The Imagery of Scripture

Seeing the Word through New and Ancient Eyes

David Stellwagen

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781666736403, 9781666794632
• eBook ISBN: 9781666794649
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

When God gives us blessings, he wants us to share them with others whenever possible. The joy that comes from giving and sharing is often priceless and beyond description. This is so relevant because this book is a blessing that must be shared with you. The Imagery of Scripture is about seeing the word of God with both new and ancient eyes. It will allow you to admire the Bible in a profound way, showing you the wonder of God's word and how it points, in untold ways, to a place named Calvary.

1

Seeing is Everything

Sherlock Holmes~George~Silence

What do you see?

Those four words form the crux of my teaching philosophy. They lay the foundation I ask my students to build upon daily. As a Christian educator, I strive to help my students see new things—things that will impact how they view their education, the world around them, and even God’s Word.

Once I decided to share parts of this study with my students (and settled on using the art world to introduce it), I then faced the dilemma of which story or work of art to begin with. It didn’t take long to find something that has proven highly effective.

What I’d like to do here is share with you that approach, to show you how I emphasize with those students the need to see things through fresh eyes.

During the first week of school, I show my students the following piece of art.

Bernat Martorell, Saint George and the Dragon, 1434, The Art Instititue of Chicago.

The work is a painting by the Spaniard, Bernat Martorell, which is over five hundred years old. (That makes it a bit older than my laminated poster.) At the beginning of the twenty-first century, two researchers, Lisa and Jeffrey Smith, found that the average time spent in front of a work of art at a museum is roughly twenty-seven seconds.

I ask my students (and now you, as well) to study the work for double that length: one minute. I turn it into a mini-Sherlock Holmes game. What details matter? The clues are there. Can they find them—can you? In the end, it all comes down to one thing:

What do you see?

The students do their best to see as much in the painting as they can. Then it is time to open their eyes.

I tell the students that the warrior’s name is George. He was a pagan who converted to Christianity later in life. George felt he had a calling to spread the Good News of the Gospel. Legend has it that one day, as he wandered into a new kingdom, he encountered a young maiden about to be devoured by a hideous dragon. George, being the stud-muffin he was (and yes, I call him a stud-muffin), felt he had no choice but to slay the dragon and save the girl­­, which is exactly what he did.

Little did he know that the damsel was no ordinary young lady. She was the only daughter of the king and queen and had been chosen by lottery that year to die. This was the only way to appease the wrath of the dragon that had plagued the kingdom for decades. In gratitude for saving his daughter, the king offered George the chance to marry the princess. George accepted. He had slain a dragon and won a one-of-a-kind bride in the process. Life . . . was . . . good.

But there’s more to the story. Though this legendary battle never actually happened, the story was sometimes used by artists and the church as a picture (or image) of something that did occur around two thousand years ago. And it is here where I ask the students the question that the painting and its story have been leading to:

How does the depth of the story change

if George is seen as an image of Jesus?

Once they are told that George is an image of Jesus, it doesn’t take long for one of them to state that the dragon must be an image of the devil. As soon as that connection is made, I read a Bible verse.

Revelation 20:2 “He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan . . . ”

Just like that, the kids know they are on the right track—at which point I ask them what George used to slay the dragon in the painting. Inevitably, someone in the room connects the spear in the painting with the spear used to pierce Jesus’ side. Eventually, someone also makes the connection that that spear was being used to defeat and conquer the devil (a.k.a. the dragon).

I ask them to look closely at the poster once again and tell me what they see on George’s armor, namely, the breastplate with a red cross on a white background. Numerous students see and understand that the red points to the blood Jesus shed to win that battle and the white points to his purity.

The imagery of the princess is typically a little more difficult for the class, but more often than not, at least one of them realizes that she is an image of the church. When Jesus defeated the devil on Good Friday, he won something—a bride—which just happens to be the church. I head right back to Scripture.

Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.”

Finally, I leave them with one more thought:

Where do they think the idea came from to create a legendary story that pointed to Jesus as the conquering Savior of the world?

Believe it or not, there was an actual George who did spread the Gospel, but he didn’t slay any dragon to win a bride. So, where did that idea come from? Every year, the reply is the same: silence.

I let the students (and now you as well) know that the answer is, without a doubt, one of the greatest things I have encountered in my life. I learned that one idea behind the fictitious tale of St. George slaying the dragon is founded on other stories that are works of truth, works that contain zero embellishment or mythical detail, stories that are found in Scripture. That is what this Bible study is all about—seeing those biblical stories through fresh (and possibly new) eyes.

2

Core Truth

Truth~39~The Floor

A quick quiz. One question. Pass or fail.

What is the core truth of the Bible?

It should come as no surprise that the Word provides the answer.

I Corinthians 2:2 “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

The truth? Everything revolves around Jesus and the cross at Calvary. It sounds so basic, so simplistic, so easy, but what I want to show you, step by step, is how deep and intricate that truth really is.

In my classroom, the day after I show the students George and the Dragon, I present them with another work of ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: Seeing is Everything
• Chapter 2: Core Truth
• Chapter 3: Lessons Learned
• Chapter 4: The Death of Samson
• Chapter 5: Two Sides
• Chapter 6: The Sacrifice of Isaac
• Chapter 7: The Burning Bush
• Chapter 8: Grapes on a Pole
• Chapter 9: Firsts
• Chapter 10: Serpent
• Chapter 11: Supreme Food
• Chapter 12: A Fish & A Coin
• Chapter 13: Unicorn
• Chapter 14: A Wee Little Man
• Chapter 15: Perfect Soul Vision
• Chapter 16: Water & Wine
• Chapter 17: The Twenty-third Psalm
• Chapter 18: The Ox & The Donkey
• Epilogue
• Bibliography