Readers of the Gospel have often been interested in the question of what Christ could have been writing on the ground. If we do not forget that many of His actions corresponded to what was said in Old Testament prophecies, then the answer can be...
Readers of the Gospel have often been interested in the question of what Christ could have been writing on the ground. If we do not forget that many of His actions corresponded to what was said in Old Testament prophecies, then the answer can be the words proclaimed by the Lord through Jeremiah: "Those who depart from Me shall be written in the dust, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water" (Jer. 17:13). Some scholars of the Gospel text, on the basis of the absence of this episode from many of the most ancient manuscripts and of its stylistic features, consider it inorganic to the Gospel of John and inserted from some other text, for example from Luke. But even if the passage really did move during the copying of a manuscript, Jeremiah's words about living water, if our surmise is correct, emphasize the semantic unity of the episode with the preceding and following narrative.
The accusers went away, being convicted by their conscience. We are accustomed to perceive the Pharisees negatively, but they too must be given their due: very many people in their place would not have listened to the voice of conscience and would have behaved differently, mercilessly stoning the sinful woman and, together with her, the pangs of conscience. As was said in another age, "he is not a vindictive man: he does not remember the evil done to another." But these Pharisees remembered; they cannot be called incapable of repentance. And this is one confirmation that Christ did not preach to the wind, but to those who could hear Him, even if they did not want to admit it even to themselves.
8
8:5 Moses hath commanded us to stone such - If they spoke accurately, this must have been a woman, who, having been betrothed to a husband, had been guilty of this crime before the marriage was completed; for such only Moses commanded to be stoned. He commanded indeed that other adulteresses should be put to death; but the manner of death was not specified. Deuteronomio 22:23.
8:6 That they might have to accuse him - Either of usurping the office of a judge, if he condemned her, or of being an enemy to the law, if he acquitted her. Jesus stooping down, wrote with his finger on the ground - God wrote once in the Old Testament; Christ once in the New: perhaps the words which he afterward spoke, when they continued asking him. By this silent action, he,
8:7 He that is without sin - He that is not guilty: his own conscience being the judge) either of the same sin, or of some nearly resembling it; let him - as a witness, cast the first stone at her.
8:9 Beginning at the eldest - Or the elders. Jesus was left alone - By all those scribes and Pharisees who proposed the question.But many others remained, to whom our Lord directed his discourse presently after.
8:10 Hath no man condemned thee? - Hath no judicial sentence been passed upon thee?
8:11 Neither do I condemn thee - Neither do I take upon me to pass any such sentence. Let this deliverance lead thee to repentance.