Jennifer Knust and Tommy Wasserman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691169880
- eISBN:
- 9780691184463
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691169880.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The story of the woman taken in adultery features a dramatic confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees over whether the adulteress should be stoned as the law commands. In response, Jesus ...
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The story of the woman taken in adultery features a dramatic confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees over whether the adulteress should be stoned as the law commands. In response, Jesus famously states, “Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” This book traces the history of this provocative story from its first appearance to its enduring presence today. Likely added to the Gospel of John in the third century, the passage is often held up by modern critics as an example of textual corruption by early Christian scribes and editors, yet a judgment of corruption obscures the warm embrace the story actually received. The book traces the story's incorporation into Gospel books, liturgical practices, storytelling, and art, overturning the mistaken perception that it was either peripheral or suppressed, even in the Greek East. It explores the story's many different meanings. Taken as an illustration of the expansiveness of Christ's mercy, the purported superiority of Christians over Jews, the necessity of penance, and more, this vivid episode has invited any number of creative receptions. This history reveals as much about the changing priorities of audiences, scribes, editors, and scholars as it does about an “original” text of John. The book calls attention to significant shifts in Christian book cultures and the enduring impact of oral tradition on the preservation—and destabilization—of scripture.Less
The story of the woman taken in adultery features a dramatic confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees over whether the adulteress should be stoned as the law commands. In response, Jesus famously states, “Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” This book traces the history of this provocative story from its first appearance to its enduring presence today. Likely added to the Gospel of John in the third century, the passage is often held up by modern critics as an example of textual corruption by early Christian scribes and editors, yet a judgment of corruption obscures the warm embrace the story actually received. The book traces the story's incorporation into Gospel books, liturgical practices, storytelling, and art, overturning the mistaken perception that it was either peripheral or suppressed, even in the Greek East. It explores the story's many different meanings. Taken as an illustration of the expansiveness of Christ's mercy, the purported superiority of Christians over Jews, the necessity of penance, and more, this vivid episode has invited any number of creative receptions. This history reveals as much about the changing priorities of audiences, scribes, editors, and scholars as it does about an “original” text of John. The book calls attention to significant shifts in Christian book cultures and the enduring impact of oral tradition on the preservation—and destabilization—of scripture.
Calum Carmichael
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300153774
- eISBN:
- 9780300153781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300153774.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter discusses the importance of biblical law on the suspected adulteress. It explains the reasons why the law relating to sexual adulteress has received so much attention. First, the topic ...
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This chapter discusses the importance of biblical law on the suspected adulteress. It explains the reasons why the law relating to sexual adulteress has received so much attention. First, the topic of sexual wrongdoing is always likely to attract interest. Second, with no witness to testify, trials will always involve self-incrimination, which is detrimental from a legal perspective. Third, there has been little or no light shed on what prompts a lawgiver to present the law in the first place. Fourth, from the point of view of comparative law, we find a rule in Hammurabi Code wherein a wife is accused by a husband but there is a lack of evidence, so therefore she has to swear an oath to clear herself.Less
This chapter discusses the importance of biblical law on the suspected adulteress. It explains the reasons why the law relating to sexual adulteress has received so much attention. First, the topic of sexual wrongdoing is always likely to attract interest. Second, with no witness to testify, trials will always involve self-incrimination, which is detrimental from a legal perspective. Third, there has been little or no light shed on what prompts a lawgiver to present the law in the first place. Fourth, from the point of view of comparative law, we find a rule in Hammurabi Code wherein a wife is accused by a husband but there is a lack of evidence, so therefore she has to swear an oath to clear herself.
David H. Price
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190074401
- eISBN:
- 9780190074432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190074401.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
During the formative decades of the Reformation, Lucas Cranach filled sacred places with evangelical art distinctively grounded in biblicism. He and his workshop (including Lucas Cranach the Younger) ...
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During the formative decades of the Reformation, Lucas Cranach filled sacred places with evangelical art distinctively grounded in biblicism. He and his workshop (including Lucas Cranach the Younger) were innovators in all the key areas of art production: the publication of the new Bibles, the invention of biblical imagery for the new theology (motifs including Law and Gospel, Christ blessing the children, Christ and the adulteress, and Crucifixion with the centurion), the reformation of the retable altar (including the first and most influential Protestant altarpieces), and the portrayal of the electors of Saxony as guardians of the new church and the promotion of Luther and Melanchthon as biblical authorities. From the perspective of traditional Christian art, their images often owed as much to a spirit of renovation as to the zeal of revolution. In opposition to iconoclastic Protestants, Cranach consistently demonstrates the vitality of visual biblical art as an evangelizing medium and as a theological discourse.Less
During the formative decades of the Reformation, Lucas Cranach filled sacred places with evangelical art distinctively grounded in biblicism. He and his workshop (including Lucas Cranach the Younger) were innovators in all the key areas of art production: the publication of the new Bibles, the invention of biblical imagery for the new theology (motifs including Law and Gospel, Christ blessing the children, Christ and the adulteress, and Crucifixion with the centurion), the reformation of the retable altar (including the first and most influential Protestant altarpieces), and the portrayal of the electors of Saxony as guardians of the new church and the promotion of Luther and Melanchthon as biblical authorities. From the perspective of traditional Christian art, their images often owed as much to a spirit of renovation as to the zeal of revolution. In opposition to iconoclastic Protestants, Cranach consistently demonstrates the vitality of visual biblical art as an evangelizing medium and as a theological discourse.
Eve Levavi Feinstein
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199395545
- eISBN:
- 9780199395569
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199395545.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Biblical Studies
This chapter surveys passages in the Hebrew Bible that characterize females as polluted by particular sexual pairings. These texts include the rite of the suspected adulteress (Numbers 5:11-31), ...
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This chapter surveys passages in the Hebrew Bible that characterize females as polluted by particular sexual pairings. These texts include the rite of the suspected adulteress (Numbers 5:11-31), descriptions of Israel as God’s adulterous wife, the law prohibiting the restoration of marriage (Deuteronomy 24:1-4), the story of Shechem’s violation of Dinah (Genesis 34), and laws restricting the women priests may marry. These texts reflect a view of women as sexual property: a woman is contaminated and thereby damaged when she has sex with a man other than the one to whom she rightly belongs. Expressing this idea in terms of pollution transforms the social reality of female subordination into a perceived ontological reality, which reinforces the social structure. At the same time, the ontological “reality” of pollution allows it to transcend the property considerations on which it is based and curtail the rights and freedoms of men.Less
This chapter surveys passages in the Hebrew Bible that characterize females as polluted by particular sexual pairings. These texts include the rite of the suspected adulteress (Numbers 5:11-31), descriptions of Israel as God’s adulterous wife, the law prohibiting the restoration of marriage (Deuteronomy 24:1-4), the story of Shechem’s violation of Dinah (Genesis 34), and laws restricting the women priests may marry. These texts reflect a view of women as sexual property: a woman is contaminated and thereby damaged when she has sex with a man other than the one to whom she rightly belongs. Expressing this idea in terms of pollution transforms the social reality of female subordination into a perceived ontological reality, which reinforces the social structure. At the same time, the ontological “reality” of pollution allows it to transcend the property considerations on which it is based and curtail the rights and freedoms of men.
