“Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.

But when they continued asking him,

he straightened up and said to them,

‘Let the one among you who is without sin

be the first to throw a stone at her.’

Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.

And in response, they went away one by one,

beginning with the elders.”

I remember this Bible story from when I was a child, mostly because I wondered what Jesus wrote on the ground. It is curious that, in the only recorded instance in any of the Gospels of Jesus writing anything anywhere, he writes on the ground twice and that there’s no record of what he writes. Some commentators rightly point out that this story isn’t original to John’s Gospel and, as their reasoning goes, it’s not really part of the inspired scriptures and should be excluded. Experts do agree that it was a later addition and at least one manuscript placed this story in Luke’s Gospel, but the Church has included it in the inspired word of God, nonetheless. It is part of the tradition and can’t just be ignored. Other commentators favoring a literal interpretation have opined that we shouldn’t be concerned with what is not there, but should simply stop where the Bible stops. Of course, our approach to scripture isn’t speculative, but it is rich in methods and means of interpretation and study, taking a sophisticated approach to deepening our understanding of God’s word. Perhaps there are some insights or clues that can be gained from the scriptures, themselves, for our own theological reflection. So the question remains, what did Jesus write?

From my childhood, I seem to remember someone saying that Jesus wrote the sins of the accusers on the ground to shame them to leave. This may tie into Jesus’s challenge, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” On its own, it has little else to commend it, however. It is similar to other speculative ideas: the names of prostitutes the accusers had been with, doodling to avert his eyes and spare the woman shame, or even a reference to the requirement of the Mosaic law that both the man and woman caught in adultery should be stoned. So, where’s the man? These may be possible, but are highly unlikely. There are three options, however, that carry more weight. 

The first is a bit too complicated to summarize in a short article, but it relates to the Jewish requirement in judging those caught in adultery to have the accusation and the names of the accused written somewhere temporarily, usually in the dust on the floor of the Temple (first writing), and, then, the verse from Jeremiah 17:13 (“…all who forsake you shall be put to shame; The rebels shall be enrolled in the netherworld…,” or, as another translation puts it, “They will disappear like names written in the dust…”) that would be recited by the high priest signifying the end of the celebration after the Day of Atonement, reminding the accusers that they had forsaken God (second writing). The second is similar, with the verse from Jeremiah (first writing) and the names of the accusers (second writing). A version of this was favored by the great biblical scholar St. Jerome. The third relates to the Greek words used for “writing” in each instance. The first time Jesus writes it is equivalent to engraving or chiseling, which is the only use of this word in the New Testament and is used in the Old Testament to describe the finger of God writing the Ten Commandments in stone. The second is for normal writing. St. Augustine and other church fathers saw Jesus establishing himself as the lawgiver with the first engraving and, writing softly the sins of the accusers in the dust, as the merciful judge with the second writing. What do you think he wrote?