In the first panel, God, represented by the all-seeing eye, contemplates the creation of the world. Wisdom is represented by two female figures, one asleep in the womb of eternity and the other playing before God. This imagery is found in the Book of Sirach 1:4: “Before anything was created there was wisdom; prudent understanding from eternity.” Throughout the Old Testament, Wisdom is usually personified as a woman.
The fountains in this panel refer to the Book of Proverbs 8:24 where Wisdom is said to exist when there were no fountains or springs of water. The scale in the middle of the first panel recalls Isaiah 40:12, where the prophet, describing the power of the Almighty asks: “Who has…held in a measure the dust of the earth, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?”
God creating the universe is the theme of the center panel. God is represented by the creating hand. The works of the first five days of creation are indicated by the sun, moon and stars, vegetation and animal life, and the sea with the creatures in it (cf. Genesis 1: 6-25).
At the base of the third panel, the Spirit of God sweeps across the waters and God creates Adam from the clay of the earth. Notice that Adam is half brown and half flesh colored as he is transformed from clay into man. In the middle of this panel, you will find Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A half-eaten piece of the fruit (often depicted as an apple) lies at their feet. As they are expelled from the garden, an angel wields the fiery sword “to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gn 3:24). To the left of the sword is the depiction of Cain slaying Abel. As punishment for this crime God banned Cain from the land and Cain founded a city (represented by the houses at the upper left) where he could live in safety. The red cross emanating from the left of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the promise of redemption to come from the wood of Jesus’ cross which, according to ancient tradition, was made from the wood of that tree.