John Bunyan; the seventeenth century English writer and Protestant lay preacher, is one of the famous of all Christian authors. This in large part due to the widespread dissemination and literary consumption of his famous allegorical tale: 'The Pilgrim's Progress'.

Indeed I am sure that a many of those who are reading this have in fact read 'The Pilgrim's Progress' and nearly all will have at least heard of the work. What I will do in this article is to concentrate on a forgotten element of 'The Pilgrim's Progress' that is submerged underneath the prose and can only be understood by reflecting and considering what one is reading rather than purely following the narrative flow.

This forgotten element; as you may have guessed, is Bunyan's attitudes towards the jews.

Bunyan was; of course, a devout Christian and as such he held to the equality of all men before God as well as having; as a Puritan, a deep attachment to the Old Testament. However Bunyan; unlike many modern Christians, was aware and willing to state the necessary implications of Christian theology in relation to the ancients Israelites and the jews.

As part of the dialogue in 'The Pilgrim's Progress' we read:

'So he called for the Master of the house; who after a little time came to Christian, and asked him what would he have?

Sir, said Christian, I am a man that am come from the City of Destruction, and am going to the Mount Zion; and I was told by the Man that stands at the Gate, at the head of this way, that if I called here, you would show me excellent things such as would be a help to me in my Journey.' (1)

The meaning of this passage is likely obscure to the readers, but we can broach this gap in understanding by explaining that Bunyan is here allegorically referring to the move from sinfulness (the 'City of Destruction') to holiness that is to be found in pious belief in Jesus Christ ('Mount Zion'). (2) This journey is fraught with temptations and the innumerable snares of devil who seeks to hinder and mislead those who seek holiness as part of his eternal war with God. (3)

Predictably large numbers of people are trapped in the 'City of Destruction' since Bunyan recounts that:

'Then said Mr. Sagacity, for that was his name, it is the City of Destruction, a populous place, but possessed with a very ill-conditioned and idle sort of people.' (4)

We can draw from this that Bunyan placed; as a devout Protestant, great stress on personal salvation and faith in relation to his vision of true Christianity. Those who failed to grasp Jesus and Christianity firmly with both hands were to Bunyan in the 'City of Destruction'. Bunyan saw many contemporary Christians; Roman Catholics and Anglicans especially, as being in the 'City of Destruction' as they had not attained personal sanctity in his view since they held to superstitious/incorrect beliefs that contravened the laws laid down by God in the Bible.

One of Bunyan's favourite comparisons on this point was to use; as is historically common among Protestant Christians, the example of the Israelites. Bunyan states:

'Thus is happened to Israel, for their Sin they were sent back again by way of the Red Sea.' (5)

In addition to:

'He said: to have to do with other men's wives, had been practiced by David, God's beloved, and therefore he could do it. He said: To have more women than one, was a thing that Solomon practiced, and therefore he could do it. He said, that Sarah and the godly midwives of Egypt lied, and so did save Rahab, and therefore he could do it. He said, that the disciples went at the bidding of their Master, and took away the owner's Ass, and therefore he could do so too. He said, that Jacob got the inheritance of his father, in a way of Guile and dissimulation, and therefore he could do so too.

Great-heart: High base! Indeed. And are you sure he was of this opinion?

Hon. I have heard him plead for it, bring Scripture for it, bring arguments for it, etc.

Great-heart: An opinion that is not fit to be with any allowance in the World.' (6)

In both of these excerpts we can see that Bunyan is styling the Israelites and the jews of old as being the example of those who are in the 'City of Destruction', because of how much they sinned against God and for their unbelief they have suffered. Further Bunyan is asserting that the Israelites and jews of old engaged in sinful practices such as polygamy (7) and that the practices attested in the Old Testament should; and cannot, be used by Christians to argue that they should be part of Christian religious doctrine or culture.

Bunyan tells us of this in relation to both the Judaism of old and his own time when he states:

'Great-heart: Then said Mr. Great-heart; To the first I answer: Because the Church of the Jews, of which Christ came, had then lost almost all the sap, and Spirit of Religion.' (8)

In other words in Bunyan's formulation of Christianity: the jews don't really follow a religion, but rather following a number of outdated laws and customs which have no basis in the Bible, because they are engaged in for their own sake not for any love of God or sanctification of his name. Or in other words: they are trapped in the snare of the devil that is Judaism rather than being (true) Christians.

This is made clear when Bunyan implicitly compares the jew to the (true) Christian when he states:

'This brings to my mind that of Moses, by which he described the beast that is clean. He is such an one that parteth the hoof, and cheweth the cud; not that parteth the hoof only, or that cheweth the cud only. The hare cheweth the cud, but yet is unclean; because he parteth not the hoof. And this truly resembleth Talkative; he cheweth the cud, he seeketh Knowledge, he cheweth upon the Word; but he divideth not the hoof, he parteth not with the Way of Sinners; but as the hare, he retaineth the foot of a dog or bear, and therefore is unclean.' (9)

What Bunyan is telling us here is that in order for someone to be holy then they have to both be publicly a devout Christian (i.e. it has to be externally demonstrated like the parted hoof in Kashruth) and privately be as devout (i.e. it has to be internally demonstrated like the chewing of cud). The jews for Bunyan only show the external signs of devotion and seek knowledge without internal piety causing them to really leave the 'Way of Sinners': where-as the (true) Christian is externally devout, while seeking and reflecting on knowledge allowing them; through their inner devotion, to leave the 'Way of Sinners' and thus the 'City of Destruction' (and begin the ascent of holiness to Mount Zion).

In identifying jews as residents of the 'City of Destruction' Bunyan is also specific about the sins that jews have committed. For example he necessarily implies that the jews are afflicted by sloth, presumption and hypocrisy in the following passage:

'The things that I have told you, were the best; yet some other small matters I saw, as namely I saw three men, Simple, Sloth, and Presumption, lie asleep a little out of the Way as I came, with Irons upon their heels; but do you think I could awake them! I also saw Formality and Hypocrisy come tumbling over the wall, to go (as they pretended) to Zion, but they were quickly lost; even as I myself did tell them, but they would not believe: But, above all, I found it hard work to get up tis Hill, and as hard to come by the Lions mouths: and truly if it had not been for the good man, the Porter that stands at the Gate, I do not know, but that, after all, I might have gone back again; but now I thank God I am here, and I thank you for receiving of me.' (10)

While elsewhere he accuses them; as residents of the 'City of Destruction', of loving money, wanting to own the world and generally coveting that which is not theirs. To wit:

'Now I saw in my dream, that Christian and Hopeful forsook him, and kept their distance before him; but one of them looking back, saw three men following Mr. By-ends, and behold, as they came up with him, he made them a very low bow; and they also gave him a compliment. The mens names were Mr. Hold-the-World, Mr. Money-love, and Mr. Save-all; men that Mr. By-ends had formerly been acquainted with; for in their minority they were school-fellows, and taught by one Mr. Gripe-man, a school-master in Love-gain, which is a market-town in the county of Coveting, in the north. This School-master taught them the Art of Getting, either by violence, cozenage, flattery, lying, or putting on the guise of Religion; and these four gentlemen had attained much of the Art of their Master, so that they could each of them have kept such a school themselves.' (11)

That this covetousness; which Bunyan condemns, is being extended specifically to jews as residents of the 'City of Destruction' is shown by the following passage:

'Judas the Devil was also of this Religion; he was religious for the Bag, that he might be possessed for what was therein; but he was lost, cast away, and the very Son of Perdition.

Simon the Witch was of this Religion too; for he would have had the Holy Ghost, that he might have got Money therewith, and his sentence from Peter's mouth.' (12)

The two individuals here; Judas Iscariot and Simon Magus, are both well-known and of indisputably jewish (or Israelite if you wish) origin and would have been clearly understood by Bunyan as being so. Yet Bunyan refers to their religion (which can only refer to Judaism) as being one of the bag: or in other terms a religion that covets all around it for its own sake and takes money to change its dictates/rulings (which aligns nicely with Bunyan's view of it as a set of laws and customs without any true religious spirit).

Judas and Simon both wanted money and yet it is clear that for Bunyan something else more fundamental is driving both these parties than simple greed, but rather; as we saw earlier, that these men have lost their souls to the devil and for Bunyan that devil has to; as the religion of the Pharisees, be Judaism.

Thus we can see that when Bunyan accuses the Israelites of riddled with sin and warns the Christians that they shall perish like them if they are too sinful (due to God's wrath): (13) what he is actually saying is that Israelites who disobeyed God in the past (and all jews since Jesus) are in hell and those who live are resident in the 'City of Destruction'.

Thus according to Bunyan: the jews are the servants of the devil.

(1) John Bunyan, 1984, 'The Pilgrim's Progress', 1st Edition, Barbour: Westwood, Part 1, p. 24; restated similarly on pp. 46-47
(2) Ibid. p. 51
(3) Ibid. p. 83
(4) Ibid. Part 2, p. 202
(5) Ibid. Part 1, p. 43
(6) Ibid. Part 2, p. 306
(7) I have discussed the issue of polygamy in the Old Testament in the following articles: http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.com/2014/03/polygamy-in-torah.html and http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.com/2014/03/polygamy-in-jewish-bible.html
(8) Bunyan, Op. Cit., Part 2, p. 319
(9) Ibid. Part 1, p. 88
(10) Ibid. p. 50
(11) Ibid. p. 113
(12) Ibid. p. 119
(13) Ibid. p. 123

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This was originally published at the following address: http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.com/2014/05/john-bunyans-pilgrims-progress-and-jews.html