The central poem is a narrative one composed out of 1.840 lines and its central story is that of Jesus Christ in his last days of life. The accent falls on the last night Jesus was alive on earth and starts with the moment when he was betrayed. The narrator then continues to talk about how Jesus was arrested and how he was sent before Caiaphas and charged with blasphemy.
The poem ends with the death of Jesus Christ and his certification while a large group of women stand some distance away and lament the fate of the son of God. The story of Jesus Christ is told in rapid succession and it spans only a few hundred lines towards the middle of the poem.
The beginning and the end can be seen as being meditative poems, analyzing two different subjects. The first 400 lines of the poem focus on the famous women in history and mythology as well as the woman who acted as a patron to the writer. The women mentioned in the first part of the poem are praised and the general idea is that even though women were seen as inferior during the time when the author wrote the poem, they were in reality superior in every sense.
The roles women have in society are also analyzed and the wife and mother are given the status of a saint because of the desire to put the needs of other people before her own. The transition between the first part and the story of Jesus Christ is made by the narrator through the mentioning of faithful women who lived during the 1st century, most notably, Mary, the mother of Jesus.
In fact, the female figure continues to be mentioned in the second part of the poem as well, women being mentioned as being disciples of Christ and a large group of women being described as following Christ as he was crucified.
The last part of the poem is addressed to the general public and contains advice every God-fearing Christia should follow and obey. While some of those suggestions were taken directly from the Bible, others were influenced by the most popular ideas which existed at the time when the poem was written.
Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum ends with a subtle call for equality, the narrator reminding everyone that in front of God, every man, woman and child is equal and as such we should strive for this as well in our everyday life.
