Give me another death! The apocryphal vision of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane

Book section : Chapter

Das grosse Leben Christi, a biography of Christ and Virgin Mary written by the Capuchin monk Martin von Cochem and first published in 1677, is one of the best known and most admired German folk books. The work, originally printed in Mainz, had been published more than two hundred times by the middle of the nineteenth century, and has been translated into a number of languages, including Czech and Hungarian. The work, originally entitled as a life of Christ, is actually comprised of two parts which relate the whole story of the Redemption. The first part begins with the history of Creation and ends with the narrative of the life of Christ, whereas the second relates the Passion of Christ, his Ascension, and the Assumption of the Virgin, followed by the death of the Apostles. It concludes with the narrative of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and contains a detailed description of the city at the end. The longest part of the narrative is the story of the Passion, which comprises almost the entirety of the second volume, and includes numerous peculiar scenes and details absent from the Scriptures. Perhaps one of the most interesting among these is the chapter describing Christ’s agony, and prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Authors: Tóth, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Host title: Retelling the Bible: Literary, historical, and social contexts
• Pages: 85-115
• Place of publication: Frankfurt am Main
• Publication date: 2011-01-13
• Edition: 1
• ISBN-10: 3631612729
• ISBN-13: 9783631612729
• Language: English
• Keywords: apocryphal books
• Subtype: Chapter