Brewer's: Jew

The Wandering Jew.

(1) Said to be KHARTAPH'ILOS, Pilate's porter. When the officers were dragging Jesus out of the hall, Kartaphilos struck Him with his fist in the back, saying, “Go quicker, Man; go quicker!” Whereupon Jesus replied, “I indeed go quickly; but thou shalt tarry till I come again.” This man afterwards became a Christian, and was baptised under the name of Joseph. Every 100 years he falls into an ecstasy, out of which he rises again at the age of thirty.

The earliest account of the “Wandering Jew” is in the Book of the Chronicles of the Abbey of St. Albans. This tradition was continued by Matthew Paris in 1228. In 1242 Philip Mouskes, afterwarde Bishop of Tournay, wrote the Rhymed Chronicle.

(2) AHASUE'RUS, a cobbler, who dragged Jesus before Pilate. As the Man of Sorrows was going to Calvary, weighed down with His cross, He stayed to rest on a stone near the man's door, when Ahasuerus pushed Him away, saying, “Away with you; here you shall not rest.” The gentle Jesus replied, “I truly go away, and go to rest; but thou shalt walk, and never rest till I come.”

This is the legend given by Paul von Eitzen, Bishop of Schleswig (1547). (See Greve: Memoire of Paul von Eitzen (1744).

(3) In German legend, the “Wandering Jew” is associated with JOHN BUTTADÆUS, seen at Antwerp in the thirteenth century; again, in the fifteenth; and again, in the sixteenth century. His last appearance was in 1774, at Brussels.

Leonard Doldius, of Nünberg. in his Praxis Alchymiæ (1604), says that Abasuerus is sometimes called Buttadæus.

(4) The French call “The Wandering Jew” ISAAC LAKE'DION or LAQUEDEM. (Mitternacht: Dissertatio in Johannem, xxi. 19.)

(5) Dr. Croly, in his novel, calls the “Wandering Jew” SALATHIEL BEN SADI, who (he says) appeared towards the close of the sixteenth century at Venice.

The legend of the Wild Huntsman, called by Shakespeare “Herne, the Hunter,” and by Father Mathieu “St. Hubert,” is said to be a Jew who would not suffer Jesus to drink from a horse-trough, but pointed out to Him some water in a hoof-print, and bade Him go there and drink. (Kuhn von Schwarz: Mordd. Sagen, 499.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Jew's-eye

Jeunesse Doree