It was 1627 when Sir Francis Bacon published his utopian treatise New Atlantis and Europe was polluted by religious tensions, many of which revolved around the recent push of science, but some have existed long before that. Of course, one could enumerate these conflicts, citing the Protestant Reformation as many of their catalysts, but guided by the New Atlantis one should focus on the ever-fraught Jewish-Christian dynamic insofar as it informs Bacon's construction of his Bensalem utopia. Before we begin, it should be clear that the Jewish-Christian conflict long predates Bacon's writings and has its roots most saliently in the Jewish decision, attributing which many Christians have blamed the crucifixion of Jesus on the Jewish people and have cited the Bible as evidence. . (King James Bible, Matthew, 27:24-25). This, combined with myriad other complications, permeated anti-Semitism across the European continent, resulting in various crusades and pogroms that led to the massacre of countless Jews. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Now, given this brief history of Jewish-Christian tension, it is possible to compare it to New Atlantis, in which Bacon provides his reader with a utopia in which Jews and Christians tolerate each other. But it is not that Bensalem resembles Europe in all respects apart from religious harmony; indeed, Bensalem is a marked departure from Europe, for if it were not, its Jews and Christians would not coexist. The main difference is that Bensalem is an essentially scientific society, dedicated to the pursuit of natural philosophy, described here as knowledge and understanding of God's creations. (Pancetta, 20). Devotion to natural philosophy, as it exists in Bensalem, can be understood as the transcendent solution to Europe's incessant Jewish-Christian conflict; that is, through his utopia, Bacon hopes to argue that science, and the objective mindset it employs, promotes tolerance and peace. To this end, Bacon weaves Jewish tradition throughout the otherwise Christian Bensalem, and ultimately personifies this blending in the story's only Jewish character, Joabin, in whom he simultaneously dramatizes and rectifies the Jewish-Christian conflict. Before revealing the implications of Bensalem and Bacon's intentions, it is obvious that it is necessary to understand both the history and institutions of utopia. For an explanation of the first case, one can look to Joabin, who recalls the original Jewish ancestors of Bensalem: “being desirous by tradition among the Jews there to make people believe that his people were of the generation of Abraham… and that Moses by secret the cabal ordained the laws of Bensalem which they now use…” (26). However, Bensalem has since outgrown its Jewish roots, having become Christianized following the crucifixion of Jesus and the subsequent revelation of the ark by the apostle Bartholomew. (13). Intended to bring "salvation and peace", this ark contained books from both the Old and New Testaments - the former pertaining exclusively to Judaism but both to Christianity - and thus saved Bensalem from "infidelity", avoiding the flood that would have overwhelmed the rest. of the old world. (13). Despite this Christianization, Bensalem still retains “a few groups of Jews” (25), like Joabin, who are free to practice their religion. Indeed, utopia will never truly free itself of its Jewish roots: its name translates from Hebrew to mean "peaceful son", and perhaps Bacon chose this to remind the nowChristian his legacy. In any case, the Jews who remain, Bacon underlines, are “of a very different nature” (25) from the European Jews, who “hate the name of Christ and harbor a secret innate resentment against the people among whom they live. "(26). On the contrary, the "good Jew" of Bensalem would recognize that "Christ was born a virgin; and that he was more than a man", and such beliefs coexist with the rest of the Christian population, nullifying any potential conflict between the two groups. Now, one could argue that in Bacon's Bensalem it is not science that quells religious tension but this more flexible race of Judaism which is intrinsically less at odds with Christianity and therefore less controversial. But it is crucial to remember that Bensalem exists only hypothetically and that the Jewish-Christian conflict actually existed and informed Bacon's writings. Regardless of the differences between real contemporary European Jews and Bacon's, there is no Jewish-Christian conflict in Bensalem and its reasons have yet to be understood. As previously mentioned, Bensalem is a scientific society, supported within itself by the institution of the “House of Solomon,” the implications of which are both complex and vital to understanding the deeper allegories of the New Atlantis. From a sound point of view, “Solomon's House” recalls two figures: the first, Solomona, was the first king of Bensalem (18), and the second, the biblical Solomon, was the son of David and king of Israel. According to the Bible, God gave King Solomon “wisdom, understanding, and greatness of heart” (1 Kings 4:29), a description that undeniably drives Bacon's description of King Solomon as having a similar “great heart” (18 ). Furthermore, the crowning achievement of the biblical Solomon was the building of “a house of the Lord in Jerusalem” (2 Chron., 3:1); this first Jewish temple, or “Solomon's Temple,” was the contemporary mecca of Jewish worship, housing the Ark of the Covenant and attracting “all the men of Israel” as its crowd (1 Kings, 8:2). Just as the Bible remembers King Solomon by his temple, so too the Bensalemites remember King Solomon by his, similarly called the "House of Solomon," and considered the "noblest foundation...that ever stood on the earth, and the lantern of [Bensalem ]” (Bacon, 20), the sound similarity between the two respective institutions is not at all coincidental, since the “House of Solomon” of Bensalem can be understood as “naming the King of Jews” who King Solomon “finds himself symbolizing” and from whose works he appears to have been influenced (20). but to the Bensalemites: "for we have some parts of his works which have been lost among you; namely, that natural history which he wrote of all plants...and of all things that have life and movement" (20). , being acutely and undeniably aware of the connection between the natural sciences and King Solomon, these Bensalemites sometimes refer to the "House of Solomon" by another name, "The College of the Six-Day Works," a nomenclature which admits that the their "excellent King had learned from the Jews that God created the world and everything in it within six days" (20). As should come as no surprise, this second name also refers to the Bible, where God is said to have created the world in six days, with the seventh being considered the Sabbath (Exodus 20:11). No doubt aware of this infamous six-day time frame and its centrality in Jewish tradition, Bacon employs the number throughout the work, mentioning “six of the clock” and “six [travellers]” (6-7). While subtle, Bacon's repetition of the number six speaks more to the infusion of Jewish tradition into one.