The Wandering Jew.
Who, that has looked on Gustave DorA(C)'s marvellous illustrations to
this wild legend, can forget the impression they made upon his
imagination?
I do not refer to the first illustration as striking, where the Jewish
shoemaker is refusing to suffer the cross-laden Savior to rest a
moment on his door-step, and is receiving with scornful lip the
judgment to wander restless till the Second Coming of that same
Redeemer. But I refer rather to the second, which represents the Jew,
after the lapse of ages, bowed beneath the burden of the curse, worn
with unrelieved toil, wearied with ceaseless travelling, trudging
onward at the last lights of evening, when a rayless night of
unabating rain is creeping on, along a sloppy path between dripping
bushes; and suddenly he comes over against a wayside crucifix, on
which the white glare of departing daylight falls, to throw it into
ghastly relief against the pitch-black rain-clouds. For a moment we
see the working of the miserable shoemaker's mind. We feel that he is
recalling the tragedy of the first Good Friday, and his head hangs
heavier on his breast, as he recalls the part he had taken in that
awful catastrophe.
Or, is that other illustration more remarkable, where the wanderer is
amongst the Alps, at the brink of a hideous chasm; and seeing in the
contorted pine-branches the ever-haunting scene of the Via Dolorosa,
he is lured to cast himself into that black gulf in quest of
rest,--when an angel flashes out of the gloom with the sword of flame
turning every way, keeping him back from what would be to him a
Paradise indeed, the repose of Death?
Or, that last scene, when the trumpet sounds and earth is shivering to
its foundations, the fire is bubbling forth through the rents in its
surface, and the dead are coming together flesh to flesh, and bone to
bone, and muscle to muscle--then the weary man sits down and casts off
his shoes! Strange sights are around him, he sees them not; strange
sounds assail his ears, he hears but one--the trumpet-note which gives
the signal for him to stay his wanderings and rest his weary feet.
I can linger over those noble woodcuts, and learn from them something
new each time that I study them; they are picture-poems full of latent
depths of thought. And now let us to the history of this most
thrilling of all mediA|val myths, if a myth.
If a myth, I say, for who can say for certain that it is not true?
"Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not
taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom,"[1]
are our Lord's words, which I can hardly think apply to the
destruction of Jerusalem, as commentators explain it to escape the
difficulty. That some should live to see Jerusalem destroyed was not
very surprising, and hardly needed the emphatic Verily which Christ
only used when speaking something of peculiarly solemn or mysterious
import.
Besides, St. Luke's account manifestly refers the coming in the
kingdom to the Judgment, for the saying stands as follows: "Whosoever
shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, of him shall the Son of Man
be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's,
and of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be some
standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the
kingdom of God."[2]
There can, I think, be no doubt in the mind of an unprejudiced person
that the words of our Lord do imply that some one or more of those
then living should not die till He came again. I do not mean to insist
on the literal signification, but I plead that there is no
improbability in our Lord's words being fulfilled to the letter. That
the circumstance is unrecorded in the Gospels is no evidence that it
did not take place, for we are expressly told, "Many other signs truly
did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in
this book;"[3] and again, "There are also many other things which
Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose
that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be
written."[4]
We may remember also the mysterious witnesses who are to appear in the
last eventful days of the world's history and bear testimony to the
Gospel truth before the antichristian world. One of these has been
often conjectured to be St. John the Evangelist, of whom Christ said
to Peter, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?"
The historical evidence on which the tale rests is, however, too
slender for us to admit for it more than the barest claim to be more
than myth. The names and the circumstances connected with the Jew and
his doom vary in every account, and the only point upon which all
coincide is, that such an individual exists in an undying condition,
wandering over the face of the earth, seeking rest and finding none.
The earliest extant mention of the Wandering Jew is to be found in the
book of the chronicles of the Abbey of St. Albans, which was copied
and continued by Matthew Paris. He records that in the year 1228, "a
certain Archbishop of Armenia the Greater came on a pilgrimage to
England to see the relics of the saints, and visit the sacred places
in the kingdom, as he had done in others; he also produced letters of
recommendation from his Holiness the Pope, to the religious and the
prelates of the churches, in which they were enjoined to receive and
entertain him with due reverence and honor. On his arrival, he came to
St. Albans, where he was received with all respect by the abbot and
the monks; and at this place, being fatigued with his journey, he
remained some days to rest himself and his followers, and a
conversation took place between him and the inhabitants of the
convent, by means of their interpreters, during which he made many
inquiries relating to the religion and religious observances of this
country, and told many strange things concerning the countries of the
East. In the course of conversation he was asked whether he had ever
seen or heard any thing of Joseph, a man of whom there was much talk
in the world, who, when our Lord suffered, was present and spoke to
Him, and who is still alive, in evidence of the Christian faith; in
reply to which, a knight in his retinue, who was his interpreter,
replied, speaking in French, 'My lord well knows that man, and a
little before he took his way to the western countries, the said
Joseph ate at the table of my lord the Archbishop of Armenia, and he
has often seen and conversed with him.'
"He was then asked about what had passed between Christ and the said
Joseph; to which he replied, 'At the time of the passion of Jesus
Christ, He was seized by the Jews, and led into the hall of judgment
before Pilate, the governor, that He might be judged by him on the
accusation of the Jews; and Pilate, finding no fault for which he
might sentence Him to death, said unto them, "Take Him and judge Him
according to your law;" the shouts of the Jews, however, increasing,
he, at their request, released unto them Barabbas, and delivered Jesus
to them to be crucified. When, therefore, the Jews were dragging Jesus
forth, and had reached the door, Cartaphilus, a porter of the hall in
Pilate's service, as Jesus was going out of the door, impiously struck
Him on the back with his hand, and said in mockery, "Go quicker,
Jesus, go quicker; why do you loiter?" and Jesus, looking back on him
with a severe countenance, said to him, "I am going, and you shall
wait till I return." And according as our Lord said, this Cartaphilus
is still awaiting His return. At the time of our Lord's suffering he
was thirty years old, and when he attains the age of a hundred years,
he always returns to the same age as he was when our Lord suffered.
After Christ's death, when the Catholic faith gained ground, this
Cartaphilus was baptized by Ananias (who also baptized the Apostle
Paul), and was called Joseph. He dwells in one or other divisions of
Armenia, and in divers Eastern countries, passing his time amongst the
bishops and other prelates of the Church; he is a man of holy
conversation, and religious; a man of few words, and very circumspect
in his behavior; for he does not speak at all unless when questioned
by the bishops and religious; and then he relates the events of olden
times, and speaks of things which occurred at the suffering and
resurrection of our Lord, and of the witnesses of the resurrection,
namely, of those who rose with Christ, and went into the holy city,
and appeared unto men. He also tells of the creed of the Apostles,
and of their separation and preaching. And all this he relates without
smiling, or levity of conversation, as one who is well practised in
sorrow and the fear of God, always looking forward with dread to the
coming of Jesus Christ, lest at the Last Judgment he should find him
in anger whom, when on his way to death, he had provoked to just
vengeance. Numbers came to him from different parts of the world,
enjoying his society and conversation; and to them, if they are men of
authority, he explains all doubts on the matters on which he is
questioned. He refuses all gifts that are offered him, being content
with slight food and clothing.'"
Much about the same date, Philip Mouskes, afterwards Bishop of
Tournay, wrote his rhymed chronicle (1242), which contains a similar
account of the Jew, derived from the same Armenian prelate:--
"Adonques vint un arceveskes
De ASec.A mer, plains de bonnes tA"ques
Par samblant, et fut d'Armenie,"
and this man, having visited the shrine of "St. Tumas de Kantorbire,"
and then having paid his devotions at "Monsigour St. Jake," he went on
to Cologne to see the heads of the three kings. The version told in
the Netherlands much resembled that related at St. Albans, only that
the Jew, seeing the people dragging Christ to his death, exclaims,--
"AtendA(C)s moi! g'i vois,
S'iert mis le faus profA"te en crois."