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Photo © 1986 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.399)/Photo by Schechter Lee

ON THE COVER: “I cannot walk in these,” David complains when King Saul prepares the youth for battle with Goliath by dressing him in bulky armor (1 Samuel 17:39). As depicted on this Byzantine silver plate from Constantinople, Saul dresses David in a helmet and mail shirt, and arms him with a large round shield, a sword and a spear. In “Clothes Maketh the Man: Keys to Meaning in the Stories of Saul and David,” Ora Horn Prouser notes that David’s rise to power and Saul’s subsequent fall may be traced by their respective accumulation and loss of clothing.