
a world in which no sort of reality     
survives1 a merely inner world1 a true  
world1 an eternal world4444 ,the        
,kingdom of ,god is within you4444      
#cj4  ,the instinctive hatred of        
reality3 the consequence of an extreme  
susceptibility to pain and              
irritation--so great that merely to be  
touched becomes unendurable1 for every  
sensation is too profound4  ,the        
instinctive exclusion of all aversion1  
all hostility1 all bounds and distances 
in feeling3 the consequence of an       
extreme susceptibility to pain and      
irritation--so great that it senses all 
resistance1 all compulsion to           
resistance1 as unbearable anguish       

7--that is to say1 as harmful1 as       
prohibited by the instinct of           
self-preservation71 and regards         
blessedness 7joy7 as possible only when 
it is no longer necessary to offer      
resistance to anybody or anything1      
however evil or dangerous--love1 as the 
only1 as the ultimate possibility of    
life4444  ,these are the two            
physiological realities upon and out of 
which the doctrine of salvation has     
sprung4 ,i call them a sublime          
super-development of hedonism upon a    
thoroughly unsalubrious soil4 ,what     
stands most closely related to them1    
though with a large admixture of ,greek 
vitality and nerve-force1 is            
epicureanism1 the theory of salvation of
 paganism4 ,epicurus was a typical      
dcadent3 ,i was the first to recognize  
him4--,the fear of pain1 even of        
infinitely slight pain--the end of this 
can be nothing save a religion of       
love4444   #ca4  ,i have already given  
my answer to the problem4 ,the          

prerequisite to it is the assumption    
that the type of the ,saviour has       
reached us only in a greatly distorted  
form4 ,this distortion is very probable3
 there are many reasons why a type of   
that sort should not be handed down in a
 pure form1 complete and free of        
additions4 ,the milieu in which this    
strange figure moved must have left     
marks upon him1 and more must have been 
imprinted by the history1 the destiny1  
of the early ,christian communities2 the
 latter indeed1 must have embellished   
the type retrospectively with characters
 which can be understood only as serving
 the purposes of war and of propaganda4 
,that strange and sickly world into     
which the ,gospels lead us--a world     
apparently out of a ,russian novel1 in  
which the scum of society1 nervous      
maladies and childish idiocy keep a     
tryst--must1 in any case1 have coarsened
 the type3 the first disciples1 in      
particular1 must have been forced to    
translate an existence visible only in  

symbols and incomprehensibilities into  
their own crudity1 in order to          
understand it at all--in their sight the
 type could take on reality only after  
it had been recast in a familiar        
mould4444 ,the prophet1 the messiah1 the
 future judge1 the teacher of morals1   
the worker of wonders1 ,john the        
,baptist--all these merely presented    
chances to misunderstand it4444         
,finally1 let us not underrate the      
proprium of all great1 and especially   
all sectarian veneration3 it tends to   
erase from the venerated objects all its
 original traits and idiosyncrasies1    
often so painfully strange--it does not 
even see them4 ,it is greatly to be     
regretted that no ,dostoyevsky lived in 
the neighbourhood of this most          
interesting dcadent--,i mean some one   
who would have felt the poignant charm  
of such a compound of the sublime1 the  
morbid and the childish4 ,in the last   
analysis1 the type1 as a type of the    
dcadence1 may actually have been        

peculiarly complex and contradictory3   
such a possibility is not to be lost    
sight of4 ,nevertheless1 the            
probabilities seem to be against it1 for
 in that case tradition would have been 
particularly accurate and objective1    
whereas we have reasons for assuming the
 contrary4 ,meanwhile1 there is a       
contradiction between the peaceful      
preacher of the mount1 the sea-shore and
 the fields1 who appears like a new     
,buddha on a soil very unlike ,india's1 
and the aggressive fanatic1 the mortal  
enemy of theologians and ecclesiastics1 
who stands glorified by ,renan's malice 
as le grand matre en ironie4 ,i myself  
haven't any doubt that the greater part 
of this venom 7and no less of esprit7   
got itself into the concept of the      
,master only as a result of the excited 
nature of ,christian propaganda3 we all 
know the unscrupulousness of sectarians 
when they set out to turn their leader  
into an apologia for themselves4 ,when  
the early ,christians had need of an    

adroit1 contentious1 pugnacious and     
maliciously subtle theologian to tackle 
other theologians1 they created a god   
that met that need1 just as they put    
into his mouth without hesitation       
certain ideas that were necessary to    
them but that were utterly at odds with 
the ,gospels--the second coming1 the    
last judgment1 all sorts of expectations
 and promises1 current at the time4--   
#cb4  ,i can only repeat that ,i set    
myself against all efforts to intrude   
the fanatic into the figure of the      
,saviour3 the very word imprieux1 used  
by ,renan1 is alone enough to annul the 
type4 ,what the glad tidings tell us is 
simply that there are no more           
contradictions2 the kingdom of heaven   
belongs to children2 the faith that is  
voiced here is no more an embattled     
faith--it is at hand1 it has been from  
the beginning1 it is a sort of          
recrudescent childishness of the spirit4
 ,the physiologists1 at all events1 are 
familiar with such a delayed and        

incomplete puberty in the living        
organism1 the result of degeneration4 ,a
 faith of this sort is not furious1 it  
does not denounce1 it does not defend   
itself3 it does not come with the       
sword--it does not realize how it will  
one day set man against man4 ,it does   
not manifest itself either by miracles1 
or by rewards and promises1 or by       
scriptures3 it is itself1 first and     
last1 its own miracle1 its own reward1  
its own promise1 its own kingdom of     
,god4 ,this faith does not formulate    
itself--it simply lives1 and so guards  
itself against formulae4 ,to be sure1   
the accident of environment1 of         
educational background gives prominence 
to concepts of a certain sort3 in       
primitive ,christianity one finds only  
concepts of a ,judaeo-,semitic character
 7--that of eating and drinking at the  
last supper belongs to this category--an
 idea which1 like everything else       
,jewish1 has been badly mauled by the   
church74 ,but let us be careful not to  

see in all this anything more than      
symbolical language1 semantics#f an     
opportunity to speak in parables4 ,it is
 only on the theory that no work is to  
be taken literally that this            
anti-realist is able to speak at all4   
,set down among ,hindus he would have   
made use of the concepts of ,sankhya1#g 
and among ,chinese he would have        
employed those of ,lao-tse#h--;and in   
neither case would it have made any     
difference to him4--,with a little      
freedom in the use of words1 one might  
actually call ,jesus a free             
spirit#i--;he cares nothing for what is 
established3 the word killeth1#aj       
whatever is established killeth4 ,the   
idea of life as an experience1 as he    
alone conceives it1 stands opposed to   
his mind to every sort of word1 formula1
 law1 belief and dogma4 ,he speaks only 
of inner things3 life or truth or light 
is his word for the innermost--in his   
sight everything else1 the whole of     
reality1 all nature1 even language1 has 

significance only as sign1 as           
allegory4--,here it is of paramount     
importance to be led into no error by   
the temptations lying in ,christian1 or 
rather ecclesiastical prejudices3 such a
 symbolism par excellence stands outside
 all religion1 all notions of worship1  
all history1 all natural science1 all   
worldly experience1 all knowledge1 all  
politics1 all psychology1 all books1 all
 art--his wisdom is precisely a pure    
ignorance#aa of all such things4 ,he has
 never heard of culture2 he doesn't have
 to make war on it--he doesn't even deny
 it4444 ,the same thing may be said of  
the state1 of the whole bourgeoise      
social order1 of labour1 of war--he has 
no ground for denying the world1 for he 
knows nothing of the ecclesiastical     
concept of the world4444 ,denial is     
precisely the thing that is impossible  
to him4--,in the same way he lacks      
argumentative capacity1 and has no      
belief that an article of faith1 a      
truth1 may be established by proofs     

7--his proofs are inner lights1         
subjective sensations of happiness and  
self-approval1 simple proofs of         
power--74 ,such a doctrine cannot       
contradict3 it doesn't know that other  
doctrines exist1 or can exist1 and is   
wholly incapable of imagining anything  
opposed to it4444 ,if anything of the   
sort is ever encountered1 it laments the
 blindness with sincere sympathy--for it
 alone has light--but it does not offer 
objections4444  #f ,the word ,semiotik  
is in the text1 but it is probable that 
,semantik is what ,nietzsche had in     
mind4  #g ,one of the six great systems 
of ,hindu philosophy4  #h ,the reputed  
founder of ,taoism4  #i ,nietzsche's    
name for one accepting his own          
philosophy4  #aj ,that is1 the strict   
letter of the law--the chief target of  
,jesus's early preaching4  #aa ,a       
reference to the pure ignorance 7reine  
,thorheit7 of ,parsifal4   #cc4  ,in the
 whole psychology of the ,gospels the   
concepts of guilt and punishment are    

lacking1 and so is that of reward4 ,sin1
 which means anything that puts a       
distance between ,god and man1 is       
abolished--this is precisely the glad   
tidings4 ,eternal bliss is not merely   
promised1 nor is it bound up with       
conditions3 it is conceived as the only 
reality--what remains consists merely of
 signs useful in speaking of it4  ,the  
results of such a point of view project 
themselves into a new way of life1 the  
special evangelical way of life4 ,it is 
not a belief that marks off the         
,christian2 he is distinguished by a    
different mode of action2 he acts       
differently4 ,he offers no resistance1  
either by word or in his heart1 to those
 who stand against him4 ,he draws no    
distinction between strangers and       
countrymen1 ,jews and ,gentiles         
7neighbour1 of course1 means            
fellow-believer1 ,jew74 ,he is angry    
with no one1 and he despises no one4 ,he
 neither appeals to the courts of       
justice nor heeds their mandates 7,swear

 not at all74#ab ,he never under any    
circumstances divorces his wife1 even   
when he has proofs of her               
infidelity4--,and under all of this is  
one principle2 all of it arises from one
 instinct4--  #ab ,matthew v1 #cd4  ,the
 life of the ,saviour was simply a      
carrying out of this way of life--and so
 was his death4444 ,he no longer needed 
any formula or ritual in his relations  
with ,god--not even prayer4 ,he had     
rejected the whole of the ,jewish       
doctrine of repentance and atonement2 he
 knew that it was only by a way of life 
that one could feel one's self divine1  
blessed1 evangelical1 a child of ,god4  
,not by repentance1 not by prayer and   
forgiveness is the way to ,god3 only the
 ,gospel way leads to ,god--it is itself
 ,god6--,what the ,gospels abolished was
 the ,judaism in the concepts of sin1   
forgiveness of sin1 faith1 salvation    
through faith--the whole ecclesiastical 
dogma of the ,jews was denied by the    
glad tidings4  ,the deep instinct which 

prompts the ,christian how to live so   
that he will feel that he is in heaven  
and is immortal1 despite many reasons   
for feeling that he is not in heaven3   
this is the only psychological reality  
in salvation4--,a new way of life1 not a
 new faith4444   #cd4  ,if ,i understand
 anything at all about this great       
symbolist1 it is this3 that he regarded 
only subjective realities as realities1 
as truths--that he saw everything else1 
everything natural1 temporal1 spatial   
and historical1 merely as signs1 as     
materials for parables4 ,the concept of 
the ,son of ,god does not connote a     
concrete person in history1 an isolated 
and definite individual1 but an eternal 
fact1 a psychological symbol set free   
from the concept of time4 ,the same     
thing is true1 and in the highest sense1
 of the ,god of this typical symbolist1 
of the kingdom of ,god1 and of the      
sonship of ,god4 ,nothing could be more 
un-,christian than the crude            
ecclesiastical notions of ,god as a     

person1 of a kingdom of ,god that is to 
come1 of a kingdom of heaven beyond1 and
 of a son of ,god as the second person  
of the ,trinity4 ,all this--if ,i may be
 forgiven the phrase--is like thrusting 
one's fist into the eye 7and what an    
eye67 of the ,gospels3 a disrespect for 
symbols amounting to world-historical   
cynicism4444 ,but it is nevertheless    
obvious enough what is meant by the     
symbols ,father and ,son--not1 of       
course1 to every one--3 the word ,son   
expresses entrance into the feeling that
 there is a general transformation of   
all things 7beatitude71 and ,father     
expresses that feeling itself--the      
sensation of eternity and of            
perfection4--,i am ashamed to remind you
 of what the church has made of this    
symbolism3 has it not set an ,amphitryon
 story#ac at the threshold of the       
,christian faith8 ,and a dogma of       
immaculate conception for good          
measure8444 ,and thereby it has robbed  
conception of its immaculateness--  #ac 

,amphitryon was the son of ,alcaeus1    
,king of ,tiryns4 ,his wife was         
,alcmene4 ,during his absence she was   
visited by ,zeus1 and bore ,heracles4   
,the kingdom of heaven is a state of the
 heart--not something to come beyond the
 world or after death4 ,the whole idea  
of natural death is absent from the     
,gospels3 death is not a bridge1 not a  
passing2 it is absent because it belongs
 to a quite different1 a merely apparent
 world1 useful only as a symbol4 ,the   
hour of death is not a ,christian       
idea--hours1 time1 the physical life and
 its crises have no existence for the   
bearer of glad tidings4444 ,the kingdom 
of ,god is not something that men wait  
for3 it had no yesterday and no day     
after tomorrow1 it is not going to come 
at a millennium--it is an experience of 
the heart1 it is everywhere and it is   
nowhere4444   #ce4  ,this bearer of glad
 tidings died as he lived and           
taught--not to save mankind1 but to show
 mankind how to live4 ,it was a way of  

life that he bequeathed to man3 his     
demeanour before the judges1 before the 
officers1 before his accusers--his      
demeanour on the cross4 ,he does not    
resist2 he does not defend his rights2  
he makes no effort to ward off the most 
extreme penalty--more1 he invites it4444
 ,and he prays1 suffers and loves with  
those1 in those1 who do him evil4444    
,not to defend one's self1 not to show  
anger1 not to lay blames4444 ,on the    
contrary1 to submit even to the ,evil   
,one--to love him4444   #cf4  --,we free
 spirits--we are the first to have the  
necessary prerequisite to understanding 
what nineteen centuries have            
misunderstood--that instinct and passion
 for integrity which makes war upon the 
holy lie even more than upon all other  
lies4444 ,mankind was unspeakably far   
from our benevolent and cautious        
neutrality1 from that discipline of the 
spirit which alone makes possible the   
solution of such strange and subtle     
things3 what men always sought1 with    

shameless egoism1 was their own         
advantage therein2 they created the     
church out of denial of the ,gospels4444
  ,whoever sought for signs of an       
ironical divinity's hand in the great   
drama of existence would find no small  
indication thereof in the stupendous    
question-mark that is called            
,christianity4 ,that mankind should be  
on its knees before the very antithesis 
of what was the origin1 the meaning and 
the law of the ,gospels--that in the    
concept of the church the very things   
should be pronounced holy that the      
bearer of glad tidings regards as       
beneath him and behind him--it would be 
impossible to surpass this as a grand   
example of world-historical irony--     
#cg4  --,our age is proud of its        
historical sense3 how1 then1 could it   
delude itself into believing that the   
crude fable of the wonder-worker and    
,saviour constituted the beginnings of  
,christianity--and that everything      
spiritual and symbolical in it only came

 later8 ,quite to the contrary1 the     
whole history of ,christianity--from the
 death on the cross onward--is the      
history of a progressively clumsier     
misunderstanding of an original         
symbolism4 ,with every extension of     
,christianity among larger and ruder    
masses1 even less capable of grasping   
the principles that gave birth to it1   
the need arose to make it more and more 
vulgar and barbarous--it absorbed the   
teachings and rites of all the          
subterranean cults of the imperium      
,romanum1 and the absurdities engendered
 by all sorts of sickly reasoning4 ,it  
was the fate of ,christianity that its  
faith had to become as sickly1 as low   
and as vulgar as the needs were sickly1 
low and vulgar to which it had to       
administer4 ,a sickly barbarism finally 
lifts itself to power as the church--the
 church1 that incarnation of deadly     
hostility to all honesty1 to all        
loftiness of soul1 to all discipline of 
the spirit1 to all spontaneous and      

kindly humanity4--,christian            
values--noble values3 it is only we1 we 
free spirits1 who have re-established   
this greatest of all antitheses in      
values6444   #ch4  --,i cannot1 at this 
place1 avoid a sigh4 ,there are days    
when ,i am visited by a feeling blacker 
than the blackest melancholy--contempt  
of man4 ,let me leave no doubt as to    
what ,i despise1 whom ,i despise3 it is 
the man of today1 the man with whom ,i  
am unhappily contemporaneous4 ,the man  
of today--,i am suffocated by his foul  
breath6444 ,toward the past1 like all   
who understand1 ,i am full of tolerance1
 which is to say1 generous self-control3
 with gloomy caution ,i pass through    
whole millenniums of this madhouse of a 
world1 call it ,christianity1 ,christian
 faith or the ,christian church1 as you 
will--,i take care not to hold mankind  
responsible for its lunacies4 ,but my   
feeling changes and breaks out          
irresistibly the moment ,i enter modern 
times1 our times4 ,our age knows        

better4444 ,what was formerly merely    
sickly now becomes indecent--it is      
indecent to be a ,christian today4 ,and 
here my disgust begins4--,i look about  
me3 not a word survives of what was once
 called truth2 we can no longer bear to 
hear a priest pronounce the word4 ,even 
a man who makes the most modest         
pretensions to integrity must know that 
a theologian1 a priest1 a pope of today 
not only errs when he speaks1 but       
actually lies--and that he no longer    
escapes blame for his lie through       
innocence or ignorance4 ,the priest     
knows1 as every one knows1 that there is
 no longer any ,god1 or any sinner1 or  
any ,saviour--that free will and the    
moral order of the world are lies--3    
serious reflection1 the profound        
self-conquest of the spirit1 allow no   
man to pretend that he does not know    
it4444 ,all the ideas of the church are 
now recognized for what they are--as the
 worst counterfeits in existence1       
invented to debase nature and all       

natural values2 the priest himself is   
seen as he actually is--as the most     
dangerous form of parasite1 as the      
venomous spider of creation4444 ,we     
know1 our conscience now knows--just    
what the real value of all those        
sinister inventions of priest and church
 has been and what ends they have       
served1 with their debasement of        
humanity to a state of self-pollution1  
the very sight of which excites         
loathing1--the concepts the other world1
 the last judgment1 the immortality of  
the soul1 the soul itself3 they are all 
merely so many instruments of torture1  
systems of cruelty1 whereby the priest  
becomes master and remains master4444   
,every one knows this1 but nevertheless 
things remain as before4 ,what has      
become of the last trace of decent      
feeling1 of self-respect1 when our      
statesmen1 otherwise an unconventional  
class of men and thoroughly             
anti-,christian in their acts1 now call 
themselves ,christians and go to the    

communion-table8444 ,a prince at the    
head of his armies1 magnificent as the  
expression of the egoism and arrogance  
of his people--and yet acknowledging1   
without any shame1 that he is a         
,christian6444 ,whom1 then1 does        
,christianity deny8 what does it call   
the world8 ,to be a soldier1 to be a    
judge1 to be a patriot2 to defend one's 
self2 to be careful of one's honour2 to 
desire one's own advantage2 to be proud 
444 every act of everyday1 every        
instinct1 every valuation that shows    
itself in a deed1 is now                
anti-,christian3 what a monster of      
falsehood the modern man must be to call
 himself nevertheless1 and without      
shame1 a ,christian6--   #ci4  --,i     
shall go back a bit1 and tell you the   
authentic history of                    
,christianity4--,the very word          
,christianity is a misunderstanding--at 
bottom there was only one ,christian1   
and he died on the cross4 ,the ,gospels 
died on the cross4 ,what1 from that     

moment onward1 was called the ,gospels  
was the very reverse of what he had     
lived3 bad tidings1 a ,dysangelium4#ad  
,it is an error amounting to            
nonsensicality to see in faith1 and     
particularly in faith in salvation      
through ,christ1 the distinguishing mark
 of the ,christian3 only the ,christian 
way of life1 the life lived by him who  
died on the cross1 is ,christian4444 ,to
 this day such a life is still possible1
 and for certain men even necessary3    
genuine1 primitive ,christianity will   
remain possible in all ages4444 ,not    
faith1 but acts2 above all1 an avoidance
 of acts1 a different state of being4444
 ,states of consciousness1 faith of a   
sort1 the acceptance1 for example1 of   
anything as true--as every psychologist 
knows1 the value of these things is     
perfectly indifferent and fifth-rate    
compared to that of the instincts3      
strictly speaking1 the whole concept of 
intellectual causality is false4 ,to    
reduce being a ,christian1 the state of 

,christianity1 to an acceptance of      
truth1 to a mere phenomenon of          
consciousness1 is to formulate the      
negation of ,christianity4 ,in fact1    
there are no ,christians4 ,the          
,christian--he who for two thousand     
years has passed as a ,christian--is    
simply a psychological self-delusion4   
,closely examined1 it appears that1     
despite all his faith1 he has been ruled
 only by his instincts--and what        
instincts6--,in all ages--for example1  
in the case of ,luther--faith has been  
no more than a cloak1 a pretense1 a     
curtain behind which the instincts have 
played their game--a shrewd blindness to
 the domination of certain of the       
instincts4444 ,i have already called    
faith the specially ,christian form of  
shrewdness--people always talk of their 
faith and act according to their        
instincts4444 ,in the world of ideas of 
the ,christian there is nothing that so 
much as touches reality3 on the         
contrary1 one recognizes an instinctive 

hatred of reality as the motive power1  
the only motive power at the bottom of  
,christianity4 ,what follows therefrom8 
,that even here1 in psychologicis1 there
 is a radical error1 which is to say one
 conditioning fundamentals1 which is to 
say1 one in substance4 ,take away one   
idea and put a genuine reality in its   
place--and the whole of ,christianity   
crumbles to nothingness6--,viewed       
calmly1 this strangest of all phenomena1
 a religion not only depending on       
errors1 but inventive and ingenious only
 in devising injurious errors1 poisonous
 to life and to the heart--this remains 
a spectacle for the gods--for those gods
 who are also philosophers1 and whom ,i 
have encountered1 for example1 in the   
celebrated dialogues at ,naxos4 ,at the 
moment when their disgust leaves them   
7--and us67 they will be thankful for   
the spectacle afforded by the           
,christians3 perhaps because of this    
curious exhibition alone the wretched   
little planet called the earth deserves 

a glance from omnipotence1 a show of    
divine interest4444 ,therefore1 let us  
not underestimate the ,christians3 the  
,christian1 false to the point of       
innocence1 is far above the ape--in its 
application to the ,christians a        
well-known theory of descent becomes a  
mere piece of politeness4444  #ad ,so in
 the text4 ,one of ,nietzsche's numerous
 coinages1 obviously suggested by       
,evangelium1 the ,german for gospel4    
#dj4  --,the fate of the ,gospels was   
decided by death--it hung on the        
cross4444 ,it was only death1 that      
unexpected and shameful death2 it was   
only the cross1 which was usually       
reserved for the canaille only--it was  
only this appalling paradox which       
brought the disciples face to face with 
the real riddle3 ,who was it8 what was  
it8--,the feeling of dismay1 of profound
 affront and injury2 the suspicion that 
such a death might involve a refutation 
of their cause2 the terrible question1  
,why just in this way8--this state of   

mind is only too easy to understand4    
,here everything must be accounted for  
as necessary2 everything must have a    
meaning1 a reason1 the highest sort of  
reason2 the love of a disciple excludes 
all chance4 ,only then did the chasm of 
doubt yawn3 ,who put him to death8 who  
was his natural enemy8--this question   
flashed like a lightning-stroke4        
,answer3 dominant ,judaism1 its ruling  
class4 ,from that moment1 one found     
one's self in revolt against the        
established order1 and began to         
understand ,jesus as in revolt against  
the established order4 ,until then this 
militant1 this nay-saying1 nay-doing    
element in his character had been       
lacking2 what is more1 he had appeared  
to present its opposite4 ,obviously1 the
 little community had not understood    
what was precisely the most important   
thing of all3 the example offered by    
this way of dying1 the freedom from and 
superiority to every feeling of         
ressentiment--a plain indication of how 

little he was understood at all6 ,all   
that ,jesus could hope to accomplish by 
his death1 in itself1 was to offer the  
strongest possible proof1 or example1 of
 his teachings in the most public       
manner4444 ,but his disciples were very 
far from forgiving his death--though to 
have done so would have accorded with   
the ,gospels in the highest degree2 and 
neither were they prepared to offer     
themselves1 with gentle and serene      
calmness of heart1 for a similar        
death4444 ,on the contrary1 it was      
precisely the most unevangelical of     
feelings1 revenge1 that now possessed   
them4 ,it seemed impossible that the    
cause should perish with his death3     
recompense and judgment became necessary
 7--yet what could be less evangelical  
than recompense1 punishment1 and sitting
 in judgment674 ,once more the popular  
belief in the coming of a messiah       
appeared in the foreground2 attention   
was rivetted upon an historical moment3 
the kingdom of ,god is to come1 with    

judgment upon his enemies4444 ,but in   
all this there was a wholesale          
misunderstanding3 imagine the kingdom of
 ,god as a last act1 as a mere promise6 
,the ,gospels had been1 in fact1 the    
incarnation1 the fulfilment1 the        
realization of this kingdom of ,god4 ,it
 was only now that all the familiar     
contempt for and bitterness against     
,pharisees and theologians began to     
appear in the character of the          
,master--he was thereby turned into a   
,pharisee and theologian himself6 ,on   
the other hand1 the savage veneration of
 these completely unbalanced souls could
 no longer endure the ,gospel doctrine1 
taught by ,jesus1 of the equal right of 
all men to be children of ,god3 their   
revenge took the form of elevating      
,jesus in an extravagant fashion1 and   
thus separating him from themselves3    
just as1 in earlier times1 the ,jews1 to
 revenge themselves upon their enemies1 
separated themselves from their ,god1   
and placed him on a great height4 ,the  

,one ,god and the ,only ,son of ,god3   
both were products of ressentiment4444  
#da4  --,and from that time onward an   
absurd problem offered itself3 how could
 ,god allow it6 ,to which the deranged  
reason of the little community          
formulated an answer that was terrifying
 in its absurdity3 ,god gave his son as 
a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins4
 ,at once there was an end of the       
gospels6 ,sacrifice for sin1 and in its 
most obnoxious and barbarous form3      
sacrifice of the innocent for the sins  
of the guilty6 ,what appalling          
paganism6--,jesus himself had done away 
with the very concept of guilt1 he      
denied that there was any gulf fixed    
between ,god and man2 he lived this     
unity between ,god and man1 and that was
 precisely his glad tidings4444 ,and not
 as a mere privilege6--,from this time  
forward the type of the ,saviour was    
corrupted1 bit by bit1 by the doctrine  
of judgment and of the second coming1   
the doctrine of death as a sacrifice1   

the doctrine of the resurrection1 by    
means of which the entire concept of    
blessedness1 the whole and only reality 
of the gospels1 is juggled away--in     
favour of a state of existence after    
death6444 ,st4 ,paul1 with that         
rabbinical impudence which shows itself 
in all his doings1 gave a logical       
quality to that conception1 that        
indecent conception1 in this way3 ,if   
,christ did not rise from the dead1 then
 all our faith is in vain6--,and at once
 there sprang from the ,gospels the most
 contemptible of all unfulfillable      
promises1 the shameless doctrine of     
personal immortality4444 ,paul even     
preached it as a reward4444   #db4  ,one
 now begins to see just what it was that
 came to an end with the death on the   
cross3 a new and thoroughly original    
effort to found a ,buddhistic peace     
movement1 and so establish happiness on 
earth--real1 not merely promised4 ,for  
this remains--as ,i have already pointed
 out--the essential difference between  

the two religions of dcadence3 ,buddhism
 promises nothing1 but actually fulfils2
 ,christianity promises everything1 but 
fulfils nothing4--,hard upon the heels  
of the glad tidings came the worst      
imaginable3 those of ,paul4 ,in ,paul is
 incarnated the very opposite of the    
bearer of glad tidings2 he represents   
the genius for hatred1 the vision of    
hatred1 the relentless logic of hatred4 
,what1 indeed1 has not this dysangelist 
sacrificed to hatred6 ,above all1 the   
,saviour3 he nailed him to his own      
cross4 ,the life1 the example1 the      
teaching1 the death of ,christ1 the     
meaning and the law of the whole        
gospels--nothing was left of all this   
after that counterfeiter in hatred had  
reduced it to his uses4 ,surely not     
reality2 surely not historical truth6444
 ,once more the priestly instinct of the
 ,jew perpetrated the same old master   
crime against history--he simply struck 
out the yesterday and the day before    
yesterday of ,christianity1 and invented

 his own history of ,christian          
beginnings4 ,going further1 he treated  
the history of ,israel to another       
falsification1 so that it became a mere 
prologue to his achievement3 all the    
prophets1 it now appeared1 had referred 
to his ,saviour4444 ,later on the church
 even falsified the history of man in   
order to make it a prologue to          
,christianity4444 ,the figure of the    
,saviour1 his teaching1 his way of life1
 his death1 the meaning of his death1   
even the consequences of his            
death--nothing remained untouched1      
nothing remained in even remote contact 
with reality4 ,paul simply shifted the  
centre of gravity of that whole life to 
a place behind this existence--in the   
lie of the risen ,jesus4 ,at bottom1 he 
had no use for the life of the          
,saviour--what he needed was the death  
on the cross1 and something more4 ,to   
see anything honest in such a man as    
,paul1 whose home was at the centre of  
the ,stoical enlightenment1 when he     

converts an hallucination into a proof  
of the resurrection of the ,saviour1 or 
even to believe his tale that he        
suffered from this hallucination        
himself--this would be a genuine        
niaiserie in a psychologist4 ,paul      
willed the end2 therefore he also willed
 the means4444 ,what he himself didn't  
believe was swallowed readily enough by 
the idiots among whom he spread his     
teaching4--,what he wanted was power2 in
 ,paul the priest once more reached out 
for power--he had use only for such     
concepts1 teachings and symbols as      
served the purpose of tyrannizing over  
the masses and organizing mobs4 ,what   
was the only part of ,christianity that 
,mohammed borrowed later on8 ,paul's    
invention1 his device for establishing  
priestly tyranny and organizing the mob3
 the belief in the immortality of the   
soul--that is to say1 the doctrine of   
judgment4444   #dc4  ,when the centre of
 gravity of life is placed1 not in life 
itself1 but in the beyond--in           

nothingness--then one has taken away its
 centre of gravity altogether4 ,the vast
 lie of personal immortality destroys   
all reason1 all natural                 
instinct--henceforth1 everything in the 
instincts that is beneficial1 that      
fosters life and that safeguards the    
future is a cause of suspicion4 ,so to  
live that life no longer has any        
meaning3 this is now the meaning of     
life4444 ,why be public-spirited8 ,why  
take any pride in descent and           
forefathers8 ,why labour together1 trust
 one another1 or concern one's self     
about the common welfare1 and try to    
serve it8444 ,merely so many            
temptations1 so many strayings from the 
straight path4--,one thing only is      
necessary4444 ,that every man1 because  
he has an immortal soul1 is as good as  
every other man2 that in an infinite    
universe of things the salvation of     
every individual may lay claim to       
eternal importance2 that insignificant  
bigots and the three-fourths insane may 

assume that the laws of nature are      
constantly suspended in their behalf--it
 is impossible to lavish too much       
contempt upon such a magnification of   
every sort of selfishness to infinity1  
to insolence4 ,and yet ,christianity has
 to thank precisely this miserable      
flattery of personal vanity for its     
triumph--it was thus that it lured all  
the botched1 the dissatisfied1 the      
fallen upon evil days1 the whole refuse 
and off-scouring of humanity to its     
side4 ,the salvation of the soul--in    
plain ,english3 the world revolves      
around me4444 ,the poisonous doctrine1  
equal rights for all1 has been          
propagated as a ,christian principle3   
out of the secret nooks and crannies of 
bad instinct ,christianity has waged a  
deadly war upon all feelings of         
reverence and distance between man and  
man1 which is to say1 upon the first    
prerequisite to every step upward1 to   
every development of civilization--out  
of the ressentiment of the masses it has

 forged its chief weapons against us1   
against everything noble1 joyous and    
high-spirited on earth1 against our     
happiness on earth4444 ,to allow        
immortality to every ,peter and ,paul   
was the greatest1 the most vicious      
outrage upon noble humanity ever        
perpetrated4--,and let us not           
underestimate the fatal influence that  
,christianity has had1 even upon        
politics6 ,nowadays no one has courage  
any more for special rights1 for the    
right of dominion1 for feelings of      
honourable pride in himself and his     
equals--for the pathos of distance4444  
,our politics is sick with this lack of 
courage6--,the aristocratic attitude of 
mind has been undermined by the lie of  
the equality of souls2 and if belief in 
the privileges of the majority makes and
 will continue to make revolutions--it  
is ,christianity1 let us not doubt1 and 
,christian valuations1 which convert    
every revolution into a carnival of     
blood and crime6 ,christianity is a     

revolt of all creatures that creep on   
the ground against everything that is   
lofty3 the gospel of the lowly          
lowers4444   #dd4  --,the gospels are   
invaluable as evidence of the corruption
 that was already persistent within the 
primitive community4 ,that which ,paul1 
with the cynical logic of a rabbi1 later
 developed to a conclusion was at bottom
 merely a process of decay that had     
begun with the death of the             
,saviour4--,these gospels cannot be read
 too carefully2 difficulties lurk behind
 every word4 ,i confess--,i hope it will
 not be held against me--that it is     
precisely for this reason that they     
offer first-rate joy to a               
psychologist--as the opposite of all    
merely nave corruption1 as refinement   
par excellence1 as an artistic triumph  
in psychological corruption4 ,the       
gospels1 in fact1 stand alone4 ,the     
,bible as a whole is not to be compared 
to them4 ,here we are among ,jews3 this 
is the first thing to be borne in mind  

if we are not to lose the thread of the 
matter4 ,this positive genius for       
conjuring up a delusion of personal     
holiness unmatched anywhere else1 either
 in books or by men2 this elevation of  
fraud in word and attitude to the level 
of an art--all this is not an accident  
due to the chance talents of an         
individual1 or to any violation of      
nature4 ,the thing responsible is race4 
,the whole of ,judaism appears in       
,christianity as the art of concocting  
holy lies1 and there1 after many        
centuries of earnest ,jewish training   
and hard practice of ,jewish technic1   
the business comes to the stage of      
mastery4 ,the ,christian1 that ultima   
ratio of lying1 is the ,jew all over    
again--he is threefold the ,jew4444 ,the
 underlying will to make use only of    
such concepts1 symbols and attitudes as 
fit into priestly practice1 the         
instinctive repudiation of every other  
mode of thought1 and every other method 
of estimating values and utilities--this

 is not only tradition1 it is           
inheritance3 only as an inheritance is  
it able to operate with the force of    
nature4 ,the whole of mankind1 even the 
best minds of the best ages 7with one   
exception1 perhaps hardly human--71 have
 permitted themselves to be deceived4   
,the gospels have been read as a book of
 innocence 444 surely no small          
indication of the high skill with which 
the trick has been done4--,of course1 if
 we could actually see these astounding 
bigots and bogus saints1 even if only   
for an instant1 the farce would come to 
an end1--and it is precisely because ,i 
cannot read a word of theirs without    
seeing their attitudinizing that ,i have
 made an end of them4444 ,i simply      
cannot endure the way they have of      
rolling up their eyes4--,for the        
majority1 happily enough1 books are mere
 literature4--,let us not be led astray3
 they say judge not1 and yet they       
condemn to hell whoever stands in their 
way4 ,in letting ,god sit in judgment   

they judge themselves2 in glorifying    
,god they glorify themselves2 in        
demanding that every one show the       
virtues which they themselves happen to 
be capable of--still more1 which they   
must have in order to remain on         
top--they assume the grand air of men   
struggling for virtue1 of men engaging  
in a war that virtue may prevail4 ,we   
live1 we die1 we sacrifice ourselves for
 the good 7--the truth1 the light1 the  
kingdom of ,god73 in point of fact1 they
 simply do what they cannot help doing4 
,forced1 like hypocrites1 to be sneaky1 
to hide in corners1 to slink along in   
the shadows1 they convert their         
necessity into a duty3 it is on grounds 
of duty that they account for their     
lives of humility1 and that humility    
becomes merely one more proof of their  
piety4444 ,ah1 that humble1 chaste1     
charitable brand of fraud6 ,virtue      
itself shall bear witness for us4444    
,one may read the gospels as books of   
moral seduction3 these petty folks      

fasten themselves to morality--they know
 the uses of morality6 ,morality is the 
best of all devices for leading mankind 
by the nose6--,the fact is that the     
conscious conceit of the chosen here    
disguises itself as modesty3 it is in   
this way that they1 the community1 the  
good and just1 range themselves1 once   
and for always1 on one side1 the side of
 the truth--and the rest of mankind1 the
 world1 on the other4444 ,in that we    
observe the most fatal sort of          
megalomania that the earth has ever     
seen3 little abortions of bigots and    
liars began to claim exclusive rights in
 the concepts of ,god1 the truth1 the   
light1 the spirit1 love1 wisdom and     
life1 as if these things were synonyms  
of themselves and thereby they sought to
 fence themselves off from the world2   
little super-,jews1 ripe for some sort  
of madhouse1 turned values upside down  
in order to meet their notions1 just as 
if the ,christian were the meaning1 the 
salt1 the standard and even the last    

judgment of all the rest4444 ,the whole 
disaster was only made possible by the  
fact that there already existed in the  
world a similar megalomania1 allied to  
this one in race1 to wit1 the ,jewish3  
once a chasm began to yawn between ,jews
 and ,judaeo-,christians1 the latter had
 no choice but to employ the            
self-preservative measures that the     
,jewish instinct had devised1 even      
against the ,jews themselves1 whereas   
the ,jews had employed them only against
 non-,jews4 ,the ,christian is simply a 
,jew of the reformed confession4--      
#de4  --,i offer a few examples of the  
sort of thing these petty people have   
got into their heads--what they have put
 into the mouth of the ,master3 the     
unalloyed creed of beautiful souls4--   
,and whosoever shall not receive you1   
nor hear you1 when ye depart thence1    
shake off the dust under your feet for a
 testimony against them4 ,verily ,i say 
unto you1 it shall be more tolerable for
 ,sodom and ,gomorrha in the day of     

judgment1 than for that city 7,mark vi1 
#aa7--;,how evangelical6444  ,and       
whosoever shall offend one of these     
little ones that believe in me1 it is   
better for him that a millstone were    
hanged about his neck1 and he were cast 
into the sea 7,mark ix1 #db74--;,how    
evangelical6444  ,and if thine eye      
offend thee1 pluck it out3 it is better 
for thee to enter into the kingdom of   
,god with one eye1 than having two eyes 
to be cast into hell fire2 ,where the   
worm dieth not1 and the fire is not     
quenched4 7,mark ix1 #dg4ae7--;,it is   
not exactly the eye that is meant4444   
#ae ,to which1 without mentioning it1   
,nietzsche adds verse #dh4  ,verily ,i  
say unto you1 ,that there be some of    
them that stand here1 which shall not   
taste of death1 till they have seen the 
kingdom of ,god come with power4 7,mark 
ix1 #a47--,well lied1 lion6#af444  #af  
,a paraphrase of ,demetrius' ,well      
roar'd1 ,lion6 in act v1 scene #a of ,a 
,midsummer ,night's ,dream4 ,the lion1  

of course1 is the familiar ,christian   
symbol for ,mark4  ,whosoever will come 
after me1 let him deny himself1 and take
 up his cross1 and follow me4 ,for444   
7,note of a psychologist4 ,christian    
morality is refuted by its fors3 its    
reasons are against it1--this makes it  
,christian47 ,mark viii1 #cd4--  ,judge 
not1 that ye be not judged4 ,with what  
measure ye mete1 it shall be measured to
 you again4 7,matthew vii1 #a4ag7--,what
 a notion of justice1 of a just         
judge6444  #ag ,nietzsche also quotes   
part of verse #b4  ,for if ye love them 
which love you1 what reward have ye8 do 
not even the publicans the same8 ,and if
 ye salute your brethren only1 what do  
ye more than others8 do not even the    
publicans so8 7,matthew v1              
#df4ah7--,principle of ,christian love3 
it insists upon being well paid in the  
end4444  #ah ,the quotation also        
includes verse #dg4  ,but if ye forgive 
not men their trespasses1 neither will  
your ,father forgive your trespasses4   

7,matthew vi1 #ae47--,very compromising 
for the said father4444  ,but seek ye   
first the kingdom of ,god1 and his      
righteousness2 and all these things     
shall be added unto you4 7,matthew vi1  
#cc47--;,all these things3 namely1 food1
 clothing1 all the necessities of life4 
,an error1 to put it mildly4444 ,a bit  
before this ,god appears as a tailor1 at
 least in certain cases4444  ,rejoice ye
 in that day1 and leap for joy3 for1    
behold1 your reward is great in heaven3 
for in the like manner did their fathers
 unto the prophets4 7,luke vi1          
#bc47--;,impudent rabble6 ,it compares  
itself to the prophets4444  ,know ye not
 that ye are the temple of ,god1 and    
that the spirit of ,god dwelleth in you8
 ,if any man defile the temple of ,god1 
him shall ,god destroy2 for the temple  
of ,god is holy1 which temple ye are4   
7,paul1 #a ,corinthians iii1            
#af4ai7--;,for that sort of thing one   
cannot have enough contempt4444  #ai    
,and #ag4  ,do ye not know that the     

saints shall judge the world8 and if the
 world shall be judged by you1 are ye   
unworthy to judge the smallest matters8 
7,paul1 #a ,corinthians vi1             
#b47--,unfortunately1 not merely the    
speech of a lunatic4444 ,this frightful 
impostor then proceeds3 ,know ye not    
that we shall judge angels8 how much    
more things that pertain to this        
life8444  ,hath not ,god made foolish   
the wisdom of this world8 ,for after    
that in the wisdom of ,god the world by 
wisdom knew not ,god1 it pleased ,god by
 the foolishness of preaching to save   
them that believe4444 ,not many wise men
 after the flesh1 not men mighty1 not   
many noble are called3 ,but ,god hath   
chosen the foolish things of the world  
to confound the wise2 and ,god hath     
chosen the weak things of the world to  
confound the things which are mighty2   
,and base things of the world1 and      
things which are despised1 hath ,god    
chosen1 yea1 and things which are not1  
to bring to nought things that are3     

,that no flesh should glory in his      
presence4 7,paul1 #a ,corinthians i1    
#bj;ff4#bj7--;,in order to understand   
this passage1 a first-rate example of   
the psychology underlying every         
,chandala-morality1 one should read the 
first part of my ,genealogy of ,morals3 
there1 for the first time1 the          
antagonism between a noble morality and 
a morality born of ressentiment and     
impotent vengefulness is exhibited4     
,paul was the greatest of all apostles  
of revenge4444  #bj ,verses #bj1 #ba1   
#bf1 #bg1 #bh1 #bi4   #df4  --,what     
follows1 then8 ,that one had better put 
on gloves before reading the ,new       
,testament4 ,the presence of so much    
filth makes it very advisable4 ,one     
would as little choose early ,christians
 for companions as ,polish ,jews3 not   
that one need seek out an objection to  
them4444 ,neither has a pleasant        
smell4--,i have searched the ,new       
,testament in vain for a single         
sympathetic touch2 nothing is there that

 is free1 kindly1 open-hearted or       
upright4 ,in it humanity does not even  
make the first step upward--the instinct
 for cleanliness is lacking4444 ,only   
evil instincts are there1 and there is  
not even the courage of these evil      
instincts4 ,it is all cowardice2 it is  
all a shutting of the eyes1 a           
self-deception4 ,every other book       
becomes clean1 once one has read the    
,new ,testament3 for example1           
immediately after reading ,paul ,i took 
up with delight that most charming and  
wanton of scoffers1 ,petronius1 of whom 
one may say what ,domenico ,boccaccio   
wrote of ,csar ,borgia to the ,duke of  
,parma3  tutto festo--immortally        
healthy1 immortally cheerful and        
sound4444 ,these petty bigots make a    
capital miscalculation4 ,they attack1   
but everything they attack is thereby   
distinguished4 ,whoever is attacked by  
an early ,christian is surely not       
befouled4444 ,on the contrary1 it is an 
honour to have an early ,christian as an

 opponent4 ,one cannot read the ,new    
,testament without acquired admiration  
for whatever it abuses--not to speak of 
the wisdom of this world1 which an      
impudent wind-bag tries to dispose of by
 the foolishness of preaching4444 ,even 
the scribes and pharisees are benefitted
 by such opposition3 they must certainly
 have been worth something to have been 
hated in such an indecent manner4       
,hypocrisy--as if this were a charge    
that the early ,christians dared to     
make6--,after all1 they were the        
privileged1 and that was enough3 the    
hatred of the ,chandala needed no other 
excuse4 ,the early ,christian--and also1
 ,i fear1 the last ,christian1 whom ,i  
may perhaps live to see--is a rebel     
against all privilege by profound       
instinct--he lives and makes war for    
ever for equal rights4444 ,strictly     
speaking1 he has no alternative4 ,when a
 man proposes to represent1 in his own  
person1 the chosen of ,god--or to be a  
temple of ,god1 or a judge of the       

angels--then every other criterion1     
whether based upon honesty1 upon        
intellect1 upon manliness and pride1 or 
upon beauty and freedom of the heart1   
becomes simply worldly--evil in         
itself4444 ,moral3 every word that comes
 from the lips of an early ,christian is
 a lie1 and his every act is            
instinctively dishonest--all his values1
 all his aims are noxious1 but whoever  
he hates1 whatever he hates1 has real   
value4444 ,the ,christian1 and          
particularly the ,christian priest1 is  
thus a criterion of values4  --,must ,i 
add that1 in the whole ,new ,testament1 
there appears but a solitary figure     
worthy of honour8 ,pilate1 the ,roman   
viceroy4 ,to regard a ,jewish imbroglio 
seriously--that was quite beyond him4   
,one ,jew more or less--what did it     
matter8444 ,the noble scorn of a ,roman1
 before whom the word truth was         
shamelessly mishandled1 enriched the    
,new ,testament with the only saying    
that has any value--and that is at once 

its criticism and its destruction3 ,what
 is truth8444   #dg4  --,the thing that 
sets us apart is not that we are unable 
to find ,god1 either in history1 or in  
nature1 or behind nature--but that we   
regard what has been honoured as ,god1  
not as divine1 but as pitiable1 as      
absurd1 as injurious2 not as a mere     
error1 but as a crime against life4444  
,we deny that ,god is ,god4444 ,if any  
one were to show us this ,christian     
,god1 we'd be still less inclined to    
believe in him4--,in a formula3 deus1   
qualem ,paulus creavit1 dei             
negatio4--,such a religion as           
,christianity1 which does not touch     
reality at a single point and which goes
 to pieces the moment reality asserts   
its rights at any point1 must be        
inevitably the deadly enemy of the      
wisdom of this world1 which is to say1  
of science--and it will give the name of
 good to whatever means serve to poison1
 calumniate and cry down all            
intellectual discipline1 all lucidity   

and strictness in matters of            
intellectual conscience1 and all noble  
coolness and freedom of the mind4       
,faith1 as an imperative1 vetoes        
science--in praxi1 lying at any         
price4444 ,paul well knew that          
lying--that faith--was necessary2 later 
on the church borrowed the fact from    
,paul4--,the ,god that ,paul invented   
for himself1 a ,god who reduced to      
absurdity the wisdom of this world      
7especially the two great enemies of    
superstition1 philology and medicine71  
is in truth only an indication of       
,paul's resolute determination to       
accomplish that very thing himself3 to  
give one's own will the name of ,god1   
thora--that is essentially ,jewish4     
,paul wants to dispose of the wisdom of 
this world3 his enemies are the good    
philologians and physicians of the      
,alexandrine school--on them he makes   
his war4 ,as a matter of fact no man can
 be a philologian or a physician without
 being also ,antichrist4 ,that is to    

say1 as a philologian a man sees behind 
the holy books1 and as a physician he   
sees behind the physiological           
degeneration of the typical ,christian4 
,the physician says incurable2 the      
philologian says fraud4444   #dh4       
--,has any one ever clearly understood  
the celebrated story at the beginning of
 the ,bible--of ,god's mortal terror of 
science8444 ,no one1 in fact1 has       
understood it4 ,this priest-book par    
excellence opens1 as is fitting1 with   
the great inner difficulty of the       
priest3 he faces only one great danger2 
ergo1 ,god faces only one great         
danger4--  ,the old ,god1 wholly spirit1
 wholly the high-priest1 wholly perfect1
 is promenading his garden3 he is bored 
and trying to kill time4 ,against       
boredom even gods struggle in vain4#ba  
,what does he do8 ,he creates man--man  
is entertaining4444 ,but then he notices
 that man is also bored4 ,god's pity for
 the only form of distress that invades 
all paradises knows no bounds3 so he    

forthwith creates other animals4 ,god's 
first mistake3 to man these other       
animals were not entertaining--he sought
 dominion over them2 he did not want to 
be an animal himself4--,so ,god created 
woman4 ,in the act he brought boredom to
 an end--and also many other things6    
,woman was the second mistake of        
,god4--,woman1 at bottom1 is a serpent1 
,heva--every priest knows that2 from    
woman comes every evil in the           
world--every priest knows that1 too4    
,ergo1 she is also to blame for         
science4444 ,it was through woman that  
man learned to taste of the tree of     
knowledge4--,what happened8 ,the old    
,god was seized by mortal terror4 ,man  
himself had been his greatest blunder2  
he had created a rival to himself2      
science makes men godlike--it is all up 
with priests and gods when man becomes  
scientific6--,moral3 science is the     
forbidden per se2 it alone is forbidden4
 ,science is the first of sins1 the germ
 of all sins1 the original sin4 ,this is

 all there is of morality4--,thou shall 
not know3--the rest follows from        
that4--,god's mortal terror1 however1   
did not hinder him from being shrewd4   
,how is one to protect one's self       
against science8 ,for a long while this 
was the capital problem4 ,answer3 ,out  
of paradise with man6 ,happiness1       
leisure1 foster thought--and all        
thoughts are bad thoughts6--,man must   
not think4--,and so the priest invents  
distress1 death1 the mortal dangers of  
childbirth1 all sorts of misery1 old    
age1 decrepitude1 above all1            
sickness--nothing but devices for making
 war on science6 ,the troubles of man   
don't allow him to think4444            
,nevertheless--how terrible6--1 the     
edifice of knowledge begins to tower    
aloft1 invading heaven1 shadowing the   
gods--what is to be done8--,the old ,god
 invents war2 he separates the peoples2 
he makes men destroy one another 7--the 
priests have always had need of         
war444474 ,war--among other things1 a   

great disturber of                      
science6--,incredible6 ,knowledge1      
deliverance from the priests1 prospers  
in spite of war4--,so the old ,god comes
 to his final resolution3 ,man has      
become scientific--there is no help for 
it3 he must be drowned6444  #ba ,a      
paraphrase of ,schiller's ,against      
stupidity even gods struggle in vain4   
#di4  --,i have been understood4 ,at the
 opening of the ,bible there is the     
whole psychology of the priest4--,the   
priest knows of only one great danger3  
that is science--the sound comprehension
 of cause and effect4 ,but science      
flourishes1 on the whole1 only under    
favourable conditions--a man must have  
time1 he must have an overflowing       
intellect1 in order to know4444         
,therefore1 man must be made            
unhappy1--this has been1 in all ages1   
the logic of the priest4--,it is easy to
 see just what1 by this logic1 was the  
first thing to come into the            
world3--sin4444 ,the concept of guilt   

and punishment1 the whole moral order of
 the world1 was set up against          
science--against the deliverance of man 
from priests4444 ,man must not look     
outward2 he must look inward4 ,he must  
not look at things shrewdly and         
cautiously1 to learn about them2 he must
 not look at all2 he must suffer4444    
,and he must suffer so much that he is  
always in need of the priest4--,away    
with physicians6 ,what is needed is a   
,saviour4--,the concept of guilt and    
punishment1 including the doctrines of  
grace1 of salvation1 of                 
forgiveness--lies through and through1  
and absolutely without psychological    
reality--were devised to destroy man's  
sense of causality3 they are an attack  
upon the concept of cause and           
effect6--,and not an attack with the    
fist1 with the knife1 with honesty in   
hate and love6 ,on the contrary1 one    
inspired by the most cowardly1 the most 
crafty1 the most ignoble of instincts6  
,an attack of priests6 ,an attack of    

parasites6 ,the vampirism of pale1      
subterranean leeches6444 ,when the      
natural consequences of an act are no   
longer natural1 but are regarded as     
produced by the ghostly creations of    
superstition--by ,god1 by spirits1 by   
souls--and reckoned as merely moral     
consequences1 as rewards1 as            
punishments1 as hints1 as lessons1 then 
the whole ground-work of knowledge is   
destroyed--then the greatest of crimes  
against humanity has been               
perpetrated4--,i repeat that sin1 man's 
self-desecration par excellence1 was    
invented in order to make science1      
culture1 and every elevation and        
ennobling of man impossible2 the priest 
rules through the invention of sin4--   
#ej4  --,in this place ,i can't permit  
myself to omit a psychology of belief1  
of the believer1 for the special benefit
 of believers4 ,if there remain any     
today who do not yet know how indecent  
it is to be believing--or how much a    
sign of dcadence1 of a broken will to   

live--then they will know it well enough
 tomorrow4 ,my voice reaches even the   
deaf4--,it appears1 unless ,i have been 
incorrectly informed1 that there        
prevails among ,christians a sort of    
criterion of truth that is called proof 
by power4 ,faith makes blessed3         
therefore it is true4--,it might be     
objected right here that blessedness is 
not demonstrated1 it is merely promised3
 it hangs upon faith as a condition--one
 shall be blessed because one           
believes4444 ,but what of the thing that
 the priest promises to the believer1   
the wholly transcendental beyond--how is
 that to be demonstrated8--,the proof by
 power1 thus assumed1 is actually no    
more at bottom than a belief that the   
effects which faith promises will not   
fail to appear4 ,in a formula3 ,i       
believe that faith makes for            
blessedness--therefore1 it is true4444  
,but this is as far as we may go4 ,this 
therefore would be absurdum itself as a 
criterion of truth4--,but let us admit1 

for the sake of politeness1 that        
blessedness by faith may be demonstrated
 7--not merely hoped for1 and not merely
 promised by the suspicious lips of a   
priest73 even so1 could blessedness--in 
a technical term1 pleasure--ever be a   
proof of truth8 ,so little is this true 
that it is almost a proof against truth 
when sensations of pleasure influence   
the answer to the question ,what is     
true8 or1 at all events1 it is enough to
 make that truth highly suspicious4 ,the
 proof by pleasure is a proof of        
pleasure--nothing more2 why in the world
 should it be assumed that true         
judgments give more pleasure than false 
ones1 and that1 in conformity to some   
pre-established harmony1 they           
necessarily bring agreeable feelings in 
their train8--,the experience of all    
disciplined and profound minds teaches  
the contrary4 ,man has had to fight for 
every atom of the truth1 and has had to 
pay for it almost everything that the   
heart1 that human love1 that human trust

 cling to4 ,greatness of soul is needed 
for this business3 the service of truth 
is the hardest of all services4--,what1 
then1 is the meaning of integrity in    
things intellectual8 ,it means that a   
man must be severe with his own heart1  
that he must scorn beautiful feelings1  
and that he makes every ,yea and ,nay a 
matter of conscience6--,faith makes     
blessed3 therefore1 it lies4444   #ea4  
,the fact that faith1 under certain     
circumstances1 may work for blessedness1
 but that this blessedness produced by  
an ide fixe by no means makes the idea  
itself true1 and the fact that faith    
actually moves no mountains1 but instead
 raises them up where there were none   
before3 all this is made sufficiently   
clear by a walk through a lunatic       
asylum4 ,not1 of course1 to a priest3   
for his instincts prompt him to the lie 
that sickness is not sickness and       
lunatic asylums not lunatic asylums4    
,christianity finds sickness necessary1 
just as the ,greek spirit had need of a 

superabundance of health--the actual    
ulterior purpose of the whole system of 
salvation of the church is to make      
people ill4 ,and the church             
itself--doesn't it set up a ,catholic   
lunatic asylum as the ultimate          
ideal8--,the whole earth as a           
madhouse8--,the sort of religious man   
that the church wants is a typical      
dcadent2 the moment at which a religious
 crisis dominates a people is always    
marked by epidemics of nervous disorder2
 the inner world of the religious man is
 so much like the inner world of the    
overstrung and exhausted that it is     
difficult to distinguish between them2  
the highest states of mind1 held up     
before mankind by ,christianity as of   
supreme worth1 are actually epileptoid  
in form--the church has granted the name
 of holy only to lunatics or to gigantic
 frauds in majorem dei honorem4444 ,once
 ,i ventured to designate the whole     
,christian system of training#bb in     
penance and salvation 7now best studied 

in ,england7 as a method of producing a 
folie circulaire upon a soil already    
prepared for it1 which is to say1 a soil
 thoroughly unhealthy4 ,not every one   
may be a ,christian3 one is not         
converted to ,christianity--one must    
first be sick enough for it4444 ,we     
others1 who have the courage for health 
and likewise for contempt1--we may well 
despise a religion that teaches         
misunderstanding of the body6 that      
refuses to rid itself of the            
superstition about the soul6 that makes 
a virtue of insufficient nourishment6   
that combats health as a sort of enemy1 
devil1 temptation6 that persuades itself
 that it is possible to carry about a   
perfect soul in a cadaver of a body1 and
 that1 to this end1 had to devise for   
itself a new concept of perfection1 a   
pale1 sickly1 idiotically ecstatic state
 of existence1 so-called holiness--a    
holiness that is itself merely a series 
of symptoms of an impoverished1         
enervated and incurably disordered      

body6444 ,the ,christian movement1 as a 
,european movement1 was from the start  
no more than a general uprising of all  
sorts of outcast and refuse elements    
7--who now1 under cover of              
,christianity1 aspire to power74 ,it    
does not represent the decay of a race2 
it represents1 on the contrary1 a       
conglomeration of dcadence products from
 all directions1 crowding together and  
seeking one another out4 ,it was not1 as
 has been thought1 the corruption of    
antiquity1 of noble antiquity1 which    
made ,christianity possible2 one cannot 
too sharply challenge the learned       
imbecility which today maintains that   
theory4 ,at the time when the sick and  
rotten ,chandala classes in the whole   
imperium were ,christianized1 the       
contrary type1 the nobility1 reached its
 finest and ripest development4 ,the    
majority became master2 democracy1 with 
its ,christian instincts1 triumphed4444 
,christianity was not national1 it was  
not based on race--it appealed to all   

the varieties of men disinherited by    
life1 it had its allies everywhere4     
,christianity has the rancour of the    
sick at its very core--the instinct     
against the healthy1 against health4    
,everything that is well-constituted1   
proud1 gallant and1 above all1 beautiful
 gives offence to its ears and eyes4    
,again ,i remind you of ,paul's         
priceless saying3 ,and ,god hath chosen 
the weak things of the world1 the       
foolish things of the world1 the base   
things of the world1 and things which   
are despised3#bc this was the formula2  
in hoc signo the dcadence               
triumphed4--,god on the cross--is man   
always to miss the frightful inner      
significance of this                    
symbol8--,everything that suffers1      
everything that hangs on the cross1 is  
divine4444 ,we all hang on the cross1   
consequently we are divine4444 ,we alone
 are divine4444 ,christianity was thus a
 victory3 a nobler attitude of mind was 
destroyed by it--,christianity remains  

to this day the greatest misfortune of  
humanity4--  #bb ,the word training is  
in ,english in the text4  #bc #a        
,corinthians i1 #bg1 #bh4   #eb4        
,christianity also stands in opposition 
to all intellectual well-being1--sick   
reasoning is the only sort that it can  
use as ,christian reasoning2 it takes   
the side of everything that is idiotic2 
it pronounces a curse upon intellect1   
upon the superbia of the healthy        
intellect4 ,since sickness is inherent  
in ,christianity1 it follows that the   
typically ,christian state of faith must
 be a form of sickness too1 and that all
 straight1 straightforward and          
scientific paths to knowledge must be   
banned by the church as forbidden ways4 
,doubt is thus a sin from the start4444 
,the complete lack of psychological     
cleanliness in the priest--revealed by a
 glance at him--is a phenomenon         
resulting from dcadence1--one may       
observe in hysterical women and in      
rachitic children how regularly the     

falsification of instincts1 delight in  
lying for the mere sake of lying1 and   
incapacity for looking straight and     
walking straight are symptoms of        
dcadence4 ,faith means the will to avoid
 knowing what is true4 ,the pietist1 the
 priest of either sex1 is a fraud       
because he is sick3 his instinct demands
 that the truth shall never be allowed  
its rights on any point4 ,whatever makes
 for illness is good2 whatever issues   
from abundance1 from superabundance1    
from power1 is evil3 so argues the      
believer4 ,the impulse to lie--it is by 
this that ,i recognize every            
foreordained theologian4--,another      
characteristic of the theologian is his 
unfitness for philology4 ,what ,i here  
mean by philology is1 in a general      
sense1 the art of reading with          
profit--the capacity for absorbing facts
 without interpreting them falsely1 and 
without losing caution1 patience and    
subtlety in the effort to understand    
them4 ,philology as ephexis#bd in       

interpretation3 whether one be dealing  
with books1 with newspaper reports1 with
 the most fateful events or with weather
 statistics--not to mention the         
salvation of the soul4444 ,the way in   
which a theologian1 whether in ,berlin  
or in ,rome1 is ready to explain1 say1 a
 passage of ,scripture1 or an           
experience1 or a victory by the national
 army1 by turning upon it the high      
illumination of the ,psalms of ,david1  
is always so daring that it is enough to
 make a philologian run up a wall4 ,but 
what shall he do when pietists and other
 such cows from ,suabia#be use the      
finger of ,god to convert their         
miserably commonplace and huggermugger  
existence into a miracle of grace1 a    
providence and an experience of         
salvation8 ,the most modest exercise of 
the intellect1 not to say of decency1   
should certainly be enough to convince  
these interpreters of the perfect       
childishness and unworthiness of such a 
misuse of the divine digital dexterity4 

,however small our piety1 if we ever    
encountered a god who always cured us of
 a cold in the head at just the right   
time1 or got us into our carriage at the
 very instant heavy rain began to fall1 
he would seem so absurd a god that he'd 
have to be abolished even if he existed4
 ,god as a domestic servant1 as a letter
 carrier1 as an almanac-man--at bottom1 
he is a mere name for the stupidest sort
 of chance4444 ,divine ,providence1     
which every third man in educated       
,germany still believes in1 is so strong
 an argument against ,god that it would 
be impossible to think of a stronger4   
,and in any case it is an argument      
against ,germans6444  #bd ,that is1 to  
say1 scepticism4 ,among the ,greeks     
scepticism was also occasionally called 
ephecticism4  #be ,a reference to the   
,university of ,tbingen and its famous  
school of ,biblical criticism4 ,the     
leader of this school was ,f4 ,c4 ,baur1
 and one of the men greatly influenced  
by it was ,nietzsche's pet abomination1 

,david ,f4 ,strauss1 himself a ,suabian4
 ,vide  #aj and  #bh4   #ec4  --,it is  
so little true that martyrs offer any   
support to the truth of a cause that ,i 
am inclined to deny that any martyr has 
ever had anything to do with the truth  
at all4 ,in the very tone in which a    
martyr flings what he fancies to be true
 at the head of the world there appears 
so low a grade of intellectual honesty  
and such insensibility to the problem of
 truth1 that it is never necessary to   
refute him4 ,truth is not something that
 one man has and another man has not3 at
 best1 only peasants1 or                
peasant-apostles like ,luther1 can think
 of truth in any such way4 ,one may rest
 assured that the greater the degree of 
a man's intellectual conscience the     
greater will be his modesty1 his        
discretion1 on this point4 ,to know in  
five cases1 and to refuse1 with         
delicacy1 to know anything further4444  
,truth1 as the word is understood by    
every prophet1 every sectarian1 every   

free-thinker1 every ,socialist and every
 churchman1 is simply a complete proof  
that not even a beginning has been made 
in the intellectual discipline and      
self-control that are necessary to the  
unearthing of even the smallest         
truth4--,the deaths of the martyrs1 it  
may be said in passing1 have been       
misfortunes of history3 they have       
misled4444 ,the conclusion that all     
idiots1 women and plebeians come to1    
that there must be something in a cause 
for which any one goes to his death 7or 
which1 as under primitive ,christianity1
 sets off epidemics of                  
death-seeking7--this conclusion has been
 an unspeakable drag upon the testing of
 facts1 upon the whole spirit of inquiry
 and investigation4 ,the martyrs have   
damaged the truth4444 ,even to this day 
the crude fact of persecution is enough 
to give an honourable name to the most  
empty sort of sectarianism4--,but why8  
,is the worth of a cause altered by the 
fact that some one had laid down his    

life for it8--,an error that becomes    
honourable is simply an error that has  
acquired one seductive charm the more3  
do you suppose1 ,messrs4 ,theologians1  
that we shall give you the chance to be 
martyred for your lies8--,one best      
disposes of a cause by respectfully     
putting it on ice--that is also the best
 way to dispose of theologians4444 ,this
 was precisely the world-historical     
stupidity of all the persecutors3 that  
they gave the appearance of honour to   
the cause they opposed--that they made  
it a present of the fascination of      
martyrdom4444 ,women are still on their 
knees before an error because they have 
been told that some one died on the     
cross for it4 ,is the cross1 then1 an   
argument8--,but about all these things  
there is one1 and one only1 who has said
 what has been needed for thousands of  
years--,zarathustra4       ,they made   
signs in blood along the way that they  
went1 and their      folly taught them  
that the truth is proved by blood4      

,but blood is the worst of all          
testimonies to the truth2 blood         
poisoneth even the purest teaching and  
turneth it into madness and      hatred 
in the heart4       ,and when one goeth 
through fire for his teaching--what doth
 that      prove8 ,verily1 it is more   
when one's teaching cometh out of one's 
own burning6#bf  #bf ,the quotations are
 from ,also sprach ,zarathustra ii1 #bd3
 ,of ,priests4   #ed4  ,do not let      
yourself be deceived3 great intellects  
are sceptical4 ,zarathustra is a        
sceptic4 ,the strength1 the freedom     
which proceed from intellectual power1  
from a superabundance of intellectual   
power1 manifest themselves as           
scepticism4 ,men of fixed convictions do
 not count when it comes to determining 
what is fundamental in values and lack  
of values4 ,men of convictions are      
prisoners4 ,they do not see far enough1 
they do not see what is below them3     
whereas a man who would talk to any     
purpose about value and non-value must  

be able to see five hundred convictions 
beneath him--and behind him4444 ,a mind 
that aspires to great things1 and that  
wills the means thereto1 is necessarily 
sceptical4 ,freedom from any sort of    
conviction belongs to strength1 and to  
an independent point of view4444 ,that  
grand passion which is at once the      
foundation and the power of a sceptic's 
existence1 and is both more enlightened 
and more despotic than he is himself1   
drafts the whole of his intellect into  
its service2 it makes him unscrupulous2 
it gives him courage to employ unholy   
means2 under certain circumstances it   
does not begrudge him even convictions4 
,conviction as a means3 one may achieve 
a good deal by means of a conviction4 ,a
 grand passion makes use of and uses up 
convictions2 it does not yield to       
them--it knows itself to be             
sovereign4--,on the contrary1 the need  
of faith1 of something unconditioned by 
yea or nay1 of ,carlylism1 if ,i may be 
allowed the word1 is a need of weakness4

 ,the man of faith1 the believer of any 
sort1 is necessarily a dependent        
man--such a man cannot posit himself as 
a goal1 nor can he find goals within    
himself4 ,the believer does not belong  
to himself2 he can only be a means to an
 end2 he must be used up2 he needs some 
one to use him up4 ,his instinct gives  
the highest honours to an ethic of      
self-effacement2 he is prompted to      
embrace it by everything3 his prudence1 
his experience1 his vanity4 ,every sort 
of faith is in itself an evidence of    
self-effacement1 of                     
self-estrangement4444 ,when one reflects
 how necessary it is to the great       
majority that there be regulations to   
restrain them from without and hold them
 fast1 and to what extent control1 or1  
in a higher sense1 slavery1 is the one  
and only condition which makes for the  
well-being of the weak-willed man1 and  
especially woman1 then one at once      
understands conviction and faith4 ,to   
the man with convictions they are his   

backbone4 ,to avoid seeing many things1 
to be impartial about nothing1 to be a  
party man through and through1 to       
estimate all values strictly and        
infallibly--these are conditions        
necessary to the existence of such a    
man4 ,but by the same token they are    
antagonists of the truthful man--of the 
truth4444 ,the believer is not free to  
answer the question1 true or not true1  
according to the dictates of his own    
conscience3 integrity on this point     
would work his instant downfall4 ,the   
pathological limitations of his vision  
turn the man of convictions into a      
fanatic--,savonarola1 ,luther1          
,rousseau1 ,robespierre1                
,saint-,simon--these types stand in     
opposition to the strong1 emancipated   
spirit4 ,but the grandiose attitudes of 
these sick intellects1 these            
intellectual epileptics1 are of         
influence upon the great                
masses--fanatics are picturesque1 and   
mankind prefers observing poses to      

listening to reasons4444   #ee4  --,one 
step further in the psychology of       
conviction1 of faith4 ,it is now a good 
while since ,i first proposed for       
consideration the question whether      
convictions are not even more dangerous 
enemies to truth than lies4 7,human1    
,all-,too-,human1 ,i1 aphorism #dhc47bg 
,this time ,i desire to put the question
 definitely3 is there any actual        
difference between a lie and a          
conviction8--,all the world believes    
that there is2 but what is not believed 
by all the world6--,every conviction has
 its history1 its primitive forms1 its  
stage of tentativeness and error3 it    
becomes a conviction only after having  
been1 for a long time1 not one1 and     
then1 for an even longer time1 hardly   
one4 ,what if falsehood be also one of  
these embryonic forms of                
conviction8--,sometimes all that is     
needed is a change in persons3 what was 
a lie in the father becomes a conviction
 in the son4--,i call it lying to refuse

 to see what one sees1 or to refuse to  
see it as it is3 whether the lie be     
uttered before witnesses or not before  
witnesses is of no consequence4 ,the    
most common sort of lie is that by which
 a man deceives himself3 the deception  
of others is a relatively rare          
offence4--,now1 this will not to see    
what one sees1 this will not to see it  
as it is1 is almost the first requisite 
for all who belong to a party of        
whatever sort3 the party man becomes    
inevitably a liar4 ,for example1 the    
,german historians are convinced that   
,rome was synonymous with despotism and 
that the ,germanic peoples brought the  
spirit of liberty into the world3 what  
is the difference between this          
conviction and a lie8 ,is it to be      
wondered at that all partisans1         
including the ,german historians1       
instinctively roll the fine phrases of  
morality upon their tongues--that       
morality almost owes its very survival  
to the fact that the party man of every 

sort has need of it every moment8--,this
 is our conviction3 we publish it to the
 whole world2 we live and die for       
it--let us respect all who have         
convictions6--,i have actually heard    
such sentiments from the mouths of      
anti-,semites4 ,on the contrary1        
gentlemen6 ,an anti-,semite surely does 
not become more respectable because he  
lies on principle4444 ,the priests1 who 
have more finesse in such matters1 and  
who well understand the objection that  
lies against the notion of a conviction1
 which is to say1 of a falsehood that   
becomes a matter of principle because it
 serves a purpose1 have borrowed from   
the ,jews the shrewd device of sneaking 
in the concepts1 ,god1 the will of ,god 
and the revelation of ,god at this      
place4 ,kant1 too1 with his categorical 
imperative1 was on the same road3 this  
was his practical reason4#bh ,there are 
questions regarding the truth or untruth
 of which it is not for man to decide2  
all the capital questions1 all the      

capital problems of valuation1 are      
beyond human reason4444 ,to know the    
limits of reason--that alone is genuine 
philosophy4444 ,why did ,god make a     
revelation to man8 ,would ,god have done
 anything superfluous8 ,man could not   
find out for himself what was good and  
what was evil1 so ,god taught him ,his  
will4444 ,moral3 the priest does not    
lie--the question1 true or untrue1 has  
nothing to do with such things as the   
priest discusses2 it is impossible to   
lie about these things4 ,in order to lie
 here it would be necessary to know what
 is true4 ,but this is more than man can
 know2 therefore1 the priest is simply  
the mouthpiece of ,god4--,such a        
priestly syllogism is by no means merely
 ,jewish and ,christian2 the right to   
lie and the shrewd dodge of revelation  
belong to the general priestly type--to 
the priest of the dcadence as well as to
 the priest of pagan times 7--,pagans   
are all those who say yes to life1 and  
to whom ,god is a word signifying       

acquiescence in all things74--,the law1 
the will of ,god1 the holy book1 and    
inspiration--all these things are merely
 words for the conditions under which   
the priest comes to power and with which
 he maintains his power1--these concepts
 are to be found at the bottom of all   
priestly organizations1 and of all      
priestly or priestly-philosophical      
schemes of governments4 ,the holy       
lie--common alike to ,confucius1 to the 
,code of ,manu1 to ,mohammed and to the 
,christian church--is not even wanting  
in ,plato4 ,truth is here3 this means1  
no matter where it is heard1 the priest 
lies4444  #bg ,the aphorism1 which is   
headed ,the ,enemies of ,truth1 makes   
the direct statement3 ,convictions are  
more dangerous enemies of truth than    
lies4  #bh ,a reference1 of course1 to  
,kant's ,kritik der praktischen         
,vernunft 7,critique of ,practical      
,reason74   #ef4  --,in the last        
analysis it comes to this3 what is the  
end of lying8 ,the fact that1 in        

,christianity1 holy ends are not visible
 is my objection to the means it        
employs4 ,only bad ends appear3 the     
poisoning1 the calumniation1 the denial 
of life1 the despising of the body1 the 
degradation and self-contamination of   
man by the concept of sin--therefore1   
its means are also bad4--,i have a      
contrary feeling when ,i read the ,code 
of ,manu1 an incomparably more          
intellectual and superior work1 which it
 would be a sin against the intelligence
 to so much as name in the same breath  
with the ,bible4 ,it is easy to see why3
 there is a genuine philosophy behind   
it1 in it1 not merely an evil-smelling  
mess of ,jewish rabbinism and           
superstition1--it gives even the most   
fastidious psychologist something to    
sink his teeth into4 ,and1 not to forget
 what is most important1 it differs     
fundamentally from every kind of ,bible3
 by means of it the nobles1 the         
philosophers and the warriors keep the  
whip-hand over the majority2 it is full 

of noble valuations1 it shows a feeling 
of perfection1 an acceptance of life1   
and triumphant feeling toward self and  
life--the sun shines upon the whole     
book4--,all the things on which         
,christianity vents its fathomless      
vulgarity--for example1 procreation1    
women and marriage--are here handled    
earnestly1 with reverence and with love 
and confidence4 ,how can any one really 
put into the hands of children and      
ladies a book which contains such vile  
things as this3 to avoid fornication1   
let every man have his own wife1 and let
 every woman have her own husband2 444  
it is better to marry than to burn8#bi  
,and is it possible to be a ,christian  
so long as the origin of man is         
,christianized1 which is to say1        
befouled1 by the doctrine of the        
immaculata conceptio8444 ,i know of no  
book in which so many delicate and      
kindly things are said of women as in   
the ,code of ,manu2 these old           
grey-beards and saints have a way of    

being gallant to women that it would be 
impossible1 perhaps1 to surpass4 ,the   
mouth of a woman1 it says in one place1 
the breasts of a maiden1 the prayer of a
 child and the smoke of sacrifice are   
always pure4 ,in another place3 there is
 nothing purer than the light of the    
sun1 the shadow cast by a cow1 air1     
water1 fire and the breath of a maiden4 
,finally1 in still another              
place--perhaps this is also a holy      
lie--3 all the orifices of the body     
above the navel are pure1 and all below 
are impure4 ,only in the maiden is the  
whole body pure4  #bi #a ,corinthians   
vii1 #b1 #i4   #eg4  ,one catches the   
unholiness of ,christian means in       
flagranti by the simple process of      
putting the ends sought by ,christianity
 beside the ends sought by the ,code of 
,manu--by putting these enormously      
antithetical ends under a strong light4 
,the critic of ,christianity cannot     
evade the necessity of making           
,christianity contemptible4--,a book of 

laws such as the ,code of ,manu has the 
same origin as every other good         
law-book3 it epitomizes the experience1 
the sagacity and the ethical            
experimentation of long centuries2 it   
brings things to a conclusion2 it no    
longer creates4 ,the prerequisite to a  
codification of this sort is recognition
 of the fact that the means which       
establish the authority of a slowly and 
painfully attained truth are            
fundamentally different from those which
 one would make use of to prove it4 ,a  
law-book never recites the utility1 the 
grounds1 the casuistical antecedents of 
a law3 for if it did so it would lose   
the imperative tone1 the thou shall1 on 
which obedience is based4 ,the problem  
lies exactly here4--,at a certain point 
in the evolution of a people1 the class 
within it of the greatest insight1 which
 is to say1 the greatest hindsight and  
foresight1 declares that the series of  
experiences determining how all shall   
live--or can live--has come to an end4  

,the object now is to reap as rich and  
as complete a harvest as possible from  
the days of experiment and hard         
experience4 ,in consequence1 the thing  
that is to be avoided above everything  
is further experimentation--the         
continuation of the state in which      
values are fluent1 and are tested1      
chosen and criticized ad infinitum4     
,against this a double wall is set up3  
on the one hand1 revelation1 which is   
the assumption that the reasons lying   
behind the laws are not of human origin1
 that they were not sought out and found
 by a slow process and after many       
errors1 but that they are of divine     
ancestry1 and came into being complete1 
perfect1 without a history1 as a free   
gift1 a miracle4442 and on the other    
hand1 tradition1 which is the assumption
 that the law has stood unchanged from  
time immemorial1 and that it is impious 
and a crime against one's forefathers to
 bring it into question4 ,the authority 
of the law is thus grounded on the      

thesis3 ,god gave it1 and the fathers   
lived it4--,the higher motive of such   
procedure lies in the design to distract
 consciousness1 step by step1 from its  
concern with notions of right living    
7that is to say1 those that have been   
proved to be right by wide and carefully
 considered experience71 so that        
instinct attains to a perfect           
automatism--a primary necessity to every
 sort of mastery1 to every sort of      
perfection in the art of life4 ,to draw 
up such a law-book as ,manu's means to  
lay before a people the possibility of  
future mastery1 of attainable           
perfection--it permits them to aspire to
 the highest reaches of the art of life4
 ,to that end the thing must be made    
unconscious3 that is the aim of every   
holy lie4--,the order of castes1 the    
highest1 the dominating law1 is merely  
the ratification of an order of nature1 
of a natural law of the first rank1 over
 which no arbitrary fiat1 no modern     
idea1 can exert any influence4 ,in every

 healthy society there are three        
physiological types1 gravitating toward 
differentiation but mutually            
conditioning one another1 and each of   
these has its own hygiene1 its own      
sphere of work1 its own special mastery 
and feeling of perfection4 ,it is not   
,manu but nature that sets off in one   
class those who are chiefly             
intellectual1 in another those who are  
marked by muscular strength and         
temperament1 and in a third those who   
are distinguished in neither one way or 
the other1 but show only mediocrity--the
 last-named represents the great        
majority1 and the first two the select4 
,the superior caste--,i call it the     
fewest--has1 as the most perfect1 the   
privileges of the few3 it stands for    
happiness1 for beauty1 for everything   
good upon earth4 ,only the most         
intellectual of men have any right to   
beauty1 to the beautiful2 only in them  
can goodness escape being weakness4     
,pulchrum est paucorum hominum3#cj      

goodness is a privilege4 ,nothing could 
be more unbecoming to them than uncouth 
manners or a pessimistic look1 or an eye
 that sees ugliness--or indignation     
against the general aspect of things4   
,indignation is the privilege of the    
,chandala2 so is pessimism4 ,the world  
is perfect--so prompts the instinct of  
the intellectual1 the instinct of the   
man who says yes to life4 ,imperfection1
 whatever is inferior to us1 distance1  
the pathos of distance1 even the        
,chandala themselves are parts of this  
perfection4 ,the most intelligent men1  
like the strongest1 find their happiness
 where others would find only disaster3 
in the labyrinth1 in being hard with    
themselves and with others1 in effort2  
their delight is in self-mastery2 in    
them asceticism becomes second nature1 a
 necessity1 an instinct4 ,they regard a 
difficult task as a privilege2 it is to 
them a recreation to play with burdens  
that would crush all others4444         
,knowledge--a form of asceticism4--,they

 are the most honourable kind of men3   
but that does not prevent them being the
 most cheerful and most amiable4 ,they  
rule1 not because they want to1 but     
because they are2 they are not at       
liberty to play second4--,the second    
caste3 to this belong the guardians of  
the law1 the keepers of order and       
security1 the more noble warriors1 above
 all1 the king as the highest form of   
warrior1 judge and preserver of the law4
 ,the second in rank constitute the     
executive arm of the intellectuals1 the 
next to them in rank1 taking from them  
all that is rough in the business of    
ruling--their followers1 their right    
hand1 their most apt disciples4--,in all
 this1 ,i repeat1 there is nothing      
arbitrary1 nothing made up2 whatever is 
to the contrary is made up--by it nature
 is brought to shame4444 ,the order of  
castes1 the order of rank1 simply       
formulates the supreme law of life      
itself2 the separation of the three     
types is necessary to the maintenance of

 society1 and to the evolution of higher
 types1 and the highest types--the      
inequality of rights is essential to the
 existence of any rights at all4--,a    
right is a privilege4 ,every one enjoys 
the privileges that accord with his     
state of existence4 ,let us not         
underestimate the privileges of the     
mediocre4 ,life is always harder as one 
mounts the heights--the cold increases1 
responsibility increases4 ,a high       
civilization is a pyramid3 it can stand 
only on a broad base2 its primary       
prerequisite is a strong and soundly    
consolidated mediocrity4 ,the           
handicrafts1 commerce1 agriculture1     
science1 the greater part of art1 in    
brief1 the whole range of occupational  
activities1 are compatible only with    
mediocre ability and aspiration2 such   
callings would be out of place for      
exceptional men2 the instincts which    
belong to them stand as much opposed to 
aristocracy as to anarchism4 ,the fact  
that a man is publicly useful1 that he  

is a wheel1 a function1 is evidence of a
 natural predisposition2 it is not      
society1 but the only sort of happiness 
that the majority are capable of1 that  
makes them intelligent machines4 ,to the
 mediocre mediocrity is a form of       
happiness2 they have a natural instinct 
for mastering one thing1 for            
specialization4 ,it would be altogether 
unworthy of a profound intellect to see 
anything objectionable in mediocrity in 
itself4 ,it is1 in fact1 the first      
prerequisite to the appearance of the   
exceptional3 it is a necessary condition
 to a high degree of civilization4 ,when
 the exceptional man handles the        
mediocre man with more delicate fingers 
than he applies to himself or to his    
equals1 this is not merely kindness of  
heart--it is simply his duty4444 ,whom  
do ,i hate most heartily among the      
rabbles of today8 ,the rabble of        
,socialists1 the apostles to the        
,chandala1 who undermine the            
workingman's instincts1 his pleasure1   

his feeling of contentment with his     
petty existence--who make him envious   
and teach him revenge4444 ,wrong never  
lies in unequal rights2 it lies in the  
assertion of equal rights4444 ,what is  
bad8 ,but ,i have already answered3 all 
that proceeds from weakness1 from envy1 
from revenge4--,the anarchist and the   
,christian have the same ancestry4444   
#cj ,few men are noble4   #eh4  ,in     
point of fact1 the end for which one    
lies makes a great difference3 whether  
one preserves thereby or destroys4      
,there is a perfect likeness between    
,christian and anarchist3 their object1 
their instinct1 points only toward      
destruction4 ,one need only turn to     
history for a proof of this3 there it   
appears with appalling distinctness4 ,we
 have just studied a code of religious  
legislation whose object it was to      
convert the conditions which cause life 
to flourish into an eternal social      
organization1--,christianity found its  
mission in putting an end to such an    

organization1 because life flourished   
under it4 ,there the benefits that      
reason had produced during long ages of 
experiment and insecurity were applied  
to the most remote uses1 and an effort  
was made to bring in a harvest that     
should be as large1 as rich and as      
complete as possible2 here1 on the      
contrary1 the harvest is blighted       
overnight4444 ,that which stood there   
aere perennis1 the imperium ,romanum1   
the most magnificent form of            
organization under difficult conditions 
that has ever been achieved1 and        
compared to which everything before it  
and after it appears as patchwork1      
bungling1 dilletantism--those holy      
anarchists made it a matter of piety to 
destroy the world1 which is to say1 the 
imperium ,romanum1 so that in the end   
not a stone stood upon another--and even
 ,germans and other such louts were able
 to become its masters4444 ,the         
,christian and the anarchist3 both are  
dcadents2 both are incapable of any act 

that is not disintegrating1 poisonous1  
degenerating1 blood-sucking2 both have  
an instinct of mortal hatred of         
everything that stands up1 and is great1
 and has durability1 and promises life a
 future4444 ,christianity was the       
vampire of the imperium                 
,romanum1--overnight it destroyed the   
vast achievement of the ,romans3 the    
conquest of the soil for a great culture
 that could await its time4 ,can it be  
that this fact is not yet understood8   
,the imperium ,romanum that we know1 and
 that the history of the ,roman         
provinces teaches us to know better and 
better1--this most admirable of all     
works of art in the grand manner was    
merely the beginning1 and the structure 
to follow was not to prove its worth for
 thousands of years4 ,to this day1      
nothing on a like scale sub specie      
aeterni has been brought into being1 or 
even dreamed of6--,this organization was
 strong enough to withstand bad         
emperors3 the accident of personality   

has nothing to do with such things--the 
first principle of all genuinely great  
architecture4 ,but it was not strong    
enough to stand up against the          
corruptest of all forms of              
corruption--against ,christians4444     
,these stealthy worms1 which under the  
cover of night1 mist and duplicity1     
crept upon every individual1 sucking him
 dry of all earnest interest in real    
things1 of all instinct for             
reality--this cowardly1 effeminate and  
sugar-coated gang gradually alienated   
all souls1 step by step1 from that      
colossal edifice1 turning against it all
 the meritorious1 manly and noble       
natures that had found in the cause of  
,rome their own cause1 their own serious
 purpose1 their own pride4 ,the         
sneakishness of hypocrisy1 the secrecy  
of the conventicle1 concepts as black as
 hell1 such as the sacrifice of the     
innocent1 the unio mystica in the       
drinking of blood1 above all1 the slowly
 rekindled fire of revenge1 of ,chandala

 revenge--all that sort of thing became 
master of ,rome3 the same kind of       
religion which1 in a pre-existent form1 
,epicurus had combatted4 ,one has but to
 read ,lucretius to know what ,epicurus 
made war upon--not paganism1 but        
,christianity1 which is to say1 the     
corruption of souls by means of the     
concepts of guilt1 punishment and       
immortality4--,he combatted the         
subterranean cults1 the whole of latent 
,christianity--to deny immortality was  
already a form of genuine               
salvation4--,epicurus had triumphed1 and
 every respectable intellect in ,rome   
was ,epicurean--when ,paul appeared 444 
,paul1 the ,chandala hatred of ,rome1 of
 the world1 in the flesh and inspired by
 genius--the ,jew1 the eternal ,jew par 
excellence4444 ,what he saw was how1    
with the aid of the small sectarian     
,christian movement that stood apart    
from ,judaism1 a world conflagration    
might be kindled2 how1 with the symbol  
of ,god on the cross1 all secret        

seditions1 all the fruits of anarchistic
 intrigues in the empire1 might be      
amalgamated into one immense power4     
,salvation is of the                    
,jews4--,christianity is the formula for
 exceeding and summing up the           
subterranean cults of all varieties1    
that of ,osiris1 that of the ,great     
,mother1 that of ,mithras1 for instance3
 in his discernment of this fact the    
genius of ,paul showed itself4 ,his     
instinct was here so sure that1 with    
reckless violence to the truth1 he put  
the ideas which lent fascination to     
every sort of ,chandala religion into   
the mouth of the ,saviour as his own    
inventions1 and not only into the       
mouth--he made out of him something that
 even a priest of ,mithras could        
understand4444 ,this was his revelation 
at ,damascus3 he grasped the fact that  
he needed the belief in immortality in  
order to rob the world of its value1    
that the concept of hell would master   
,rome--that the notion of a beyond is   

the death of life4444 ,nihilist and     
,christian3 they rhyme in ,german1 and  
they do more than rhyme4444   #ei4  ,the
 whole labour of the ancient world gone 
for naught3 ,i have no word to describe 
the feelings that such an enormity      
arouses in me4--,and1 considering the   
fact that its labour was merely         
preparatory1 that with adamantine       
self-consciousness it laid only the     
foundations for a work to go on for     
thousands of years1 the whole meaning of
 antiquity disappears6444 ,to what end  
the ,greeks8 to what end the            
,romans8--,all the prerequisites to a   
learned culture1 all the methods of     
science1 were already there2 man had    
already perfected the great and         
incomparable art of reading             
profitably--that first necessity to the 
tradition of culture1 the unity of the  
sciences2 the natural sciences1 in      
alliance with mathematics and mechanics1
 were on the right road1--the sense of  
fact1 the last and more valuable of all 

the senses1 had its schools1 and its    
traditions were already centuries old6  
,is all this properly understood8 ,every
 essential to the beginning of the work 
was ready3--and the most essential1 it  
cannot be said too often1 are methods1  
and also the most difficult to develop1 
and the longest opposed by habit and    
laziness4 ,what we have today           
reconquered1 with unspeakable           
self-discipline1 for ourselves--for     
certain bad instincts1 certain          
,christian instincts1 still lurk in our 
bodies--that is to say1 the keen eye for
 reality1 the cautious hand1 patience   
and seriousness in the smallest things1 
the whole integrity of knowledge--all   
these things were already there1 and had
 been there for two thousand years6     
,more1 there was also a refined and     
excellent tact and taste6 ,not as mere  
brain-drilling6 ,not as ,german culture1
 with its loutish manners6 ,but as body1
 as bearing1 as instinct--in short1 as  
reality4444 ,all gone for naught6       

,overnight it became merely a           
memory6--,the ,greeks6 ,the ,romans6    
,instinctive nobility1 taste1 methodical
 inquiry1 genius for organization and   
administration1 faith in and the will to
 secure the future of man1 a great yes  
to everything entering into the imperium
 ,romanum and palpable to all the       
senses1 a grand style that was beyond   
mere art1 but had become reality1 truth1
 life4444--,all overwhelmed in a night1 
but not by a convulsion of nature6 ,not 
trampled to death by ,teutons and others
 of heavy hoof6 ,but brought to shame by
 crafty1 sneaking1 invisible1 anmic     
vampires6 ,not conquered1--only sucked  
dry6444 ,hidden vengefulness1 petty     
envy1 became master6 ,everything        
wretched1 intrinsically ailing1 and     
invaded by bad feelings1 the whole      
ghetto-world of the soul1 was at once on
 top6--,one needs but read any of the   
,christian agitators1 for example1 ,st4 
,augustine1 in order to realize1 in     
order to smell1 what filthy fellows came

 to the top4 ,it would be an error1     
however1 to assume that there was any   
lack of understanding in the leaders of 
the ,christian movement3--ah1 but they  
were clever1 clever to the point of     
holiness1 these fathers of the church6  
,what they lacked was something quite   
different4 ,nature neglected--perhaps   
forgot--to give them even the most      
modest endowment of respectable1 of     
upright1 of cleanly instincts4444       
,between ourselves1 they are not even   
men4444 ,if ,islam despises             
,christianity1 it has a thousandfold    
right to do so3 ,islam at least assumes 
that it is dealing with men4444   #fj4  
,christianity destroyed for us the whole
 harvest of ancient civilization1 and   
later it also destroyed for us the whole
 harvest of ,mohammedan civilization4   
,the wonderful culture of the ,moors in 
,spain1 which was fundamentally nearer  
to us and appealed more to our senses   
and tastes than that of ,rome and       
,greece1 was trampled down 7--,i do not 

say by what sort of feet--7 ,why8       
,because it had to thank noble and manly
 instincts for its origin--because it   
said yes to life1 even to the rare and  
refined luxuriousness of ,moorish       
life6444 ,the crusaders later made war  
on something before which it would have 
been more fitting for them to have      
grovelled in the dust--a civilization   
beside which even that of our nineteenth
 century seems very poor and very       
senile4--,what they wanted1 of course1  
was booty3 the orient was rich4444 ,let 
us put aside our prejudices6 ,the       
crusades were a higher form of piracy1  
nothing more6 ,the ,german nobility1    
which is fundamentally a ,viking        
nobility1 was in its element there3 the 
church knew only too well how the       
,german nobility was to be won4444 ,the 
,german noble1 always the ,swiss guard  
of the church1 always in the service of 
every bad instinct of the church--but   
well paid4444 ,consider the fact that it
 is precisely the aid of ,german swords 

and ,german blood and valour that has   
enabled the church to carry through its 
war to the death upon everything noble  
on earth6 ,at this point a host of      
painful questions suggest themselves4   
,the ,german nobility stands outside the
 history of the higher civilization3 the
 reason is obvious4444 ,christianity1   
alcohol--the two great means of         
corruption4444 ,intrinsically there     
should be no more choice between ,islam 
and ,christianity than there is between 
an ,arab and a ,jew4 ,the decision is   
already reached2 nobody remains at      
liberty to choose here4 ,either a man is
 a ,chandala or he is not4444 ,war to   
the knife with ,rome6 ,peace and        
friendship with ,islam63 this was the   
feeling1 this was the act1 of that great
 free spirit1 that genius among ,german 
emperors1 ,frederick ,,ii4 ,what6 must a
 ,german first be a genius1 a free      
spirit1 before he can feel decently8 ,i 
can't make out how a ,german could ever 
feel ,christian4444   #fa4  ,here it    

becomes necessary to call up a memory   
that must be a hundred times more       
painful to ,germans4 ,the ,germans have 
destroyed for ,europe the last great    
harvest of civilization that ,europe was
 ever to reap--the ,renaissance4 ,is it 
understood at last1 will it ever be     
understood1 what the ,renaissance was8  
,the transvaluation of ,christian       
values1--an attempt with all available  
means1 all instincts and all the        
resources of genius to bring about a    
triumph of the opposite values1 the more
 noble values4444 ,this has been the one
 great war of the past2 there has never 
been a more critical question than that 
of the ,renaissance--it is my question  
too--2 there has never been a form of   
attack more fundamental1 more direct1 or
 more violently delivered by a whole    
front upon the center of the enemy6 ,to 
attack at the critical place1 at the    
very seat of ,christianity1 and there   
enthrone the more noble values--that is 
to say1 to insinuate them into the      

instincts1 into the most fundamental    
needs and appetites of those sitting    
there 444 ,i see before me the          
possibility of a perfectly heavenly     
enchantment and spectacle3--it seems to 
me to scintillate with all the          
vibrations of a fine and delicate       
beauty1 and within it there is an art so
 divine1 so infernally divine1 that one 
might search in vain for thousands of   
years for another such possibility2 ,i  
see a spectacle so rich in significance 
and at the same time so wonderfully full
 of paradox that it should arouse all   
the gods on ,olympus to immortal        
laughter--,csar ,borgia as pope6444 ,am 
,i understood8444 ,well then1 that would
 have been the sort of triumph that ,i  
alone am longing for today--3 by it     
,christianity would have been swept     
away6--,what happened8 ,a ,german monk1 
,luther1 came to ,rome4 ,this monk1 with
 all the vengeful instincts of an       
unsuccessful priest in him1 raised a    
rebellion against the ,renaissance in   

,rome4444 ,instead of grasping1 with    
profound thanksgiving1 the miracle that 
had taken place3 the conquest of        
,christianity at its capital--instead of
 this1 his hatred was stimulated by the 
spectacle4 ,a religious man thinks only 
of himself4--,luther saw only the       
depravity of the papacy at the very     
moment when the opposite was becoming   
apparent3 the old corruption1 the       
peccatum originale1 ,christianity       
itself1 no longer occupied the papal    
chair6 ,instead there was life6 ,instead
 there was the triumph of life6 ,instead
 there was a great yea to all lofty1    
beautiful and daring things6444 ,and    
,luther restored the church3 he attacked
 it4444 ,the ,renaissance--an event     
without meaning1 a great futility6--,ah1
 these ,germans1 what they have not cost
 us6 ,futility--that has always been the
 work of the ,germans4--,the            
,reformation2 ,leibnitz2 ,kant and      
so-called ,german philosophy2 the war of
 liberation2 the empire--every time a   

futile substitute for something that    
once existed1 for something             
irrecoverable4444 ,these ,germans1 ,i   
confess1 are my enemies3 ,i despise all 
their uncleanliness in concept and      
valuation1 their cowardice before every 
honest yea and nay4 ,for nearly a       
thousand years they have tangled and    
confused everything their fingers have  
touched2 they have on their conscience  
all the half-way measures1 all the      
three-eighths-way measures1 that ,europe
 is sick of1--they also have on their   
conscience the uncleanest variety of    
,christianity that exists1 and the most 
incurable and                           
indestructible--,protestantism4444 ,if  
mankind never manages to get rid of     
,christianity the ,germans will be to   
blame4444   #fb4  --,with this ,i come  
to a conclusion and pronounce my        
judgment4 ,i condemn ,christianity2 ,i  
bring against the ,christian church the 
most terrible of all the accusations    
that an accuser has ever had in his     

mouth4 ,it is1 to me1 the greatest of   
all imaginable corruptions2 it seeks to 
work the ultimate corruption1 the worst 
possible corruption4 ,the ,christian    
church has left nothing untouched by its
 depravity2 it has turned every value   
into worthlessness1 and every truth into
 a lie1 and every integrity into        
baseness of soul4 ,let any one dare to  
speak to me of its humanitarian         
blessings6 ,its deepest necessities     
range it against any effort to abolish  
distress2 it lives by distress2 it      
creates distress to make itself         
immortal4444 ,for example1 the worm of  
sin3 it was the church that first       
enriched mankind with this misery6--,the
 equality of souls before ,god--this    
fraud1 this pretext for the rancunes of 
all the base-minded--this explosive     
concept1 ending in revolution1 the      
modern idea1 and the notion of          
overthrowing the whole social           
order--this is ,christian dynamite4444  
,the humanitarian blessings of          

,christianity forsooth6 ,to breed out of
 humanitas a self-contradiction1 an art 
of self-pollution1 a will to lie at any 
price1 an aversion and contempt for all 
good and honest instincts6 ,all this1 to
 me1 is the humanitarianism of          
,christianity6--,parasitism as the only 
practice of the church2 with its anmic  
and holy ideals1 sucking all the blood1 
all the love1 all the hope out of life2 
the beyond as the will to deny all      
reality2 the cross as the distinguishing
 mark of the most subterranean          
conspiracy ever heard of1--against      
health1 beauty1 well-being1 intellect1  
kindness of soul--against life          
itself4444  ,this eternal accusation    
against ,christianity ,i shall write    
upon all walls1 wherever walls are to be
 found--,i have letters that even the   
blind will be able to see4444 ,i call   
,christianity the one great curse1 the  
one great intrinsic depravity1 the one  
great instinct of revenge1 for which no 
means are venomous enough1 or secret1   

subterranean and small enough1--,i call 
it the one immortal blemish upon the    
human race4444  ,and mankind reckons    
time from the dies nefastus when this   
fatality befell--from the first day of  
,christianity6--,why not rather from its
 last8--,from today8--,the              
transvaluation of all values6444   ,,the
 ,,end