What's in A Name?: The Story of the Abused Woman

After looking at some of the ethical issues surrounding self-defense and violence against women (particularly sexual assault), I would like to share with you a biblical story that I have really come to treasure. I only started looking at this story differently earlier this year, when it suddenly occurred to me that the way I was taught this story (and how it continues to be taught) might be way off the mark – John 8:1-11.
 
“Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, ² but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. ³ As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.⁴ “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”⁶ They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.⁹ When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said.And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more” (New Living Translation).
 

Image: Woman Caught in Adultery, John Martin Borg, 2002

I wanted to try and sum up the woman’s viewpoint in this story.  I came across this poem a few months ago and it brought me to tears. I had a visceral reaction to it.  It sums up so many of the things I fear and things so many women (and men, but I am focusing on women in these posts) have had to live through and have had to find a way to continue to live with. I think it perfectly sums up the raw emotions of the woman in John 8 as well.

still

there are days

when there is no way

not even a chance

that i'd dare for even a second

glance at the reflection of m body in the mirror

and she knows why

like I know why

she only cries

when she feels like she's about to lose control

she knows how much control is worth

knows what a woman can lose

when her power is taken away

by a grip so thick with hate

it could clip the wings of an angel

leave the next eight generations of your blood shaking

and tonight something inside me is breaking

my heart beating so deep beneath the sheep of her pain

i could give every tear she's crying a year - a name

and a face i'd forever erase from her mind if i could

 just like she would 

for me

or you

but how much closer to free would any of us be

if even a few of us forgot

what too many women in this world cannot

and i'm thinking

what would you tell your daughter

your someday daughter

when you'd have to hold her beautiful face 

to the beat up face of this place

that hasn't learned the meaning of

STOP

walking to your car alone

get the keys in the lock

please please please please open

like already you can feel

that five fingered noose around your neck

two hundred pounds of hatred

digging graves into the sacred soil of your flesh

please please please please open

already you're chocking for your breath

listening for the broke record of the defense

answer the question

answer the question

answer the question miss

why am i on trial for this

would you talk to your daughter

your sister your mother like this

i am generation of daughters sisters mothers

our bodies battlefields

war grounds

beneath the weapons of your brother's hands

do you known they've found land mines 

in broken women's souls

black holes in the parts of their hearts

that once sand symphonies of creation

bright as the light on infinity's halo

she says

i remember the way love

used to glow like glitter on my skin

before he made his way in

now every tough feels like a sin

please

bruises  on her knees from praying to forget

she's heard stories of vietnam vets

who can still feel the tingling of their amputated limbs

she's wondering how many women are walking around this world

feeling the tingling of their amputated wings

remembering what it was to fly to sing

(By: Andrea Gibson http://www.endthesilencecampaign.org/poetry/andrea-gibson/blue-blanket/)

 
The abuse of the young woman captured in this poem speaks to the experience of the woman who is commonly referred to as “the adulterous woman in John 8.” We already labeled this woman, we have already given her a name. But she has no name in the story. She could just as easily be described as the abused woman. The wretched woman. The used woman. The story of the abused woman begins while Jesus is teaching and a group of religious leaders burst onto the scene, bringing the woman and force her to stand, shamed and disgraced, in front of the entire crowd.
 
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Over the next week or two, I want to continue looking at this story in a new light.