913 Image, Imagery
her “Makers,” the alien race that originally seeded
the genetic material that resulted in the human
race.
In a number of films that subvert the Bible’s
creation stories, the protagonist rejects a safe (bor-
ing and predetermined) life in Eden to claim the
modern right to make his or her own decisions
(e.g., Pleasantville, dir. Gary Ross, 1998, US; The Tru-
man Show, dir. Peter Weir, 1998, US; The Adjustment
Bureau, dir. George Nolfi, 2011). In the films of Ross
and Nolfi, the god-figure expresses satisfaction that
his Adam and Eve have grasped the value of self-
determination – perhaps realizing the image of God
within themselves.
Finally, the question of God’s image is also im-
plicitly present in films that feature an actor (e.g.,
George Burns, Morgan Freeman) or actress (e.g., Al-
anis Morissette) playing the role of God. Such films
present viewers with an anthropomorphic “image”
of the God in whose image they were supposedly
made.
Bibliography: ■ Ployd, A., “‘A Glimmer of Adam’: The
Image of God in Aronofsky’s Noah,” Noah’s Flood (www.
floodofnoah.com; accessed October 24, 2015). ■ Sanders,
T., “In the Beginning: Adam and Eve in Film,” in The Bible
in Motion (ed. R. Burnette-Bletsch; HBR 2; Berlin 2016)
19–36.
Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch
See also /Anthropology; /God; /Idols, Idolatry
Image, Imagery
I. Introduction
II. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
III. Greco-Roman Antiquity
IV. New Testament
V. Judaism
VI. Christianity
VII. Islam
VIII. Literature
IX. Visual Arts
X. Music
XI. Film
I. Introduction
In poetic theory, “image” and “imagery” are said to
be “among the most widely used and poorly under-
stood terms …, occurring in so many different con-
texts that it may well be impossible to provide any
rational, systematic account of their usage” (Mitch-
ell/Glavey: 660). The same is true of the use of these
two terms in other fields as well. In the context of
EBR, “image” and “imagery” present a special chal-
lenge stemming from the multiplicity of the mean-
ings of the terms, and also from the differing ways
in which they tend to be used by scholars of the
Bible on the one hand, and on the other hand by
scholars in areas such as literary and art history in
which the study of biblical reception comes into
play. Here, an attempt will be made to explain how
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the notions of image and imagery are approached
in the articles below.
1. Etymological Considerations. The Latin term
imago, from which are derived – via Old French and
Anglo-Norman – the English “image” and “im-
agery” (cf. Fr. image, imagerie [lit. image-making];
Ital. immagine, immagini; Span. imagen, imaginería),
means primarily an imitation or copy of a thing, or
an image or likeness in the form of a picture, statue,
mask, or an apparition or ghost (Lewis). It is impor-
tant to note that neither imago nor its Greek equiva-
lent, εκν, was considered by the early Christians
to be the same as an idol. In fact, the notions of
images and icons were quite separate in the minds
of early Christian writers, who used εδωλον (image,
phantom), but also simulacrum (likeness, image, rep-
resentation) and γαλμα (statue in a god’s honor,
image) to discuss pagan idols, whereas imago/εκν
was used for portraits (in visual arts) or for visible
reflections of “real” albeit invisible entities (like
Christ as the image of God).
Entering currency during the early 13th cen-
tury, the Middle English term ymage or hymage,
which acquired its modern spelling image by the
second half of the 16th century, continues to denote
an artificial imitation or representation of some-
thing, especially a person, whether in the solid form
of a statue, effigy, or sculpted figure (e.g., a reli-
giously venerated saint or deity), or a form deline-
ated, painted, or otherwise produced on a surface
(e.g., a portrait, picture, or carving; OED, s.v., “Im-
age 1.a–b”). It is in this sense that the term
“(graven) image” is used, e.g., in certain Bible-ver-
sions’ renderings of Exod 20 : 4a’s injunction
against making any pesel (lit. “carved out”) or idol
(= εδωλον, LXX): e.g., KJV, GNV, RSV, NIV, and
most standard versions in French (image ; e.g., Mar-
tin, 1744; Darby, 1867; Louis Segond, 1910), Italian
(immagine; Giovanni Diodati, 1649; Riveduta, 1927),
and Spanish (imagen; Reina Valera, 1569; Reina Val-
era Gómez, 2004). Certain other versions render pe-
sel in this verse as “idol”: e.g., in English, NASB and
RSV; and in Spanish (idolo), La Biblia de las Américas
(1986) and La nueva Biblia de los Hispanos (2005).
2. The Notion of “Image” Informing the Articles in
this Entry. The primary notion of “image” that in-
forms the present entry is not its more modern asso-
ciation with “idol,” i.e., a sculptured, cast, or mod-
eled portrayal of a deity or person used as an object
of worship (see “Idols, Idolatry”; and also OED, s.v.
“Idol”). Nor is the informing notion the idea of
“image” in Gen 1 : 26–27’s sense of the human be-
ing’s having been made in God’s ṣelem (cf. Gen
9 : 6) – a term that is rendered as “image” in those
verses in virtually all standard English Bible ver-
sions, but that often connotes in Hebrew a “statue”
or “likeness,” as of a human being (see “Image of
God”).
Though semantically related to these more con-
crete denotations of statue, picture, or likeness, the
915 Image, Imagery
notion of “image” that informs this entry is one
that began to develop in English as late as the 16th
century: the representation in the mind of a sensory expe-
rience or of an object that is knowable through at least one
of the senses (cf. Holman: 263; Friedman: 363; see
also OED, s.v., “image 6.a–b; 7.a”). Linguistically,
any word that names a concrete object (e.g., a tree)
or action (e.g., running), or, for that matter, an ob-
ject engaged in an action (e.g., a burning bush),
constitutes an image, and any object, action, or ac-
tive object that we can picture or imagine is an im-
age (cf. Ryken/Wilhoit/Longman: xiii), with the
word “imagery” denoting the use of such images
collectively (OED, s.v. “imagery 4.a–b”). In turn, im-
ages in this sense can bear either literal or figurative
meanings: e.g., the cross on which Jesus was cruci-
fied might conjure the literal image of two wood-
beams, one beam shorter than the other, with the
shorter one being attached at its midpoint perpen-
dicularly across the longer, about two-thirds up the
longer beam; at the same time, figuratively, the
cross image might also evoke the suffering of Jesus
and/or his conquest of death.
The specific concern of the following articles is
with images and imagery in both the HB/OT and
the NT, especially (a) as such images manifest them-
selves in the forms of symbols, allegories, meta-
phors, and similes (see also “Symbol, Symbolism”;
“Allegory”; “Metaphor”; “Simile”; and Ryken et al.:
xiii–xv), and then also (b) as all of these sorts of
biblical images and imageries have been adapted
from the Bible into the thinking, teachings, litur-
gies, and other expressions of postbiblical Jews,
Christians, and Muslims, as well as into the various
genres of literature, visual arts, music, and film. In
sum, the articles that follow, including the one on
visual arts, focus not so much upon statues, pic-
tures, and other art works themselves as images,
but rather, mainly, upon prominent images and im-
agery within the Bible, and the subsequent reception of
those biblical images and imagery.
For a systematic treatment of some of the more
widely recurrent “archetypal” images or imagery
from the Bible, e.g., agricultural, pastoral, para-
disal, urban, demonic, apocalyptic, spiritual or an-
gelic, and so forth, see Frye 1982. See Ryken et al.:
xviii–xx for a broad schematization that classifies
archetypal images according to “category of experi-
ence” (e.g., supernatural agents and settings, hu-
man characters, clothing, food, etc.); “ideal experi-
ence” (e.g., God, angels, etc.; hero or heroine,
virtuous wife/husband/mother/father, etc.; stately
garments, festal garments, etc.; staple foods such as
bread, milk, meat, etc.); and “unideal experience”
(Satan, demons, etc.; villain, tempter, etc.; ill-fitting
garments, mourning garments, etc.; hunger,
drought, etc.).
Bibliography: ■ Friedman, N., “Imagery,” Princeton Encyclo-
pedia of Poetry and Poetics (ed. A. Preminger; Princeton, N.J.
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2
1972) 363–70. ■ Frye, N., The Great Code: The Bible and Lit-
erature (New York 1982). ■ Holman, C. H., “Image” and
“Imagery” in id., A Handbook to Literature (Indianapolis, Ind./
New York 31972) 263–64, 264–65. ■ Lewis, T. L., “Imago,”
in id., A Latin Dictionary (Oxford 1879) 888. ■ Mitchell,
W. J. T./B. Glavey, “Image,” Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry
and Poetics (ed. R. Greene; Princeton/Oxford 42012) 660–62.
■ Oxford English Dictionary [OED] (32009; available at:
www.oed.com; accessed October 8, 2015). ■ Ryken, L. et al.
(eds.), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, Ill.
1998).
Eric Ziolkowski
II. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
The language of religion is generally rich in im-
agery and so are biblical texts. Especially biblical
poetry like hymns, laments, victory songs, love
poems, wisdom instructions or prophetic speech
show a great variety of images.
Images offer a new and alternative ways of see-
ing and constructing reality, inspiring an interac-
tion between the literary production and reception
of meaning. Images depend on the imagination of
the author and the readers alike. When images con-
vey main contents through the imaginative power
of the recipients, it follows that their meaning is
not determined. They rather induce a vagueness of
meaning and are always open for a range of expla-
nations. Hence any interpretation can only show a
broad concept of meaning (Zimmermann: 108–9).
Images are, of course, not restricted to literature
but are of equal importance in art. This article,
however, can only offer a brief overview of imagery
in biblical texts.
Although there is a broad consensus that under-
standing images is crucial for understanding the
texts, the terms image and imagery are not pre-
cisely defined. They are, instead, used in a wide var-
iety of ways, thus “image is a term which designates
both metaphor and description, both a purely lin-
guistic relation between words and a referential re-
lation to a nonlinguistic reality, both a rhetorical
device and a psychological event” (Mitchell: 557).
The term imagery has often been applied partic-
ularly to the figurative language used in a literary
work. The most important concepts in this regard
are: metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification,
synecdoche, allegory, symbol (Friedman: 560).
The essence of these images is frequently de-
scribed as “the juxtaposition of two different levels
of meaning” (Watson: 270). This could be a single
word, evoking a literal picture together with vari-
ous connotations or overtones, as well as a combina-
tion of words or utterances creating a totally new
meaning.
In the case of metaphor (see “Metaphor”) or
simile, but also parallelism, an interaction between
two separate things or concepts that do not neces-
sarily occur together is created (Berlin/Brettler:
2097–104).
917 Image, Imagery
For example, in the lines “their inmost self is
destruction / an open grave is their throat” (Ps
5 : 10), parts of the adversary’s body are equated
with an abstract entity, destruction, or a structure,
a grave. The interaction of these different things
marks the adversaries as life threatening danger.
In contrast to metaphors, which constitute an
interaction between different concepts, metonymy
and synechdoche substitute one word with another
on the basis of some close relation. It thus provides
access to a concept through another part of the
same concept (Wallace: 783): for example, place for
a condition: pit for death (Ps 30 : 3; 88 : 6); body part
for the person: npš (vital power) for the person e.g.,
Ps 57 : 2.7; 63 : 2, 6, 9; tool for an action: sword for
war (Jer 46 : 10; Ezek 33 : 27; Mic 6 : 14; Nah 3 : 15);
tongue for speech (e.g., Gen 10 : 5, 20; Deut 28 : 49;
Isa 28 : 11; Jer 18 : 18; Job 6 : 30).
Personification treats inanimate objects or non-
human creatures as if they were a person, thus cre-
ating a vivid image and emphasizing one aspect or
characteristic element. It offers a way of “taking
hold of things which appear startlingly uncontrol-
lable” (Arthos: 902): for example, the threatening
aspect of the Sheol (or Isa 3 : 26; 5 : 14; Ps 18 : 6).
In a similar way, an apostrophe uses an inani-
mate object as addressee (e.g., Jer 47 : 6; Isa 23 : 4,12;
23 : 1,14; Mic 6 : 9).
A symbol is a word or phrase that beyond its
literal meaning also represents something else.
Since almost everything can be seen as standing for
something else, the term symbol has a broad range.
Most times symbols emerge as shared language/
images in a culture (see “Symbol, Symbolism”).
For example, “living water” may stand for the life-
giving aspect of God (Jer 2 : 13; 17 : 13; Zech 14 : 8;
Joh 4 : 10; Rev 7 : 17; 21 : 6; 22 : 17).
Images not only occur as isolated images, but
they also form constellations and patterns, image
fields, characterizing a whole text. Or, like an alle-
gory (see “Allegory”), a whole story may refer to a
second distinct meaning hidden behind its literal
meaning. For example, Jotham’s speech (Judg 9 : 8–
15) presents a story of trees looking for a king.
While on a literal level it looks like a fairy tale, the
narrative context reveals its highly metaphorical
rhetoric and its function as a critical, prophetic re-
flection. The core image unfolded in several varia-
tions is the metaphor “the king is a tree.”
In order to understand images, the reader’s
knowledge and familiarity with their cultural set-
tings is required. User and reader must share the
same context, language, and world-view. For bibli-
cal images, it is thus important to gain some kind
of access to their meaning in their ancient context.
As many of the images are derived from natural
phenomena, it is, e.g., necessary to know the fauna
and flora of biblical Israel, agricultural practices or
geographic settings. Of equal importance are cus-
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toms, lifestyle, politics, or anthropologic concepts,
including concepts of the body (cf. Schroer/Staubli).
Yet other images derive from the mythology of
neighboring civilizations (e.g., Isa 14 : 12; Watson:
271). Furthermore, images may also have a history
of their own which can be assumed by poets for
their original audiences (Strawn: 308). A thorough
investigation of imagery in biblical and non-biblical
texts thus may help to trace typical contexts of im-
ages and traces of an image’s history. Such surveys
must also include the non-textual background of
images. Especially artistic remains provide an im-
portant source for biblical images as the pioneering
work of Keel, Uehlinger, Schroer, and Staubli has
shown. In addition to texts, art may also offer a
window into the images of the ancient world.
The function of images is almost as manifold as
their appearance. They have a rhetorical function
enlivening a text, but images are more than embel-
lishing language and texts. They affect the readers
by integrating them more strongly into the con-
struction of meaning. Images challenge the imagi-
nation of the audience and require them to embark
on new combinations of meaning and subsequently
new perspectives of reality.
Emphasizing one specific aspect of a thing or
motive, like personification or metonymy, they in-
vite the readers to focus and thus to shift their per-
spective and recognize an unusual facet or action.
Metaphors and similes even lead a step further.
Their often daring combinations of autonomous
concepts urge the percipients to create new in-
sights.
Furthermore, images often add evaluations, and
thereby articulate needs and desires, as they express
a beneficial or inimical relationship between a cer-
tain thing and the needs of the lyrical speaker (e.g.,
Prov 17 : 22). Hence, images can modify the com-
municative structure of an utterance, and be instru-
ments for the stimulation of emotions (MacCor-
mac: 160).
Bibliography: ■ Alter, R., The Art of Biblical Poetry (New York
1985). ■ Arthos, J., “Personification,” The New Princeton En-
cyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (ed. A. Preminger/T.V.F. Bro-
gan; Princeton, N.J. 1993) 902. ■ Berlin, A./M. Z. Brettler
(eds.), The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford 2004). ■ Friedman, N.,
“Imagery,” The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
(ed. A. Preminger/T.V.F. Brogan; Princeton, N.J. 1993) 559‒
66. ■ Gibbs Jr., R. W. (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Meta-
phor and Thought (Cambridge Handbooks of Psychology;
Cambridge 2008). ■ Keel, O., Die Welt der altorientalischen
Bildsymbolik und das Alte Testament (Cologne 1972). ■ Keel,
O., Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel (Minne-
apolis, Minn. 1998). ■ MacCormac, E. R., A Cognitive Theory
of Metaphor (Cambridge, Mass. 31990). ■ Mitchell, W. J. T.,
“Image,” The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
(ed. A. Preminger/T.V.F. Brogan; Princeton, N.J. 1993) 556‒
59. ■ Ryken, L. et al. (eds.), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
(Downers Grove, Ill. 1998). ■ Schroer, S./O. Keel, Die Ikono-
graphie Palästinas/Israels und der Alte Orient, 3 vols. (Fribourg
2005–11). ■ Schroer, S./T. Staubli, Die Körpersymbolik der
919 Image, Imagery
Bibel (Darmstadt 1998). ■ Strawn, B. A., “Image,” Dictionary
of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings (ed. T. Long-
mann III/P. Enns; Downers Grove, Ill. 2008) 306‒14.
■ Wallace, M., “Metonymy,” The New Princeton Encyclopedia of
Poetry and Poetics (ed. A. Preminger/T. V. F. Brogan; Prince-
ton, N.J. 1993) 783. ■ Watson, W. G. E., “Hebrew Poetry,”
in Text in Context: Essays by Members of the Society for Old Testa-
ment Study (ed. A. D. H. Mayes; Oxford 2000) 253‒85.
■ Zimmermann, R., “Metapherntheorie und biblische Bild-
sprache: Ein methodologischer Versuch,“ TZ 56 (2000)
108‒33.
Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher
III. Greco-Roman Antiquity
1. Terminology. While a wide range of terms has
been employed to designate different forms of pic-
torial representation in language (μεταφορ [meta-
phor], λληγορα [allegory], παραβολ [parable],
μοιτης [simile], σμβολον [symbol], μθος [myth],
ανιγμα [riddle]) as well as in the visual arts
(εδωλον, ναθημα, πναξ, ξανον, γλυφ, σφραγς,
κολοσσς, σ"μα, τπος , #κμαγε$ον), the most com-
prehensive ancient term is image (εκν). Used in
pagan-religious as well as Hellenistic-Jewish and
early Christian texts (Willms; Eltester), the term en-
compasses the various forms of artistic, pictorial or
parabolic representation. Moreover, in a Platonic
framework it even incorporates the ontological vi-
sion of the physical world as an image of the noetic
sphere of God (Plato, Tim. 92c; Plutarch, Is. Os.
372F–373A: εκ%ν γ&ρ #στιν ο'σας #ν (λῃ γ)νεσις
κα* μμημα το +ντος τ, γινμενον; cf. 371A–B;
373B; Tranq. an. 477C–D; An. procr. 1013C; Hirsch-
Luipold: 159–224; Fazzo: 61–113). In his allegorical
interpretation of the biblical account of the creation
of man in God’s image (Gen 1 : 27) the Jewish phi-
losopher and exegete Philo of Alexandria accumu-
lates a whole range of terms surrounding εκν (πα-
ρδειγμα, πεικνισμα, πεικονζεσθαι, σκι,
ρχ)τυπος, χαρακτρ; Leg. 3.95–98 on Gen 1 : 27) in
order to describe the relation between 1) the creator
as the first παρδειγμα; 2) the creational word (λ-
γος) as the creator’s shadow and as the second πα-
ρδειγμα; and 3) creation.
While image (εκν) is used in ancient dis-
course, imagery is a modern conceptualization.
However, imagery is widely used by some authors
(Plutarch, Maximus, Porphyry) not only in poetry
and rhetoric, but also in religious and even philo-
sophical texts of late Hellenistic and early Imperial
times through theoretical reflections on their rhe-
torical, educational, and hermeneutical role.
2. Ontology, Epistemology, and Hermeneutics.
The basis for all philosophical usage of images was
Plato’s concept of the phenomenal world as repre-
senting an image of the intelligible (Plato Resp.;
Soph. 239c–240b; Vernant; Böhme: 7–25) along with
his theory of representation in language (Crat.
432b–d; 439b). Creating images was linked to mi-
mesis. Plato’s famous parable of the chair in Resp.
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10.596e–598d encapsulates the idea that the image
produced by an artist (the painted chair) is only the
copy of a physical object (the chair produced by a
carpenter) which, in turn, is a representation of the
truly existing form (the idea of a chair) crafted by
God (597b). Thus, image carried the meaning of a
secondary or tertiary reality. It was often used, due
to its persuasive quality, in a pejorative sense to de-
note a false or distorted presentation of reality. Be-
cause of its position between being and non-being,
the image appeared as an epistemological problem
in the Sophist (240a–d), Plato himself (Tim. 92c)
paved a way for more positive appreciation.
On this basis, a reevaluation of the image took
place in Middle-Platonic thinking along with a ree-
valuation of the physical world in its potential to
lead to the sphere of the truth and to God. On ac-
count of their actual ontological relation, images
provide the only possible access to the otherwise
unknowable divine. The image was thus turned
into a hermeneutical tool. The Platonic philosopher
Plutarch develops a full-fledged theory of images
(Eltester: 60–68; Hirsch-Luipold), which allow him
to critically assess different representations of the
divine in various cultures and religious systems and
even to incorporate iconoclastic tendencies as initi-
ated among Greek intellectuals through their con-
tact with Hellenistic Judaism. This also allows him
to appreciate or at least accept foreign forms of wor-
ship, including the generally despised worship of
Egyptian animal-gods: while Plutarch is often
thought of as being critical of Egyptian animal-
gods (Richter), he elevates these images of the di-
vine above the famous Greek chryselephantine stat-
ues of Pheidias as a rhetorical move. If not falsely
regarded and worshipped as the gods themselves,
but as images, they indicate one of the most impor-
tant features of the divine, namely its vitality. The
Greek images, on the other hand, are made up of
dead material and thus “in worth even below dead
corpses” (Is. Os. 76.382B). To clarify the troubling
relation between God and the physical world, Plu-
tarch used the comparison of an imprint in wax,
ultimately derived from Plato’s Theaet. 191c: the re-
presented reality is visible while not physically
present (cf. Plutarch, Pyth. orac. 404C).
Clement of Alexandria summarizes the more
positive evaluation of images when stating that
while an image is a mere shadow, its value lies in
its showing at least the shape of the represented
reality. This Middle-Platonic view of the image has
been used as a backdrop to Johannine use of im-
agery (Zimmermann; Attridge).
Despite its abundant usage of christological im-
agery, the Gospel of John transgresses the bounda-
ries of Platonism with the statement in John 1 : 18
that the divine logos became flesh (which may ex-
plain why the term image is never used in the
Fourth Gospel).
921 Image, Imagery
Just like myths, visions, or dreams, images can-
not clearly be distinguished from reality and are not
simply translatable into discursive language; see for
example Turnus’ dream in Virgil Aen. 7.413–466:
the burning torch thrown into Turnus’ chest by the
Fury Allecto makes him sweat (physically) and
causes his fury to boil over (psychologically) like a
kettle under fire (metaphorically).
3. Rhetoric, Pedagogy, and Hermeneutics. De-
spite Plato’s critical remarks on the ontological sta-
tus of images, he is already well aware of their peda-
gogical and hermeneutical importance and thus
makes ample use of metaphorical language in his
philosophy. Arguably, his most influential meta-
phor was that of the demiurge in the Timaeus. Ac-
cording to ancient rhetorical theory, the use of im-
agery was related to evidentia or #νργεια (cf.
Lausberg: §§ 810–19). Its function is to bring about
vividness in a declamation and to render philo-
sophical propositions and ethical instructions evi-
dent. When employed in philosophical and reli-
gious texts, images are often grouped together as
clusters, or formed into overarching motifs (Freed-
man) constituting an element of text coherence and
at the same time carrying distinct philosophical or
theological messages.
4. Interpretation of Imagery as Reappropriation
of Tradition. In Hellenistic and Roman imperial
times religious traditions are reinterpreted as im-
ages, either of the divine or of a life in accordance
with the divine, and thereby reappropriated in a
philosophical or ethical way. In Hellenistic Judaism
(Aristobulus; Letter of Aristeas; Philo), allegorical in-
terpretation of the Mosaic law becomes a way of
making sense of Jewish dietary laws and of the nar-
rative traditon of the Torah for a Greek-philosophi-
cal audience by way of an ethical and anagogical
interpretation. Philo’s whole project of an allegori-
cal commentary on the Torah can be viewed as a
pictorial interpretation of this founding document
of his religious tradition attributing to it a second
layer of meaning: the story about the flight from
Egypt in fact narrates the soul’s strife to free itself
from the body. Allegorizing of Jewish law is taken
up in a Christian context in the Epistle of Barnabas,
and later in the Physiologus, a handbook of christo-
logical imagery (mainly animals, but also stones
and trees) probably dating from the 2nd or 3rd cen-
tury CE (see “Physiologus”).
The most extended and elaborate use of im-
agery in a religious-philosophical context is found
in Plutarch. His images are taken from a range of
traditions, from Greece and Rome to Egypt, Persia
and India. Especially the writings of his later years,
when Plutarch served as a priest of Apollo at Del-
phi, discuss the rich symbolism surrounding the
sanctuary of Apollo (E Delph.) with its manifold vo-
tive offerings (Pyth. orac.) as images of the divine.
The discussion of Egyptian myth (Hardie) and sym-
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bolism in De Iside et Osiride includes extended reflec-
tions on how religious images – both Egyptian and
Greek – are to be interpreted. In addition to reli-
gious imagery, Plutarch uses images from fields as
diverse as biology and history, medicine, music, and
mathematics (for an overview see Fuhrmann). This
is followed by several authors of the later Platonic
tradition. Plutarch’s didactic use of imagery influ-
enced early Christian theology (Clement; Origen)
and preaching (Basil). Porphyry presents an ex-
tended allegorical interpretation of the Homeric
tale of the grotto of the nymphs (Il. 13.102–112) in
De antro nympharum, which contains rich reflections
on the ways in which mythological fiction (μυθ-
ριον πλσμα) may in fact allude to images of the
divine (εκνας τ/ν θειοτ)ρων; ch. 36). In his largely
lost treatise On images, Porphyry reflects on the
philosophical interpretations of statues and their
attributes. As a philosophical teacher writing under
the reign of emperor Marcus Aurelius, Maximus of
Tyre shows in On images (Or. 2) how much this topic
was of philosophical interest. The orator Dio Chry-
sostom dedicates one of his speeches to the statue
of Zeus in Olympia (Or. 12), discussing it as an espe-
cially fitting image of divine power and grace. The
widely read anonymous Tablet of Cebes presents an
allegory of life in the rhetorical form of an ekphra-
sis – a description of a votive offering to the temple
of Kronos in Thebes.
Bibliography: ■ Attridge, H. W., “The Cubist Principle in
Johannine Imagery: John and the Reading of Images in Con-
temporary Platonism,” in Imagery in the Gospel of John (ed. J.
Frey et al.; WUNT 200; Tübingen 2006) 47–60. ■ Boehm,
G. (ed.), Was ist ein Bild? (Munich 1994). ■ Böhme, G., Theo-
rie des Bildes (Munich 2004). ■ Eltester, F.-W., Eikon im
Neuen Testament (Berlin 1958). ■ Fazzo, V., La giustificazione
delle immagini religiose dalla tarda antichità al cristianesimo, vol.
1: La tarda antichità, con un’ Appendice sull’ Iconoclasmo bizantino
(Naples 1977). ■ Fuhrmann, F., Les images de Plutarque
(Paris 1964). ■ Hardie, P. R., “Plutarch and the Interpreta-
tion of Myth,” ANRW.2 33.6 (Berlin 1992) 4743–87.
■ Hirsch-Luipold, R., Plutarchs Denken in Bildern: Studien zur
literarischen, philosophischen und religiösen Funktion des Bildhaf-
ten (STAC 14; Tübingen 2002). ■ Vernant, J.-P., “Image et
apparence dans la théorie platoniciennede la mimêsis,” Jour-
nal de Psychologie 72 (1975) 133–60. ■ Willms, H., Eikon:
Eine begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum Platonismus (Müns-
ter 1935). ■ Zimmermann, R., Christologie der Bilder im Jo-
hannesvangelium: Die Christopoetik des vierten Evangeliums unter
besonderer Berücksichtigung von Joh 10 (WUNT 171; Tübingen
2004).
Rainer Hirsch-Luipold
IV. New Testament
The NT uses a diversity of images to communicate
its message. These are not secondary or ornamental
but intrinsic to its meaning. The most significant of
the images take on the quality of religious symbols
which contain and articulate theological truth. As
symbols, they are not simply signposts pointing
elsewhere but bearers of meaning.
923 Image, Imagery
The NT, e.g., makes extensive use of agricul-
tural and farming imagery. The parables of the Syn-
optics are a good example (Mark 4 : 1–34 par.), with
their use of planting, growing and reaping as im-
ages of the reign of God and its mysterious presence
in the world. John’s gospel uses images of sheepfold
and vine (John 10 : 1–18; 15 : 1–17), which draw
their meaning from the HB/OT depiction of Israel.
In 1 Corinthians Paul uses agricultural imagery to
speak of the church’s leaders and the cooperative
spirit of their ministry (3 : 5–9). It implies that the
church requires different gifts to flourish, without
conflict or competition. The book of Revelation
concludes with a vision of the heavenly city which
has as its center a garden and an avenue of trees on
either side of a river (22 : 1–2). The imagery here
connotes the final union of nature and civilization,
a reference to the restoration of Eden.
Another example is relational imagery. The
prominence of these images reflects a culture in
which individual identity is embedded in the fam-
ily. Particularly frequent is the image of father and
son which, grounded in the experience and spiritu-
ality of the historical Jesus, depicts the intimacy of
the relationship between God and Jesus. In John’s
Gospel, the role of Jesus as Son is unique; Jesus
speaks of “my Father” (John 2 : 16; 5 : 17) rather
than “our Father” (as in the Lord’s Prayer, Matt
6 : 9; Luke 11 : 2). Paul sees the believer as entering
into Jesus’ relationship with God, so that he or she
can name God as “abba” (Rom 8 : 15). An extension
of this imagery is that of believers as brothers and
sisters to one another, all belonging to the one
“family” of God, a circle of intimacy and belonging
(Acts 14 : 2; Gal 5 : 13).
Imagery from the natural world is also present.
Animal images belong in this group, the most re-
markable being that of Jesus as the Lamb of God
(John 1 : 29; 1 Cor 5 : 7; Rev 5 : 12–13). The Spirit is
depicted in the image of a dove (Mark 1 : 10 par.).
The righteous are sheep and the unrighteous goats,
separated at nightfall in the Great Judgment (Matt
25 : 31–46). The Sermon on the Mount uses imagery
of birds and wildflowers to depict a life free of anxi-
ety (Matt 6 : 26–29). Light and darkness are also
common images that reflect the natural cycle of day
and night. Light is an image of the gift of new life.
Thus Jesus is the light of the world, leading his fol-
lowers out of darkness (John 8 : 12); the community
of faith is a light for others, a beacon of righteous-
ness in the surrounding darkness (Matt 5 : 14); Paul
is struck by a blinding light on the Damascus road,
signifying his transformation from persecutor to
believer (Acts 9 : 3).
A variation on the light imagery is that of ar-
mor. The Christian, says Paul, is to be clothed para-
doxically in light, an element at once insubstantial
and transparent, protective because it is redolent of
God (Rom 13 : 12). In Ephesians, this image is ex-
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tended to represent the panoply of the Christian
warrior’s armor – the belt, the breastplate, the foot-
wear, the shield, the helmet – all signifying faith
and salvation, the believer thereby defended against
the powers of evil (Eph 6 : 11–17). In 2 Corinthians
light is associated with the divine glory and the rev-
elation of Sinai (2 Cor 3 : 7–18), not the physical
light of the sun but the glory of God’s self-revela-
tion, a revelation enabling believers to be desig-
nated as “children of light” (1 Thess 5 : 5; Eph 5 : 8).
God’s own being is imaged as light without a hint
of darkness (1 John 1 : 5).
Other imagery is associated with daily human
activities: eating, drinking, washing, walking, run-
ning, following, fishing, seeing, hearing. Each im-
age is used of an aspect of discipleship or the con-
nection with God or the mission of the church.
These images link salvation to the everyday, enclos-
ing the extraordinary in the ordinary, the numi-
nous in the pedestrian, thus making it possible for
the reader to mark the connections between
“above” and “below,” the present and God’s future,
the material and the spiritual.
Perhaps the most remarkable of NT images is
that of the cross. In its own day an image (and expe-
rience) of shameful and painful death (i.e., the hu-
miliating exposure for acts of sedition against im-
perial authority), it becomes for NT theologians the
icon of salvation. This imaginative transposition
lies at the heart of biblical theology. The means of
degradation and death becomes in God’s hands, ac-
cording to the NT writings, the image par excel-
lence of hope and new life. For Mark, Matthew, and
Paul, the contrast is apparent in their emphasis on
the powerlessness of the cross as the paradoxical
demonstration of divine power (Mark 15 : 34 par.;
1 Cor 1 : 18–25). The cross here is imaged as the
lowest point transformed in the resurrection to
reach the heights of divine glory. For Luke, the
cross is the symbol of forgiving love (23 : 42–43).
For Hebrews, it is encased in the symbolism of the
temple cult, with its focus on high priest, sacrifice,
and atonement (5 : 7–10; 9 : 11–14). For John, the
cross itself is an event of exaltation and glory, re-
vealing the loving and life-giving nature of God
(12 : 32; 17 : 1).
These and other core images, read within their
literary contexts, articulate vibrantly the message of
the NT in its diversity. The use of imagery and sym-
bol as a primary method of communication de-
mands a corresponding response from the reader,
particularly through imagination: the power to see
and grasp the images and their significance for
faith.
Bibliography: ■ Burridge, R. A., Four Gospels, One Jesus? A
Symbolic Reading (Grand Rapids, Mich. 2005). ■ Collins, R.
F., The Power of Images in Paul (Collegeville, Pa. 2008).
■ Ryken, L./J. C. Wilhoit (eds.), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
(Downers Grove, Ill. 1998).
Dorothy A. Lee
925 Image, Imagery
V. Judaism
■ Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism ■ Rabbinic
Judaism
A. Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism
In written works produced by Judaism of the Helle-
nistic period many of the prevailing types of im-
agery seen in the literature that came to be included
in the HB/OT can also be observed. Some of this
similar employment of figurative language is likely
due to Hellenistic Jewish literature’s shared cultural
milieu with the texts of the HB/OT. Not only did
Hellenistic Jewish texts participate in the same ex-
change of ideas and concepts with surrounding cul-
tures in the Levant, Mesopotamia, and the Eastern
Mediterranean, but it is increasingly clear that these
texts were also being created and transmitted
alongside the “biblical” texts without categorical
distinction. Thus, because HB/OT texts like Qohe-
leth, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and 1–2 Chronicles
are themselves likely to be products of Hellenistic
Judaism, and most other “biblical” texts continued
to be transformed during the transmission process,
we should expect considerable overlap in the em-
ployment of literary imagery. Moreover, Hellenistic
Jewish texts evince some uses of literary imagery
that are employed in a way that might be termed
exegetical in that they create multiple layers of
meaning from a text in the process of reading and
interpretation. This exegetical relationship to exist-
ing written works, which are frequently recogniz-
able as texts that came to be included in the HB/OT,
further facilitates the continuity of imagery be-
tween all these texts. Despite the general continuity
with the HB/OT that is observed in the use of figu-
rative language there are several ways in which cer-
tain types of imagery rise to greater prominence in
the literature of Hellenistic Judaism. Perhaps the
best-known use of imagery within this literature
comes in the apocalyptic descriptions of supernatu-
ral beings populating alternate, often heavenly, re-
alities imagined by Hellenistic Jewish scribes. An
extraordinary and influential example comes in
Dan 7, wherein a series of supernatural beasts is
described using rich simile and metaphor from the
natural world. One of these beasts looks “like a lion
with wings like an eagle,” which is later set upon
“human feet” and given a “human heart” (Dan
7 : 4). This grotesque imagery of the beast is a zoo-
morphic representation of the first of four periods
of history, usually interpreted as the Neo-Babylo-
nian empire. Thus, multiple levels of meaning are
conveyed through the use of figurative language in
a single vision. Another figure in this same vision is
called “ancient of days,” whose “cloak is like white
snow, and the hair on his head is like pure wool.
His throne is like fiery flame, and its wheels are of
burning fire” (Dan 7 : 9). The figure is often inter-
preted as a personification of a supreme deity,
either YHWH, or another Levantine god, and the
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imagery by which he is depicted invites a compari-
son with descriptions of heavenly beings from the
HB/OT prophetic corpus and Canaanite literature.
The vision of the heavenly throne has further cog-
nates both within apocalyptic literature and in
other texts that some scholars have termed mysti-
cal. These examples exist within a richly figurative
description of the course of history directed within
a heavenly court, and similar examples exist
throughout apocalyptic literature of Hellenistic Ju-
daism, such as 1 Enoch, Hazon Gabriel, or 3 Baruch.
Although it is unclear from a modern perspective
to what extent this type of imagery is intended to
provide a definitive statement on the identity of di-
vine beings or the cosmic order, it is clear that apo-
calyptic and mystical literature (like Joseph and Ase-
neth and the Testament of Job) of the Hellenistic
period heavily relies on the combination of images
from the natural world to describe supernatural be-
ings and events using figurative language like met-
aphor, simile, and personification.
A second novel use of figurative language ob-
served within literature of Hellenistic Judaism
comes in the form of allegory. The prominence of
allegory in this literature may be related to the par-
allel use of allegory among the Greeks in reading
poetry and didactic texts, especially the epics of Ho-
mer. Particular to Hellenistic Judaism, this type of
creation of multiple layers of meaning in texts is in
evidence both in composition and exegesis. So, for
example, while a text like Let. Aris. 142–71, employs
allegory to interpret the true meaning behind the
dietary laws contained in the Pentateuch, a text like
the animal apocalypse of 1 En. 85–90 independently
relates the history of the world in the form of an
allegory. Both the exegetical and compositional use
of allegory are observed in a wide variety of literary
genres. Philo of Alexandria, in Abr. 50–52 uses the
stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a means to
reflect on the nature of the soul in a way that blends
allegorical exegesis with philosophical composi-
tion. Quite distinctly, Pesher Nahum (4Q169) – as
well as other “continuous pesharim,” which are
running commentaries on scriptural writings found
at Qumran – uses the text of Nahum to interpret
historical realities of the 1st century BCE. Despite
the differences in genre and aims in these cases, al-
legory is prominently employed as an expression of
figurative language.
Bibliography: ■ Aaron, D. H., Biblical Ambiguities: Metaphor,
Semantics, and Divine Imagery (Leiden 2001). ■ Collins, J., The
Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to the Jewish Matrix of
Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich./Cambridge 21998).
■ Niehoff, M. R., Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Al-
exandria (Cambridge 2011). ■ Portier-Young, A. E., Apoca-
lypse against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism
(Grand Rapids, Mich. 2011).
Francis Borchardt
927 Image, Imagery
B. Rabbinic Judaism
As many have noted, metaphors and imagery in
general reflect, preserve, and perpetuate certain re-
alities and prevalent concepts of their societies
(Goatly; Satlow 2000). Rabbinic imagery owes much
of its symbolic lexicon to the biblical legacy of idi-
oms, but it offers a variety of new and innovative
symbols as well.
1. Purposes of Imagery. The purposes of imagery
are manifold. Parables may be used to delicately ex-
press views that might be offensive. The most glar-
ing example is R. Johanan’s grievance against God
for not saving Abel, likening him to a king who
allows gladiators to struggle before him although it
is in his power to spare their lives (BerR 22 : 10; cf.
Halbertal 1998 and further examples there). Im-
agery is used to achieve visual accuracy within a tex-
tual tradition, as seen in the discussion of various
shades of red for the purpose of identification of
menstrual impurity (mNid 2 : 6–7; cf. the definition
of yellow in Sifra Tazria 5.7). Sexual euphemisms
are another motivation for imagery, describing sex-
ual positions through the imagery of an overturned
table, or various ways of preparing meat (bNed 20b).
Similarly, a king’s scepter is used as a euphemism
for the king’s phallus (bSan 22a). A rare case of an
elaborate visual illustration is the description of R.
Johanan’s beauty, which rather than describe his
physical features portrays a goblet filled with pome-
granate seeds in twilight (bBM 84a).
2. Rabbinic Parables. The most renowned form of
rabbinic imagery is the mashal, the rabbinic parable,
or simply “analogy” (Aaron: 20). The mashal is com-
monly introduced with a formula (Frankel: 3 : 421–
22), such as “they provide a parable, to what may
this be likened, to” (e.g., mSuk 2 : 9; tBer 1 : 11; BerR
96 : 29; for a variation in the first person, see Sof
1.2; bBer 61b). Abbreviated versions of this formula
include, “a parable, to what may this be likened?”
(tHag 2 : 5; bBer 13a; BerR 17 : 21), “a parable, to”
(tSuk 2 : 6; bShab 152a–53a), or simply the introduc-
tory prefix “le-” (“to”) prior to the parable (yBer
5 : 2; BerR 22 : 10; 55 : 2; WayR 2.:5; QohR 5 : 14).
Frankel distinguishes between the pictorial par-
able that depicts a static image and the narrative
parable that includes a developing plot (Frankel:
3 : 422–24). The distinction between a succinct pic-
torial parable and a simile can be unclear and is
founded on grammar. The parable is identified
through the aforementioned formulae, whereas the
simile is introduced with a “ke-” prefix (“like,” e.g.,
mAv 1 : 3; bTaan 20a; QohR 1 : 2), a “mah … af” for-
mula (“what … even”) and a “ke-shem … kakh” for-
mula (“just as … so,” e.g., Sof 19.10; KalR 3 : 3; bBek
45a). Both “ke-shem … kakh” and “mah … af” formu-
lae are used to explicate and expand metaphors and
similes (for the former see ARN A 40; for the latter,
KalR 3 : 3; bBer 10a; bEr 15b; bYom 29a, 75a; bTaan
7a; bSot 21a; bBB 9b, 16b, 80b). “Mah … af” is also
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used to parallel two people or two events, as in the
equation of the first and second destructions of the
temple (EkhR 22). Metaphors and metonyms lack,
by definition, any introductory formula.
3. Images for God. God is most commonly likened
to a father and a king. The numerous parables (mes-
halim) of a king (e.g., PRK 16.9; EkhR 1 : 3; yBer 1 : 4)
relate to God’s features as a ruler, with many offer-
ing a story about a king and a son (WayR 25 : 1; PRK
15.4; bBer 32 : 1), or a king building a new palace as
an allegory to God’s creation (BerR 1 : 1; Tan Tazria
3) or the temple (LevR 1 : 7). Some parables expand
on a biblical verse referring to God as king (bKet
105b), and the common title “master of the uni-
verse” complements the narrative parables with a
common usage deriving from the same notion (e.g.,
bBer 55b; bEr 19a; bPes 87a; on the king parables see
also Ziegler; Appelbaum), as does his epithet “King
of kings of kings,” often evoked to contrast the di-
vine king with human kings (mSan 4 : 5; bMen 62a;
BerR 8 : 26; EkhR 1 : 16; PRK 20.7). Similarly, God is
likened to a father in numerous parables (MekhY
Yitro 2; BerR 35 : 14), and other midrashim refer to
Israel as his children (SifDev Eqev 48; bPes 87b). This
imagery resurfaces in various usages, as in the title
“our father in heaven” (mSot 9 : 15; yḤag 2 : 1; WayR
32 : 1) or in the story of the oven of Akhnai in which
God takes pleasure in His defeat by His children
(bBM 59b). Toenges (96–102) discerned three levels
of this image: God as the father of the entire nation,
the father of the righteous and the sages, and the
father of outstanding individuals. Other familial
imagery includes God as the bridegroom of the na-
tion of Israel (MekhY Yitro 3; tBQ 4 : 6), although Sat-
low (2000: 28–32) notes that this image is infre-
quent in rabbinic literature, and demonstrates how
even a midrash on Hos 2 : 18 underplays this im-
agery by substituting for it the analogy of father
and sons (bPes 87b).
4. Images for the Torah. Various similes and
metaphors, such as water, fire, deer, iron, and trees,
are provided for the Torah, the sages who study it,
and the righteous, occasionally presented as com-
mentary on biblical verses (bYom 29a; bTaan 7a, 25a;
bSot 21a; bBB 80b; bEr 54a). The Torah is also de-
scribed as a breast that never loses milk (bEr 54b),
and as a potion that can either enliven or become
poisonous depending on the purpose of study
(bTaan 7a).
The rabbis placed a high value on Torah study
and employed images relating to storage (Baumgar-
ten) to convey the importance of a good memory
and to describe various types of scholars and schol-
arly approaches. Thus, the kis (pouch or pocket), in
which things may be stored, forgotten or concealed
(bGit 18a), but which is also well-guarded and easily
accessible, is a useful image of memory (bPes 72a;
bMeg 7b; bKet 50a). Similarly, the quppah (basket) is
used figuratively for various scholarly qualities: R.
929 Image, Imagery
Aqiva is likened to a laborer who collects in his bas-
ket anything he finds, and arranges the contents at
home; R. Johanan b. Nuri is a basket of halakhot,
whereas R. Eleazar b. Azariah is said to be a ped-
dler’s basket, able to provide anything requested on
demand (ARN A 18).
The accumulation of sin is likened to a quppah
full of transgressions (WayR 33 : 3), and Adam and
Eve are shown all the generations lost by their sin,
like a man carrying a basket full of glassware which
is then broken by the glazier (BerR 19 : 7). Various
good deeds and commandments are said to have a
principal that is carried on towards one’s share in
the world to come (mPea 1 : 1; tQid 5 : 16; bShab
127a). Another storage-related image is the cham-
ber. A student should divide his heart into cham-
bers in order to store the conflicting views of the
schools of Hillel and Shammai (tSot 7 : 12). R. Jo-
hanan b. Zakkai likens R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus to a
cemented cistern that never loses a drop (mAv 2 : 8;
cf. mAv 5 : 15). Related metaphors for different
styles of learning are found in mAv 5 : 15: “there are
four measures of those sitting in the presence of
sages: the sponge, the funnel, the strainer, and the
sieve” (cf. ARN A 40; ARN B 45; SifDev Eqev 48; bḤag
3b; bḤul 89a).
When mAv 2 : 9 asks “What is the straight path
to which a person should cling?” it employs a ubiq-
uitous metaphor for righteousness with biblical
roots (1 Sam 12 : 23; Isa 45 : 13; Hos 14 : 10; Ps
107 : 7). Among the responses given, R. Johanan b.
Zakkai favors the “good heart” since it contains
within it the responses of the other students (mAv
2 : 9). This passage not only presents a metonymy
in response to a metaphorical question, but a brief
exposition on the benefits of the synecdochic uses
of language. Also in mAv (2 : 15), R. Tarfon’s maxim
that “the day is short, the task is great, the workers
are lazy, the wage abundant, and the landlord is
pressing” is a series of metaphors or perhaps a so-
phisticated allegory of life (contrast with the ex-
plicit parable in mAv 4 : 16).
5. Images Related to Women. In addition to bibli-
cal images, the rabbis employ new images. Consid-
erable attention has been given to the various im-
agery referring to women (e.g., Baskin; Boyarin;
Labovitz; Satlow 2002). The most infamous quote
describes women as a “pitcher of excrement and a
mouth full of blood” which nevertheless everyone
chases (bShab 152a). Another view describes woman
as a golem (perhaps intending a soulless body) until
she is rendered a fruitful vessel by her husband
(bSan 22b). The procreation process is likened to
baking by saying that the yeast complements the
dough, in the same manner that the (menstruation)
blood complements the woman (bNid 64b). Several
cases liken women to buildings: women’s menstru-
ation process is described by likening female anat-
omy to a chamber, a front hall and an upper level
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(mNid 2 : 5). Furthermore, women are said to have
two doors and two hinges, based on the double
meaning of tsirim as hinges and pangs (bBekh 45a;
WayR 14 : 4; see Kipperwasser: 305–7). The image of
the table mentioned above as a euphemism for sex-
ual relations is a further attestation for the image
of women as a material object in the home. The
objectification of women is arguably most notable
in the language of purchase used to describe mar-
riage (mQid 1 : 1; bKet 16b–17a; see Wegner: 40–70;
Labovitz: 29–61; Graetz). R. Yose relates that he al-
ways called his wife his home and his ox his field
(bShab 118b; bGit 52a; see Labovitz: 115–17). His
insistence that he never referred to his wife in any
way other than his home, reveals a heightened sym-
bolic use of language, merging the metaphor and
its analogy into one.
6. Miscellany. Some extraordinary examples of
rabbinic imagery include the altar weeping over a
person who divorces his first wife (bGit 90b; bSan
22a) and the detailed description of the human as a
microcosm (ARN A 31). The Samaritans are meto-
nymically described as “Garlic Eaters” (mNed 3 : 10;
cf. Rosenblum: 45–74 and further examples there),
and lentils symbolize mourning, either because the
lentil seems like a closed mouth, unable to speak;
alternatively, just as a lentil is round, so mourning
comes around again and again (bBB 16b). Perhaps
most surprising is the statement that matchmaking
is as difficult for God as the parting of the Red Sea
(WayR 8 : 1; bSan 22a). The meaning is especially ob-
fuscated since the miracle should not be difficult
for the omnipotent God, nor can bringing couples
together be construed as a necessary evil as some
rabbis describe God’s drowning of the Egyptians
(bMeg 10b; bSan 39b). In any case, the use of a spe-
cific biblical event as the symbol of an unrelated
topic is rare.
Bibliography: ■ Aaron, D. H., Biblical Ambiguities: Metaphor,
Semantics, and Divine Imagery (Leiden 2001). ■ Appelbaum,
A., The Rabbis’ King-Parables: Midrash from the Third-Century
Roman Empire (Piscataway, N.J. 2010). ■ Baskin, J. R., Mid-
rashic Women: Formations of the Feminine in Rabbinic Literature
(Hanover, N.H. 2002). ■ Baumgarten, A. I., “Metaphors of
Memory,” in Der Odem des Menschen ist eine Leuchte des Herrn,
FS A. Agus (ed. R. Reichman; Heidelberg 2006) 77–89.
■ Boyarin, D., Carnal Israel: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture
(Berkeley, Calif. 1993). ■ Frankel, Y., Midrash Ve-Aggadah
(Tel Aviv 1996). ■ Goatly, A., The Language of Metaphors (Ab-
ingdon 22011). ■ Graetz, N., “Is Kinyan (Purchase) of
Woman in the Marriage Document only a Metaphor?” Lectio
difficilior 2 (2011) (Available at: www.lectio.unibe.ch; ac-
cessed September 30, 2015). ■ Halbertal, M., “If It Were
Not a Written Verse It Could Not Be Said,” Tarbiz 68.1
(1998) 39–59. [Heb.] ■ Kipperwasser, R., “Body of the
Whore, Body of the Story and the Metaphor of the Body,”
in Introduction to Seder Qodashim: A Feminist Commentary on the
Babylonian Talmud V (ed. T. Ilan et al.; Tübingen 2012) 305–
19. ■ Labovitz, G., Marriage and Metaphor: Constructions of
Gender in Rabbinic Literature (Lanham, Md. 2009). ■ Rosen-
blum, J. D., Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism (Cam-
bridge 2011). ■ Satlow, M. L., “The Metaphor of Marriage
931 Image, Imagery
in Early Judaism,” in Families and Family Relations (ed. J. W.
van Henten/A. Brenner; Leiden 2000) 12–42. ■ Satlow, M.
L., “Fictional Women: A Study in Stereotypes,” in The Tal-
mud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture (ed. P. Schäfer; Tü-
bingen 2002) 225–43. ■ Toenges, E., “The Image of God as
Father as a Response to Political Crises in the First Century
B.C.E,” in Religion Responses to Political Crises (ed. H. Graf Re-
ventlow/Y. Hoffman; New York 2008) 94–108. ■ Wegner,
J. R., Chattel or Person: The Status of Women in the Mishnah
(Oxford 1988). ■ Ziegler, I., Die Königsgleichnisse des Mi-
drasch: Beleuchtet durch die römische Kaiserzeit (Breslau 1903).
Aryeh Amihay
VI. Christianity
The images or imagery of the Bible have contrib-
uted to a shared or common religious language of
Christian social groups or communities throughout
post-biblical history. In this capacity imagery has
served as a principal vehicle or mediator of what
has been considered essential religious insights and
experiences, with a considerable impact on Chris-
tian patterns of thought in their various historical
ramifications. The status and uses of biblical im-
agery represent a basic issue in the interpretational
approaches to Christian religion throughout his-
tory, and as such it constitutes a vast, highly fa-
ceted, and complicated research field that is not
easy to overview.
Reception history relates to the wide spectrum
of image forms or figurative expressions that char-
acterize biblical language. These forms, which are
covered by a terminology that historically is not al-
ways strictly defined or agreed upon, include lin-
guistic devices that are commonly known as meta-
phor, symbol, and simile, as well as longer narrative
units that function as parables and allegories, or as
histories (stories) with a figurative meaning.
The prominent role of these language forma-
tions in Christian theological and devotional articu-
lations may be considered an effect of a basic fea-
ture of the biblical conception of God. The biblical
God is a concealed God who transcends the human
or earthly sphere. For this reason God is irrepre-
sentable as indicated by the prohibition against ma-
terial images of the divine. In the biblical context,
however, this prohibition opened up a development
and accentuation of the linguistic representation of
God that reflected that God is also revealed.
Through the use of rich imagery a religious lan-
guage was displayed that gave access to the divine,
but in such a way that it did not circumscribe it but
rather pointed towards it. So for instance the
Psalms of David. The image universe of these poeti-
cal texts have served as an important tool for the
expression of faith throughout the history of Chris-
tian devotion, in public liturgical contexts as well
as in private. We find here, for instance, the shep-
herd image applied to God (cf. Ps 23), and the im-
age of the deer longing for water representing the
soul longing for God (Ps 42).
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The proper understanding of the biblical image
universe was from the outset a theological task of
utmost importance for the communication of the
Christian salvation message, and from the early
Church onwards hermeneutical strategies were es-
tablished that could facilitate the interpretation of
this aspect of scripture in order to capture its spiri-
tual meaning. Among them the typological ap-
proach, present in the NT, has played a major role
(see “Typology”). This mode of interpretation re-
flects the Christian idea of salvation history where
OT phenomena were perceived as prefigurations
(types) of the divine salvation act fulfilled in the
Christ event of the NT. Typological interpretations
are displayed in numerous contexts. A most impor-
tant domain is Christian liturgy. Already in the Pat-
ristic age the theological elucidations of the liturgi-
cal practises gave rise to typological readings. In the
case of the sacrament of baptism, for instance, the
OT narrative of the deluge (Gen 7), related to the
destruction of sin, was considered a type that
pointed to the baptismal water in which the annihi-
lation of the old, sinful person was fulfilled (cf. Jus-
tin Martyr [2nd cent.], Dial. 138, 2–3, in accordance
with 1 Pet 3 : 18–21). In a similar perspective the
crossing of the Red Sea at the exodus (Exod 14) was
interpreted as a prefiguration of the destruction of
the forces of sin, and of liberation from them, to be
fulfilled in the rite of baptism (cf. Basil, De Spiritu
Sancto; Ambrose, Myst. 12). In the same way the pas-
chal lamb of Exod 12 and the comparison of the
suffering servant with a lamb in Isa 53 : 7 were con-
sidered prefigurations of the sacrificial death of
Christ liturgically commemorated in the sacrament
of the Eucharist and expressed, for instance, in the
liturgical text of the Mass, the Agnus Dei.
Related to the typological readings is the her-
meneutical approach connected to the allegorical
method that was developed throughout the history
of Christianity in various forms comprising various
interpretational steps. From a general point of view
the allegorical approach operates with the literal
text, or historical layer, as the point of departure for
the unveiling of spiritual meaning. The procedure
comprises various steps, such as the allegorical,
pointing to theological meaning; the moral (tro-
pological), covering the effect on moral practice;
and the anagogical, pointing to the eschatological
meaning. The Venerable Bede (ca. 672–735) exem-
plifies the procedure on the basis of an interpreta-
tion on the temple of Solomon: the historical mean-
ing of the temple is the material building referred
to in the OT; the allegorical is the body of Christ or
the Church; the moral (tropological) aspect pertains
to the temple as an image of moral conduct; and
the anagogical meaning points to the eschatological
fulfilment of salvation (Bede, De schematis et tropis
sacrae scripturae, PL 90 : 186).
The theological enterprise of interpreting the
Bible included a wide range of figurative readings
933 Image, Imagery
that relate to the various aspects of Christian reli-
gious experience. The examples are numerous. An
important line of thought, for instance, connects to
the recurrent OT theme of exile, associated with the
figure of Cain, or the historical experiences of Is-
rael, the Egyptian and Babylonian exiles (see “Ex-
ile”). In Christian history the idea of exile has been
applied as a metaphor that characterizes a basic
condition of existence after the fall and points to
humanity’s present state of alienation (cf. for in-
stance Augustine, Civ.; Johann Arndt, Erklärung der
Psalmen [Ps 137]).
Another prominent example of figurative read-
ing relates to the Song of Songs. This OT love poem
has served as an important source for the nuptial
imagery of the bride and bridegroom that in the
history of Christian thinking has been applied in
the interpretation of basic religious experiences
pertaining to the relation between God (Christ) and
the soul of man, or the Church (cf. for instance Ber-
nard of Clairvaux, Sermones in Cant. Cant.; see
“Bride”; “Bridegroom”).
Attention should further be turned to what
could be called the imaginational feature that char-
acterizes the proclamation of the salvation in
Christ. The NT narratives relating to the Christ
event constitute a series of “images” that serves the
communication of the Christian salvation message.
This includes not only the parables of Jesus. Luther,
for instance, considered the nativity an “image of
joy” (“Freudenbild”; WA 29 : 650) that through
faith should be “impressed” on the hearts of hu-
mans as a personal appropriation of the gospel. In
the same way the passion of Jesus has provided hu-
mans with basic images of the divine act of grace
towards humanity. For Luther “Christ on the
Cross” represents an “image of grace” (“Gnaden-
bild”) that brings consolation (WA 2 : 689).
In addition to these interpretations biblical im-
agery has received considerable attention in theo-
logical literature relating rhetoric and hermeneu-
tics. In the early church Origen (ca. 185–254)
established a theological basis of allegorical Bible
interpretation. Among the patristic contributions
Augustine’s (354–430) De doctrina Christiana stands
out as a most important contribution to the theo-
retical foundation of Christian interpretation of the
spiritual meaning of biblical imagery that also was
received in the medieval and early modern era. Me-
dieval theologians continued the theoretical reflec-
tions, so for instance Cassiodor (6th cent.), De sche-
matibus et tropis (PL 70 : 1269–1280); the Venerable
Bede (ca. 672–735), De schematis et tropis sacrae scrip-
turae; Hugh of St. Victor (ca. 1096–1141), De sacra-
mentis, Eruditio didascalia; and Thomas Aquinas
(1225–1274), who in various texts gave a more ra-
tional-systematic presentation of the topic (cf.
Summa theologiae I, qu. 1; Quaestiones quodlibetales 7).
In the wake of the Reformation a widespread aware-
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ness of the features of biblical language gave rise to
handbooks and manuals that communicated in-
sights relevant for the interpretation of images and
figurative meanings of Bible texts. So for instance
in Philipp Melanchton’s Institutio Rhetoricae (1521),
Flacius Illyricus (1520–1575), Clavis Scripturae
(1567), or William Perkins, Arte of Prophesying (Latin
1592; Eng. 1602). Notable works include also, for
instance, Salomo Glasius Philologia Sacra (1623) and
the Baptist Benjamin Keach (1640-1704), Tropologia:
A Key to Open Scripture Metaphors (1682). In the mod-
ern era literary scholars like Northrop Frye, The
Great Code (1981) and Erik A. Nielsen, Kristendom-
mens retorik (2009), as well as the philosopher Paul
Ricoeur have revived a discussion that highlights
the theme of biblical imagery.
Bibliography: ■ Auerbach, E., “Figura,” ArRom 22 (1938)
436–89. ■ Bohm, V. (ed.), Typologie: Internationale Beiträge
zur Poetik (Frankfurt a.M. 1988). ■ Brinkmann, H., Mittelal-
terliche Hermeneutik (Darmstadt 1980). ■ Chydenius, J., The
Theory of Medieval Symbolism (Societas Scientiarum Fennica:
Commentationes humanarum litterarum 27/2; Helsinki
1960). ■ Copeland, R. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Alle-
gory (Cambridge 2010). ■ Curtius, E. R., European Literature
and the Latin Middle Ages (New York 1953); trans. of id., Euro-
päische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter (Bern 1948).
■ Daniélou, J., Bible et Liturgie (Paris 1956); ET: The Bible and
Liturgy (Notre Dame, Ind. [1956] 2009). ■ Frye, H. N., The
Great Code: The Bible and Literature (Orlando, Fla., 1982).
■ Frye, N./J. Macpherson, Biblical and Classical Myths: The
Mythological Framework of Western Culture (Toronto, Ont.
[1962] 2004). ■ Konersmann, R. (ed.), Wörterbuch der philoso-
phischen Metaphern (Darmstadt 2007). ■ LaCoque, A./P. Ri-
coeur, Penser la Bible (Paris 2003). ■ Ladner, G. B., “Medie-
val and Modern Understanding of Symbolism: A
Comparison,” Spec. (1979) 223–55. ■ Lewalski, B. K., Protes-
tant Poetics and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Lyric (Prince-
ton, N.J. 1979). ■ Lubac, H. de, Exégèse Médièvale: Les Quatres
sens de l’écriture, 4 vols. (Paris 1959–1964); ET: Medieval Exege-
sis: The Four Senses of Scripture, 3 vols. (RRRCT; Grand Rapids,
Mich. 1998–2009). ■ Nielsen, E. A., Kristendommens retorik:
Den kristne digtnings billedformer (Copenhagen 2009). ■ Ohly,
F., Schriften zur mittelalterlichen Bedeutungsforschung (Darm-
stadt 1977). ■ Ryken, L. et al. (eds.), Dictionary of Biblical
Imagery (Downers Grove, Ill. 1998). ■ Steiger, J. A., “Seel-
sorge, Frömmigkeit, Mystik, Lehre und Trost bei Johann
Gerhard,” in id., Johann Gerhard (1582–1637) (Stuttgart/Bad
Cannstatt 1997) 17–157.
Sven Rune Havsteen
VII. Islam
The Qurān and Islamic literature present a narra-
tive chronology that merges images and motifs fa-
miliar from the Bible and other pre-Islamic texts
with a new interpretation of human history. The
whole constitutes a vision that stretches from the
creation of the world to the life of Muḥammad, and
then through later history to the end of time (Tot-
toli 2006). This chronology is closely controlled by
qurānic themes, above all by the involvement of
God in the history of the world to move events in
accordance with his will, and the progress of history
towards the coming of Islam. Thus, the difficulties
935 Image, Imagery
in maintaining true monotheistic belief are pre-fig-
ured through stories of the vicissitudes of Moses,
Joseph, and others such as David and Solomon,
whose experiences anticipated Muḥammad’s troub-
les with the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina,
while the threat of divine punishment for unbelief
or for rejecting Muḥammad’s message is prefigured
in the stories of Noah, Lot, and the Arabian pro-
phets Hūd, S āliḥ and Shuayb, in which punish-
ments are meted out to their opponents.
As part of this re-use of biblical imagery, in the
Qurān prophets already appear as heroes against
idolatry (e.g., Abraham) or leaders of people (e.g.,
Moses), while in later literature typical Islamic el-
ements are incorporated into portrayals of them,
such as their sinlessness and the miracles associated
with them.
One other major cluster of imagery is related to
apocalyptic and eschatological beliefs. Apocalyptic
visions based on the Qurān and indebted to the
biblical tradition circulated widely in early Islam.
In addition, accounts gradually developed through
the early centuries of what happen to the individual
following his death. These included vivid accounts
of the punishment in the tomb and the events of
the Last Day and Judgement (cf. Smith/Haddad).
Bibliography: ■ Brinner, W. M., Azāis al-Majālis fī Qiṣaṣ al-
Anbiyā or “Lives of the Prophets” as Recounted by Abū Isḥāq
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Thalabī (Leiden 2002)
83–85; trans. of al-Thalabī, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā (Cairo 1954) 49–
50. ■ Lowin, S. I., The Making of a Forefather: Abraham in Is-
lamic and Jewish Narratives (Leiden/Boston, Mass. 2006).
■ Neuwirth, A., “Myths and Legends in the Quran,” EQ 3
(ed. J. D. McAuliffe; Leiden 2003) 477–97. ■ Smith, J. I./Y.
Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection
(Albany, N.Y. 1981). ■ Toelle, H., Le Coran revisité, le feu,
l’eau, l’air et la terre (Paris 1999). ■ Tottoli, R., Biblical Pro-
phets in the Qurān and Muslim Literature (Richmond 2002).
■ Tottoli, R., “Narrative Literature,” in The Blackwell Compan-
ion to the Qurān (ed. A. Rippin; London 2006) 467–80.
■ Weismann, I. et al. (eds.), Islamic Myths and Memories: Media-
tors of Globalization (Farnham/Burlington, Vt. 2014).
Roberto Tottoli
VIII. Literature
Important terms related to “image” (see above, “I.
Introduction”) include “symbol,” “an image that
stands for something in addition to its literal mean-
ing”; “metaphor,” “an implied comparison”; “sim-
ile,” which “compares one thing to another … us-
ing the formula like or as”; “motif,” a pattern that
recurs throughout a piece of literature; and “arche-
type,” an image or pattern that recurs throughout
literature and life (Ryken et al.: xiii–xiv; see Frye).
This article will consider biblical motifs and similes
in literature.
1. Motif. Prominent biblical motifs in literature in-
clude the soul’s journey, specifically the believer’s
spiritual progress through the present world to the
hereafter. The journey motif, exemplified in classi-
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cal literature through Odysseus’ journey home to
Ithaca in Homer’s Odyssey and Aeneas’ journey to
Italy in Virgil’s Aeneid, finds biblical precedent in
the journeys of both Abraham and Moses and the
Israelites to Canaan. It is also implicit in Peter’s ad-
monition: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as stran-
gers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which
war against the soul” (1 Pet 2 : 11, AV; cf. Heb
11 : 13; and Ps 39 : 12). The motif of the soul’s jour-
ney is evident throughout Dante’s Commedia or Di-
vine Comedy (1308–20) in the autobiographical pro-
tagonist’s journey through the Inferno, the
Purgatorio, and the Paradiso (see also “Commedia”);
and in Christian’s journey to the celestial city in
John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678; see also
“Pilgrim’s Progress, The and the Holy War”). A
negative example of the journey motif appears in
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
(1835); Brown’s journey through the dark forest
leads to not the soul’s spiritual progress but rather
its despair.
The biblical motif of light, signifying God’s pu-
rity and his illumination of spiritual and physical
darkness and used prominently in Gen 1 : 3–5 and
throughout the Johannine writings, is seen
throughout John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667, 1674;
see also “Paradise Lost”). In Milton’s epic, the mani-
festations of light include the “holy Light,” the
“Eternal coeternal beam” of God and his dwelling
place in heaven (3.1–2); the “celestial Light” that
the blind poet asks to “Shine inward” to illuminate
him in his composition (3.51–52); the radiance that
proceeds from the Son of God as he creates the uni-
verse; and the light of earth’s sun, which both illu-
minates Eden and convicts Satan of his sin. Such
manifestations of light are contrasted with the
flames of hell, which offer hell’s inhabitants “No
light, but rather darkness visible,” which serve
“only to discover sights of woe” (1 : 63–64).
Leviathan – the Satanic sea dragon of Isa 27 : 1 –
serves as a motif throughout Herman Melville’s
Moby-Dick (1851), not only in the eponymous white
whale which destroys Captain Ahab and his crew,
but even more profoundly in Ahab’s obsession to
pursue and kill the whale, an obsession more mon-
strous and destructive than Moby-Dick himself.
The motif of the holy fool or Christ-fool,
grounded in 1 Cor 1 : 18–20; 3 : 18–20; and 4 : 10,
is personified throughout Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The
Idiot (1869) and William Faulkner’s The Sound and
the Fury (1929) through, respectively, the characters
of the epileptic “idiot” Prince Myshkin (Murav: 71–
98) and Benjy, a thirty-three-year-old man with the
comprehension of a three-year-old child. This motif
is evident in the wise and convicting jesting of
Shakespeare’s Fool in King Lear, and it is seen all
the more profoundly with the implicit connection
between the Fool and Cordelia, the godly, gracious,
and loyal daughter of Lear whose life is ultimately
937 Image, Imagery
sacrificed because of Lear’s sinful folly. As Lear
weeps over his dead daughter’s body, he cries, “my
poor fool is hanged” (5.3.305).
The motif of the scarlet “A” that Hester Prynne
is made to wear in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
(1850) is complex because of its grounding in Isa
1 : 18: “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
white as snow.” Indeed, Hester’s scarlet letter signi-
fies not only her adultery with Pastor Dimmesdale
but also her redemptive progress throughout the
novel.
2. Simile. Bible-derived similes abound in the plays
of William Shakespeare. In Richard II (1597), Boling-
broke, accusing Mowbray of conspiring to murder
the Duke of Gloucester, alludes to Gen 4 : 10, telling
Mowbray that he
like a traitor coward
Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood:
Which blood, like sacrificing Abel’s, cries,
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,
To me for justice and rough chastisement. (1.2.102–06)
In Henry V (1600), Henry, threatening Harfleur’s de-
struction, alludes to King Herod’s slaughter of the
infants of Bethlehem and the town’s mourning
mothers (Matt 2 : 16–17) when he tells Harfleur’s
governor he must surrender or else see
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen. (3.3.118–21)
And in Richard III (1592?), the Second Murderer,
conscience stricken after killing Clarence in the
Tower, alludes to Matt 27 : 24 when he says,
A bloody deed, and desperately dispatch’d!
How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands
Of this most grievous guilty murder done! (1.4.261–64)
Shakespeare also makes ironic reference to the Bible
for comic effect, as seen in Henry IV, Part II (1600)
when Falstaff tells the Chief Justice, “I am poor as
Job, my lord, but not so patient” (1.2.123).
Milton’s similes in Paradise Lost include his de-
scription of Satan stretched out on the fiery lake of
hell as large as
that Sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created huge that swim th’ Ocean stream. (1.200–2)
Milton also compares the recently defeated fallen
angels in hell to the desolate aftermath of the de-
struction that befalls the Egyptian horsemen and
chariot-riding “host of Pharaoh” who, after pursu-
ing the fleeing Israelites into the parted Red Sea,
drown when God through Moses has the sea return
to its place (Exod 14 : 22–30). Scattered on the lake
of fire, Satan’s followers lie “Thick as”
… scattered sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm’d
Hath vext the Red-Sea coast, whose waves orethrew
Busiris and his Mephian chivalrie,
While with perfidious hatred they pursu’d
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The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore their floating carkases
And broken chariot wheels… (1.302, 304–11)
Elsewhere Milton compares the assembling of the
fallen angels in hell to the plague of locusts inflicts
upon the Egyptians (Exod 10). Satan’s followers
gather
As when the potent Rod
Of Amram’s Son in Egypts evill day
Wav’d round the Coast, up call’d a pitchy cloud
Of Locusts, warping on the Eastern Wind,
That night o’er the Realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like Night, and darken’d all the land of Nile…
(1.338–43)
The similes of the British Romantic poet Lord By-
ron (George Gordon) are often crafted for ironically
humorous effect. In Don Juan (1819–24), the protag-
onist’s companion, alluding to Esau’s selling his
birthright for food (Gen 25 : 29–34), says:
I’m hungry, and just now would take,
Like Esau, for my birthright a beef-steak. (5.44.351–52)
Byron also makes an ironic comparison between the
adulterous Juan fighting with Julia’s husband and
the sexually pure Joseph fleeing the sexual advan-
ces of Potiphar’s wife after she grabs his cloak (Gen
39 : 7–20):
Juan contrived to give him an awkward blow,
And there his only garment quite gave way;
He fled, like Joseph, leaving it; but there,
I doubt, all likeness ends between the pair.
(1.186.1485–88)
The similes of the late Victorian novelist Thomas
Hardy include characters employing bitter irony as
they compare themselves to biblical figures. In Far
from the Madding Crowd (1874), Boldwood, alluding
to God’s treatment of Jonah (in Jonah 4 : 6–11) as
he laments his loss of Bathsheba, says, “Yes, He pre-
pared a gourd to shade me, and like the prophet I
thanked Him and was glad. But the next day He
prepared a worm to smite the gourd and wither it;
and I feel it is better to die than to live” (Hardy
1874: 256 [chap. 38]). In Tess of the D’Ubervilles
(1891), Tess, feeling inferior to her beloved Angel
Clare, alludes to the Queen of Sheba’s amazement
before Solomon’s wisdom and splendor and the
biblical narrator’s statement that “there was no
more spirit in her” (1 Kgs 10 : 5; 2 Chron 9 : 4). Tess
tells Angel that in light of his knowledge and expe-
rience, “I feel what a nothing I am! I’m like the
poor queen of Sheba who lived in the Bible. There is
no more spirit in me” (Hardy 2005: 141 [chap. 19]).
The writers of the mid-19th century American
Renaissance regularly employed biblically derived
similes. In his essay “Self-Reliance” (1841), the
Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson encour-
ages his readers to pursue higher spiritual truths,
exhorting, “Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in
the hand of the harlot, and flee” (Emerson: 168). In
Walden (1854), Emerson’s friend and fellow Tran-
939 Image, Imagery
scendentalist Henry David Thoreau emphasizes the
importance of being new people instead of obtain-
ing new clothes. Alluding to Matt 9 : 17, Thoreau
suggests avoiding
a new suit until we have so conducted, so enterprised
or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the
old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new
wine in old bottles. (Thoreau: 15)
In Moby-Dick, Melville alludes to Herod’s aforemen-
tioned slaughter when he describes the sailors hear-
ing noises from the desolate islands they pass, “un-
earthly” cries “like half-articulated wailings of the
ghosts of all Herod’s murdered innocents” (Melville
1988: 503 [chap. 126]). In Billy Budd (1891), Melville
describes Billy as “a sort of upright barbarian, much
such perhaps as Adam presumably might have been
ere the urbane Serpent wriggled himself into his
company” (Melville 1962: 52). In “To the Thirty-
Ninth Congress” (1865), the abolitionist Quaker
poet John Greenleaf Whittier alludes to King Da-
vid’s mourning the death of the usurping Absalom
(2 Sam 18 : 33–19 : 4) as he urges charity during the
reconstruction process after the American Civil
War:
Alas! No victor’s pride is ours;
We bend above our triumphs won
Like David o’er his rebel son. (Whittier: 256 [lines 25–
27])
African-American literature is replete with Bible-
derived similes. In “On Being Brought from Africa
to America” (1773), Phyllis Wheatley draws from
the common belief that the mark of Cain (Gen
4 : 15) was black skin. Celebrating her conversion
and admonishing her readers to not associate dark
skin with evil, Wheatley, a slave, writes:
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refined, and join the angelic train. (Wheatley:
12 [lines 7–8])
In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845),
Douglass, alluding to Daniel in the lions’ den (Dan
6), writes that having arrived in the free state of
New York, “I felt like one who had escaped a den of
hungry lions” (Douglass: 143 [chap. 11]). In James
Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” (1957), the
narrator, the older brother of the recovering heroin
addict Sonny, alludes to Isa 51 : 17, 22–23 while
watching Sonny’s jazz performance. The narrator
states that the drink on Sonny’s piano “glowed and
shook above my brother’s head like the very cup of
trembling” (Baldwin: 141). To some interpreters,
the drink and its connection to Isaiah’s cup of trem-
bling symbolizes Sonny’s freedom and redemption
(Tackach: 116–17), but it could also suggest the per-
ilous hold Sonny’s addiction has over him and the
fragile nature of his present freedom. In Lorraine
Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun (1959), Mama
states that her can of kitchen cleanser “is empty as
Jacob’s kettle” (Hansberry: 66). This simile could re-
fer to Jacob’s well (John 4 : 5–6) or to the pot in
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which Jacob cooked the pottage for which Esau sold
his birthright.
Bibliography. Primary: ■ Baldwin, J., “Sonny’s Blues,” Go-
ing to Meet the Man (New York 1965) 86–141. ■ Douglass,
F. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
(ed. H. A. Baker Jr.; New York 1986). ■ Emerson, R. W.,
“Self-Reliance,” The Annotated Emerson (ed. D. Mikics; Cam-
bridge, Mass. 2012) 160–85. ■ Hansberry, L., A Raisin in the
Sun (New York 1994). ■ Hardy, T., Far from the Madding
Crowd (1874). [Available at www.gutenberg.org; accessed
January 31, 2011]. ■ Hardy, T., Tess of the d’Urbervilles (ed.
J. Grindle/S. Gatrell; Oxford 2005). ■ Melville, H., Billy
Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative) (ed. H. Hayford/M. M. Sealts,
Jr.; Chicago, Ill. 1962). ■ Melville, H., Moby-Dick; or, The
Whale, vol. 6 of The Writings of Herman Melville (ed. H. Hay-
ford et al.; Evanston/Chicago, Ill. 1988). ■ Thoreau, H. D.,
Walden: or, Life in the Woods (ed. P. Smith; New York 1995).
■ Wheatley, P., Poems of Phyllis Wheatley: A Native African and
a Slave (Bedford, Mass. 1995). ■ Whittier, J. G., The Poetical
Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (London 1895).
Secondary: ■ Frye, H. N., The Great Code: The Bible and
Literature (Orlando, Fla., 1982). ■ Fulghum, W. B., A Dic-
tionary of Biblical Allusions in English Literature (New York
1965). ■ Jeffrey, D. L., A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in Eng-
lish Literature (Grand Rapids, Mich. 1992). ■ Murav, H., Holy
Foolishness: Dostoevsky’s Novels and the Poetics of Cultural Cri-
tique (Stanford, Calif. 1993). ■ Ryken, L. et al., Dictionary of
Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, Ill. 1998). ■ Shaheen, N.,
Biblical References in Shakespeare’s Plays (Newark, Del., 2011).
■ Sims, J. H., The Bible in Milton’s Epics (Gainsville, Fla. 1962).
■ Tackach, J., “The Biblical Foundation of James Baldwin’s
‘Sonny’s Blues,’” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 59.2
(2007) 109–18.
David V. Urban
IX. Visual Arts
In its broadest definition, an image in visual arts is
simply a representation of something or someone.
Imagery as it applies to visual arts, on the other
hand, is a socially constructed and agreed upon vi-
sual language of images and signs – or system of
images – that allows people to communicate mean-
ing visually. In the imagery of Judaism, Christian-
ity, and Islam, expressing the religious narratives
and beliefs has varied according to the time period
and the developments within the visual languages
of each. Naturally, imagery is closely linked to ico-
nography, since it relies so heavily on visual signs
in order convey meaning. Conventional ways of rep-
resenting visual narratives, for example, appear to
have emerged early in Judaism, as the walls of the
3rd-century synagogue of Dura Europos attests.
The Jewish patriarchs, as well, gained recognizable
features and attributes, such as Moses holding the
tables of law or standing near the burning bush.
Though equally reliant upon a language of abstract
symbols, such as the cross or the ChiRho, Christian
narratives, too, developed specific images that could
be recognized by believers, even if not readily ap-
parent to those outside the faith. The narratives
could be abbreviated, as three magi approaching
the Virgin and Child without setting, to refer to the
941 Image, Imagery
event of the nativity and so on. In later centuries,
the iconography of the saints developed, so that not
only universal imagery like haloes and palm leaves
signified holiness or martyrdom, but also individu-
alized attributes referring to the means of their exe-
cution or role in the hierarchy of the saints. To say
there was imagery related to the biblical stories (in
both Judaism and Christianity), the characteriza-
tion of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, as well as typo-
logical and allegorical comparisons within Chris-
tian art, is both redundant and simplistic. The
imagery within Jewish and Christian holy places
was meant to be recognizable and yet could be infi-
nitely combined in manners that related specifically
to the geography, location, architecture, context,
and so on. In Islam, though paradisiacal imagery
figures greatly in early monuments, figural imagery
was not used in the decoration of holy spaces; yet
the written word became a kind of visual signifier
in itself, independent of even the meaning of the
texts. Manuscript illumination in all three religions
represents perhaps the most diverse imagery, as it
relates so closely to text. Nevertheless, basic compo-
nents of visual communication remained constant
in order to cue viewers as to what kind of scenes or
figures were presented, what associations were to
be drawn, even what kind of text the manuscript
was, such as a gospel or Megillah.
Aside from aspects of systems of images devel-
oping around subjects in order that viewers can un-
derstand the meaning, there are greater implica-
tions concerning images and imagery. Theories of
imagery, of what makes an image, and how images
work to communicate ideas to viewers, have been
subject to intellectual inquiry since antiquity. The
very nature of images is that they are illusions, sub-
stitutions, signs, and signifiers encompassing nu-
merous aspects related to “picturing, imagining,
perceiving, likening and imitating” (Mitchell 1986:
1). As such, images pose a particularly intricate
problem within the realm of the biblical religions,
where the understanding, not to mention the
power, of images fluctuates between the image as a
representation of a higher, transcendent truth (an
imago or icon), and idol, a false or misleading image
(see above, “I. Introduction”). Additionally, when it
comes to the representations within Judaism, Chris-
tianity, and Islam, there are two main concepts that
are specific to the history of the image: the human
being as the image of God, humankind’s Creator,
and the human being as the creator of images.
These concepts have historically impacted the pro-
duction of religious art, as there exists an ongoing
tension between the entire notion of a God-created
world full of signs and symbols relating God’s tran-
scendent nature without revealing what is invisible
to humans, and the human endeavor to interpret
and reproduce them visually, which has often been
considered presumptuous if not altogether futile,
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even in cases where the visible materiality of what
was represented was not in question. In other
words, when it came to biblical art, it was often a
question of whether it should be created at all.
Intellectual inquiry into the power and mean-
ing of images dates back millennia. It is found, for
example, in Philistratus’ presumed work Εικνες
(2nd cent. CE, Imagines, Images or Pictures) in
which he explored what images say and how im-
ages convey ideas that are not available merely from
words and texts. Much more recent and perhaps
most influential over the last century to the study
of religious art has been the emergence of semiot-
ics and structuralism. Coming from the study of
language, Saussurian semiotics and structuralism
nevertheless fit nicely with developments of iconol-
ogy in visual arts led by Erwin Panofsky (see “Pa-
nofsky, Erwin”), to establish images as signs that
only have meaning within a larger system – or
structure – of meaning, without having intrinsic
value other than that which is assigned to it. As it
applies to the arts of Judaism, Christianity, and Is-
lam, iconology addresses both how images function
to convey meaning, the tools with which a viewer
could unpack meaning according to the visual lan-
guage used, as well as a method of understanding
how images, as signs, refer viewers to something –
in the case of religious art, to the otherwise unseen.
However, structuralism has its limitations in that it
does not address what the image does, nor how
viewers perceive and react to images, especially in
cases where images are perceived to be more than
mere representation, as so many Christian icons
were (see Belting).
Thus, more recently, the question of the image
has turned toward the viewer and his or her experi-
ence. Most recent in image studies has been the ac-
knowledgment that images are not just that which
is reproduced by artists, but that they include ver-
bal images, mental images, visions, even hallucina-
tions, whereby the work of art is merely one aspect
of the entire category. Yet the lines between types
of images are often blurred, only to become all part
of an experience, which many scholars have de-
scribed phenomenologically. Even in the Middle
Ages, precise boundaries between the painted or in-
stalled work of art, the mental vision, the individ-
ual perception, and multi-sensory involvement
overlapped to the point that the created image itself
was but one part of a larger phenomenon. That
these were related to one another according to what
viewers expected and their own experiences, which,
among other things, included a repertoire of liter-
ary, oral, and visual sources, is an ongoing point of
study among scholars. Textual, literary, and liturgi-
cal imagery can function to augment the meaning
of religious visual art and enhance the viewer’s un-
derstanding. So too, imagery relies on a complex
system of visual language in order to inform the
943 Image, Imagery
viewer as to the type of image; this is particularly
relevant in presentations of cult images, the use of
iconicity so that viewers are aware and react accord-
ingly.
The question of what power images hold also
has an ancient pedigree, with philosophical – and
later Christian theological – debate about the na-
ture of representation and the futile human pursuit
to capture through visual representation what is
the essence of the thing represented, whether inani-
mate object, or even more importantly, a human
being. Plato (e.g., Soph. 266b) defined ε0δος apart
from εδωλον, suggesting that ε0δος is the transcen-
dent reality, or essence of someone or something,
while εδωλον is the visible aspect of the ε0δος. Al-
ready, then, we can see in antique philosophy the
making of the conditions for the early Christian di-
lemma concerning the representation of the mate-
rial world. According to Neoplatonists, and includ-
ing Christian theologians of the same philosophical
bent, it was important to keep the notions of ε0δος
and εδωλον quite separate, since artistic represen-
tations were empty of the essence of what they pur-
ported to represent. We have, for example, Plotinus
chastising his followers for creating his portrait in
secret, because they were making a likeness of al-
ready dead material (i.e., the physical body; Por-
phyry, Vit. Plot., bk. 1). In this system of thought,
the body was eschewed as material or matter to be
disdained and thus all images were fraught and de-
ceptive. However, this ran counter to the Christian
notion of the body. To deny the human forms of
Christ and the saints was to deny the Incarnation
and to disregard the importance of Jesus’ humanity.
God took human form, and thus subjected his form
to visibility, and thus representation. This notion
adhered to the Christian understanding of the deifi-
cation of the flesh through the Incarnation. It
should be noted that at some point, Christians
turned to the word icon/image to encapsulate a visi-
ble, though not deceptive aspect of an invisible or
higher reality. Thus the icon was equated both with
a portrait and with the divinized human counte-
nance in order to demonstrate that the visible form
available to humans was just as important as a
means of comprehension of God. The εκν was the
combined μορφ (visible form, which was preferred
to the blatantly pagan εδωλον as earlier philoso-
phers had termed it) and ε0δος (transcendent aspect
or essence; see Marsengill: 83, 90–92).
This attitude anticipates the problem the three
great monotheistic religions have had with the im-
age since antiquity, which has been over-simplisti-
cally characterized as the tendency of viewers to in-
vest in the image as reality. Thus, the problem early
on in Christianity to justify the use of images in
churches as picture Bibles for the poor, no matter
that many images were certainly iconic and not
merely narrative. For those who viewed images as
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potentially confusing, as inviting idolatry, images
were useful in so far as they could “show” (see, e.g.,
Gregory the Great, Ep. 13 [to Serenus]), and this was
what marked the Christian veneration of images as
something quite different than the pagan’s atti-
tudes towards what had obviously been crafted by
human hands. As didactic tools, historia painting,
or narratives, were much easier to accept in all three
of the Bible-related religions than the imago or im-
age. Indeed, the incarnation of God in Jesus was the
primary justification of Christianity’s portrayal of
holy figures, whereas Judaism and Islam, without a
visible God, did not treat the represented human
figure as holy or worthy of veneration. However, to
confuse the image with what it represents is not a
characteristic of the poor and naïve, of image fetish-
ism, as scholars have tended to classify it in the
past. Latin and Orthodox Christianity have kept sa-
cred images and presented them as miraculous,
even while cautioning against the idolatry such per-
ceptions about images invite. Yet mindful inscrip-
tions, such as the one over the 10th-century mosaic
of Christ in San Marco, Venice, which reads, “The
image teaches of God, but is not itself God. You
revere the image, but worship with your mind Him
whom you recognize in it” (Kessler: 18), can be un-
derstood within the context of a period of complex
theological debate, not as a testament to simple-
minded laity. In this case, the image was set in front
of viewers with instructions for them to understand
it as a visible representation of a visible reflection
of God, an icon of Christ who is an icon of God.
The most intense debates about the nature of
the image in Christian art came about in the wake
of the rise of Islam, which accused Christians of
polytheism and idolatry, and centered on the no-
tion that the material representation in art cannot
hold the essence of the person represented. There-
fore, when one venerated the image, one venerated
the material instead of the person. Counter defense
held that the representation presented in the image
held the same form as the subject, which is inde-
pendent of material and thus it did not constitute
idolatry to venerate the person who was presented
for veneration by virtue of the form, or appearance,
the image imparted. It was not wood and paint that
held meaning, but the image as a kind of transcen-
dent entity made available through paint and
wood. Ultimately, Catholic and Orthodox Christi-
anity embraced images as important religious ex-
pressions, whether to impart narratives from the Bi-
ble or to present the likenesses of holy persons as
intercessors.
Bibliography: ■ Belting, H., Likeness and Presence: A History
of the Image before the Era of Art (Chicago, Ill. 1994). ■ Elkins,
J./M. Naef, What Is an Image? (University Park, Pa. 2010).
■ Kessler, H., Spiritual Seeing: Picturing God’s Invisibility in Me-
dieval Art (Philadelphia, Pa. 2000). ■ Manghani, S. et al.
(eds.), Images: A Reader (London 2006). ■ Manghani, S., Im-
age Studies: Theory and Practice (London/New York 2013)
945 Image, Imagery
■ Marsengill, K., Portraits and Icons: Between Reality and Spiritu-
ality in Byzantine Art (Turnhout 2013). ■ Mitchell, W. J. T.,
Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology (Chicago, Ill. 1986). ■ Mitch-
ell, W. J. T., Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Represen-
tation (Chicago, Ill. 1994).
Katherine Marsengill
X. Music
It is well known, and even fundamental to the in-
terest in musical settings of narratives and texts,
that music has the ability to impress images upon
the minds of listeners, especially when music re-
sponds to figures or narratives. Musical efforts to
impress images on listeners have been particularly
strong in a biblical context. It is not easy, however,
to distinguish clearly between the mental and emo-
tional impact of music on the one hand and mental
images created by music on the other. Increasingly,
it seems that music during the late Middle Ages,
and certainly from the Baroque period, was em-
ployed to interpret texts and narratives, for instance
in operas and oratorios and many other genres from
the 17th century onward aiming toward strength-
ening the emotional and mental impact of these
texts and narratives (see further, “Emotions VIII.
Music”).
In some biblical music, specific narrative details
have been musically “painted” in sound, as for in-
stance earthquakes in some biblical narratives (see
“Earthquake VIII. Music”). Similarly, “word paint-
ing” can be found, for instance in Joseph Haydn’s
oratorio The Creation (1798), where animal sounds
are musically imitated, something for which the
composer was soon criticized (Schwab: 439). Musi-
cal word painting or the musical elaboration of an
important biblical scene or word is also found in
much of Johann Sebastian Bach’s church music, not
least in the Passions.
The musical depiction of Peter’s weeping after
having betrayed Jesus and having been reminded
by the crowing of the cock (Matt 26 : 27) in the St.
Matthew Passion (1729), for instance, is a melodically
chromatic long, expressive, and for most listeners
undoubtedly heartrending, setting of the word
“weinete” (wept; Bach: 184; Marissen: 53) leading
into the alto aria “Erbarme dich” (Have mercy)
which makes it clear that the listener is meant to
identify with Peter. Also, the setting of the crucifix-
ion scene altogether exemplifies the same kind of
religious impression on the listener (see “Crucifix-
ion VIII. Music”).
In a similar broad emotional-religious context,
Haydn stated (in a letter) that his instrumental
composition, Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers
am Kreuze (1786, The Seven Last Words of our Savior
on the Cross) was made so as to make a “profound
impression on the souls of even the most inexperi-
enced” (see “Haydn, Joseph”). What was conveyed
to the listeners must be understood as a deepened
impact of those mental images of Jesus on the Cross
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already in the minds of the listeners. It seems to be
the same basic idea that lies behind the use of the
German word einbilden in 17th-century Lutheran
thought to express music’s ability to “evoke a devo-
tional feeling in the heart of the religious” (Hav-
steen: 167). Etymologically, according to the Deut-
sches Wörterbuch (German Dictionary) of the Brothers
Grimm, the (transitive) notion of einbilden stems
from the word Bild (image) and indicates the im-
pression of an image of something in somebody.
It was used already in the 14th century (Deutsches
Wörterbuch, s.v. “Einbilden“).
The notion of music establishing or deepening
biblical images in the listener is also reflected in a
number of titles for musical compositions, espe-
cially in modern times. Olivier Messiaen’s large-
scale piano cycle Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (1944,
Twenty contemplations of the Infant Jesus) is an
important example of a visual metaphoric in music,
something which is implied in the title through the
word “regard” (look). Also George Crumb’s Black
Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land) for electric
string quartet (1970) shows this metaphorical visual
impulse. One of the “images” is called “God-Music”
with biblical connotations (see “God X. Music”).
Siglind Bruhn has introduced the general no-
tion “musical ekphrasis” to denote music respond-
ing to poetry or painting (Bruhn 2000). Among
examples of such music, she also discusses com-
positions based on biblical images which some-
times may be imagined by the composer, as in
Frank Martin’s Polyptyque, six images de la passion de
Christ (1973, Polyptyque: Six Images of the Passion
of Christ) for solo violin and two string orchestras
or Ottorino Respighi, Vetrate di chiesa (1925, Church
Windows) for orchestra describing four imaginary
religious images, including two biblical ones, the
flight into Egypt and the Archangel Michael. By
contrast, Respighi’s Trittico botticelliano (1927, Three
Botticelli Pictures, a.k.a. Botticelli Triptych), also for or-
chestra, is based on three actual paintings by Botti-
celli, including the famous Adoration of the Magi
(1475/76, Uffizi, Florence; see Bruhn 2000: 223–
67). Further, Bruhn discusses the Israeli composer
Jacob Gilboa’s The Twelve Jerusalem Chagall Windows
(1966) for singers and instruments, and English
composer John McCabe’s orchestral work The Cha-
gall Windows (1974), both responding to Chagall’s
famous stained-glass windows based on Genesis
and Deuteronomy in the Abbell synagogue of the
Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center
(Bruhn 2000: 269–360).
All these works demonstrate how music is often
understood to represent mental images and some-
times to transform actual or mental images to musi-
cal ones.
Bibliography: ■ Bach, J. S., Matthäus-Passion Study Score
Edition Peters (Leipzig n.d.). ■ Bruhn, S., Musikalische Sym-
bolik in Olivier Messiaens Weihnachtsvignetten (Frankfurt a.M./
947 Image, Imagery
Wien 1997). ■ Bruhn, S., Musical Ekphrasis: Composers Re-
spondig to Poetry and Painting (Hillsdale, N.Y. 2000). ■ Deut-
sches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm
(www.woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB; accessed October 24,
2015). ■ Havsteen, S. R., “Aspects of Musical Thought in
the Seventeenth-Century Lutheran Theological Tradition,”
in The Arts and the Cultural Heritage of Martin Luther (ed. E.
Østrem et al.; Copenhagen 2003) 151–69. ■ Marissen, M.
(ed.), Bach’s Oratorios: The Parallel German-English Texts with
Annotations (Oxford 2008). ■ Schwab, H. W., “Zur ‘Idee, ein
Chaos in Musik zu setzen’: Ästhetische Auseinandersetzun-
gen im Gefolge der ersten Aufführung von Joseph Haydns
Schöpfung in Kopenhagen (1801),” in FS W. Wiora zum 90.
Geburtstag (ed. C.-H. Mahling/R. Seiberts; Tutzing 1997)
426–45.
Nils Holger Petersen
XI. Film
A study of biblical imagery in film must consider
both visual and aural dimensions of the medium.
Because film combines visual imagery with dia-
logue, music, and sound effects, the possibilities for
symbolically evoking biblical texts are practically
endless.
The aural dimension of film encompasses dia-
logue, music, and all other aspects of film sound.
Verbal allusions to biblical stories in film dialogue
can elicit an analogy between the film and the bibli-
cal story (e.g., the Cain and Abel references in Amo-
res perros, dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000,
MX, “Love Dogs”). Film music can stimulate partic-
ular images and associations in the minds of cinema
audiences. For example, many films make use of
hymns, gospel music, and folk music that rely heav-
ily upon biblical images (e.g., The Apostle, dir. Rob-
ert Duvall, 1997, US; O Brother, Where Art Thou?, dir.
Joel and Ethan Coen, 2000, UK/FR/US; 12 Years a
Slave, dir. Steve McQueen, 2013, US/UK). Ambient
sounds such as wind, thunder, or even pregnant si-
lence can aurally symbolize the presence of the di-
vine (cf. Exod 19 : 16–17; 1 Kgs 19 : 11–12).
Visual images commonly connected with the Bi-
ble abound in the biblical epic genre and its paro-
dies (e.g., The Bible: In the Beginning…, dir. John Hus-
ton, 1966, US/IT; Life of Brian, dir. Terry Jones,
1979, UK). Rays of light breaking through clouds
indicate divine presence and blessing. A cradled
lamb elicits the gospel nativity story or the trope of
the good shepherd. Biblical patriarchs and libera-
tors wield the ever-present shepherd’s staff. Multi-
tudes gaze with rapt attention at a messiah(-figure),
and a nimbus crowns each saintly figure. The recent
epic film Noah (dir. Darren Aronofsky, 2014, US)
uses the same sequence of biblical images several
times to evoke key ideas: a snake/choice, a fruit/
temptation, and Cain’s killing of Abel/violence.
This sequence explains Noah’s decision to end the
human race with his own family.
Non-biblical films also make use of imagery de-
rived from conventional ways of visually represent-
ing biblical narratives. An untamed wilderness or
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paradisiacal garden evokes Eden as well as its con-
notations of pre-fall innocence. Cardinal Altamira-
no notes the similarity of the untouched Guarani
lands “above the falls” to the garden of Eden in
The Mission (dir. Roland Joffé, 1986, UK/FR); “A bit
overgrown,” responds the Jesuit, Father Gabriel. It
is European intrusion that ultimately spoils this
paradise. The second biblical creation story, with its
associated theological themes, can also be evoked in
film with the image of ripe fruit (especially, but not
exclusively, an apple; Pleasantville, dir. Gary Ross,
1998, US) or a luminous tree representing either
the tree of life or the tree of knowledge (e.g., The
Tree of Life, dir. Terrence Malick, 2011, US; Adams
æbler, dir. Anders Thomas Jensen, 2005, DK/DE,
Adam’s Apples; Eve and the Firehorse, dir. Julia Kwan,
2005, CA).
Cinematic deluges almost inevitably allude in
some way to the biblical flood. An ark-like boat-
house represents metaphorical safety and renewal
in Garden State (dir. Zach Braff, 2004, US), whereas
a Noachian houseboat offers only the illusion of
safety in Northfork (dir. Michael Polish, 2003, US)
for a polygamist homeowner and his two wives who
refuse to evacuate a valley that is soon to be flooded
for hydroelectric power. The biblical flood story is
regularly evoked in disaster films involving earth-
quakes (Deluge, dir. Felix E. Feist, 1933, US), meteor
strikes (When Worlds Collide, dir. Rudolph Maté,
1951, US; and Deep Impact, dir. Mimi Leder, 1998,
US), or nuclear holocaust (The Noah, dir. Daniel
Bourla, 1975, US). Likewise, the image of a white
dove carrying a green twig has come to connote
peace and renewal (Evan Almighty, dir. Tom Shad-
yac, 2007, US; WALL-E, dir. Andrew Stanton, 2008,
US).
Aqedah imagery – signaled by the death of a
beloved son, sacrificed for faith or other deeply-held
ideals – appears in many Israeli films as “[t]he myth
of the binding of Isaac (Gen 22) has been trans-
formed and transcribed in Jewish culture for centu-
ries” (Zanger). Anat Zanger suggests that early-21st-
century Israeli cinema and television (e.g., My Fa-
ther, My Lord, dir. David Volach, 2007, IL; Bet-lehem,
dir. Yuval Adler, 2013, IL) calls into question the
need to repeatedly sacrifice the sons of Israel. Out-
side of Israel, Aqedah imagery is more often associ-
ated with horror films and psychological thrillers
(e.g., Frailty, dir. Bill Paxton, 2001, US/DE) (see
also “Aqedah”).
The exodus story provides film with its own set
of iconograpic images, such as a burning bush
(Pleasantville). Likewise, twin stone tables bearing or
representing the Decalogue have come to embody
the more general concept of a moral order under-
pinning the universe. Tables barren of writing ap-
pear repeatedly in the modern storyline of Cecil B.
DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1923, US) as a
warning to and indictment of the law-breaking son
949 Imitation of Christ (Book)
Dan McTavish. Stone table iconography is also bor-
rowed as a means of divine communication in Mi-
chael Curtiz’s Noah’s Ark (1928, US). Parted red soup
evokes the parting of the Red Sea (Bruce Almighty,
dir. Tom Shadyac, 2003, US) (see also “Exodus,
The”).
Images associated with Jesus and the gospels are
embarrassingly plentiful, sparking a seemingly
endless multiplication of cinematic Jesus-figures.
Common tropes include walking on water (Being
There, dir. Hal Ashby, 1979, US), teaching on the
hillside (Ordet, dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955, DK,
“The Word”), breaking bread (Journal d’un cure de
campagne, dir. Robert Bresson1951, FR, Diary of a
Country Priest), raising a cup (Freaks, dir. Tod Brown-
ing, 1932, US), wearing a crown of thorns (La passion
de Jeanne d’Arc, dir. Dreyer, 1928, FR, The Passion of
Joan of Arc), or assuming a cruciform pose (The Shaw-
shank Redemption, 1994, US). Cinema commonly
uses the image of a cross or crucifix to evoke the
church, its presumed protection from evil, or ideas
of redemption and self-sacrifice.
Indeed biblical imagery has so thoroughly per-
meated contemporary society that one might legiti-
mately wonder whether its use in film is always a
deliberate choice on the part of filmmakers. A case
in point is the shower of frogs that falls from the
sky in Magnolia (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999,
US). Although for many viewers and reviewers this
moment in the film evoked the biblical exodus
story, Anderson denied that any such allusion was
intended (Denzey). Similarly, although the Japanese
anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (dir. Hideaki Anno,
1995–96, JP) makes abundant use of biblical im-
ages, its creators insist that these images (particu-
larly a recurring cross symbol) were chosen pri-
marily because they “looked cool” and mysterious
(Ogura/Hioki: 291).
Bibliography: ■ Deacy, C., “Reflections on the Uncritical
Appropriation of Cinematic Christ-Figures: Holy Other or
Wholly Inadequate?” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 13
(Summer 2006; online, available at www.utpjournals.com;
accessed September 30, 2015). ■ Denzey, N., “Biblical Allu-
sions, Biblical Illusions: Hollywood Blockbuster and Scrip-
ture,” SBL Forum (March 2004; www.sbl-site.org; accessed
September 30, 2015). ■ Ogura, F./N. F. Hioki, “Anime and
the Bible,” in The Bible in Motion, vol. 1 (ed. R. Burnette-
Bletsch, HBR 2; Berlin 2016) 285–95.
Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch
See also /Iconography, Iconology; /Idols,
Idolatry; /Image of God; /Metaphor; /Plant
Imagery; /Symbol, Symbolism
Imagism, Imagist
/Modernism
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950
Imago Dei
/Image of God
Imalkue
Imalkue (LXX Ιμαλκου; 1 Macc 11 : 39), also
known as Iamblichus (Diodorus Siculus, Bib. hist.
33.4a) and Malchus (Josephus, Ant.13.131), was an
Arabian entrusted with bringing up the young An-
tiochus, child of Alexander I (Balas), to be the next
Seleucid ruler. Diodorus (Bib. hist. 32.9d, 10.1)
writes that Alexander had fled from Ptolemy to Ara-
bia and taken refuge with local sheikh Diokles, to
whom he had previously given his young son. (First
Maccabees 11 : 16–17 recounts Alexander’s fleeing
to Arabia but does not mention the sheikh.) Later
in his narrative, Diodorus instead names the child’s
guardian “Iamblichus, a chieftain of Arabia”
(33.4a). This corresponds to Yamliku, a name
known from the regions of Emesa and Palmyra; the
name Imalkue in 1 Maccabees may result from the
translator’s confused vocalization of the Hebrew
consonants ymlkw (Goldstein: 46–47). According to
1 Maccabees, Josephus, and Diodorus, Alexander’s
commander Diodotus Trypho, seeing that the
troops were grumbling against Demetrius II Nica-
tor, prevailed upon Imalkue to hand over the child
so he could be made king instead; Trypho returned
with the boy, who was proclaimed Antiochus VI.
(First Maccabees 11 : 54; Josephus, Ant. 13.144; Livy,
Per. 52, and Appian, Syr. 68 report on the coup
without mentioning Imalkue.) Trypho would later
kill young Antiochus and assume the throne him-
self (1 Macc 13 : 31).
Bibliography: ■ Goldstein, J. A., 1 Maccabees (AB 41; New
York 1976). ■ Grainger, J. D, The Cities of Seleukid Syria (Ox-
ford 1990). [Esp. 177–80] ■ Retsö, J., The Arabs in Antiquity:
Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads (London 2003).
[Esp. 316–17]
Eva Mroczek
Imitation of Christ (Book)
The Imitation of Christ (De Imitatione Christi Libri qua-
tuor) was written by Thomas à Kempis (ca. 1380–
1471). He joined the Brothers and Sisters of the
Common Life, which had been founded by Gerard
Groote and associated with the (so-called) Devotio
Moderna. The Imitation is a devotional book that was
composed in Latin ca. 1418–27. In terms of captur-
ing the spirit of the Common Life movement and
the Devotio Moderna, it is indispensable. It has been
translated into numerous languages and it is still
among one of the most widely read Christian, devo-
tional works. The text is divided into four books,
which focus on offering spiritual directives and gui-