PDA

View Full Version : Also put in Mysteries/Legends but wondering this forums thoughts on the Wandering Jew


Gideon2037
16-03-2018, 07:47 PM
copy paste from my other forum post in mysteries and legends

The Wandering Jew

I'm curious to learn everything I can about this myth/legend.

As far as I can tell from my "research" this legend was initially a sort of proto-
antisemitic propaganda created and spread by the Romans. But the stories origins are still a mystery in some ways, and there are couple different versions from what I hear.

This is a crude summary.

Jesus is carrying his cross in bloody agony, and he takes a moment to rest on an onlookers doorstep. The onlooker is a Jew and possibly sold on the idea that Jesus was a false prophet who deserved this punishment.

The man taunts Jesus saying "Go on!!"
Jesus looks up at the man and says "Ohhh..(scoffs) I willll go!! But YOU will wait here until I return" (meaning "the rapture" it is assumed)

This means the man is forced to Wander or to "walk the earth" forever. A life sentence for a new immortal, the Wandering Jew.

Supposedly some bishops had a few sightings of this tormented soul. Regardless he made it into our pop culture. Most recently in Fargo Season 3 as Paul Marrane. This is one of the Wandering Jews pseudonyms.

Also, apparently, the famed and beloved author of "the 3 Musketeers" and "the Count of Monte Cristo" Alexandre Dumas wrote a book about the Wandering Jew. Unfortunately it was never translated into English. I did however find it online with an English blurb, where it was described as a sprawling epic.

Anyways this is the core of my interest in the subject.

Anyone have anything to add or correct?

Similar Characters in history?

The Count of St. Germain is another one. A man who was supposedly witnessed by multiple generations of the Royal and High society class in Europe, in the 18th to 19th centuries, seemingly never to age. He had vast knowledge and wealth and was close to King Louis XV who commissioned the Count for multiple projects.

Does anyone have any mysterious characters to add?

Or how about a favorite character in a myth or legend such as Ulysses in the Odyssey who goes on a long journey that spans decades across the globe.

Nephele
26-03-2018, 08:21 PM
The story of "The Wandering Jew" is definitely steeped in antisemitism. It was a 13th century pope named Innocent III who compared the Jews to the Biblical Cain (son of Adam and Eve who committed the first murder when he killed his brother, Abel). Cain's punishment was that he was condemned to become a ceaseless wanderer on the earth – which is pretty much what the punishment of "The Wandering Jew" turned out to be in the Christian myth.

One more thing about Pope Innocent III: Among his numerous antisemitic acts, he was also the pope who decreed that Jews living in Christian lands must wear a yellow badge on their clothing in order to identify them. Centuries later, Adolf Hitler took his inspiration from Innocent III when he forced Jews to wear the yellow star.