Window
Building Name: St. Andrew's ChurchStudio Name: Loire (Gabriel) Studios
City: Rochester
Window Shape: 2 (rectangle)
Date of Window: 1969
Subject/Title of Window: The Story of Salvation, Part 8-The Tables of the Law
Brief Description of Subject: This is the eighth of a series of 10 windows located along the sides of the nave. According to the Church "The theme of the faceted art glass at St. Andrew is the Story of Salvation." This is done through the story of the exodus of God's chosen people from Egypt. Each window, in somewhat chronological order, depicts God's hand in freeing his chosen people from enslavement by the Pharaoh, making a covenant with them, and leading them on a path to the land of milk and honey. This parallels Christ dying to free us from the sin of Adam, making a new covenant, and with his resurrection, a promise of heaven. In addition to the story of this exodus, there are symbols that appear to be unrelated to this narrative. There is also numerology --- each of the 10 windows is made with four panels, totaling 40 panels. 10 is the number of the Commandments and 40 is the number used throughout the Bible to symbolize new creation.
The artist's watercolor for each of these windows names the key objects depicted and will be listed with translations from French. For this window:
8 eme Cdt --- 8th Commandment
Le noir et le blanc --- The black and the white
Symboles de l'erreur et la verite --- Symbols of the error and the truth
Les tables de la loi --- The Tables of the Law
Montagne. Les tables --- Mountain. The Tables.
40 jours et 40 nuit --- 40 days and 40 nights
This window symbolically depicts Moses receiving the 10 Commandments as recapped by Moses in Deuteronomy 9:9 -12. "When I went up to the mountain to receive the tables of stone, the tables the Lord made for you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. ... And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant." God then told him to hurry down because your people have created a false God.
The middle panels picture the two tables of stone on the side of Mount Sinai. On the border are 40 white squares (days) and 40 black squares (nights). On the right panel appears to be a figure, most likely Moses.
A parallel story of this in the Gospels is the Temptation of Christ covered in Matthew 4:1 -11, "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights ... The devil took him up to a high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and said to him, 'All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.' Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satin! for it is written 'You should worship the Lord your God and him only should you serve.'" (RSVCE).
Annotation on the Loire Studio watercolor, indicated the use of black and white for the squares was to symbolize "error" and "truth." "Error" and "truth" is found in 1 John 4:1 - 6, which relates how to tell a true spirit (prophet) from a false spirit (prophet): "By this you know the spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not God ... We are of God ... By this we know the spirit of TRUTH and the spirit of ERROR." (RSVCE).
Condition of Window: Good
Height: 4'
Width: 15'
Type of Glass and Technique: Vitreous Paint, Slab or Faceted Glass (Dalle de Verre)
The Story of Salvation, Part 8-The Tables of the Law
The Tables of the Law
The Story of Salvation, Part 8-The Tables of the Law outside
The Story of Salvation, Part 8-The Tables of the Law watercolor
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