Wandering Jew

The Wandering Jew is a figure from medieval Christian mythology whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century.

The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming. The exact nature of the wanderer's indiscretion varies in different versions of the tale, as do aspects of his character; sometimes he is said to be a shoemaker or other tradesman, while sometimes he is the doorman at Pontius Pilate's estate.

Read more about Wandering Jew:  Name, In Ideology (19c. and After), On Stage, and In Other Media

Famous quotes containing the words wandering and/or jew:

    And a wandering beauty is a blade out of its scabbard.
    You know how dangerous, gentlemen of threescore?
    May you know it yet ten more.
    John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)

    If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)