Spear of Longinus
E809804
The Spear of Longinus is the legendary holy lance said to have pierced the side of Jesus during the Crucifixion, later becoming a powerful symbol in Christian myth and medieval literature.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Holy Lance | 5 |
| Spear of Longinus canonical | 3 |
| spear of Longinus | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9622511 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Spear of Longinus Context triple: [Parsifal, centralObject, Spear of Longinus]
-
A.
The Spear
The Spear is the nickname of the U.S. Air Force’s 53rd Wing, a unit known for operational testing and evaluation of advanced weapons and systems.
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B.
Spear
The Spear is a professional wrestling move in which a wrestler charges forward to tackle an opponent with a powerful, driving shoulder to the midsection.
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C.
Goliath's sword
Goliath's sword is the massive weapon taken by the young David after defeating the Philistine giant Goliath, later becoming a symbol of God's deliverance and David's rising status in biblical tradition.
-
D.
Caliburnus
Caliburnus is the Latinized medieval name for King Arthur’s legendary sword that later evolved into the more widely known form, Excalibur.
-
E.
Sword of Jerusalem
Sword of Jerusalem is the name given by Hamas to its May 2021 military operation against Israel during the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Spear of Longinus Target entity description: The Spear of Longinus is the legendary holy lance said to have pierced the side of Jesus during the Crucifixion, later becoming a powerful symbol in Christian myth and medieval literature.
-
A.
The Spear
The Spear is the nickname of the U.S. Air Force’s 53rd Wing, a unit known for operational testing and evaluation of advanced weapons and systems.
-
B.
Spear
The Spear is a professional wrestling move in which a wrestler charges forward to tackle an opponent with a powerful, driving shoulder to the midsection.
-
C.
Goliath's sword
Goliath's sword is the massive weapon taken by the young David after defeating the Philistine giant Goliath, later becoming a symbol of God's deliverance and David's rising status in biblical tradition.
-
D.
Caliburnus
Caliburnus is the Latinized medieval name for King Arthur’s legendary sword that later evolved into the more widely known form, Excalibur.
-
E.
Sword of Jerusalem
Sword of Jerusalem is the name given by Hamas to its May 2021 military operation against Israel during the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
holy lance
ⓘ
legendary Christian relic ⓘ religious artifact in Christian tradition ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Holy Lance
ⓘ
linked to:
Spear of Longinus
Holy Spear ⓘ Spear of Destiny ⓘ |
| appearsIn |
Christian apocryphal traditions
ⓘ
Christian legend ⓘ medieval Christian literature ⓘ |
| associatedWithConcept |
holy relics
ⓘ
imperial power in medieval legend ⓘ miraculous protection ⓘ victory in battle ⓘ |
| associatedWithEvent | Crucifixion of Jesus ⓘ |
| associatedWithFigure | Longinus ⓘ |
| associatedWithPerson | Jesus Christ ⓘ |
| associatedWithTheme | contact relics of Christ ⓘ |
| certaintyOfHistoricalExistence | disputed ⓘ |
| connectedToCharacter | Roman centurion identified as Longinus ⓘ |
| culturalImpact |
appears in modern fiction and popular culture
ⓘ
inspired later esoteric and occult interpretations ⓘ |
| genreOfNarratives |
hagiographic legend
ⓘ
medieval miracle stories ⓘ |
| hasClaimedRelic |
Antioch holy lance tradition
ⓘ
Echmiadzin lance tradition in Armenia ⓘ Vatican (Rome) holy lance tradition ⓘ Vienna imperial regalia lance tradition ⓘ |
| hasLegend |
its bearer holds power over the fate of empires
ⓘ
whoever possesses it cannot be defeated ⓘ |
| influenced |
Christian devotional practices
ⓘ
medieval relic cults ⓘ |
| linkedToLocation |
Jerusalem in Christian tradition
ⓘ
various claimed relics in Europe ⓘ |
| narrativeRole | instrument of the Passion of Christ ⓘ |
| referencedIn |
Christian art
ⓘ
iconography of the Crucifixion ⓘ literature about the Passion of Christ ⓘ |
| religion | Christianity ⓘ |
| roleInPiety | focus of relic devotion ⓘ |
| saidToHavePierced | side of Jesus ⓘ |
| symbolism |
authority
ⓘ
divine power ⓘ sacrifice ⓘ suffering of Christ ⓘ |
| timeOfFirstAttestation | late antique Christian tradition ⓘ |
| traditionStatus |
legendary
ⓘ
relic of the Passion ⓘ |
| venerationStatus | object of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Spear of Longinus Description of subject: The Spear of Longinus is the legendary holy lance said to have pierced the side of Jesus during the Crucifixion, later becoming a powerful symbol in Christian myth and medieval literature.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Spear of Longinus
linked to: Spear of Longinus
linked to: Spear of Longinus
linked to: Spear of Longinus
linked to: Spear of Longinus
linked to: Spear of Longinus