The connection between Elijah and canines begins in the Talmud: “Our rabbis taught: When dogs howl, [it’s a sign that] the Angel of Death has come to town. But when dogs frolic, [it’s a sign that] Elijah the Prophet has come to town” (Bava Kamma 60b, Soncino translation). This teaching is cited by several Ashkenazic commentaries on Exodus 11:7: “But against any of the children of Israel no dog shall move his tongue.” The canine silence promised in this verse as the Israelites left Egypt was miraculous, these commentators explain. Though the Angel of Death was present to slay the Egyptian firstborn, the dogs resisted  their natural urge to bark.

Furthermore, this unnatural quiet hints at the final redemption, when the nations too will be “silenced,” no longer able to harm the Jews. Similarly, in their glosses on the Talmudic passage mentioned above, scholars understood the dogs to symbolize gentiles who attack Jews.

Dogs had symbolic significance in Christian theology as well. On the one hand, these creatures stood for intelligence and loyalty; on the other, they were associated with filth, defilement, and savagery. Dogs often appeared in art, particularly in hunting scenes, in the positive sense. Yet the negative connotation became an anti-Jewish trope, referencing the verse “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Just as dogs return to their vomit, the Jews remain loyal to the Old Testament, rejecting Jesus.

Jewish manuscripts also depict hunting for sport, but the hunted animal usually symbolizes the Jew persecuted in exile, while the hunter and his dogs represent the gentiles. This motif is especially prevalent in haggadot. For instance, illustrations in the Second Nuremberg Haggadah and the Yahuda Haggadah (both circa 1465–70) show Esau holding a bow and horn as his hounds chase a doe. Here the dogs signify Christians, helping Esau (personifying Christendom) pursue hapless Israel.

In contrast, Jews occasionally incorporated canine virtues into their literary and visual culture. For example, in a prayer book produced in Germany in the mid-15th century, an image of  a dog symbolizes Moses’ fealty in transmitting God’s word to Israel.