Genesis 3:6 Hebrews 11:7 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir husband who was with her, and he ate. of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Adam Takes the Fruit / Eve Gives the Fruit In Christ edward knippers | linocut ned bustard | linocut
As Eve’s outstretched right hand offers Adam the fruit to eat, the Serpent As the animals were saved by being in the Ark, so we are saved by being is above her, weaving through the branches of the Tree, tying the two prints in Christ. According to their traditional symbolic meanings, these animals are together. Unlike many other depictions of this scene throughout art history, all in some way representative of Christ—Dog: watchfulness/fidelity; Unicorn: Eve is neither cunning nor seductive. Her eyes are downcast and her face purity; Peacock: immortality; Bull: sacrificial offering; Lamb: Christ (John 1:29, in shadows. A once unfallen and good woman is now broken and, sadly, Rev. 14:1), Pelican: self-sacrifice; Rabbit: vitality, rebirth and resurrection, understands shame. Lion: resurrection/ “Lion of Judah,” Stag: piety, purity, and holy solitude.
Genesis 22:10–12 Exodus 24:17–18 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fre his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses said, “Abraham, Abraham . . . Do not lay your hand on the boy or do entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have the mountain forty days and forty nights. not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
Knight of Faith Moses Receives the Law kevin lindholm | linocut edward knippers | woodcut
Tim Keller writes, “God saw Abraham’s sacrifice and said, ‘Now I know Knippers commented on this piece, saying, “I have tried to show the Law that you love me, because you did not withhold your only son from me.’ and its complications as weight rather than showing the tablets.” Paul writes But how much more can we look at his sacrifice on the cross and say of this terrible weight in the third chapter of Romans: “For by works of the to God, ‘Now we know that you love us. For you did not withhold your law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes son, your only son, whom you love, from us.’” knowledge of sin. . . . there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . .” Hebrews 11:31 Judges 4:21 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died.
Rahab Jael ned bustard | linocut wayne forte | linocut
The composition of this print forces the viewer to look up to Rahab, According to Deborah’s song, Sisera’s mother thinks her son is late in begging the question: are you going to humble yourself and take the returning home because he is busy raping women and stealing from the salvation offered by this holy hooker? Rahab ended up marrying one of dead. But instead Sisera lies on the ground with an impaled temple. The the spies and her son was Boaz, the husband of Ruth—placing her in the judge sings, “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, genealogical line of Jesus Christ. of tent-dwelling women most blessed.” Curiously, the only other woman called “most blessed of women” in the Bible was the Virgin Mary.
1 Kings 19:13 2 Kings 2:11–12 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fre and out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a horses of fre separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.
A Gentle Whisper The Translation of Elijah justin sorensen | linocut edward knippers | woodcut
The artist writes, “I’ve always been interested in how the spectacle of the Knippers says, “In representing these Biblical figures in the nude, I am trying fire or earthquake didn’t touch Elijah at his core the way the gentleness of a to show that these characters were individual people, just like we are. . . . whisper did. The ordinariness of the whisper really strikes me. My tendency is As I read the scriptures and realize that those people had bodies, like I have always to look for God in the places I expect to find him. The whisper seems a body, and that God spoke to them, even taking on a body himself, then I to suggest that God can’t be controlled, and that he can manifest himself realize that God can speak to me.” however he likes.” Jonah 1:17–2:2 Song of Songs 1:2, 7:9 And the LORD appointed a great fsh to swallow up Jonah. And Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! Jonah was in the belly of the fsh three days and three nights. For your love is better than wine; Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fsh, . . . and your mouth like the best wine. saying,“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.”
Psalm 30 Kisses kreg yingst | linocut tanja butler | linocut
The psalmist and Jonah both understand what it is to be brought up from Martin Luther is said to have quipped: “Twice a week, hundred-four a year, Sheol and to have life restored. Therefore it makes sense that the artist should give neither cause to fear.” For Luther, conjugal love was to be praised would visually connect Psalm 30 with the miracle of Jonah and the great fish. and marital faithfulness championed. He advised: “Where conjugal chastity is But Sinclair Ferguson writes that “too much discussion about the great fish to be maintained, husband and wife must, above all things, live together in can divert us from the real issue. . . . Focus on the great fish and we may lose love and harmony, so that one cherishes the other wholeheartedly and with sight of the great God.” This story is about God’s grace for the undeserving. complete fdelity.”
Daniel 6:22 Micah 5:4–5a Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent his And he shall stand and shepherd his fock in the strength of the Lord, angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, be- in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. cause I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great I have done no harm.” to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.
The Angel Shepherd King margaret bustard | linocut, collage tanja butler | linocut
Billy Graham wrote in Angels: God’s Secret Agents, “In the den, Daniel’s sight This passage looks forward to the coming of an eternal ruler who would evidently perceived the angelic presence, and the lions’ strength more than bring peace and shepherd God’s people. Jesus claimed to be this majestic met its match in the power of the angel.” In the story the lions are supposed shepherd: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, to be scary, but here they are shown to be cute and cuddly by comparison just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life with the terrifying unworldly servant of the Lord. for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Malachi 4:5 Luke 2:6–7 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fa- And she gave birth to her frstborn son and wrapped him in thers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” no place for them in the inn.
Intertestamental Angel Nativity matthew l . clark | linocut wayne forte | linocut
The fires of judgment are burning hotter than in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery Bono of U2 writes: “The Christmas story has a crazy good plot with an furnace, but the wings of the angel offer protection for those who fear the even crazier premise—the idea goes, if there is a force of love and logic the Lord. The bee is a symbol in church art for work, good order, and zeal in behind the universe, then how amazing would it be if that incomprehensible acquiring virtue—as well as sweetness and religious eloquence. Zechariah’s power chose to express itself as a child born in shit and straw poverty.” son, John, would later eat honey and preach with eloquence a hard message of repentance and the sweet good news that the Messiah was coming.
Matthew 4:1–3 John 4:13–14 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Te m p t a t i o n Woman at the Well matthew l . clark | linocut diego jourdan pereira | woodcut
Satan comes to Jesus in this piece as a Jewish holy man, whispering reasonable The composition of this piece is unusual in that the viewer can actually see words of comforting temptation, shown as black voice bubbles slithering the water that Jesus and the woman are discussing. The circle of Christ’s halo into the ears of the Son of Man. The little bat-winged speech bubble is not is repeated in the well, connecting the water with the Living Water. In this quoting any scripture, rather it is a line spoken by Boromir in The Fellowship passage Jesus asks for a drink of water from a Samaritan, even though Jews of the Ring. wouldn’t even drink from a cup that had been touched by a Samaritan. Yet Jesus loved the Samaritan woman, setting an example of love to his church. John 6:11–12 Matthew 26:20–23 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he dis- When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as tributed them to those who were seated. So also the fsh, as much as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray they wanted. And when they had eaten their fll, he told his disciples, me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” another, “Is it I, Lord?” He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.”
Miracle No. 4 (Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand) Bitter Herbs craig hawkins | monoprint tanja butler | linocut
Hawkins writes, “For this monoprint I composed slices of bread and two fish In this print, Christ offers Judas bread with his own hand, a gift the defecting in a way that mimics the anaphase of mitosis. I don’t pretend to understand disciple receives with a distracted mind and heart. On the table lie the bitter this miracle, but I do believe that the same one who multiplied fish and herbs and salt water required for the Passover, reminders of the bitter tears bread to feed us now works in us to physically grow and spiritually mature shed by the people of God in bondage and foreshadows of the tears Christ us.” It is the Lord who divided the loaves and fishes. And it is the Lord who would soon shed in the Garden as he approached the Cross to free his knows and cares for fulfilling our deepest needs. people from the bondage to sin and death.
Romans 6:3–4 Ephesians 5:31–33 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with to his wife, and the two shall become one fesh.” This mystery is him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the newness of life. wife see that she respects her husband.
Blessing/Sacrifice/Restoration Psalm 1: Slow Dance david johnson | woodcut steve prince | linocut
This woodcut combines the baptism of Christ (on the right) with his burial A married couple is dancing in their bedroom to a love song while in the next (on the left) to frame the crucifixion of in the middle, while at the top of the room a television is blaring. But separating them from the noise of the world is print Christ ascends to glory in Heaven. “We are told that Christ was killed a wall bearing a symbol of their covenant vows and a symbol of their faith. for us, that his death has washed out our sins, and that by dying he disabled A sliver of the ceiling shows two intersecting barrel vaults forming a death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be “groin vault.” The vault is symbolic: the two complimentary vaults stabilize believed.”—C.S. Lewis the building as the two complimentary pelvises stabilize the marriage. Judges 3:20b–22 Revelation 21:1–2 And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the frst heaven and his seat. And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his the frst earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. out of his belly; and the dung came out.
Lefties have Rights Too New Creation ryan stander | lithograph ned bustard | linocut
This account has all the trappings of a Bond movie—except for the girl. N.T. Wright writes, “The last scene in the Bible is the new heaven and the new Ehud has a secret weapon strapped to his leg as he enters the lair of the earth, and the symbol for that is the marriage of Christ and his church. It’s not just bulbous megalomaniac. He uses clever wordplay to close in for the kill, and one or two verses here and there which say this or that. It’s an entire narrative then the villain dies in a gratuitously graphic scene. Ehud goes back to the which works with this complementarity so that a male-plus-female marriage is hill country, blows his trumpet (ba-da-da-dahh!), and then there is an a signpost or a signal about the goodness of the original creation and God’s explosive battle to wrap up the story. intention for the eventual new heavens and new earth.”
2 Thessalonians 2:1–4 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes frst, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
Parable mark t . smith | linocut
Across a wasteland littered with signs of sin and evil marches the Man of Lawlessness. He sees what justice is, and does not do it. He is a man of power and authority—respresented in his flaming crown. He is also a man of evil—shown in his devil tail, horns, and pointed beard. Sadly, the people are deceived by his angel wings and the symbol for Jesus painted on his skull. But Jesus will kill this anti-Christ figure with the breath of his mouth.