F I S H I N G

It is a fragment of a complicated war history.

Against God’s instructions, Balaam decided to travel and on his way he was stopped by an angel that he could not see. But his donkey saw the angel and refused to move. So Balaam beat her up (it was a she-donkey) and still she refused to move.

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…… Suddenly God allowed her to speak.
And the donkey reproached her master for beating her and showed him the angel that he had not seen. –

English …. Greek ….. Hebrew ….. Latin

German ….. French ….. Spanish ….. Italian ….. Russian

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Map of Israel in about 830 bC from http://tinyurl.com/ykzto8

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This painting is from the underground burial tunnels called catacombs on the Via Latina in Rome.  There is a version by Rembrandt painted about 400 years ago, published by Wikipedia :

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And Doré, below, also drew Balaam and his donkey and put in all of his romantic drama where in fact the text is factual and quiet.

The text says how the angel stood in the donkey’s way, and the donkey tried to get around the angel, but there were walls on both sides of the path. So she refused to go any further, and when Balaam beat her up, she began to speak. –

Balaam was powerful and well known in the region where he lived.  He was not a prophet, but a fortune-teller, and God gave him the power of prophecy only once, after the encounter with the angel, to frustrate the plans of a king who wanted to go to war against Israel.

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Here he is again with his donkey  sculpted to fit the design of a capital, but on the whole  there is not much about him on the internet.

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I did find something that I wasn’t looking for, a pretty carving of the Flight to Egypt. Wood must be easier to carve than stone.

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And next I found these two: a little guy who looks so very tired   holding up an arch at the cathedral of Reims, France:

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And two men fighting on horseback:

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There are  cartoon versions of the Balaam story:

http://www.touchoffire.com/nb.html

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and there he was as part of  a matching game at http://www.biblebios.com/bible_stories/matching.htm

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This is the same Balaam as above from the pillar of Saulieu cathedral, but it is photographed from a different angle to show the donkey’s face. In sculpture — and also in architecture –  the camera re-defines the work.

Postscript

I can’t find any reference for the top photo, the green picture, probably a metal relief. I remember it was from a French catechesis site. Could some reader maybe say where it came from?

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