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Both Jewish and Christian exegetes understood the desert Tabernacle and its implements to have been designed according to the “pattern” of Creation, since Moses was instructed on Mount Sinai to build the Tabernacle “after their pattern, which is being shown thee on the Mount” (Exodus 25:9, 40; 26:8). The Christian Topography, a sixth-century Byzantine manuscript suggests a visual schema for this “pattern,” a rectangle topped with an arch to portray both the Tabernacle and the Cosmos. This schema is very similar to a Jewish visual symbol of the Temple found on the Bar Kokhba coins from 132–135 CE, in Jewish funerary art of the third and fourth centuries, in synagogue art of fourth to the seventh century, and in a fourteenth-century illustrated Spanish haggadah. According to the Christian Topography, the horizontal line separating the rectangular part of the schema from the arched dome alludes to both Creation and the Tabernacle. For the former it represents the firmament that was created on the Second Day to separate the Earth and the Heavens above. For the latter, it denotes the parochet—the curtain—that separated the Holy and the Holy of Holies. This chapter discusses Jewish and Christian visual compositions that show how cosmology and religion can interrelate.

The appearance of the enigmatic woman-headed serpent in both Christian and Jewish art of the thirteenth century can be understood as a reflection of the historical developments of that period. The widespread influence of the Cathar/Albigensian dualistic heresy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries brought about a strong Church reaction, and the Inquisition that eliminated the heresy. The Jews were caught in the middle of this inquisitorial campaign and, in order to defend themselves, had to disassociate themselves from the dualistic ideas expressed by the Kabbalah and at the same time also prove their allegiance to the Old Testament. Their use of particular Christian models in biblical and non-biblical illuminated manuscripts at that point in time may well be a graphic indication of the Jews' precarious position in medieval Christian society.

The book presents new figurative models of interchange between Judaism and Christianity. It demonstrates the nexus connecting the account of Creation and the Tabernacle using Jewish and Christian texts and artistic images from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages.

The book presents new figurative models of interchange between Judaism and Christianity. It demonstrates the nexus connecting the account of Creation and the Tabernacle using Jewish and Christian texts and artistic images from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages.

The book presents new figurative models of interchange between Judaism and Christianity. It demonstrates the nexus connecting the account of Creation and the Tabernacle using Jewish and Christian texts and artistic images from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages.

The book presents new figurative models of interchange between Judaism and Christianity. It demonstrates the nexus connecting the account of Creation and the Tabernacle using Jewish and Christian texts and artistic images from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages.

The book presents new figurative models of interchange between Judaism and Christianity. It demonstrates the nexus connecting the account of Creation and the Tabernacle using Jewish and Christian texts and artistic images from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages.

The book presents new figurative models of interchange between Judaism and Christianity. It demonstrates the nexus connecting the account of Creation and the Tabernacle using Jewish and Christian texts and artistic images from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages.

An architectonic image of a temple-like facade appears in many Jewish and Early Christian works of art. In Early Christian art it might symbolize the cultic transformation of the pagan Roman temple to a Christian new House of God and the fulfillment of Jesus prophecy regarding the ruined Jewish Temple. This chapter examines the graphic image of the temple-like edifice in fourth-century art and some of its earlier sources in an attempt to understand its special iconography in reference to the historical, theological, and political events of the period. It also examines the Christian significance of Bethany, the site of Lazarus resurrection, as a substitute for Jerusalem and its Temple. However, from an early stage, Bethany was identified primarily as the locus of Lazarus resurrection, as is manifest in Eusebius Onomastikon and in the description of the traveler from Bordeaux, both written around 430 CE. Keywords: architectonic image; Bethany; early Christian art; fourth-century art; House of God; Jewish art; Jewish Temple; Lazarus resurrection; temple-like edifice; temple-like facade