So far we have examined Genesis 22 from oral and written perspectives, but the purpose of this chapter is to consider the story from the perspective of the artist. Artistic interpretation has often been ignored in studies of biblical interpretation. Biblical commentaries, for example, rarely pay attention to figurative representation except on their front cover. This is partly because the question as to whether the artist has played a role in interpreting biblical stories is raised by the Bible itself. The well-known command in Exodus 20 has been interpreted to mean that Jews and Christians would automatically have opposed every form of figurative visual representation:

These verses were discussed by Josephus, who was known for being hostile to images. Roman writers of the first century such as Tacitus and Pliny also remarked about the absence of statues and images in Jewish cities and synagogues. However, before it is too readily assumed that these writings demonstrate a lack of artistic representations, even Josephus reported that there existed groups, such as the Hasmonean family in the first century BCE, who produced figurative art.