Part 4

That Moses was substituted for Elias at the Transfiguration was probably due to the strong hold which the “Book of Enoch” had taken on the Jewish mind. In this work there are indications that among some Jews Enoch himself had become connected with the Messianic hope. The writer, personating Enoch and speaking in his name, describes his journey through heaven and hell; thus, in the second century B.C. anticipating the journeys and visions of Lucian, Mohammed, Arda Viráf, Dante, and Swedenborg. He is attended by an angel, and he is named and appointed the Son of Man. “That angel came to me, and with his voice greeted me and said, Thou art the Son of Man who is born to righteousness; and righteousness dwells over thee, and the righteousness of the Head of Days leaves thee not.” That a claim for Enoch’s Messiaship is intended appears in the event then described. Enoch’s body melts away, and his spirit is transformed into a heavenly body. Enoch had described the glory of the renovated earth; but he himself, assuming him alive, would be some 2000 years old. No legend said he had been endowed with perpetual youth; consequently to reign over a rejuvenated earth he must be rejuvenated himself. Such a notion could only, at that time, have survived among the ignorant; but it is to them that new “schools” have to make their appeal, and in the transfiguration of Enoch the old idea, though spiritualised, is regarded.

The phrase of the _Book of Enoch_, “Head of Days,” is a remarkable modification of Daniel’s “Ancient of Days.” It almost looks as if,--assuming Ewald’s theory that Enoch (Beginner) was a god of the New Year,--this earliest of the immortals were still invested with more than patriarchal sanctity. As a Janus or Ganêça (with whom Ewald compares him) Enoch would himself be the Head of Days, thus as it were the Ancient of Days dialed on time. The idea of co-eternal existence is suggested, but also of an Unchangeable and a Changeable.

It must be remembered that we are considering ideas which, however poetical, are based on fancies of the world’s childhood. The transformation of Enoch under the angel’s spell belongs to the same class as the transformations which Yuletide evokes for the delight of the young from our own German Mythology, in which deforming spells are broken, handsome princes step forth from bears or dwarfs, decrepit crones become fair maidens, and Cinderellas rise from their ashes and rags in shining raiment and beauty.

When the Jewish legends were transferred to the Gentile world this 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.