building have decorative painting with no figures. Some of the paintings have figures whose eyes have been scratched out, especially those in Persian costume. Iconography Scholars cannot agree on the subjects of some scenes, because of damage, or the lack of comparative examples. The scenes depicted are drawn from the Hebrew Bible and include many narrative scenes, and some single figure "portraits"—58 scenes in total, probably representing about 60% of the original number. They include the Binding of Isaac and other Genesis stories, Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law, Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt, the visions of Ezekiel, and many others. The Hand of God motif is used to represent divine intervention or approval in several paintings. There have been scholarly debates questioning the wall paintings' influence over later Jewish and/or Christian iconography, which have been held due to the relevance of such early depictions of the biblical narrative. Depictions of Moses and the Book of Exodus occupy significant swathes of space in the paintings on the Western Wall of the synagogue - of the 12 discrete paintings identified in the Hopkins schematic, 3 center on the narrative of Moses' life, with a total of 7 depictions of Moses across the western wall. Some paintings contain multiple representations of Moses within one distinct scene. The painting of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt features multiple Moses figures, much like the painting labeled WC4. Between the first Moses's legs is an inscription in Aramaic reading, "Moses, when he went out from Egypt and cleft the sea." This inscription firmly identifies the murals as depicting the story of Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea from the Book of Exodus. First (on the right) Moses is seen raising a club-like staff and facing to the left, leading an army of Israelites behind him. Second, Moses is seen lowering his staff over the Red Sea, causing its parted waters to close and engulf the pursuing Egyptian army. Here he is facing to the right of the painting. And finally, Moses is seen looking to the left at his safely absconded Israelites, holding his staff at his side, pointed downward. The synagogue paintings' portrayal of Moses and the Israelites each contain influences from the concurrent Roman military culture. Moses is portrayed as the leader of the Israelites who are shown not as civilians or slaves, but as an armed