Jesus and the Adulteress

(Gospel of John 7:53 - 8:11)
After this interchange, everyone went home, save Jesus, who went to the Mount of Olives.  Early in the morning, he returned to the Temple.  A crowd gathered, and he sat down and taught them.  The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought to him a woman who had been caught committing adultery.  Making her stand before the assembly, they addressed Jesus, "Rabbi, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  The Law of Moses commands us to stone such a woman to death.  What say you?"  (They did this in order to bait Jesus, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.)

Jesus, though, just stooped down and wrote with his finger in the dirt.  When they kept demanding an answer from him, he stood erect and challenged them, "Very well, let the one among you who has never committed a sin throw the first stone at her."  He stooped down again and continued writing in the dirt. 

When everyone heard what he said, they began to drift away, one by one, the oldest first, until there was no one left there except Jesus and the accused adulteress who stood before him.  Jesus straightened up and questioned her, "Madam, where are they, your accusers?  Is there no one here to condemn you?"

"There's no one, sir," she replied.

"Well then, I won't condemn you either.  Be on your way and sin no more."

Notes
1.  This entire section is a doubtful authenticity.  No early Greek version included it and others place it, or a version of it, in other parts of John or in Luke.  It was, however, in the Latin Vulgate of the 4th Century, which was declared authoritative by the Catholic Council of Trent in the mid 16th Century.

2.  It's not explained what Jesus was writing in the dirt.  Was it something important, or was it just his way of ignoring the Pharisees who had come to pester him and show him up?

3.  The fact that Jesus was depicted as writing in the dirt is taken as evidence that he could write. and, therefore, was literate.  However, it could be that he was only drawing, rather than writing in the dirt.  The text is not really clear here.  One would think, though, since he was a rabbi he would know how to read and write, even though he is described as being untrained.  And if he was the Son of God, he would not only know how to read and write, he would know everything! 

4.  In this incident Jesus brings to light an intriguing moral point.  Should punishment be exacted upon an individual who is no worse than those punishing him.  If Jesus had invited anyone who had never committed adultery to throw the first stone, then the moral of the tale would be obvious: don't accuse and punish people for sins you are guilty of yourself.  It would be an indictment of hypocrisy.  But Jesus calls upon someone who had never committed a sin of any kind to throw that first stone, to administer the punishment.   If judges and executioners are to be perfect men who have never been guilty of committing a sin, how could any crime be punished?

5.  Jesus is continually at odds with Moses and the Pharisees who interpret literally the laws he supposedly promulgated.  The law of Moses demands that an adulteress be stoned to death, but Jesus does not question the law or the severity of the punishment.  He does not fall into the trap the Pharisees had set for him: they want him to publicly disagree with the Scriptures.  He refuses to do so, but he does prevent the punishment from being carried out, circumventing the law.  One suspects that Jesus believes the death penalty for adultery is too severe, but he will not come out and say so.  He does not say, "punishing adultery with the death penalty may have been appropriate for the Israelites who lived during the time of Moses, but in this moderns age more leniency should be exercised.  The adulteress should be allowed to repent, to change her ways, and be forgiven."  He, disappointingly, does not tell the Pharisees that.

6.  Jesus tells the adulteress to mend her ways and sin no more, but by not punishing her he has removed the negative incentive to sin.  When one is not punished for bad behavior, when there is no price to pay for misconduct, when every sin is to be forgiven, there is no discouragement for immorality.  There are, of course, positive inducements and rewards for morality, but Jesus does not touch upon them here.  He does not take the opportunity to tell the woman why she shouldn't sin.  He does not say, "Live a moral life, and you'll be happier, or "Don't sin and you'll earn life everlasting."