Chapter 38 Chapter Thirty-eight

I fasted that night.The Jerusalemites who greeted me on the road called me king, but they didn't know that my kingdom could only be found in heaven.They were looking for a king who would restore prosperity to Israel, as we know it in the time of King David. The dawn was cool, and I was recovered and ready to go to the temple again, and sitting before the sacred tree, I continued to preach. On the way to the Mount of Olives, the Pharisees stood in my way, and with them was a woman.They said, "Lord, this woman was caught committing adultery and the law is to stone her to death. What do you say?"

I knew they wanted me to show leniency to sinners, so I looked neither at them nor at the woman. "You should not make the mistake of adultery," I said, "anyone who looks at this woman with desire has already committed adultery in his heart." I am speaking of these young men, because this A woman commits adultery and they can openly stare at her with lust in their eyes.I also know that in such desires and thoughts, there will soon be some idlers who take pleasure in various forms.For me, I thought: if your hand offends you, cut it off. The woman in front of me must have all kinds of filth injected by Satan in her body. Adultery is Satan's most powerful weapon.So these Pharisees stood before me confidently that I would find a way to forgive her, thus thinking that I would be ready to stand with the slut.But I just bent down and wrote with my fingers in the dust on the ground, as if I didn't hear them talking.

Their minds are full of calculations.They knew that to an Essene, adultery was a direct punishment for burning at the stake.They wondered how much I had learned from the scrolls about the dangers of unclean women.In fact, they read the same scroll.I remember how Jezebel was described in "Kings": Jezebel was a princess who was thrown from a window on a high tower, and her blood splattered on the wall.The courtiers rode over her on horseback and trampled her down.When the king saw it, he said, "Bury this cursed woman, for she is also a king's daughter." But they only found her head, feet, and hands.So they told the king, "This is the word of God: 'The dogs will eat Jezebel's body, and Jezebel's bones will be fertilized for the field.'"

Now, I hardly dare to look at the woman brought to me by the Lisai, but continue to write and draw on the dust with my fingers. I whispered to myself the words of Proverbs: "'A strange woman's lips are honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil, and on the other hand her lips are bitter as absinthe, like a double-edged sword Sharp. Her ways were confused, and her feet led her to death. The same feet that ran swiftly after leaving the scourge.'” I didn't look at her.Peter came and sat next to me, the scroll he was reading while he unfolded the rest.He always carried the scroll, even though he had great difficulty reading it.

Yet he was close to my thoughts, as he pointed down the hallway with his sturdy fingers, only two fingers thicker than mine.He whispered in old Hebrew: "The scroll says 'A woman is lewd because a man sent her a piece of bread'." When I nodded for him to continue, he then whispered: "' The lecherous woman wiped her mouth and said, "I have done no evil."'" I kept nodding my head so I wouldn't have to look at the woman.I myself recited Ezekiel's words: "'Those Babylonians came to Oholibah whore, for they loved to take her to bed, and she was defiled by them, and she found herself naked, yet she increased the income of the brothel , because she favors men who are like wild horses.'”

I ignored myself and took one last look at the adulterous woman. As I feared, she was beautiful.Her face was well-boned, and her jet-black hair fell to her back.Her eyes were made up.She is refined, though her mouth is proud and stupid. During those years of thinking about desire, I was filled with disgust for adultery, and I suffered from being destroyed by unexhausted rage.But now I hear the tender voice of a soul, is it her angel begging for mercy?I had a sinful vision of this woman, having sex with a stranger.Even so, she is also a creation of God.She might be getting closer to God in a way I couldn't see, even—is that possible? —This approach to God is adultery.Was she, then, so different from the other Children of Men?She must have been close to all the strangers, too.Yes, she may have been close to God, with Satan's hand around her body.Her heart may be that of God, even though her body is so close to Satan.

These Pharisees have been as quiet and patient as Peter, and now they ask me again: "Moses and the law command us, such a woman should be stoned to death. What would you say?" I straightened up, not only Speak to MY disciples and also to the circle of scribes and Pharisees.This time, I said out loud, "If your hand offends you, cut it off." As they looked at me, I told them, "Beginning crippled compared to going to hell with two hands Another life is much better." Then I saw the fear in their eyes. "If your eyes offend you," I told them, "cut them out. It is better to go to heaven with the remaining eyes that can see the world than to have eyes to see flames. In the fire of hell Burning, like worms eating your flesh without dying.” I was amazed, I felt cleansed through the commotion this woman caused.I say in my own language, "Those of you who are completely without sin, throw the first stone."

There was another commotion.It happened so suddenly that my body almost lost its balance due to such force.I had to bend down again, writing in the dust, as if I cared more about what my fingers were writing on the ground than what I had to say to them. Soon, their anger began to lessen, and soon disappeared.Now they are agonizing over their crimes. I watched them go, starting with the oldest of them—perhaps he had greater sins to bear—one by one.The last one to leave was very young, maybe he was closer to innocence.Peter left too, leaving only the woman standing in front of me. I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eye, but I tried anyway.After doing this, I still couldn't see her eyes.I seem to have seen a dream provided by Satan, and I heard a verse in the Song of Solomon: "Your thighs are round, like jade from the hand of a skilled craftsman." I heard these words, "Your navel is like a round wine glass."I told myself the devil's angel had appeared because I could feel the devil in myself, it was dark and rich, and I begged it to leave me.And these demonic angels are very powerful, and I knew I had to beware of this woman's beauty.

So I chose to speak to her in the words of the prophet Ezekiel.I said: "Look at your sin, it is written: 'I will gather my lovers, and they will come against you with chariots, and they will deal with you severely. They will cut off your nose and ears, and burn Burn what remains of you. They will strip you of your clothes and take away your jewelry. I will make your sensuality stop immediately and your whorehouses will be expelled from the land of Egypt so that you will never remember Egypt .'" This whore, with eyes like the last hour's purple of the evening sky, said softly, "I don't want to lose my nose."

I said, "Where's your accuser, ma'am? Don't any men sue you?" Her voice was humble, and she said, "There's no man here to accuse me, Lord." I said, "I won't condemn you either, so let's go!" However, this is not enough, because there is still lust in this woman.So I said, "Where can you go? Would you still have free sex with strangers?" She replied, "If you don't condemn me, don't judge me. Without the flesh there is no life." She is empty and powerful.I could see her united with the seven forces of Satan's wrath, and their derivatives: the seven demons.So I must try to drive out these seven evil forces and seven demons.I know they will come in slowly.In fact, they come in one after the other, and they capture the good spirits around us.These seven forces and seven demons, some are cunning, some are lewd, and each one is terrifying.

The first demon is darkness, and its power is treachery.In fact, I know these demons as deeply as I can name them, and I have learned more from Satan than he has ever told me.I know lust is the second force and pride is its demon.The third is ignorance, a gluttonous demon with a huge appetite for pork.The love of death is the fourth power, and its demons are filled with the desire to eat humans.Everywhere, death as we know it must be closer to us than the devils who follow men to destroy their bodies.The fifth power seeks out the whole realm, and its demons work to defile all souls.When the evil spirit came out, the good spirit approached the woman and me very bravely.The sixth power is superfluous intelligence, and its demons have a strong desire to steal spirits.Of them all, the last power is the most terrifying.It is the wisdom of anger, and its demons have the desire to destroy a city.These are the seven forces and seven demons I have drawn from her body.Only then did I say, "Come on, you're not guilty anymore." And she left. I later learned that her name was Mary, and she came from Magdalene in Tiberias, a city where many Jews had died in the war against the Romans.Their bones are all buried under the foundations of the buildings built by these victors.So, this woman is committing adultery on the land that our victim once owned, and I don't regret my decision, because half of her nature is gentle, and the other half belongs to God.I don't know if I'll ever see her again, but I do.