Image Details

Scala/Art Resource, New York, NY

“But where is the Lamb…?” (Genesis 22:7) queries Isaac, right, pictured in this late third century C.E. wall painting from the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome. Peering out from under his heavy burden of firewood, Isaac may remind the viewer of Jesus under the burden of his cross—each carried the means of his own death. Pilgrims to the Holy Land reinforced the understanding of Isaac as a precursor of Jesus by conflating Moriah, the site of Issac’s near-sacrifice, with Calvary, the site of the crucifixion. In Jewish tradition, Moriah is identified with the Temple Mount.