Noli me tangere

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This article is about a phrase. For the novel José Rizal wrote, see Noli Me Tángere (novel).
Noli me Tangere by Antonio da Correggio, c. 1534

Noli me tangere, meaning "touch me not", is the Latin version of words spoken, according to John 20:17, by Jesus to Mary Magdalene when she recognized him after his resurrection.

The original Koine Greek phrase, Μή μου ἅπτου (mē mou haptou), is better represented in translation as "cease holding on to me" or "stop clinging to me".[1]

The biblical scene of Mary Magdalene's recognizing Jesus Christ after his resurrection became the subject of a long, widespread and continuous iconographic tradition in Christian art from late antiquity to the present.[2] So Pablo Picasso for example used the painting Noli me tangere by Antonio da Correggio, stored in the Museo del Prado, as an iconographic source for his famous painting La Vie (Cleveland Museum of Art) from the so-called Blue Period.[3]

The words are the motto of Houses Wormell and Wormald.

Liturgical use

The words were 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.

Echoes

The expression found its way into culture and literature. According to Solinus, white stags found 300 years after Caesar's death had their collars inscribed with "Noli me tangere, Caesaris sum", meaning "Do not touch me, I am Caesar's". This phrase, in turn, appears in the lyric poem "Whoso list to hunt" by 16th-century poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, inscribed on the collar of a hind who stands for the elusive lover hunted (metaphorically) by the speaker: "There is written, her fair neck round about: / Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am."[4]

The phrase is also the motto of the US Army's oldest infantry regiment--3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) located at Fort Myer, VA.

Gallery

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Noli me tangere.
  1. ↑ See, for instance, "Touch Me Not" by Gary F. Zeolla or Greek Verbs. In fact 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".
  2. ↑ See G. Schiller, "Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst", vol. 3, Auferstehung und Erhöhung Christi, Gütersloh 2 1986 (ISBN 3-579-04137-1), p. 95-98, pl. 275-297; Art. Noli me tangere, in: "Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie", vol. 3 Allgemeine Ikonographie L-R, Rom Freiburg Basel Wien 1971 (ISBN 3-451-22568-9), col. 332-336.
  3. ↑ Gereon Becht-Jördens, Peter M. Wehmeier: Picasso und die christliche Ikonographie. Mutterbeziehung und künstlerische Position. Reimer, Berlin 2003, esp. p. 39-42, fig. 1-4 ISBN 3-496-01272-2
  4. ↑ Rumens, Carol (10 August 2009). "Poem of the week: Whoso List to Hunt by Thomas Wyatt". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2011. 
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