Image Details

© 1993 ARS, N.Y./ ADAGP, Paris

ON THE COVER: Bursting the boundaries between heaven and earth, an angel instructs Abraham not to sacrifice his son Isaac. Marc Chagall’s painting also shows Sarah at far left, anxiously awaiting the outcome of events; near her is the ram that will be substituted in Isaac’s stead. A figure carries a cross at upper right, a seeming link between the near sacrifice of Isaac and the Crucifixion; as Ziva Amishai-Maisels explains in the sidebar to “God Tests Abraham—Abraham Tests God,”, however, Chagall’s complex symbolism prevents a direct analogy. Two articles in this issue, “The Binding or Sacrifice of Isaac—How Jews and Christians See Differently,” and “God Tests Abraham—Abraham Tests God,” examine the events of Genesis 22:1–19 from the point of view of art history and theology.