The Bible is originally a book that consists purely of words and not illustrations. It has been up to different artists to interpret these stories and draw them according to what part of the story or what perspective they deem to be the most important. Images of Bible stories are found mostly in children’s Bibles because they need visual representations of text that they cannot yet read. We also see these images in Biblia pauperum, which are Bible stories that were drawn out for people who could not read in ancient times.
The following are a few examples of how a single story has been depicted in a variety of ways by different artists:
1. 
The Hebrews in the desert are jubilant and celebrating the idol that they just made for themselves. It shows their joy in having something to worship and a source of the hope that they had lost after Moses disappeared on the hill for too long.
2. 
Aaron is presenting the golden calf that he just fashioned from the Hebrews’ jewelry. Moses is drawn as a small figure in the background. He is barely noticeable. The artist decided the golden calf and the people worshipping it are a more important part of the story than Moses is.
3. 
Moses is furious about the Hebrews worshipping a false god and is just about to break the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments on them out of rage. Here, the people are scared of not only the wrath of Moses but also that of God.
4. 
Moses is about to demolish the golden calf and the people look distressed because their idol that they worship is about to be destroyed.
A simple Google search provided these different images that are based on the same story. In all of the images, one can recognize that they refer to this particular Bible story because of the iconic golden calf that is depicted. But the setting of the story and the emotions felt by Moses and the Hebrews vary depending on the artist. This is the beauty of images that interpret text. They provide different perspectives on a single piece of text, usually giving us, the audience, an insight to an artists personal take on the story.
There is an interesting contrast between the parts of the story that the first two photos depict and what the last two photos depict. The first two photos highlight the first half of the story, where the people create a golden calf and experience joy in being able to celebrate. The last two photos feature Moses’s anger about the creation of the calf and a false idol. In creating the paintings, the artists had to decide which part of the story was the most interesting and how to depict the story in a way that encompassed the most important parts. These paintings illustrate the difference in how people interpret literature and how those differences are then portrayed in art.
Yes. We saw this when we tried to illustrate Achillies Shield. Because we couldn’t incorporate everything that was described in the reading, we ended up picking and choosing the parts that interested us (or that we could draw).