In the Middle Ages, reception of the Bible among Jews wasn’t limited to “professional” interpreters. Poets and visual artists put the Bible to use in their own creative media. This presentation introduces viewers to some of the trends in medieval Jewish creativity. It’s intended for early-stage undergraduate students with minimal prior background in Jewish studies, medieval studies, or biblical studies. Suggestions from colleagues with expertise in this field are most welcome. (I’m aware that the presentation needs much more in the way of visual art; this is an incomplete draft released to students under time pressure.)

1. The Bible in
Medieval Jewish
Creativity
A Very Short Introduction for
Beginning Reception Historians
Chris Heard
Associate Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University

2. Note: This presentation is a draft,
a work in progress. It will be
updated later to give additional
attention to visual art, especially
10th- to 15th-century illustrated
Bibles and Haggadoth.

3. 476
Rome falls to the “barbarians.”
The Middle Ages fade in.

4. Jewish literary and visual art thrives
especially in Syria-Palestine.*
INE
EST
L
PA
* As far as we know from the works that have survived the centuries.

5. Literary Art: Yose ben Yose
Synagogue cantors such as Yose
ben Yose further develop the
piyut or liturgical poem, a genre
that emerged in late antiquity.

6. Piyutim* sometimes retell biblical
stories or connect biblical
passages to worship activities.

7. [On Yom Kippur, the priest] exults in the
fringed linen pants—like an envoy,
like a horseman on the alert, a messenger
faithful to those who dispatch him.
By wearing the pants he atones for lechery,
for they were prescribed to cover his nakedness.
He completes the concealment of his body with
a double tunic,
fringed, reaching down to the wrists.

8. Thus, he atones for the house of Jacob,
who sold the righteous Joseph because
of his ornamented tunic.
From a fourth- or fifth-century avodah (liturgical poem for Yom Kippur) by Yose ben Yose, as translated in Carmi (2006).
Yose ben Yose is “the earliest Palestinian paytan [liturgical poet] known by name” (Carmi 2006: 87).

9. Visual Art: Beit Alfa Synagogue
Patrons of the sixth-century Beit
Alfa* synagogue decorate its
floors with mosaics illustrating
Bible stories and cultural symbols.
* Also spelled “Beth Alpha.”

10. * Opposition to the use of figural images in (places of) worship. ** People who destroy (religious) images.

11. * Opposition to the use of figural imagesaqedah of) worship. ** People who destroy (religious) images.
Bible illustration: the in (places (“binding” of Isaac, Genesis 22)

12. Cultural illustration: the zodiac wheel
* Opposition to the use of figural images in (places of) worship. ** People who destroy (religious) images.

13. Liturgical to the use of figural imagesand menorahs flanking a Torah(religious) images.
* Opposition illustration: lions in (places of) worship. ** People who destroy ark (cabinet)

14. The defacing of figures in some
synagogues has led to speculations
about a Jewish iconoclastic*
movement in the sixth century.
* “Image-destroying.”

15. However, evidence for widespread
Jewish iconoclasm in late antiquity
and the early Middle Ages is lacking …

16. … and some examples of Jewish
figural art (both in synagogues and
other contexts) remain unscathed.

17. Eleazar ben Kallir
Eleazar ben Kallir* infuses the
piyut form with greater
complexity and other innovations.
* Or “Killir.”

18. Then* shall the gates of the garden of Eden be
opened,**
and the seven preordained companies of
righteous men shall be revealed within the
garden,**
and the tree of life in the middle of the garden.
* At the end of time. ** In the Hebrew text, the last word of the line is “garden.”
*** This line is only four words in Hebrew, but requires a long English translation.

19. They shall hear the sound of their Creator in
the garden;
and as once He moved about in the garden,
so shall He now move amongst them in the
garden.

20. They shall see, and pointing a finger at His
likeness,*
they shall say: ‘Such is God, our God, and we
shall not die.**
He shall be our guide forever!’***
* Ubidmut. ** Velo namut. *** Al mut.

21. Whereupon He shall show them the three
rewards:*
Ziz, Leviathan and Behemoth.**
……………
* Nechamot. ** Uvehemot.

22. Behemoth arches his horns,
Leviathan rears his fins—
but now He makes an end of the pair,
to slaughter, prepare, and consecrate them.
They shall be served up as a dish to the
faithful people.*
* Each line ends with the sound -man. | Quoted from the translation given in Carmi (2006).

23. 610
Muhammad hears a voice
telling him to “Recite!”
Islam is on the rise.

24. 632–661
Muslims conquer lands they, Jews,
and Christians all consider holy.

25. 711–718
Muslims from North Africa
invade and conquer Spain.

26. Christians and Muslims vie for
control over Spain …
… for the next seven centuries.

27. Saadia ben
Joseph (882–942)
or Saadia Gaon*
* Head of a Jewish academy (in Saadia’s case, at Sura in Babylonia, the most prestigious one at that time).

28. Saadia Gaon
• Translates the Tanak into Arabic
• Writes a rhyming dictionary for
poets
• Introduces alternating rhyme
schemes into Hebrew poetry
Want to know more about the Goan? Explore my slideshow on “The Bible in Medieval Jewish Scholarship.”

29. You [God] are far greater than all architects:
for they fix the lower, then erect the upper
part above it;*
but You first fixed the heavens, then stretched
the earth beneath them as a haven.
O Lord my God, You are great indeed!
Quoted from the translation given in Carmi (2006).

30. Literary Art
Dunash ben Labrat “introduc[es]
quantitative meter and secular
genres”* as well as new rhyme
schemes into Hebrew poetry.
* Carmi (2006): 97.

31. FRANCE The centers of
Jewish creativity
IT
SPAIN
AL
Y
shift into Europe,
especially Spain,
France, and Italy.

32. Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021–1055)
• “[I]ntroduce[s] the full range of Hispano-
Arab conventions into the piyut.”*
• Reflects increasing persecution of Jews by
Christians and Muslims
* Carmi (2006): 101.

33. Open the gate, my love, arise and open the gate!
My soul is dismayed and shaken with terror.
Hagar, 1 my mother’s slave-girl, laughed me to
scorn; she grew haughty
because God heard the outcry of her child Ishmael. 2
In this midnight of exile, I was trampled by the wild
boar 3 of the thickets,
then pursued by the wild ass. 4, 5
Quoted from the translation given in Carmi (2006). | 1, 2 The names “Hagar” and “Ishmael” don’t appear in the Hebrew text;
the translator has added them to help readers recognize the allusion to Genesis 16. | 3 Christianity, perhaps represented
thus due to its non-kosher diets. | 4 Islam, through its association with Ishmael (Genesis 16:12). | 5 For reasons unknown to
me, the translator has swapped the order of the ass and the boar. The ass comes first in the Hebrew poem.

34. 1096–1099
Christian crusaders retake Jerusalem
from its Muslim occupants.
This was the first of several crusades.

35. Abraham
ibn* Ezra
(1089–1164)
* Like Hebrew ben, Arabic ibn means “son of.”

36. Ibn Ezra
• Gains fame not only as a biblical
scholar, but also as a poet
• Writes religious poetry with many
biblical allusions, but also romantic
poems and drinking songs

37. Judah Halevi
(1075–1141)

38. Judah Halevi
• Lives periodically in both Muslim-controlled
and Christian-controlled Spain
• Gives voice to the distress of Jews caught
between warring Christians and Muslims
• Presents Jewish suffering as a sacrifice to God

39. My love, have you forgotten how you lay
between my breasts? 1
Then why have you sold me forever to my
enslavers?
Did I not follow you through a barren land?
Let Mount Seir 2 and Mount Paran,3 Sinai and
Sin be my witness!
There my love was yours, and I was your delight.
1The speaker is Zion (Jerusalem), addressing God. | 2 The territory of Esau (Genesis 36), associated metaphorically with
Rome and thence, by extension, with Christians. | 3 The territory of Ishmael (Genesis 21), associated by extension with Islam.

40. Then how can you now bestow my glory upon
others?
I am thrust into Seir,1 driven towards Kedar,2
tested in the furnace of Greece, 3 crushed under
the yoke of Media. 4
1 See previous slide. | 2 A region in Arabia, sharing a name with one of Ishmael’s sons (Genesis 25:13), and therefore
associated with Islam by extension. | 3 Here associated with Christianity, in parallel with Seir/Esau/Rome. | 4 Geographically
contiguous with Persia, here associated with Islam, in parallel to Kedar/Ishmael.

41. Immanuel of Rome (1261–1332)
• Writes poetry in the Hebrew
language, but in European style
• Uses biblical imagery in ribald
fashion

42. Deep in my heart I have resolved
to spurn the garden of Eden in favour of Hell,
for there I shall find dripping honey and nectar:
all the graceful does and lustful ladies.

43. What is there for me in Eden? There are no
love[r]s
there, only women blacker than soot or pitch,
and crones covered with lichen.
My spirit would droop in their company.

44. Eden, what are you to me? You assemble
all the maimed women and infamous men.
That is why I think of you with contempt.

45. Hell, I consider you excellent in charm and
grandeur,
for you house all the girls in their elegant
dresses.
It is you who have assembled all the delights
of our eyes.
Quoted from Carmi 2006: 421–422. The poem is a sonnet with an aaaa aaaa bac bac rhyme scheme.

46. 1453
Constantinople falls to the Ottomans.
The Middle Ages begin to fade out.

47. 1492
Christians complete the Reconquista,
expelling Muslims from Spain.
Modernity is coming.

48. Sources
Bland, Kalman P. 2000. The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Carmi, T., ed. 2006. The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse. London: Penguin.
Epstein, Marc Michael. 1997. Dreams of Subversion in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature. University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press.
Halper, B. 1921. Post-Biblical Hebrew Literature: An Anthology. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society
of America.
Sed-Ranja. 1985. Ancient Jewish Art: East and West. Neuchâtel: Paul Attinger.
Tahan, Ilana. 2007. Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image. London: The British Library.
Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. 1972. Jewish Art and Civilization. Fribourg: Office du Livre.

49. Photo Sources
Walters Art Museum via Chris Yunker via Wikimedia
Wikimedia Commons Commons
Andreas Tille via Wikimedia
Sam Segar via stock.xchng
Commons
Billy Alexander via stock.xchng Uncredited via all-history.org
Magdalena Kucova via iStockphoto Uncredited via Jewogle.com
Talmonyair via Wikimedia Raananms via Wikimedia
Commons Commons
Prasetyo via Wikimedia Commons Marion Schneider & Christoph
Aistleitner via Wikimedia
Commons