a screenshot from Michael Marissen, Lutheranism, anti-Judaism, and Bach’s St. John Passion : with an annotated literal translation of the libretto, p. 29
SOME REMARKS (DW)
Achsaph belongs in the series of evil cities: Sodom, Babylon, Nineve…
Brockes, in his Passion, uses this metaphorical city (once captured by the Israelites) to evoke the image of dreadful pits where one perishes (‘murderous dens’) contrasting with the live-gving hill of Golgatha. Bach removes the baroque flavour of the image: ‘Achsaphs Mörderhöhlen’ becomes ‘euren Marterhöhlen’. This is conform the general tendency in the St Matthew Passion (Picander, libretto) where the focus on external effects is diminished compared with Brockes c.s. (the exception confirming the rule: ‘Sind blitze..’). Instead… the focus is on interiorisation.