Bible Review

Random House, 1988 (translation from the Russian by Stefani Hoffman), $19.95.

In antiquity a sibyl was a woman endowed with the gift of prophecy. These prophecies were later interpreted by the Church as showing that the pagan world had presentiments of Christianity.

The Kress Foundation collected, researched and cleaned a very large body of medieval, Renaissance and baroque old masters’ paintings, and then dispersed them in groups to museums all over this country. The Foundation research and dispersal center was the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., which still owns the largest and finest group of Italian paintings from the Kress Collection.

Leonardo’s work was commissioned by Ludonico il Moro for the refectory of the Convent of Dominican friars at Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. The “Last Supper” was probably begun in 1495 and finished by 1498.

Before reading this article, turn to “Understanding the Sistine Chapel and Its Paintings.” The plan of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the photographs in the article will be especially useful for understanding details in the larger context of the Chapel and its complete ceiling.

The Torah is the first five books of the Bible.

See Friedrich Baumgartel, Verheissung: zur Frage des Evangelischen Verständnisses des Alten Testaments (Gütersloh, West Germany: Bertelsmann, 1952)

Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978.

See also Goshen-Gottstein’s “Christianity, Judaism and Modern Bible Study,” Vetus Testamentum Supplement 28 (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1975), pp. 69–88.

On Reed Sea versus Red Sea, see Bernard F. Batto, “Red Sea or Reed Sea?” BAR 10:04.