Description
Here is the account of the Third Day of Creation from the first book of the Old Testament, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seeds after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day” (Genesis 1:11-13).
God Incarnate (Jesus Christ) is depicted with His raised arm blessing the creation of the plants, herbs, and trees on earth, while the Sun and Moon look down figuratively from above. His thumb and two last fingers on His right hand are touching together to symbolize the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, and the two first fingers on that same hand are raised upwards, symbolizing His Two Natures, being both fully God and fully Man in One Person. The second finger is slightly bent down to prefigure the descent of God to earth in His Incarnation. This is part of a wall-painting from the monastery of Sucevita in Romania made in the 15th-16th c.