The Wandering Jew…

*Now I just wanted to put this out now: I do not believe that this myth is true but, I find it very interesting.*

The Wandering Jew is a quasi-Christian legend that dates back to the thirteenth century, and holds true as one of the strangest creatures that God has allegedly cursed upon this earth. There are many versions of this story but, I am going to try to swim though the hoopla, and bring forth a tale worth repeating.

The Wandering Jew is supposedly a man who was cursed with immortality by Christ until the Second Coming of the Lord. The myth holds to this verse in the Bible:

[1]“Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
–Matthew 16:28 [NKJV]

This is how the legend goes. [2]A Jewish man is on the road watching Jesus Christ, the Son of God being led to the crucifixion. The man calls out to Christ mocking Him, and because of this God curses this man to wander the earth restless until the Second Coming. There are differing stories that alter the man’s occupation from being a shoe maker [which is the most popular version of the story] to a door man for Pontius Pilate.

The Jewish man goes by many name in the myth, depending upon the story:[" Melmoth, Ahasuerus, Matathias, Buttadeus, Cartophilus, Isaac Laquedem (a name for him in France and the Low Countries, in popular legend as well as in a novel by Dumas), and Juan Espera a Dios (Spanish: "John [who] waits for God”) and also Jerusalemin suutari (”Shoemaker of Jerusalem” in Finnish).”]

[3]The story then falls toward the Catholic end of the spectrum where the ‘Wandering Jew on repented of his sins and was baptized Catholic. He grows old in the normal fashion until reaching one hundred whereupon he sheds his skin and rejuvenates to the age of thirty. The Middle Ages abound with sightings of the Wandering Jew, generally telling his story in turn for meager food and lodging, sometimes even undergoing tests of authenticity by local professors and academic figures. Encounters with the Wandering Jew occurred all throughout Europe - during the Middle Ages, there were sightings in Armenia, Poland, Moscow, and virtually every Western European city including London.’

[4]One profound historic meeting was “recorded in the Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover under the year 1228. An Armenian archbishop, then visiting England, was asked by the monks of St Albans Abbey about the celebrated Joseph of Armathea, who had spoken to Jesus, and was reported to be still alive. The archbishop answered that he had himself seen him in Armenia, and that his name was Cartaphilus, a Jewish shoemaker, who, when Jesus stopped for a second to rest while carrying his cross, hit him, and told him “Go on quicker, Jesus! Go on quicker! Why dost Thou loiter?”, to which Jesus, “with a stern countenance,” is said to have replied: “I shall stand and rest, but thou shalt go on till the last day.” The Armenian bishop also reported that Cartaphilus had since converted to Christianity and spent his wandering days proselytizing and leading a hermitic life.”

The Wandering Jew has been a tale that has always fascinated Europe since the thirteenth century, and will continue to do probably until the Second Coming of the Lord. I know this isn’t generally the types of post I write but, I thought it was a little piece of history to cherish.

[1]Biblegateway.com:Matthew16:28 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2016:28&version=50

[2]The Wandering Jew. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_jew

[3]WanderingJew.Shurin,Jared.http://www.pantheon.org/articles/w/wandering_jew.html

[4] The Wandering Jew. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_jew