Untitled

58
chapter four
Figure IV-1. Binding of Isaac on mosaic panels: a. Sepphoris; b. Beth "Alpha.
scene from left to right, even though it does not
follow the exact narration of the biblical story.
A bearded Abraham is depicted on the right
side of the panel, holding Isaac with one hand
while in the other he carries a long knife. Isaac
is rendered as a child, with bound hands. The
altar is at the far right with flames leaping up.
Abraham is clearly the chief figure, exceeding all
the others in height and size; by this device his
prominence in the story is shown. Isaac is also
depicted in an unusual attitude: he is not bound
to the altar but is suspended in the air and seems
to be held by Abraham.
The most dramatic aspect of the story, the
Hand of God, which appears from above, emerging
out of a cloud emitting rays, occupies the
centre. Under the hand a one-horned ram is
placed beside a two-branched tree, suspended in
the air in an unusual posture. The ram’s single
horn close to the tree is also exceptional, and
seems to illustrate the biblical sentence ‘a ram
caught in a thicket by his horns’ (Gen. 22: 13).
Sukenik (1932: 40) maintains that the reason for
the position of the ram is simply lack of space,
whereas Yeivin (1946: 22) suggests that the ram
is rendered after naturalistic observation, as well
as being a continuation of a prototype in Mesopotamian
art (for further discussion of the ram’s
position see Bergman 1982 and Beitner 1999).
On the left a saddled donkey (cut off by the
frame) and two young men are portrayed. One
of the youths stands behind the donkey, only his
upper body showing, while the other stands beside
the donkey, holding the reins in his right hand
and gripping a whip in his left.
Inscriptions have been worked into the scene:
the names םהרבא ‘Abraham’ and קחצי ‘Isaac’
appear above the figures. In the centre, under
the Hand of God, parts of the Hebrew biblical
verse are inscribed: חלשת לא ‘Do not raise your