Ehud and Eglon

The Morgan Bible, better known as the Crusader Bible, is an illuminated manuscript including over 300 scenes from the books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and 1–2 Samuel on 46 folios. Produced in Paris during the reign of King Louis IX (1214–70), many elements (buildings, battle scenes, and clothing) reflect its medieval and crusader context.

Three sets of inscriptions in Latin, Persian, and Judeo-Persian, surround each page and relate the illuminations to the biblical story. These inscriptions were added later. Their languages reflect the multiple previous owners of the Crusader Bible. From Paris, it eventually came into the possession of Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski (1548–1608) in Kraków, Poland, who then made a gift of the book to Shah ‘Abbas of Safavid Persia (1571–1629). After the sack of Isfahan (1722), it fell into the hands of an unnamed Persian Jew whose inscriptions sometimes correct the Latin, revealing a familiarity with the Hebrew Bible and/or Jewish tradition. For instance, the Latin inscription follows the Vulgate and makes clear that Ehud is ambidextrous. The Judeo-Persian inscription, however, follows the Hebrew Bible and makes no mention of this.

Folio 12r is the first scene from the book of Judges. It begins with Ehud’s assassination of Eglon, king of Moab (Judges 3:12–30), and Deborah’s story (Judges 4), which continues onto the next page.

Starting in the top register at bottom right, Ehud holds in his left hand an object, likely a reliquary or a pyx (an object holding consecrated eucharistic bread). These probably symbolize Ehud’s secret divine word to Eglon (Judges 3:19–20); in Christian terms, he holds the ‘Word’ which is Christ. Ehud uses his right hand to stab Eglon, whose intestines spill outward in gruesome detail.

Ehud is pictured again at centre emerging from an upper storey window to summon his troops to battle with a horn in one hand while holding the bloodied dagger with which he stabbed Eglon in his other.

The larger scene on the left shows Israel defeating the Moabites, which the Persian inscription mistakes as a rescue mission for Ehud. Ehud fled Eglon’s palace after the assassination and returned with an army to defeat the Moabite occupiers (vv.28–30). The fleeing Moabite soldiers are depicted in similar ways to their king, stabbed with their intestines exposed. The illumination enthusiastically captures the violence and gore that makes the biblical story so memorable.

References

n.d. ‘Inscriptions, The Crusader Bible’, available at https://www.themorgan.org/collection/crusader-bible/inscriptions [accessed 21 November 2023]

Leson, Richard et al. 2019. ‘MS M.638, Fol. 12r’, available at https://www.themorgan.org/collection/crusader-bible/23 [accessed 21 November 2023]

Weiss, Daniel Howard, and William Noel. 2002. The Book of Kings: Art, War and the Morgan Library’s Medieval Picture Bible (Lingfield: Third Millenium club)

The Dalziels’ Bible Gallery was published in 1881 and featured 62 wood engravings depicting various scenes from the Old Testament. Beginning the project in 1862, the Dalziel brothers commissioned over a dozen established artists to produce original artwork for their illustrated Bible. The book received glowing reviews but ultimately was a financial failure due to its high price, large size, and the lack of accompanying text.

Ford Madox Brown (1821–93) was responsible for this engraving along with two others in the project (‘Joseph’s coat’ and ‘Elijah and the Widow’s Son’). Each showcases his pre-Raphaelite style in its attention to detail and its desire to depict the subject matter with a degree of historical realism rather than in the adoption of classical or stereotypical poses. Brown drew inspiration from newly discovered archaeological findings from Assyria and Egypt displayed in the British Museum. Yet, as Donato Esposito has shown, Brown based many of the elements in this design (Eglon’s jewellery, the throne, floral patterns) on illustrations in Layard’s Nineveh and Its Remains (Esposito 2006: 280).

Brown has chosen to depict the moments before Eglon’s death. Ehud points upward, suggestive of his secret word from God (Judges 3:19). Eglon’s hands clutch the sides of his throne as he prepares to stand. Ehud’s left hand grasps the handle of the knife hidden beneath his clothes, leaving the viewer in a state of tension. Several details add verisimilitude, but most are only of the ‘Orientalist’ imagination—a naive and often paternalistic view of non-Western cultures as ‘exotic’ and unchanged across time and place. So, Ehud’s sandals are left at the door in accordance with ‘Eastern customs’. The inscriptions on the wall and dais resemble cuneiform but are nonsense. The flowing robes are suggestive of Bedouin dress.

Other details suggest biblical and theological reflection by the artist. The key Ehud will use to secure his escape hangs on a hook in the far left (Judges 3:23). The serpent armband and the serpent entwined sceptre, apparently dropped by Eglon, represent the Moabite king as Israel’s physical and spiritual enemy.

References

Esposito, Donato. 2006. ‘Dalziels’ Bible Gallery (1881): Assyria and the Biblical Illustration in Nineteenth-Century Britain’, in Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bible, ed. by Steven W. Holloway (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press), pp. 267–96

MacCulloch, Laura. 2012. ‘“Fleshing Out” Time: Ford Madox Brown and Dalziels’ Bible Gallery’, in Reading Victorian Illustration, 1855–1875: Spoils of the Lumber Room, ed. by Paul Goldman and Simon Cooke (Farnham: Ashgate), pp. 115–35

The Speculum Humanae Salvationis (‘The Mirror of Human Salvation’) is a late medieval work that was widely reproduced in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Written anonymously sometime between 1309 and 1324, copies of the text generally feature 42 lessons in which a scene from the New Testament (usually from the life of Christ) is figurally linked with three episodes from the Old Testament, Apocrypha, or historical legends. These are accompanied by an explanation of the typological significance between them, usually in Latin, which could be used to instruct monks and priests. The pictures accompanying these texts, however, were designed to be sufficient on their own for the instruction of the less educated and often illiterate laity.

In the earliest copies, these pictures took the form of illuminated miniatures which were hand drawn with pen and appear to be standardized along with the text. Later fifteenth-century editions utilized woodcuts and moveable type which led to an even greater degree of standardization.

This manuscript was produced in 1427 and is likely of Swiss origin. Its illuminations are hand drawn with pen, and deviate noticeably from the biblical story and other versions of Speculum (e.g., in the inclusion of a mysterious third figure who is either helping Ehud or trying to prevent the assassination).

The illumination we see here at top right is the last in a series that signifies Christ’s defeat of Satan. The intervening two pictures in the sequence are of Beneniah, defeating a lion in a pit (2 Samuel 23:20) and Samson killing a lion (Judges 14:5–6). The Latin text accompanying the final illumination highlights the fatness of Eglon and his large belly, which symbolize the Devil’s hunger as he had ‘swallowed up all mankind’. Ehud’s victory prefigures Christ’s salvation and the Christian’s struggle with sin.

The picture, however, tells a different story from the text that accompanies it. Here, Eglon, seated on a throne, appears average size. Ehud is garbed in armour and uses both hands to grasp a broadsword. The depiction is an outlier among the other manuscripts which usually feature Ehud holding up Eglon’s hand while stabbing him in the belly. Here, Eglon is stabbed through the neck as blood pours out, thus mirroring the first picture in the series (at top left).

References

Köpf, Ulrich. 2011. ‘Speculum Humanae Salvationis’, in Religion Past and Present, online version, available at http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/religion-past-and-present/speculum-humanae-salvationis-SIM_025659# [accessed 21 November 2023]

Nielsen, Melinda, (ed.). 2022. An Illustrated Speculum Humanae Salvationis: Green Collection MS 000321 (Leiden: Brill)

Wilson, Adrian, and Joyce Lancaster Wilson. 1984. A Medieval Mirror: Speculum Humanae Salvationis, 1324–1500 (Berkeley: University of California Press)