THE WANDERING JEW

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18651, 21 August 1930, Page 11

THE WANDERING JEW

ORIGIN OF THE LEGEND. THE DOOM OF CARTOPHILUS. “What is the true story of the Wandering Jew?” “Does anybody know the true story of any legend,” asks the Professor in “John o’London's Weekly.” “It is always interesting to track down legends to their origin, but in most cases it is not easy. It is impossible in the case of the Wandering Jew. It arose possibly from a poetical myth emerging from the recorded incidents of Our Lord’s trial by Pontius Pilate. One Cartophilus, a porter, was on duty when Jesus was led out of the Judgment Hall to be taken to Calvary. As Our Lord passed, the Jew struck Him on the back, and pushing him towards the crowd said, ‘On with thee, Jesus! Wherefore dost thou tarry?” Jesus turned, looked intently at the man, and answered: ‘I, indeed, am going; but thou shall tarry until I come.’ ” “Well, what then?” “The story goes that soon after this man Cartophilus accepted the Christian faith ,and was baptised by the name of Joseph. But his doom remained on him.” “How did he become the ‘wandering Jew?” "How does any legend grow? It isnt a far step to picture him like Cain, a wanderer on the face of the earth.” “Yes, but how about him wandering for ages over the face of the earth, for he turned up, did’nt he, in succeeding centuries and in different countries?” Always Rejuvenated. “The legend is that whenever .he reached the age of one hundred he was rejuvenated to the age of thirty, at which age he had struck Jesus. He rested nowhere, and in some of the earliest stories he is represented as a holy man who remembered and spoke of the incidents of the Crucifixion. One very old ballad is preserved in ‘Reliques of Ancient Poetry.’ One verse reads, I think: — He ne’er was seen to laugh or smile, But weep and make great moan. Lamenting still his miseries. And days forepast and gone. If he hears any one blaspheme Or take God’s name in vain. He tells them that they crucify Their Saviour Christ again.

“How old is that ballad supposed to be?” _ “The twelfth or thirteenth century, I believe. Anyway, the story was well enough known in England in the thirteenth century. In the year 1228 an Armenian bishop came to England to see the shrines and ancient relics preserved there and he visited the monastery of St. Albans. This bishop declared that Joseph, who was present at the Crucifixion, was still alive and, indeed, that he had entertained him at dinner. He related the story of this man, whom he called, not Joseph, but Cartophilus.” “Is there any record of the Wandering Jew having been seen in England?” “Oh, yes; he is fabled to have worked many cures in England. There is a strange narrative of a visit to Hull in 1769. There a minister named Dr Hall, taking him for a cheat, locked him up in a room all night, but next morning found the door open and the Jew sitting quietly within. The narrative reads:—

“Ifaey asked him concerning the breaking up of the locks of the room in which he had been shut up. He told them, if they would attempt to confine him with chains, it would avail nothing; human force cannot confine him whom the Almighty had sentenced to want a resting place. They sent him to a smith to put strong chains on him, but they instantly burst asunder to the surprise of a thousand spectators.’ This document was signed and sealed by four ministers of Hull.”

The Various Guises. “What other appearances are recorded?” “Quite a number; Brussels in 1640, then at Paris, Leipzig, Moscow, Madrid, and as late as 1868 in America, and numerous other places. In Italy it was said he painted wonderful pictures; in France he told marvellous stories of how he had seen Nero standing on a hill watching the burning of Rome. In Strasburg, where he was brought before the magistrates, he told them that he had visited the town two hundred years before. And the statement, according to the city’s registers, was proved to be correct! In Hamburg, where he was in 1547, the Wandering Jgw was described by two students who saw him listening to a sermon as a tall, gaunt man, barefooted, and white hair falling down his back and his beard below his girdle. He seemed to speak the language of all the countries he visited.” “What is the last recorded time he was supposed to have been seen?” “In Salt Lake City, I think, in 1830; he had paid two other visits to London some fifty years before that. No doubt he’ll turn up again!” “Perhaps Mr Matheson Lang may have missed a chance, when he played the part of the Wandering Jew, in carrying on the record of the wanderer’s doings; he could have carried it off well, might have founded a cult, in fact, in these days of fantastic cults. Eugene Sue wrote a famous story called ‘The Wandering Jew,” didn’t he?” “Yes, and rendered it absurd by making the Jew die. All sorts of stories and histories have been written, but the original simple legend is worth them all. Dumas had a shot at it, and the theme attracted Goethe, but he took up ‘Faust’ instead, for which we saay be thankfuL”