Noli me tangere
Noli me tangere ('touch me not') is the
The phrase has also been used in literature, and later in a variation by military units since the late 18th century.The original Koine Greek phrase, Μή μου ἅπτου (mḗ mou háptou), is better represented in translation as "cease holding on to me" or "stop clinging to me", i.e. an ongoing action, not one done in a single moment.[3]
Interpretation
According to Maurice Zundel (1897–1975), in asking Mary Magdalene not to touch him, Jesus indicates that once the resurrection is accomplished, the link between human beings and his person must no longer be physical, but must be a bond of heart to heart. "He must establish this gap, she must understand that the only possible way is faith, that the hands can not reach the person and that it is from within, from within only, that the we can approach Him."[4] Likewise, later, when Thomas reached out to touch the wounds of Jesus, Christ declares: "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" [John 20:29] because "He knows it is useless."[4]
Christians of Western Catholic tradition, namely
Liturgical use
The words are a popular trope in Gregorian chant. The supposed moment in which they were spoken was a popular subject for paintings in cycles of the Life of Christ and as single subjects, for which the phrase is the usual title.
In the
Echoes
In medicine
In medicine, the words were occasionally used to describe a disease known to medieval physicians as a "hidden cancer" or cancer absconditus; the more the swellings associated with these cancers were handled, the worse they became.[5]
Botany
The
In culture and literature
Like other significant scenes in the Gospels, this expression was used repeatedly in Christian culture, specifically literature. Following 14th century poet Petrarch,[8] 16th-century poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, in his lyric poem "Whoso list to hunt", says the speaker is hunting a hind, who stands for the elusive lover. The doe wears an inscribed collar: "There is written, her fair neck round about: / Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am".[9] Pliny the Elder had an account about deer of "Caesar", which lived 300 years and wore collars with that inscription.[10] In another source, Solinus (fl. 3rd century AD) wrote that after Alexander the Great collared deer, they survived 100 years. He did not mention any inscription on the collars.[11]
D. H. Lawrence refers to the phrase on several occasions, most notably in his poem "Noli Me Tangere" satirizing cerebralism.[12]
Filipino poet and national hero
The thirteen-hour version of the experimental film Out 1 (1971) is sometimes subtitled Noli Me Tangere, as an ironic reference to it being the uncut version favoured by the director Jacques Rivette (as opposed to the edited version, Out 1: Spectre, which is four hours long).[13]
In United States history and military
Historically, the phrase was used by
In the
Relic
A piece of forehead flesh covered by skin, previously attached to the alleged skull of Mary Magadalene, is kept in the cathedral of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in southern France. The relic is purported to be from the spot above Mary's temple touched by Jesus at the post-resurrection encounter in the garden.[16][17]
Artistic representation
The biblical scene of Mary Magdalene's recognizing Jesus Christ after his resurrection was repeatedly represented as the subject in a long, widespread, and continuous iconographic tradition in Christian art from Late Antiquity until today.[2][1] Pablo Picasso, for example, used the c. 1525 painting Noli me tangere by Antonio da Correggio, stored in the Museo del Prado, as an iconographic source for his 1903 painting La Vie (Cleveland Museum of Art) from his so-called Blue Period.[18]
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Noli me tangere fresco by Fra Angelico
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Noli me tangere by Martin Schongauer
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Noli Me Tangere, by Fra Bartolomeo c. 1506
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Noli me tangere by Titian c. 1511–1515
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Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1524
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Appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene after resurrection, Alexander Ivanov, 1835
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Touch Me Not (Noli me tangere) by James Tissot
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Mary of Magdala at the empty tomb, window at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church. Attributed to the Quaker City Glass Company of Philadelphia, 1912
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According to Christian tradition, the Noli me tangere took place in what is now the Chapel of John the Baptist adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
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Hortus Conclusus triptych, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
See also
- Life of Jesus in the New Testament
- Post-resurrection appearances of Jesus
- Noli Me Tángere (novel)
- Noli me tangere casket
- Nemo me impune lacessit – "no one assails me with impunity"
References
- ^ ISBN 3-579-04137-1), pp. 95–98, pl. 275–297
- ^ ISBN 3-451-22568-9), col. 332–336.
- ^ See, for instance, "Touch Me Not" by Gary F. Zeolla or Greek Verbs. The form of the verb used is not the aorist imperative, which would indicate momentary or point action, but the present, which indicates an action in progress. (Lesson Five – Greek Verbs). When, later in the same chapter, Jesus invites Thomas to touch his side, the aorist imperative is used to indicate the proposed momentary action (John 20:27). See also Jeremy Duff, The Elements of New Testament Greek, 7.2.2. "The difference between the Present and Aorist Imperatives".
- ^ a b Zundel, Maurice, Silence, parole de vie, transcription of a speech given in 1959, published by Anne Sigier, 1990, p. 129.
- ISBN 978-1442601031
- ^ "British Wild Plant: Impatiens noli-tangere Touch-me-not Balsam". www.ukwildflowers.com.
- ISBN 978-0-19-165119-9– via Google Books.
- ^ The Bible in Shakespeare, by Hannibal Hamlin, p. 79
- ^ Rumens, Carol (10 August 2009). "Poem of the week: Whoso List to Hunt by Thomas Wyatt". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
- ISBN 0521355982, 9780521355988
- ^ Solinus, Polyhistor, 19:18
- ^ D. H. Lawrence, The Complete Poems, 468-9
- ^ "Out 1: Noli Me Tangere review – 13-hour art film is a buff's ultimate challenge". The Guardian. October 28, 2015.
- ^ Shipley 2001, p. 400
- ^ Cannon 1991, p. 38
- ^ Flayol, Veronique, Magdalene and the "Noli me tangere", 11 April 2020, Magdalene Sacred Journeys, accessed 25 July 2020
- ^ Lawlor, Paula, Skull of Mary Magdalene, MagdalenePublishing.org, 11 April 2020, accessed 25 July 2020
- ISBN 3-496-01272-2.
Bibliography
- Bieringer, R; B. Baert; K. Demasure. 2016. "Noli mi tangere" in interdiciplinary perspective. Bristol, CN: Peeters.−
- Cannon, Devereaux D. Jr. (1991), The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated History, St. Lukes Press, ISBN 978-0918518637
- Shipley, Joseph Twadell (2001), The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, The Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0801830044