Copyright

Diana Lipton; Meira Polliack;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 575–610

Language

  • English

Print Length

36 pages

Wrestlers before the King

Image and Text in Ancient and Medieval Representations of the First Murder

  • Diana Lipton (author)
  • Meira Polliack (author)
Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 2: The Medieval World, Judaeo-Arabic, and Neo-Aramaic(pp. 575–610)
The article explores artistic and textual representations of the first murder, focusing on Cain and Abel in biblical and Qurānic traditions. Using visual and textual examples from antiquity to the Renaissance, the study examines the interplay of Cain’s posture and the role of divine intervention. It draws attention to the recurring visual motif of Cain pinning Abel with his foot, linking it to Roman gladiator imagery and rabbinic exegesis as in Genesis Rabbah, which portrays God as a spectator at a wrestling match. The study investigates how these depictions reflect evolving theological concerns, including divine justice and responsibility, and considers subversive Jewish interpretations that question God’s role in Abel’s death. The analysis highlights the interplay between textual exegesis, visual art, and cultural influences in shaping the reception of the story.

Contributors

Diana Lipton

(author)
Former Teaching Fellow at Canadian Friends Of Tel-Aviv University

Diana Lipton (PhD, University of Cambridge) was until 2024 a Teaching Fellow (Biblical Studies) at Tel-Aviv University. She has published on literary, ideological, and theological approaches to Hebrew Bible texts and biblical reception. Her most recent monographs are Longing for Egypt and Other Unexpected Biblical Tales (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008) and (with Paul M. Joyce) Lamentations Through the Centuries (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).

Meira Polliack

(author)

Meira Polliack (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Professor of Bible at Tel-Aviv University, where she teaches biblical literature, Medieval Bible exegesis, and reception history. Polliack’s research focuses on Judaeo-Arabic Bible translation and exegesis; cross-themes in the Bible in Arabic amongst Jews, Christians and Muslims; Medieval and modern literary approaches to biblical narrative, especially: traumatic and ethical aspects in biblical characterization and reception exegesis. Selected publications include: The Karaite Tradition of Arabic Bible Translation: A Linguistic and Exegetical Study of the Karaite Translations of the Pentateuch from the Tenth to the Eleventh Centuries CE (Brill, 1997); Karaite Judaism: A Guide to its History and Literary Sources (Brill, 2003); ‘Joseph’s Trauma: Memory and Resolution’, in A. Performing Memory in Biblical Narrative and Beyond (Phoenix Press, 2009); ‘Inversion of “Written” and “Oral” Torah in Relation to the Islamic Arch-Models of Qur’an and Hadith’, Jewish Studies Quarterly 22/3 (2015).