Unknown artist

The Grapes from the Promised Land, from Historienbibel by Ulrich Schriber, 1422, Manuscript illumination, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg; 2 Cod 50 (Cim 74), fol. 105r. (p. 211), Courtesy Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Fearing the Other

Commentary by Rembrandt Duits

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Numbers 13:23, which describes two Israelite spies who carry an over-sized bunch of grapes from the brook of Eshcol in Canaan back to the Israelite camp, is the most consistently illustrated verse of this section of the book of Numbers.

This is a relatively early variant, made in Strasbourg in Alsace in 1422, stemming from a historiated Bible or bible historiale, a popular late-medieval reworking of Scripture in vernacular prose. Such Bibles offered a summary of the biblical narrative accompanied by a suite of illustrations. The caption states that ‘here, two carried a bunch of grapes on a pole and spotted a giant, which, however, gave them a great and bad scare’, capturing the outcome of the reconnaissance mission into the Promised Land: great fruits but inhabitants you do not want to mess with.

At first, the image seems a straightforward visual interpretation of the story, albeit translated to a medieval environment. The two spies, in fifteenth-century tunics and hose, walk through a verdant landscape. A central-European walled city with a prominent gate is visible in the background. The grapes they bear are green, perhaps reflecting the local varieties of the Alsace region. The heavily bearded giant on the left wears full gilded armour over a crimson tunic with the long dagged sleeves that were in fashion with the nobility in the 1420s. He could be the equivalent of a threatening local robber baron.

There may, however, be a subtle, more disturbing layer to this image. The spy furthest away from the spectator wears a typical pointed hat (or pileus cornatus) that is often used as a discriminating mark of Jewish people in northern European pictures of the time. The fact that his companion has more regular style headwear and is not singled out as a Jew may indicate that the image reflects an existing allegorical reading of the passage (known from the fourteenth-century Speculum humanae salvationis). In this interpretation, the grapes refer to Christ (whose blood became the wine of the Eucharist) and the two spies stand for the Jews and the Pagans whom medieval commentators accused of together putting Christ on the Cross. Thus, for a medieval Christian viewer, not just the giant but the entire population of the image may have consisted of those they regarded as hostile aliens, with only the grapes offering salvation.

 

References

Bodemann, Ulrike. 2017. ‘Historienbibeln. Historienbibel IIa. Handschrift Nr. 59.4.1’, in Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters (KdiH) vol. 7, available at http://kdih.badw.de/datenbank/handschrift/59/4/1 [accessed 7 March 2024]

Gier, Helmut and Johannes Janota (eds). 1991. Von der Augsburger Bibelhandschrift zu Bertolt Brecht. Zeugnisse der deutschen Literatur aus der Staats- und Stadtbibliothek und der Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg (Weißenhorn: Konrad Anton)

Wilson, Adrian and Joyce Lancaster Wilson. 1985. A Medieval Mirror. Speculum Humanae Salvationis 1324–1500 (Berkeley: University of California Press)

See full exhibition for Numbers 13

Numbers 13

Revised Standard Version

13 The Lord said to Moses, 2“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a leader among them.” 3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. 4And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shamʹmu-a the son of Zaccur; 5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; 6from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunʹneh; 7from the tribe of Isʹsachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8from the tribe of Eʹphraim, Hosheʹa the son of Nun; 9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; 10from the tribe of Zebʹulun, Gadʹdiel the son of Sodi; 11from the tribe of Joseph (that is from the tribe of Manasʹseh), Gaddi the son of Susi; 12from the tribe of Dan, Amʹmiel the son of Gemalʹli; 13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; 14from the tribe of Naphʹtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; 15from the tribe of Gad, Geuʹel the son of Machi. 16These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hosheʹa the son of Nun Joshua.

17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb yonder, and go up into the hill country, 18and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there is wood in it or not. Be of good courage, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. 22They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiʹman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoʹan in Egypt.) 23And they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they brought also some pomegranates and figs. 24That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down from there.

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28Yet the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29The Amalʹekites dwell in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebʹusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once, and occupy it; for we are well able to overcome it.” 31Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” 32So they brought to the people of Israel an evil report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. 33And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim); and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

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