Sarcophagus with the Crossing of the Red Sea

The front compresses Exodus into emblem: Moses—youthful, often cross-staff in hand—signals the parted sea; Israelites pass; Pharaoh’s chariots overturn as stratified waves close. Early Christians read the scene typologically as baptism: a passage from bondage to life. Roman carving habits—columnar breaks, drilled foam, crowded action—serve a new theology of rescue and renewal.