The Jew of Malta : Jews in the Renaissance: Irony of the Promised Land

The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him” (Holy Bible, Gen. 12.7). Despite God’s oath to the Jews, this Promised Land has been repeatedly offered and confiscated by Christians. The Renaissance is one period in history, though, during which Jews faced unimaginable brutality. Beginning in England, Jews throughout Europe were forced to constantly move in order to avoid persecution. However, the ways that Jews were treated in their respective countries differed sharply from the ways that they were portrayed in literature.

Jews were eventually forced to leave England in 1289, by Charles of Anjou’s Edict of Expulsion. An excerpt clearly outlines the intentions of England:

Although we enjoy much temporal profit from the aforesaid Jews, we prefer to provide for the peace of our subjects rather than to fill our coffers with the mammon of iniquity, especially since by the loss of temporal goods spiritual gains are achieved. Therefore, exhibiting zeal for the life-giving Cross, we have, for the honour of God and the peace of the aforesaid areas, expelled and ordered expelled from our aforesaid counties of Anjou and Maine all Jews, male and female, adults and young people, children and infants, of whatever sex or condition they might have been born and raised. We have expelled them from all areas of these counties not only for the present but for all times, both for our time as well as that of our successors upon whom the said counties may happen to devolve. (Mundill 300)

After weighing the monetary gains associated with the Jews (“mammon of iniquity”), with potential favor from God (“spiritual gains”) that could be earned by the expulsion of these wealth-bringing, corrupt people, England decided it was in the best interest of their nation to remove all Jewish people. While not the land of Canaan, this beginning step in the series of Expulsions, symbolized the confiscation of a Promised Land. This would continue to occur throughout Europe over the next few centuries. In 1394, Jews were removed from France (Lesley 846). In 1492, with “the discovery of America,” Rulers Ferdinand and Isabel blatantly showed their anti-Semitism by ordering the removal of all Jews from Spain (Roth 135). Jews were then removed “from Portugal in 1497, from Provence in 1502, from southern Italy in 1541,” and from many other European cities throughout the next century, as well (Lesley 846). In fact, most European countries at one time or another in the Renaissance ordered the removal of all Jews (Edwards 11-12).

The only Jews who remained after these Expulsions were the Marranos, Jews who pretended to be Catholics. In order to make sure that these Jews “stayed” Christian, they were not permitted to leave their homelands. However, these Marranos soon fled to other European countries, such as Turkey, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, and even England, thus recreating a sort of Jewish “network” that had once been destroyed (Roth 135-136). Their attempts to seek a Promised Land, though, would soon prove fruitless.

Even these disguised Jewish communities faced persecution. For instance, in 1540 Milan, an interrogation process began, resulting in the discovery of the true identities of the Marranos of London. These Jews were ordered to forfeit all assets, but they were eventually freed, escaping punishment. Nevertheless, suspicions remained, and the once intact Jewish community was destroyed again (Roth 138).

Regardless of the status of their communities, Jews as individuals could rarely expect any form of due process. Perhaps the best example of this can be found in the case of the Portuguese Marrano, Dr. Roderigo Lopez (Roth 140). Attempting to gain political power by working with Spain, an enemy of England, he was unfairly accused of trying to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, and after a long and biased trial, he was executed (143). Because of the scrutiny that came from Lopez’s Jewishness[1], many of the other Marrano communities were once again forced to seek refuge in other countries. In fact, it was not until 1659 that a Jewish community could safely exist in England (144). Characteristic of their entire history, the Renaissance was a period of constant upheaval and instability for the Jewish people.

Even at times when Jews were able to maintain their Jewish identity and openly practice their religion, this only made their persecution that much easier. They were spit on, beaten, and publicly humiliated because of their heritage and their allegiance to their faith (Berek 140-144). Often, they were charged with crimes solely because of their “Jewishness,” when no other charge could be brought against them (152).

This victimization of Jews, though, was hardly reflected as such in Renaissance literature. Instead, roles were exchanged; Jews were almost always portrayed as greedy villains while Christians were portrayed as merciful, self-sacrificing, holy people. This argument can be extended to assume that the inaccurate portrayal of the Jews actually perpetuated their mistreatment in later centuries because Christians were given justification for their brutality (Berek 159).

Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta is a perfect example of this reversal of roles. Barrabas, the Jewish usurer, is the villain of the story. Yaffe argues that his “criminality [is indistinguishable] from his Jewishness” (24). Shapiro provides an excerpt from Act 2, Scene 3, as an example of Barrabas’s Jewish (a word synonymous with evil in the Renaissance) character:

This monologue is just one example of the grossly inaccurate portrayal of Jewish people. Here, Barrabas brags about killing the sick, poisoning wells, killing both fellow soldiers and opponents in the French-German wars, and working as a corrupt usurer, among his many other heinous crimes. Barrabas is greedy and malicious, and the fact that he brags about these traits makes him that much more reprehensible. Furthermore, he was written in such a way that it was impossible for Renaissance audiences not to confuse his criminal actions with his Jewish identity (Yaffe 24). This blur is the most important aspect of his character; he is not just an evil Jew but rather he is evil because he is Jewish, thus making all other Jews inherently evil.

According to Yaffe, another example of how Marlowe’s Barrabas is an inaccurate representation of the Jewish people lies in his reference to the Promised Land, found in the first scene of Act I:

God’s promise to Abram is the only thing that Jews have collectively wanted: a home. However, Barrabas talks about the Promised Land solely from the perspective of a greedy usurer. He parasitically sees the earth as an unlimited resource to be used wastefully by his people. But this is not an accurate depiction of how Jews truly feel about their Promised Land. As a whole, the Jewish people look forward to living in the Promised Land because they have faced persecution throughout history, constantly having to leave their homes. The value of this Promised Land does not lie in its monetary wealth but rather in its symbolic wealth: the Jewish people have been a “homeless nation,” and having a permanent home would be a fulfillment of God’s promise. Once again, Renaissance literature fails to accurately depict these beliefs. Instead, Marlowe uses Barrabas to provide an interpretation of the Promised Land that could not be farther from the truth.

Perhaps the most abhorrent aspect of Barrabas is his name. Jews were historically blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; however, the most hated Jew could quite possibly be the serial killer who escaped crucifixion because his fellow Jews released him, replacing him with the innocent Jesus. This serial killer’s name was Barrabas. Marlowe named his Jewish character Barrabas, knowing this significance: one’s name is a primary source of identification. It was as if being any Jew was not enough for Marlowe. To make this character truly evil, he had to have the identity of the Jewish serial killer whose exoneration caused the sacrifice of the sinless Christ. However, Renaissance audiences did not see Barrabas as the evil serial killer, who happened to be Jewish. Instead, because they already saw Barrabas as a representation of all Jews, his murderous nature was also attributed to his Jewishness. This contributed to the foundation of the Jewish stereotype, making Jews not just greedy usurers, but also murderers.

It is the compilation of all of these characteristics, though, that made Barrabas the benchmark for all future stereotypes against Jews, often serving as justification for their persecution and forced-removal. Jews faced horrific circumstances at the hands of Christians, and this injustice was perpetuated by the inaccurate portrayal of this Jew-Christian relationship in Renaissance literature. The brutality of Barrabas against Christians in theater was the everyday reality that Jews faced by the so-called selfless, loving Christians who hated them. Furthermore, the gravest misrepresentation of the Jewish people lies in the fact that the character of Barrabas, who is supposed to represent them, sacrilegiously views the Promised Land as a source of monetary gains, when the Jewish people humbly see it as a source of freedom.

[1] There is some disagreement about the influence of Dr. Lopez’s Jewish heritage. According to Berek, he was charged and executed because he was considered to be a traitor. Berek argues that the crime of “Jewishness” is only used when there is no other appropriate charge.