WANDERING JEW. — A popular myth which, under the name “Ahasuerus,” personified the eternal wanderer, who after the drama of Calvary has neither homeland nor rest. It appears in literature at the beginning of the seventeenth century, as the hero of a novel written in German.
In this account, the bishop of Schleswig, Paolo da Etzen, relates that in 1547 he saw in a church at Hamburg a tall man with long hair, who emitted groans whenever the name of Jesus was pronounced, at the same time beating his breast; in the heart of winter, he was barefoot and poorly dressed. He said that he was a Jew native to Jerusalem, that his name was Ahasverus, and that he worked as a shoemaker; he had allegedly joined in the cry of Crucifige, demanding the release of Bambba. As he was proceeding toward his execution, Jesus is said to have leaned against the wall of his house to rest, and he is said to have driven him away. Jesus allegedly told him: “I wish to stop and rest, but you will have to walk until the day of judgment.” Ahasuerus witnessed the Crucifixion. From that time onward he was always on the road. After a hundred years, he had returned to Jerusalem and found the city destroyed.
At times he bears the name “Cartophilus.” In the Histoire admirable du juif errant, Ahasuerus is said to have originated from the tribe of Nephthali, born in the year 3992 after the creation of the world; it is also said that his mother had sewn the garments for the Levites.
The figure of the Wandering Jew also frequently recurs in art; cf. La légende du juif errant by G. Doré. In literature, Goethe, Schubart, A. W. Schlegel, Brentano, Camaso, Gutzkow, Lenau, Hamerling, and Carmen Sylva took up the subject; among the French: Complainte, Béranger, E. Quinet, E. Sue, Dumas père; among the English: Byron, Shelley.