JEW, THE WANDERING, a legendary Jew (see JEWS) doomed to wander till the second coming of Christ because he taunted Jesus as He passed bearing the cross, saying, "Go quicker." Jesus replied, "I go, but thou shalt wait till I return." This legend first appeared in a pamphlet alleged to have been printed at Leyden in 1602. This pamphlet relates that Paulus von Eizen (d. 1598), bishop of Schleswig, had met at Hamburg in 1542 a Jew named Ahasuerus, who declared he was "eternal" and was the same who had been thus punished by Jesus. The pamphlet is supposed to have been written by Chrysostomus Dudulaeus of Westphalia and printed by one Christoff Crutzer, but as no such author or printer is known—the latter name indeed refers directly to the legend—it has been conjectured that the whole story is a Protestant myth.
The story met with ready acceptance. Eight editions of the pamphlet appeared in 1602, and the 4oth edition before 170o. It was translated into Dutch and Flemish with immense success. The first French edition appeared in 1609, and the story was known in England before 1625, when a parody was produced. Den mark and Sweden followed suit, and the expression "eternal Jew" passed into Czech. Thus the story in its usual form spread wherever there was a tincture of Protestantism. In southern Europe little is heard of it in this version, though Rudolph Botoreus, parliamentary advocate of Paris (Comm. histor., 1604), speaks contemptuously of the popular belief in the Wandering Jew in Germany, Spain and Italy.
The popularity of the pamphlet soon led to reports of the appearance of this mysterious being almost everywhere. Besides the original meeting of the bishop and Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew was stated to have appeared at Prague (1602), at Lubeck (1603), in Bavaria (1604), Brussels (1640), Paris (1644, by the "Turkish Spy"), Stamford (1658), and Astrakhan (1672). In the next century he was seen at Munich (1721), Brussels (1 774) Newcastle (179o, see Brand, Pop. Antiquities, s.v.), and in London between 1818 and 1830 (see Athenaeum, 1866, ii. 561). The latest report of his appearance was near Salt Lake City in 1868, when he is said to have made himself known to a Mormon named O'Grady. It is difficult to tell in any one of these cases how far
the story is an entire fiction and how far an ingenious imposture.
In most Teutonic languages the stress is laid on the perpetual character of the punishment and the man is known as the "eternal" Jew (Ger. ewige Jude). In Romance lands the usual form has reference to the wanderings (Fr. le Juif errant). The English form follows the Romance, possibly because derived from France. The actual name given to the mysterious Jew varies in the different versions : the original pamphlet calls him Ahasver, a name most inappropriately borrowed from the Book of Esther. In one of his appearances at Brussels his name is given as Isaac Laquedem—bad Hebrew for "Isaac of old"—and Dumas made use of this title. In the Turkish Spy he is called Paul Marrane, from the Marranos or secret Jews of Spain. In the few references to the legend in Spanish writings the Wandering Jew is called Juan Espera en Dios, which gives a more hopeful turn to the legend. Eugene Sue calls him Ahasverus.
Under other names, a story very similar to that of the pam phlet of 1602 occurs nearly 400 years earlier on English soil. Ac cording to Roger of Wendover in his Flores historiarum for 1228, an Armenian archbishop, then visiting England, was asked by the monks of St. Albans about Joseph of Arimathaea, who had spoken to Jesus and was said to be still alive. The archbishop claimed to have seen him in Armenia under the name of Carthaphilus, who had confessed that he had taunted Jesus. This Carthaphilus had afterwards been baptized by the name of Joseph. Matthew Paris, in copying Wendover, reported that other Armenians had con firmed the story on visiting St. Albans in 1252. A similar account is given in the chronicles of Philippe Mouskes (d. 1243). A variant was known to Guido Bonati, an astronomer quoted by Dante (Inferno, xx. 118), who calls his hero Butta Deus because he struck Jesus. Under this name he is said to have appeared at Mugello in 1413 and at Bologna in 1415.