The holy forefather Nahshon was the son of Amminadab, a descendant of Jacob’s son Judah and brother of Elizabeth, Aaron’s wife.

According to the Book of Numbers, Nahshon was prince of the Tribe of Judah during the Exodus from Egypt (Numbers, 2: 3).

In Russian medieval art the forefather Nahshon was portrayed among the Old Testament forefathers and fathers. Such depictions had been originally encountered in temple mural paintings. Since the 16th century the icons depicting the Old Testament forefathers with scrolls in hands have been placed in a separate forefather row. On the icons from the forefather row Nahshon is traditionally portrayed as an old man wearing a chiton and himation, such as, for example, on a 1600 icon of The Forefather Nahshon, the Prophets Isaiah and Habbacum from an iconostasis of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Lubyatovo (now held at the Pskov State United Museum of History and Architecture).

The saint forefather Nahshon is commemorated on the Sunday of the on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers and Fathers.

Zhanna G. Belik,

Ph.D. in Art history, senior research fellow at the Andrei Rublyov Museum, custodian of the tempera painting collection.

Olga E. Savchenko,

research fellow at the Andrei Rublyov Museum.

Bibliography:

1. Васильева О.А. Иконы Пскова. М., 2006. № 143. С. 454.