According to medieval legend, the "eternal Jew" is a Jew named Ahasuerus. Jesus Christ, who bore His Cross, was led past his house to Calvary. Jesus asked Ahasfer for permission to lean against the wall to rest a little, but he refused him and, according to some versions, even hit. Since then, he was doomed to eternal wanderings.
There is a version that the "eternal Jew", having chased Christ away from the walls of his house, mockingly invited him to rest on the way back, implying that if he is really the Son of God, he will be resurrected and after that he will be able to rest. Christ calmly replied that he would continue on his way, but Ahaspher would go on forever, and there would be no death or peace for him.
According to legend, once every 50 years, Ahasfer goes to Jerusalem, hoping to beg forgiveness at the Holy Sepulcher, but when he appears in Jerusalem, violent storms begin, and the "eternal Jew" cannot fulfill his plan.
The emergence of the legend of Agasfera
The story of Ahasuerus has nothing to do with the Bible. And it appeared much later. In Western Europe, various versions of the legend appeared only in the 13th century, and the term "eternal Jew" itself - in the 16-17th centuries. Apparently, from that time on, Hagasfer turned into a kind of symbol of the entire Jewish people, scattered across Europe, wandering and persecuted.
The image of Agasfera in world literature
The image of Agasfer is constantly found in the works of world literature. Goethe tried to write about him (though his plan was never realized), he is mentioned in Potocki's novel "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa". Eugene Hsue's adventure novel "Hagasfer" was widely known. Alexander Dumas dedicated the novel "Isaac Lacedem" to this character. Agasfer is also mentioned in the tragedy of Karl Gutskov "Uriel Acosta". In Russia, Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky wrote about Agasfer in the unfinished poem "The Wandering Jew", created under the influence of German romantics.
In the twentieth century, many world famous writers turned to the image of Agasfer, including Rudyard Kipling (short story "The Eternal Jew"), Guillaume Apollinaire (short story "Prague Passer-by"), Jorge Luis Borges (short story "The Immortal"). “The Eternal Jew” appears even in the novel by Gabriel García Márquez “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.
In Russian literature of the twentieth century, a number of completely unexpected interpretations of the image of Ahasuerus appear. For example, in the novel by the Strugatsky brothers "Burdened by Evil, or Forty Years Later" a certain Agasfer Lukich appears, acting under the guise of an insurance agent.
Ostap Bender in the novel by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov "The Golden Calf" tells the story of the Eternal Jew, who wished to admire the beauty of the Dnieper, but was caught and killed by the Petliurites. A certain theologian from Hamburg appears in Vsevolod Ivanov's story "Agasfer", who says that it was he, dreaming of fame and fortune, who invented the legend of Ahasfera and, unexpectedly for himself, turned into a real Ahasfer.
Centuries pass, and the "eternal Jew" continues to wander, if not in the real world, then, at least, in the pages of world literature.
