The Adulterous Woman

In my biography I mentioned how the ink drawings of Vincent van Gogh and the ink drawings and etchings of Rembrandt influenced my early work. I created a number of ink drawings during that time and 3 were made into prints. These particular pieces are "The Fishermen," "The Nun," and "The Adulterous Woman.” The 3 mentioned here are more like a Rembrandt in style. "The Adulterous Women" is a famous scene from the Bible. The Sanhedrin Council of Biblical Israel was similar to the United States Senate of today. They were not only religious leaders, but they represented and carried out the religious laws of Israel. They viewed Jesus as a threat to the religious order of the day and were worried that Jesus could bring the Roman rule, which controlled Israel at the time, down upon them because He was causing a disturbance and uprising to their religious law and order. They plotted to trap Jesus in an incidence concerning a woman caught in adultery. It was Jewish law that if a woman was caught in adultery, they would be executed, and most of the time it would be by stoning her to death. The priests of the Sanhedrin devised what they thought would be a fool proof plan to trap Jesus. They brought forth to Him a woman accused of adultery. They asked Jesus what should be done to her. They knew if He said she should be stoned to death then it would be contrary to His teachings of forgiveness and thus He would be viewed as a hypocrite and His followers would see this and abandon Him. If He said she should be forgiven then He would be breaking Jewish law and they could arrest Him for denying the laws of the land. They believed they had Him no matter what He said. But God's wisdom is above man's wisdom. Jesus already knew what their devious intentions were. He held up a stone and presented it to the crowd and said, "He that is without sin cast the first stone." Of course, no one in the crowd could cast the stone because that would infer that they were sinless. The people dropped their stones one by one and left. Jesus then asked the woman where her accusers were and she said they have all gone. Jesus then said to the woman "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more." I can see Jesus laying a loving hand upon her and in her guilt and shame she begins to cry. It is a story that reveals the forgiveness and wisdom of God.