Noli me tangere ('touch me not') is the Latin version of a phrase spoken, according to John 20:17, by Jesus to Mary Magdalene when she recognized him after his resurrection. The biblical scene has been portrayed in numerous works of Christian art from Late Antiquity to the present. [1] [2] 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]
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 Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Anglicans, would say this statement is to be received in relation to the Ascension of Jesus. That is, because he had not yet ascended to the right hand of God, it was more of a "not yet" statement rather than a "never" cling to me. Jesus became incarnate for the sake of humanity and is explicitly said to retain his human body. When Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, he "fills all things" (e.g. Eph. 1:23), and can properly be clung to in the means of grace he provides, such as in the Eucharist.
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 Eastern Orthodox Church, the Gospel lesson on Noli me tangere is one of the Twelve Matins Gospels read during the All Night Vigil on Sunday mornings.
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]
The touch-me-not balsam is known by the binominal name Impatiens noli-tangere; its seed pods can explode when touched, dispersing the seeds widely. [6] Hibiscus noli-tangere has sharp glass-like needles that detach from its leaves when touched. [7]
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 José Rizal used this phrase as the title of his novel, Noli Me Tángere (1887), criticizing the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. He writes that ophthalmologists use this phrase in reference to a cancer of the eyelids. It symbolized the people's blindness to the ruling government, which Rizal deemed a social cancer that people were too afraid to touch.
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]
Historically, the phrase was used by Revolutionary-Era Americans in reference to the Gadsden flag—with its derivation "don't tread on me" [14] —and other representations dating to the American Revolutionary War. [15]
In the United States military, the phrase is the motto of the US Army's oldest infantry regiment, the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), located at Fort Myer, Virginia. The snake symbol can be found in the coat of arms of the 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the Harlem Hellfighters. "Don't tread on me" is also used in the First Navy Jack of United States Navy. It is also the motto of the U.S Army 4th Infantry Regiment, located in Hohenfels, Germany. The Royal Air Force adopted this motto for the No. 103 (Bomber) Squadron.
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]
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]
Mary Magdalene was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection. She is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels, other than Jesus's family. Mary's epithet Magdalene may be a toponymic surname, meaning that she came from the town of Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Roman Judea.
The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request.
Noli Me Tángere is a novel by Filipino writer and activist José Rizal and was published during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. It explores perceived inequities in law and practice in terms of the treatment by the ruling government and the Spanish Catholic friars of the resident peoples in the late-19th century.
Nemo me impune lacessit is the national motto of Scotland. It also served as the national motto of the historic Kingdom of Scotland prior to the Treaty of Union 1707.
John 20:17 is the 17th verse of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament. It contains Jesus' response to Mary Magdalene right after he confronts her just outside his tomb after his resurrection. According to the longer ending of Mark's Gospel Mary Magdalene is the first person to whom Jesus shows himself alive after his resurrection.
John 20:13 is the thirteenth verse of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. This verse occurs after Mary Magdalene has found Jesus' tomb empty, except for two angels.
Don't Tread on Me, usually stylized in all caps without an apostrophe, is a political slogan dating to the American Revolution.
Hibiscus noli-tangere is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It is found only in Yemen. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
The Annunziata Polyptych is a painting cycle started by Filippino Lippi and finished by Pietro Perugino, whose central panel is now divided between the Galleria dell'Accademia and the Basilica dell'Annunziata, both in Florence, Italy. The polyptych had other six panels, which are housed in the Lindenau-Museum of Altenburg, the Metropolitan Museum of New York City, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome and in a private collection in South Africa.
Noli me tangere is a c. 1514 painting by Titian of the Noli me tangere episode in St John's Gospel. The painting, depicting Jesus and Mary Magdalene soon after the resurrection, is in oil on canvas and since the nineteenth century has been in the collection of the National Gallery in London.
The Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Saint Mary Magdalene, also known as Kawit Church is the parish church of the municipality of Kawit, Cavite in the Philippines. The Roman Catholic church is one of the oldest churches in the Philippines, construction of the present church was started in 1737. The church, named after Jesus' disciple Mary Magdalene, was last restored in 1990 by the citizens of Kawit.
La Vie is a 1903 oil painting by Pablo Picasso. It is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Picasso's Blue Period.
The Noli me tangere casket was a small silver-gilt casket made in 1356 for the Aachen Cathedral Treasury. It measured 15.2 cm in length, 3.7 cm in height and 4.8 cm in width. The casket was kept in the Marienschrein together with the key relics of the cathedral until the nineteenth century and the casket remained in the possession of the cathedral treasury until its destruction during the Second World War.
Noli Me Tangere is a large sculptural arrangement that forms part of the Alaleona Chapel in the church of Santi Domenico e Sisto, in Rome.
Noli me tangere is the Latin version of words spoken by Jesus to Mary Magdalene.
Noli me tangere, also known as Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene in the Garden, is a c. 1525 painting by Correggio which depicts the noli me tangere interaction between Jesus and Mary Magdalene shortly after the Resurrection. It is currently in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Reimund Bieringer is a German theologian, biblical scholar, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium, and a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Speyer in Germany. The main areas of his research include the Second Letter to the Corinthians, the Gospel of John, and biblical hermeneutics.
Mary Magdalene with Eight Scenes from her Life is a c.1280-1285 tempera and gold on panel painting by the Master of the Magdalen, now in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence.
Noli me tangere is a fragment of a fresco of c. 1498–1500 by Bramantino depicting Jesus and Mary Magdalene soon after the resurrection. It was originally in the church of Santa Maria del Giardino in Milan and since 1867 in the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco in the same city, to which it was given by Prospero Moisè Loria.
Noli me tangere is an oil-on-canvas painting by Andrea del Sarto, executed c. 1510, depicting Jesus and Mary Magdalene soon after the resurrection. It was the first painting he produced for the Augustinian San Gallo church in Florence, as recorded by Anonimo Magliabechiano and in Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and he later produced the San Gallo Annunciation and The Disputation on the Trinity for the same church. It is now in the Uffizi.