Perhaps Jesus wrote:
Deut 22 v 22 “If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. If they caught the woman “in the very act,” then where is the man? The trial required both be there. Where was the other party to this crime, and what kind of justice excused him?
But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He, who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground…… perhaps challenging the witnesses with this verse: Deuteronomy 17: 6 v 7 “On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7“The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
Jesus was making the Law clear to these Scribes & Pharisees that there had to be two or three legal witnesses to this act of adultery in order to make this a legal and just execution. If the required witnesses were not present (to cast the first stones) then the whole group was in the act of sinning because the Law was being broken!
Then there was the issue of the Roman Occupation …The death penalty had been taken away from the Jewish courts by the Roman authorities. According to one report in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 41a) the power of the Jewish courts to the death penalty ceased around the year 30 BCE; according to another report (Sanhedrin 52b)
So, what did Yeshua/Jesus write in the ground?
As I mentioned earlier, since one of the themes of the Feast of Tabernacles was Joy and Water, many of the scriptures which speak about water would have been read to the people during this time. With this in mind, it is quite probably that what Yeshua/Jesus wrote in the ground the message of Jeremiah 17:12-13 as it is written: “A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord the Hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living Waters.”
Maybe he simply wrote the 6th commandment.
What is important not what he wrote on the ground, but what he said to them (read vs 7b). ….and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
What Jesus words meant was “Whoever among you who is without equal guilt in this specific case be the one to initiate the execution.” He had discerned the conspiracy, and was letting them know that if they initiated her execution, they were also initiating their own prosecution and condemnation!
Whatever it was …..The woman’s trial was over
The older Scribes and Pharisees were first to leave realizing they were caught in a no win situation. Jesus had called their bluff and he allowed the mock trial to proceed. They did not want the consequences of her murder, either from the God of Torah or the Roman penalties. The accuses faded away
Jesus himself could not condemn the woman either (even if she was guilty) because he was not a witness to the crime.
Jesus then stays true to the Torah of Moses and says He cannot condemn her for He did not witness a crime. Jesus meant what He said in Matt 5 v 17 Think not that I have come to abolish the Law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
He then adds: “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
First God assures us of his forgiveness; then He calls on us to cooperate with him as He liberates us from a life of sin. His desire was always for us to live a sinless life.
