Israelites Eating the Passover Meal
Purchased on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund with the assistance of the Fellows and with special assistance of Mrs. Frederick B. Adams, Sr., Mrs. Robert Charles, Mr. Laurens M. Hamilton, The Heineman Foundation, Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mrs. Jacob M. Kaplan
The rubric in the top margin, attributed to Isaiah, gives the title to the scene: "The Children of Israel with the Passover Lamb." Four Israelites stand around a table eating lamb and unleavened bread. At the upper left is the head of Isaiah, exhorting (in a quotation from his book, 52:11) cleanliness on the part of those bearing the vessels of the Lord. (His words might explain the woman with the pitcher in the left border.) The head on the right paraphrases Exodus (12:6) that "a young goat should be sacrificed to an assembly of the children of Israel." Two quotations in the side margins from 1 Corinthians (5:7 and 11:27) interpret the Passover lamb as Christ and warn against unworthy Communion.