How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
SALOMÉ Neither the roses of the garden of the Queen of Arabia, the garden of spices of the Queen of Arabia, nor the feet of the dawn when they light on the leaves, nor the breast of the moon when she lies on the breast of the sea… There is nothing in the world so white as thy body. Suffer me to touch thy body.
JOKANAAN Back! daughter of Babylon! By woman came evil into the world. Speak not to me. I will not listen to thee. I listen but to the voice of the Lord God.
SALOMÉ Thy body is hideous. It is like the body of a leper. It is like a plastered wall, where vipers have crawled; like a plastered wall where the scorpions have made their nest. It is like a whited sepulchre, full of loathsome things. (145-147)
Based on the way Salomé's emotions and her descriptions of Jokanaan change so quickly and wildly, it's clear that she has become unhinged; she is seeing something that we cannot.
Quote #5
HEROD The moon has a strange look to-night. Has she not a strange look? She is like a mad woman, a mad woman who is seeking everywhere for lovers. She is naked too. She is quite naked. The clouds are seeking to clothe her nakedness, but she will not let them. She shows herself naked in the sky. She reels through the clouds like a drunken woman… I am sure she is looking for lovers. Does she not reel like a drunken woman? She is like a mad woman, is she not?
HERODIAS No; the moon is like the moon, that is all. Let us go within… We have nothing to do here. (173-174)
Herod and Herodias see two very different things in the moon. Herod, like Salomé and the young Syrian before him, sees something strange about the way it looks. Herodias sees…well, the moon.
Quote #6
A JEW That cannot be. There is no man who hath seen God since the prophet Elias. He is the last man who saw God face to face. In these days God doth not show Himself. God hideth Himself. Therefore great evils have come upon the land.
ANOTHER JEW Verily, no man knoweth if Elias the prophet did indeed see God. Peradventure it was but the shadow of God that he saw.
A THIRD JEW God is at no time hidden. He showeth Himself at all times and in all places. God is in what is evil even as He is in what is good.
A FOURTH JEW Thou shouldst not say that. It is a very dangerous doctrine. It is a doctrine that cometh from Alexandria, where men teach the philosophy of the Greeks. And the Greeks are Gentiles. They are not even circumcised.
FIFTH JEW No man can tell how God worketh. His ways are very dark. It may be that the things which we call evil are good, and that the things which we call good are evil. There is no knowledge of anything. We can but bow our heads to His will, for God is very strong. He breaketh in pieces the strong together with the weak, for He regardeth not any man.
FIRST JEW Thou speakest truly. Verily, God is terrible. He breaketh in pieces the strong and the weak as men break corn in a mortar. But as for this man, he hath never seen God. No man hath seen God since the prophet Elias.
HERODIAS Make them be silent. They weary me. (219-225)
The Second Soldier's original characterization of the Jews as "only believing in things they can't see" is a bit of a simplification. They all have different opinions regarding the nature of their God.