Bible Truth FAQs
WHAT JESUS WROTE ON THE GROUND
In John 8:1-11 a very unusual account is recorded. Many have missed the truth regarding our Lord's judgment in this passage. The scripture deals with a woman taken in adultery and brought unto Jesus in the temple by the scribes and Pharisees. They reminded Jesus that the law of Moses commanded that such be stoned and asked, "What sayest thou?" In verse 6 the writer added, "This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him."
Instead of replying, Jesus stooped down and with his ringer wrote on the ground as though he had not heard them. They continued to ask, so he lifted himself up and said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Again he stooped down to write, end one by one the accusers began to slip away. It does no good to speculate. The Bible does not reveal unto us what he wrote.
Many have concluded that Jesus' great love and mercy for humanity was greater than his desire for justice as required by the law. Not so. The law required that BOTH the man and the woman be put to death (Deut. 22:22). The accusers had brought only the woman. To rut to death the woman only would have been a violation of the law. The only recourse was to demand a changed life through repentance, and thus his command, "Go, and sin no more."
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