The Jew of Malta

by

Christopher Marlowe

Themes and Colors
God and Machiavellianism Theme Icon
Religious Hypocrisy Theme Icon
Anti-Semitism Theme Icon
Money and Greed Theme Icon
Betrayal and Revenge  Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Jew of Malta, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religious Hypocrisy Theme Icon

While Christopher Marlowe hints at the importance of God’s will in The Jew of Malta, his play is nevertheless critical of religion and religious doctrine, especially Christianity. Marlowe’s depiction of religion is not one of morality, good will, and righteousness. On the contrary, religion in The Jew of Malta is rife with hatred, deception, and hypocrisy. When the Turks come to Malta under the threat of war to collect the tribute money owed to the Ottoman Empire, the Maltese government exploits the island’s Jewish population to pay the country’s debt, and they do so in the name of Christianity. What’s more, the friars from Malta’s Catholic churches, who lust for both sex and gold, claim the moral high ground but ignore their priestly vows. For Marlowe’s characters, religion is not a reason to behave in a morally upright way—it is a means to an end that allows them to behave however they want. Through The Jew of Malta, Marlowe exposes the hypocrisy that he believes is often implicit in religious beliefs and ultimately argues that religion is a tool to secure power and wealth, not a guide for morality and righteousness.

Marlowe highlights religion’s hypocrisy through Malta’s Christian government and Ferneze, the governor, who cites religion as a reason to exploit Malta’s Jewish population. When Ferneze is short the tribute money Malta owes the Ottoman Empire, he taxes only Jewish people to pay the bill. Ferneze says that Jews “stand accursed in the sight of heaven,” and it is therefore their burden alone to cover the debt. Ferneze’s claim that the Jews are “accursed” is a reference to the crucifixion of Christ. In short, Ferneze’s Christian beliefs uphold that the Jews were responsible for the death of Christ; therefore, in Ferneze’s mind, his exploitation of the Jews is completely justified. In response to Ferneze’s request, Barabas, the richest Jew in Malta, points out Ferneze’s use of scripture and answers in kind. “The man that dealeth righteously shall live: / And which of you [Christians] can charge me otherwise?” Barabas uses scripture to prove his point, referring to Proverbs 10.2, a biblical passage that underscores the importance of moral righteousness. In Barabas’s estimation, a Christian who exploits and oppresses another can never claim morality, and by decree of their own Christian religion, they can never be saved and live immortal life in heaven. Through Barabas’s biblical reference, Marlowe highlights the hypocrisy of a religion that claims morality but uses the same religious doctrine to defend immoral acts.

Religious hypocrisy is further reflected in the behavior of Jacomo and Bernardine, two Catholic friars who repeatedly ignore their holy vows in favor of their selfish desires. When Barabas’s daughter, Abigail, appeals to Jacomo and Bernardine to join the convent, Jacomo says that Abigail’s desire comes from the “spirit,” or soul. “Ay,” Bernardine responds, “and of a moving spirit too, brother; but come, / Let us entreat she may be entertained.” Bernadine’s reference to Abigail’s “moving spirit” is vaguely sexual—it suggests that the friars are interested in Abigail in a carnal way, which directly violates their vows of chastity and purity. Abigail does end up joining the nunnery, so Barabas poisons Abigail and the rest of the nunnery for the betrayal of her conversion. But before Abigail dies, she confesses her sins to Bernadine, including Barabas’s involvement in the deaths of Abigail’s love, Don Mathias, and Don Lodowick, Ferneze’s son. Bernardine later breaks the confessional seal and reveals Abigail’s confession—he ignores his vows when it benefits him personally, which further underscores religious hypocrisy in The Jew of Malta and represents the religious hypocrisy that Marlowe suggests in rampant among real-life religious leaders. Both Bernardine and Jacomo accuse Barabas of being a “wicked Jew,” but when Barabas tells the friars he is looking to convert to Christianity and promises his substantial wealth to whichever church baptizes him and gives him sanctuary, the friars begin to fight over him. “Oh good Barabas come to our house,” Jacomo says. “Oh no, good Barabas come to our house,” Bernardine says. Both Jacomo and Bernardine are quick to dismiss Barabas as a Jew, but they will accept him as a Christian—if it benefits them finically. As friars, Jacomo and Bernardine both took vows of poverty, yet they easily ignore this oath, too, further highlighting their religious hypocrisy. The overt and frequent hypocrisy of the friars suggests that such duplicity is commonplace in Christianity, and in Catholicism in particular.

Marlowe’s negative view of religion is not limited to Christianity. Barabas, a Jewish man, is arguably the most despicable and immoral character in the entire play. He adamantly refuses to abandon his Jewish faith and convert to Christianity as the Maltese government would have him do, but this is where Barabas’s religious devotion ends. He easily lies, deceives, and even murders, which runs counter to the Jewish tradition—specifically to the Ten Commandments. While Barabas doesn’t use his religion to justify his sins in quite the same way the Christians do, he still dismisses his religious teachings all the same, which again exposes the hypocrisy that is often found in religion. Barabas and the other characters manipulate and ignore religion to get what they want, and Marlowe implies that those who ignore religious teachings in pursuit of power and wealth are just as wicked as those who use religion to obtain the same.  

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Religious Hypocrisy Quotes in The Jew of Malta

Below you will find the important quotes in The Jew of Malta related to the theme of Religious Hypocrisy.
Prologue Quotes

Admired I am of those that hate me most.
Through some speak openly against my books,
Yet will they read me, and thereby attain
To Peter’s chair: and when they cast me off,
Are poisoned by my climbing followers.
I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.

Related Characters: Machevill (speaker)
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes

Thus trowls our fortune in by land and sea,
And thus are we on every side enriched:
These are the blessings promised to the Jews,
And herein was old Abram’s happiness:
What more may heaven do for earthly man
Than thus to pour out plenty in their laps,
Ripping the bowels of the earth for them,
Making the sea their servant, and the winds
To drive their substance with successful blasts?

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker)
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

Rather had I a Jew be hated thus,
Than pitied in a Christian poverty:
For I can see no fruits in all their faith,
But malice, falsehood, and excessive pride,
Which methinks fits not their profession.
Happily some hapless man hath conscience,
And for his conscience lives in beggary.
They say we are a scattered nation:
I cannot tell, but we have scrambled up
More wealth by far than those that brag of faith.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker)
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 2 Quotes

Barabas: Are strangers with your tribute to be taxed?

Knight: Have strangers leave with us to get their wealth?
Then let them with us contribute.

Barabas: How equally?

Ferneze: No, Jew, like infidels,
For through our sufferance of your hateful lives,
Who stand accursèd in the sight of heaven,
These taxes and afflictions are befallen,
And therefore thus we are determinèd;
Read there the articles of our decrees.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze (speaker), Knight (speaker)
Page Number: 22-23
Explanation and Analysis:

What? Bring you scripture to confirm your wrongs?
Preach me not out of my possessions.
Some Jews are wicked, as all Christians are:
But say the tribe that I descended of
Were all in general cast away for sin,
Shall I be tried by their transgression?
The man that dealeth righteously shall live:
And which of you can charge me otherwise?

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze, Knight
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

Out wretched Barabas,
Sham’st thou not thus to justify thyself,
As if we knew not thy profession?
If thou rely upon they righteousness,
Be patient and thy riches will increase.
Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness:
And covetousness, oh, ‘tis a monstrous sin.

Related Characters: Ferneze (speaker), Barabas
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

Ay, policy? That’s their profession,
And not simplicity, as they suggest.
The plagues of Egypt, and the curse of heaven,
Earth’s barrenness, and all men’s hatred
Inflict upon them, thou great Primus Motor.
And here upon my knees, striking the earth,
I ban their souls to everlasting pains
And extreme tortures of the fiery deep,
That thus have dealt with me in my distress.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

Barabas: Then Abigail, there must my girl
Entreat the abbess to be entertained.

Abigail: How, as a nun?

Barabas: Ay, daughter, for religion
Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Abigail (speaker), Ferneze, Abbess
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

Abigail: Thus father shall I much dissemble.

Barabas: Tush,
As good dissemble that thou never mean’st
As first mean truth and then dissemble it;
A counterfeit profession is better
Than unseen hypocrisy.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Abigail (speaker)
Related Symbols: Gold
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

Barabas: Good sir,
Your father has deserved it at my hands,
Who of mere charity and Christian ruth,
To bring me to religious purity,
And as it were in catechizing sort,
To make me mindful of my mortal sins,
Against my will, and whether I would or no,
Seized all I had, and thrust me out-a-doors,
And made my house a place for nuns most chaste.

Lodowick: No doubt your soul shall reap the fruit of it.

Barabas: Ay, but my lord, the harvest is far off:
And yet I know the prayers of those nuns
And holy friars, having money for their pains,
And wondrous; (and indeed do no man good)
And seeing they are not idle, but still doing,
‘Tis likely they in time may reap some fruit,
I mean in fullness of perfection.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Don Lodowick (speaker), Ferneze
Page Number: 47-48
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 6 Quotes

Bernardine: Know that confession must not be revealed,
The canon law forbids it, and the priest
That makes it known, being degraded first,
Shall be condemned, and then sent to the fire.

Abigail: So I have heard; pray therefore keep it close,
Death seizeth on my heart, ah gentle friar
Convert my father that he may be saved,
And witness that I die a Christian.

Bernardine: Ay, and a virgin too, that grieves me most:
But I must to the Jew and exclaim on him,
And make him stand in fear of me.

Related Characters: Abigail (speaker), Friar Bernardine (speaker), Barabas
Page Number: 82-83
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 5, Scene 2 Quotes

And thus far roundly goes the business:
Thus loving neither, will I live with both,
Making a profit of my policy;
And he from whom my most advantage comes,
Shall be my friend.
This is the life we Jews are used to lead;
And reason too, for Christians do the like:
Well, now about effecting this device:
First to surprise great Selim’s soldiers,
And then to make provision for the feast,
Then at one instant all things may be done,
My policy detests prevention:
To what even my secret purpose drives,
I know; and they shall witness with their lives.

Related Characters: Barabas (speaker), Ferneze, Selim-Calymath
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis: