(1) The arc of Biblical narrative bends from the creation of Heaven and Earth (as described in Genesis,

the first book of the Hebrew scriptures) to the creation of a New Heaven and a New Earth (as described in Revelation, the last book of the Christian New Testament). At the zenith of this arc is the First Advent of Christ -- from the miracle of His incarnation through the Virgin Birth to His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension. As an introduction to pages 31 through 60, I have selected one photo and three details from paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which you and I have visited togeth er four times.

(2) On your first trip to New York, the summer before you began sixth grade, you were particularly taken by The Creation of the World and the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden (1445) by Giovanni di Paolo (1398 1482). On our flight that spring you had seen your first rainbow from above and couldnt get over the fact that it was round. You also liked the map of Eden with its four rivers, but you worried about the cracked surface of the painting.

A Personalized Introduction to the Scope and Themes of Section B

(5) Our second and fourth trips to New York took place respectively in the autumn and the winter (the last time during your Junior year at USF). What you always enjoyed about the Museums traditional holiday display were the porcelain figures from Naples that surround the foot of the tree. They represent more than the Holy Family, the Angels, the Shepherds, and the Magi; in this particular kind of Italian crche (called a presepia), EVERYONE comes running to see the Baby Jesus women carrying laundry baskets, butchers trailing strings of sausages, street musicians, even judges in their official robes. At the ripe age of thirteen, you declared that it was smart to make the manger a magnet for all kinds of people. It was, of course, because it is.

(4) A third image that appealed to you each time we visited the Metropolitan is The Oriental Pleasure Garden (1925) by Paul Klee (1879 1940). The first time you saw it, you stared at it very closely in silen ce, then announced that it OUGHT to be called The Pearly Gates a name for the Heavenly City in one of the Christian folk songs that we used to sing at church and on family road trips. This informal description of the entrance to Heaven is based on a description of The New Jerusalem in the last chapter of the Bible. You certainly got the pearly part right. Youve always had an original eye.

(3) On that same trip, another of your favorite paintings was The Scapegoat (1856) by William Holman Hunt ( 1827 - 1910). It illustrates a passage from Leviticus. As a sacrificial ritual of cleansing, the Israelites were required annually to decorate one goat, to symbolically load it with the sins of the community, and to separate it from the rest of their flocks (i.e., leave it to starve or to be eaten). The setting here is the salt-encrusted edge of the Dead Sea. As I recall, you especially liked the color scheme of this work and the inscription on the frame, comparing the scapegoat to Jesus: Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4).