The theme of Jesus’s spiritual independence of authority is underscored in this visual dialogue, interpretable as a confrontation with Pharisees standing opposite. He wears the same nondescript robes and stands bareheaded, while they wear hats and hoods; one of them washes his hands ostentatiously in a ritual cleansing. Behind them at left the apostles, marked with halos, are already seated at table, suggesting the convergence of events on the eve of the Last Supper, a time when the Pharisees looked forward to the upcoming arrest of Jesus. The text provides the proper context for understanding these figures, staking out a vivid contrast between the Old Law and the upcoming new era of Grace, an image that would be concretized by Lucas Cranach in paintings and prints at the end of this same decade ¹.

Using Luke 17: 20-21, it asserts, as Jesus told the Pharisees, that “The kingdom of God cometh not with outward show. . . . For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” For Luther, the Catholic Church was still linked to the idea of the Law, because he condemned their doctrine of the value toward salvation of good works. This view is confirmed in the second text, Matthew 15: 9, “And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Works Cited

• Christensen, Carl. Art and the Reformation in Germany. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1979.
• Hofmann, Werner, ed. Luther Und Die Folgen Für Die Kunst. Hamburg: Kunsthalle, 1983.
• Scribner, R. W. For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
• Noble, Bonnie. Lucas Cranach the Elder: Art and Devotion of the German Reformation. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009.
• Perlove, Shelley, and Larry Silver. Rembrandt’s Faith: Church and Temple in the Dutch Golden Age. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2009.