incident (of transfiguration) was detached from the patriarch and
connected with the generalised type of Israel which represented
the popularisation of its faith among other races. Probably the
Transfiguration, concerning which secrecy was demanded, was first
whispered about in the Jewish quarters of Rome. In the New Testament
narrative the Transfiguration comes as a tableau at the end of a
conversation immediately bearing upon the subject of the undying ones.
After being told, in answer to his question, that some thought he was
John the Baptist (in whose death probably his followers refused to
believe), others thought him Elias, others Jeremiah, Jesus asked, “But
whom say ye that I am?” Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God.” This was the Christian equivalent of the address of
the Angel to Enoch, quoted above. Jesus then assumes the Messiaship;
founds his church, declares his future course and office, and ends by
transferring to the patriarchs of the new kingdom the mantle of earthly
immortality worn by the Jewish patriarchs. “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.” The next thing related is
the Transfiguration. “His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment
was white as the light.” Luke says, “The fashion of his countenance
was altered, and his face was white and glistering.” Beside him are
Moses and Elias, whose office as surviving witnesses is falling
upon their successors--James (here the brother of Jesus), who was
miraculously supported without food from the crucifixion until after
the resurrection, and after death rose again for an important legendary
career; and John, who was to “tarry” till Christ should come.[16]
Peter could only survive by proxy: it would have been inconvenient to
have him often interfering with the arrangements of his successor, as
in the one case of his reappearance, when he supplanted a Bishop in
consecrating the first Abbot of Westminster, leaving the Deans thereof
perilously independent ever since. As Enoch was omitted from the scene
because he was a rival Messiah, Peter received no mantle of immortality
because he might become an invisible rival Vicar.
The transfigured representative of the “Head of Days” was there, but
not the transfigured world. The event was as a rehearsal; the actual
performance had to be postponed for a thousand years. The hopes of
those who had expected to see the thorn-crown changed to a coronet
and the crucified Jew appearing, resplendent with the aureole of
Moses and the chariot of Elias, to enter on his kingdom, faded away.
It was replaced by the rumours that Jesus and a few chosen friends
were invisibly moving near, and would befriend the faithful unto the
millennial hour. Then they should all awaken from what, for believers
who had eaten the vitalising body and blood of Christ, would be but a
sleep.
Animistic philosophy in the second century was such as to admit of the
transient death of a Messiah provided his body was not supposed to be
left long enough under ground to taste corruption. The Psalm (xvi. 10)
said, “Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption;” but, as in
the case of Alcestis, a human being might live again if wrested from
death by the third day. In the case of Lazarus the miracle consisted
in the recovery of life after the body had been buried four days. The
resurrection of Christ, so far from being a proof of human immortality,
manifestly means that Jesus did not die in the ordinary sense, but
recovered in the sepulchre the ghost he had breathed out on the cross.
In theological statement he might be thought of as dwelling in heaven;
but for a long time his ascension into heaven was as much an excursion
as his descent into hell; in both he but went through the _rôle_ of
Enoch, and in Christian folk-tales he was still “always with them,”
moving near, as when he met Peter near Rome, where his foot-prints are
still worshipped.[17]
That which was Job’s aspiration had become the humble Christian’s
faith. Unable amid perishing nature to believe that one who died could
live again, Job wishes that he could be hid “in the under-world,”
concealed for “an appointed time, then remembered.” All the days of
his hard time there he would await his “change.” And finally he does
believe that his Vindicator will secure something like this; not that
he expects to live for ever, but, however wasted his body, he will live
long enough to see Elohim no longer an adversary, but on his side. With
Paul this belief has arrived at the phase of comparing the human body
to a seed which rises to a flower. After the alleged resurrection of
Jesus it was evidently important to show that it was the same body,
even to its wounds, but at the same time so transformed that it was
with difficulty recognised, and was mistaken for a spirit. In the
_Gospel according to the Hebrews_ (Nicholson, p. 68) it is written,
after the story of James living without food until he saw Jesus risen
from the dead, that “when he (Jesus) came to those about Peter, he said
to them, ‘Take, feel me, and see that I am not a bodiless dæmon.’”
Ignatius, who preserved this, says (_Ep. ad Smyrnæos_, c. iii.), “I
both know that he was in the flesh after the resurrection and believe
that he is [in it].... And straightway they touched him and believed,
being constrained by his flesh and spirit Because of this they thought
lightly even of death, and were found superior to death. And after the
resurrection he ate and drank with them as one in the flesh though
spiritually united to the Father.”
The main difficulty about earthly immortality, presented in the
shrivelled form of Tithonus, solved in Enoch’s case by transfiguration,
was settled in later mythologies by the theory of a fountain of
Perpetual Youth. When Ponce de Leon heard of the New World he hastened
thither to find this Fountain: in the depths of luxuriant Florida he
searched, and never reappeared.
VI.
MANTLES OF THE IMMORTALS.
We have already seen that in the Gospel of Nicodemus (xxv.), Enoch and
Elias are represented as welcoming those who arrive in Paradise. In an
Arabian legend Grässe finds an important form of this tradition. It is
said that Enoch and Elias came to the Land of Darkness, and there drank
of the fountain of Perpetual Youth; and thenceforth, one on land, the
other on sea, they went about to watch over pilgrims, much the same
as Castor and Pollux, who guarded wanderers. In the intervals of such
services they rest in gardens amid all earthly joys. Towards the end of
the world they will appear to prepare the way for the Messiah. But in
the sixteenth year of the Hegira, Elias had not yet found the Fountain.
When the Arabians had conquered a certain city they rested between two
mountains of Syria. At night when Fadilah, their commander, began to
pray, “Allah Akbar,” a voice pronounced the words and continued to the
end of the prayer. Fadilah at first thought it an echo, but presently
knew it could not be such, and appealed to him who had spoken, if man
and not a ghost, to appear. Then an aged man with a staff appeared,
and said, “I am here by command of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left
me in this world until his second coming. Therefore I await this Lord
who is the source of all happiness.” He gave his name as Zerib Ben Bar
Elia. Fadilah having asked if the end of the world were near or far,
Elia answered, “When there shall be no difference in sex between men
and women; when the blood of innocents shall be shed; when abundance of
food shall not lessen its price; when the poor beg alms without finding
anything to live on; when love to man shall be lost; when the Holy
Scriptures shall be put into songs; when temples dedicated to the true
God are filled with idols--then be sure that the Day of Judgment is
near!” Whereupon the old man disappeared.[18]
Occasionally the cant of persons pretending to be the Wandering Jew has
faintly echoed this Eastern specimen. As for the “two witnesses,” it
may be remembered that we have already noticed (I.) efforts made in
the seventeenth century to prove that two survivors from the time of
the Crucifixion existed. This could be done by regarding Cartaphilus
(‘the famous Joseph’) and Ahasuerus as different persons. Or it may
have been that Joseph and Malchus were thought of, especially in Italy,
where these seem to have been the corresponding figures.
Jewish superstitions of this character were reinforced from another
direction. The Greeks had their legend of the long sleep of Epimenides
on the Isle of Knossus. Epimenides being one of the Seven Sages, there
might easily grow from his legend that of the Seven Sleepers.
The familiar form of this legend is that given by Gibbon (xxxiii.), who
follows Gregory of Tours, as an incident of the Decian persecution. It
is also in the Koran (xviii.). Goethe follows the Koran mainly in his
poem on the subject, but assigns the legend to a pre-Christian period,
no doubt on good grounds. According to this version the Sleepers were
youths of Cæsar’s household who refused to worship that emperor when he
proclaimed himself a god; saying they would worship him alone who had
created the sun, moon, and stars. Thereupon they departed, but Cæsar
pursued them; and when they had taken refuge in a cavern near Ephesus,
the emperor walled up the entrance, so that they could not escape.
After the lapse of some centuries the wall gave way, and one of them
entered Ephesus to buy bread. He offered an ancient coin; was suspected
of having found treasure; but by telling of various things hidden
about the city, unknown before, the story of the miraculous slumber
was confirmed. When the king and others went out to visit the youths,
the Angel Gabriel appeared, closed the cavern, and led the Seven into
Paradise. According to the version which Goethe used, one of the Seven
was a faithful dog which had accompanied the six young men, and passed
into paradise with them.[19]
The tale of the Wanderings of Odysseus would appear to have touched the
Spanish variant of the Seven Sleepers myth, which probably influenced
the mind of Columbus. According to this story, Seven Bishops, flying
from persecution, sailed westward and reached a beautiful island where
they built seven splendid cities. This was dreamed of as the ‘Island of
the Seven Cities’ (Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths_, ii. 277). A legend
told by Washington Irving relates that Don Fernando was wafted to
this island, where he dwelt in great happiness, until he one day sank
into unconsciousness. When he awakened from this Circe spell, he found
himself on his ship near the Iberian coast. He repaired to the house of
a lady to whom he was affianced; she disclaimed all knowledge of him;
and when he addressed her by name it appeared that he was thinking of
her great-grandmother, whom she closely resembled.[20]
These mingled Greek and Jewish traditions came into Christendom mainly
through the words Jesus is reported to have said concerning John, “If
I will that he tarry till I come.” It was on St. John that the mantle
of the undying saints first fell in the Christian period. The place of
his slumber was located beside that of the Seven Sleepers, at Ephesus.
The story stands well-framed in the fossil English of the fourteenth
century traveller, Sir John Maundeville.
“From Pathmos men gon unto Ephesim, a fair citie, and nyghe to the
see. And there dyede Seynte Johne and was buryed behynde the highe
Awtiere, in a Toumbe. And there is a fair Chirche. For Christene Mere
weren wont to holden that place aiweyes. And in the Tombe of Seynt John
is noughte but Manna, that is clept Angeles Mete. For his Body was
translated in to Paradys. And Turkes holden now alle that Place and the
citee and the Chirche. And ail Asie the lesse is y cleped Turkye. And
zee shulle undrestonde, that Seynt Johne leet make his Grave there in
his Lyfe, and leyd him self there inne alle quyk. And therefore somme
Men seyn, that he dyed noughte, but that he restethe there till ten Day
of Doom. And forsothe there is a gret Marveyle: For Men may see there
the Erthe of the Tombe apertly many tymes steren and meven, as there
weren quykke thinges undre.”
The legends concerning Saint John given by St. Hippolyte, followed by
Eusebius, and Augustine, and the ordeals he survived--such as drinking
hemlock--were suggestive of the potency of the words spoken by Christ,
however casually, “Tarry till I come.” The same formula spoken to the
Wandering Jew made him as indestructible as the disciple “whom Jesus
loved.” Despite the ingenuity of the theory, one can hardly doubt that
M. Schoebel is right in supposing that the Wanderer’s early name,
Cartaphilus, is formed of the Greek κάρτα φίλος, signifying “the
Beloved.”
VII.
THE MARK OF CAIN.
In the Oberammergau Passion Play, where scenes from the New Testament
are preceded by tableaux from the Old, Cain killing Abel is made to
foreshadow Judas betraying Jesus. In some Eastern lands Cain has
always been regarded as a Wanderer still living; and to this day the
Bedouin recognises his presence in the hot Khamseen (Cain-wind), as
in the destructive hurricane the Picardy peasant exclaims, “_C’est le
Juif errant qui passe_.” For a long time, indeed, Cain was supposed
to be the Wandering Jew, and possibly this belief was thought of by
Shakspeare (_King Richard II._, v. 6) in the words of Bolingbroke to
Exton:
“With Cain go wander through the shade of night,
And never show thy head by day nor light.”
In _Tabari_ (i. 30), Adam says:
“We one have had in the midst of us whom death hath not
yet found.
No peace for him, no rest for him, treading the blood-drenched
ground.”
The so-called ‘mark’ of Cain was conceived to be a physical sign,
and this appears in the legend of the Wandering Jew: he was said to
have the mark of a blood-red cross on his forehead. Xeniola says
the Inquisition sought to secure him by this sign, but the Wanderer
concealed it under a black bandage.
In Rabbinical superstition Cain was not the son of Adam but of Sammaël,
the later demon derived from wandering Esau. He (Cain) was banished
to the Wilderness of Dendain, where his companions are Behemoth and
Leviathan, who harm him not, though they are ever fattened by devouring
wicked mortals in order that they may supply food for the righteous
amid the desolations preceding the last day.
As Cain wandered in a wilderness to the east of Eden, in distinction
from Seth, who dwelt in a fair region of the west, so while St. John
was bodily alive in his paradise, Judas “went to his own place.” As
Cain was son of Sammaël, Satan “entered into” Judas.
The obvious evil counterpart of John was Judas. The two had sat
nearest Jesus at the Last Supper, and had come in contact with his
immortalising flesh--one by leaning on his breast, the other by a
treacherous kiss. A more potent security against death lay in the
immediate way in which Jesus gave to both the bread and wine, of which
he said, “he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood shall never
die.” This was indeed given to all of the disciples, and it was--still
is--the Christian theory that they who partake of the Eucharist do not
die, but “fall asleep.” But there were always degrees of quickening
effect in this communion. Thus, the Seven Sleepers of Tours, who came
to that city to receive the benediction of St. Martin, received from
him the Eucharist, and afterwards sank into an unconsciousness from
which they never awoke. Their bodies remained, with all the external
appearance of life in their seven graves, still shown in front of their
grotto.[21]
It is doubtful whether any such person as Judas ever lived. The name is
the Greek form of Judah, and the traitor may be a personification of
the kingdom which refused to part with the sceptre at the demand of the
Christian’s “Shiloh,” before whom alone, in the words of Jacob, Judah
was to surrender. It may also be that this hostility was assigned the
form of treachery, because of a real Judas who, according to Josephus,
betrayed a fortress of Jerusalem to the army of Titus. However this
may be, even the circumstantial account in the New Testament of his
death could not save Judas from becoming one of the evil wanderers.
But this fate of Judas was postponed because of circumstances which
brought a more important agent of Antichrist to the front. While Rome
was yet pagan, and the Christians suffering there, the Man of Sin
confronting the Son of Man would naturally be visible there. The mark
of Cain is seen as the mark of the Beast, and the forehead of the
Beast was Nero. It so happened that among the Romans themselves there
prevailed, for some time after his death, a belief that Nero had not
really died. The fears of some, the pride of others, forbade them to
believe that this powerful representative of the throne of the Cæsars
was no more, and they looked for his return to give battle to the
rising kingdom of the Nazarene.[22]
But when Rome had been converted to Christianity, it became necessary
to transfer the _rôle_ of Antichrist to some race which still refused
to surrender to the new kingdom.
The one unconquerable race--outside Rome, where the poor Jews had found
their need of an immediate revolution too strong for their sufferance
and loyalty to old traditions--was the Jewish. This people could be
tortured, driven from land to land under the curse of Cain, but not
converted to Christianity. Then attention returned from Nero to Judas.
There was an ancient story about Cain, reproduced in the Koran, but no
doubt following the much earlier rabbinical tradition before mentioned,
that the Devil came to Eve in a dream, when she was pregnant with her
first son, and persuaded her to call the child by a name which meant
“servant of Satan.” In the course of time a somewhat similar legend
grew around the phantasmal Judas. It was said that the mother of Judas
had a dream shortly before his birth, in which it was disclosed to her
that her son would murder his father and sell his God. She and her
husband thereupon resolved that the child should not live, and at his
birth he was enclosed in a chest and cast into the sea. But the sea
cast him on shore, and he was found by a king and queen, who adopted
him. But they had another son, whom Judas slew during a quarrel over
a game of chess. Thereupon he fled to Judea, and entered the service
of Pilate as his page. Having committed other predestined crimes,
including the murder of his father, Judas learned from his mother the
secret of his birth, and of the dream that preceded it. In terror and
contrition, Judas hears of a prophet who has power to forgive sins; he
seeks out Jesus, throws himself at his feet; and Jesus, recognising
his predestined betrayer, accepts him as a disciple, and entrusts
him with the purse, so that Judas’s avarice might be cultivated and
this peculiarly divine scheme should not fail. Judas was thus made a
retrospective Wanderer.
In old Greek and Russian pictures, Judas is represented on the knees
of Satan as his beloved son, beside the serpent which appears to be
the dove in this infernal trinity; but this Christian fable about
Judas would seem to show Satan indebted to Jesus for his beloved son’s
training in wickedness.
That, according to the New Testament, Judas had grief and remorse,
and expiated his offence by death, might naturally have awakened
some compassionate feeling for him, or sense of his humanity. But
in the mediæval faith this grief and remorse were not in him, they
were Furies sent to torment him. In the old Passion Plays Remorse is
a real personage, who torments Judas until he invokes Despair, who
lays before him poison, a dagger, and a rope to choose from. Nor was
Christian logic equal to the consistency of Disraeli’s contention that,
according to the faith, the betrayal and crucifixion, being essential
to salvation, were compulsory on Judas and the Jews.
It will be remembered that the earliest recorded Wandering Jew,
Cartaphilus, informed the Armenian Bishop that he had been Pilate’s
doorkeeper. By this item he is linked with the legendary Judas, who is
said to have been a page in Pilate’s palace. It may now be remarked
that Pilate also was the subject of a somewhat similar legend. There
are two classes of legends concerning him. In the Abyssinian Church
Pilate became a martyr and a saint, his calendar day being June 25. But
in the south of Europe the story ran that Pilate became a remorseful
Wanderer. He committed suicide by drowning himself in a tarn on Mount
Pilate, near Lucerne. It is a myth, as Professor Sayce has shown,
evolved from the old name of the mountain--“Pileatus,” meaning capped
(either with foliage or cloud[23]). That little lake has lost all its
natural picturesqueness. It is called the “infernal lake.” Now and
then, in the dusk, a man is seen to emerge and wash his hands in it as
in a basin; when he disappears a hurricane follows.
The curse of Cain came upon yet another name,--Malchus. This servant
of Caiaphas, whose ear cut off by Peter was healed by Jesus, had no
reason to be thankful, it would appear by the legend; this relates that
he struck Christ with an iron gauntlet, and was doomed to walk around
a column underground, against which he vainly dashes his head, until
Judgment Day. We have already seen (I.) that the Wandering Jew, under
the name of Joseph, was reported as undergoing a similar punishment
in Jerusalem, in 1641. The story of Malchus seems to blend that of
Ahasuerus with the Talmudic myth of Cain, which is related in Mr.
Baring-Gould’s _Curious Myths_ (ii. p. 116). When Seth sought the Tree
of Knowledge in order to plant a scion of it in the grave of Adam, (see
VIII.), he saw its roots in Hell, and Cain trying to climb thereby
into Paradise. The roots laced themselves around Cain and pierced him
through and through, holding him bound in living agony for ever.
According to Christian and Jewish revelations Cain must have
discovered that, in his fratricide, he had been unsophisticated in the
art of punishing an offender against one’s will. The divine method is
more ingenious. In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux (13th Cent.) by Huon
de Villeneuve, the writer reports having seen a cask, with serpents
and iron prongs inside, rolling rapidly along. Cain is shut in it,
and therein must roll on till the end of the world. This rolling cask
would appear to be the prison and punishment of Malchus, adapted to the
idea of perpetual wandering. Al Sâmeri was also called _Al kharaïti_,
“the turner.” Professor D’Ancona (_Nuova Antologia_, Oct., 1880, “La
Leggenda dell’ Ebreo Errante”) shows that the story of Malchus is
Italian. M. Gaston Paris ascribes it great antiquity, identifying the
name and idea with the legend of Marcus the Leper, which is old enough
to be represented in early Italian proverbs. This Marcus, having been
cured by Jesus, afterwards struck him, and the curse laid upon him was
held to explain the incurability of leprosy. M. Paris finds in this
legend the idea of the blow given Jesus. If with this are combined the
legend of Joseph of Arimathea (thrown into prison by the Jews, where
his life was miraculously preserved), and the words to St. John, we
have, he thinks, the story of Cartaphilus.
VIII.
THE JEW IN THEOLOGY.
The fable concerning Judas is one of many which indicate the formation
of a special Christian doctrine concerning the Jewish race.
After the ruin of their Temple at Jerusalem and desolation of their
city, the Jews made repeated efforts--like that led by Bar-Cocheba--to
recover their independence. As the possibility of recovering their
city and rebuilding their Temple faded away they managed, even in
their dispersed condition, to constitute an _imperium in imperio_
under an officer called Resh Gelutha, or “Prince of the Captivity.”
As was natural, they never lost an opportunity of opposing the new
empire, of which Jesus had been made General. In the fourth century
they joined the Arians. When Julian was called the Apostate he gave
them leave to rebuild their Temple at Jerusalem, their hope of doing
which was suddenly quenched by that Emperor’s death. These great
events, of which the most typical can alone be mentioned here, were
steadily constituting a definite creed concerning the Jewish race, a
creed afterwards to be written upon all Europe in their blood, and
illustrated in the flames that consumed them.
The Christians believed that the Jews, as a race, gave themselves up
to be the devil’s agent for the crucifixion of Christ. Even the idea
of converting them seems hardly to have occurred to any Christian
before the Reformation--unless the Holy Cross Day torture at Rome
be called such--and, justly as the Jews now resent the efforts of
conversionists, the existence of a Society of that kind is a result of
the tardy recognition of their humanity. The scenes of the Passion--so
long preached, pictured, acted on the stage--cast upon the Jews a
shadow never relieved, and were a perpetual instruction in horror of
that people. The supernatural character ascribed to them by Christians
as well as themselves, implied, since they had rejected Christ,
infranatural wickedness. They were to Christendom the chosen people
still, but now chosen of Satan.