4. Explain the concept of prefiguration in medieval plays - why do some episodes from the Old Testament appear more often in mystery plays than others?

Episodes from the Old Testament are dramatized because they are seen to prefigure the central drama of Christ's life: the temptation and fall of Adam prefigures the temptation of Christ; the murder of Abel and the sacrifice of Isaac anticipate the Crucifixion; Noah's flood anticipates the Last Judgement; the Prophets look forward to the Annunciation and Nativity, declaring the genealogy of Christ, while Moses also anticipates aspects of Christ's life and ministry.

The Mystery dramatists had a shrewd eye for seizing on the most visualizable Biblical episodes as the focus of their plays, but in this they could also exploit the ways in which their audiences were steeped in a visual culture that everywhere depicted those episodes,

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