Writing in the Bible: Part 5 Jesus Writes

In the Gospel according to John, a woman accused of adultery is brought before Jesus. He is asked to comment on whether she should be stoned to death.

Strangely, Jesus bends down and writes in the dust. This seems an odd reaction and has created much discussion over the millennia since this event. What was He writing?

John 8 v 3-11

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Over the years I have heard several interpretations put forward by priests and preachers. The most common one is to suggest Jesus was writing the Ten Commandments in the dust. This convicted the accusers, as all had sinned and therefore no one could throw the first stone.

Some have suggested that He was writing the actual sins of the accusers. And even a few have proposed He was simply doodling in the dust, giving Himself time to think on how to respond.

I’m not completely convinced by any of these ideas, especially when we look at this story in light of the Old Testsment.

Cup of Jealousy

In the Book of Numbers, we read what the Law says about women who are suspected of adultery. In this case, the man who shared in the adultery is unknown, and the husband is suspicious of his wife.

In the story of the Woman caught in Adultery, the male participant and the husband are not present, instead she is accused by the religious leaders. So in some sense this law and the law against adultery do not apply.

Even so, Jesus writes in the dust.

As part of the judgement found in the Book of Numbers, the accused woman would have to drink from a ‘cup of jealousy’. It was a concoction of holy water, dust from the Tabernacle floor and water washed with a scroll of writing. The words on the scroll would relate to the curses associated with the ceremony.

Numbers 5 v 23-24

‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her.

In the story, there was no cup, no scroll and no water. So Jesus had to write the curses in the dust. Anywhere Christ is, is holy and therefore the ground beneath Him is akin to the dust of the Tabernacle floor.

So it could be that Christ is writing the curses that would be on the scroll. The religious leaders, upon realising their error, slowly left. The woman is then alone with Christ, who gives His decision.

The Writing in the Dust

A further connection could be with Daniel 5, where the fingers of a hand write four words on a wall in Babylon. After this incident, judgement comes to the Babylonian king and he is killed by his enemy.

Maybe Christ wrote Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin? After all, the plaster could symbolically be the ‘dust of the wall’.

This could have reminded the religious leaders of the Babylonian king and his demise. Maybe Jesus was saying, what happened to the king, will happen to them.

Sixty-Two

An interesting connection is with the number 62. We are told in Daniel 5, that the age of King Darius when he conquered Babylon was 62 years old.

Later in the Book of Daniel, we read:

Daniel 9 v 26

After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

There seems to be a connection between how Darius destroyed the Babylonian empire, and this prophecy of 62 ‘sevens’.

This prophecy is fulfilled by Christ, where 434 years after the return of the Jews back to Judah, Jesus incarnates.

After His death, 40 years pass and Jerusalem and the temple is destroyed by the Roman rulers.

Could Jesus simply have written 62? Expressing to the religious leaders that He was the one to die and herald in the destruction of the Temple. Which would of ended their way of life.

And who would be left, but the ‘woman’. In these last two interpretations, she would be like the Church. God’s chosen people who would survive the devastation of the city. And go out, spreading the story about how Christ set them free.

Finger of God

As we have read in my earlier posts, the Finger of God brings judgement. No matter what we believe Jesus wrote on the ground, in all these interpretations, Christ brings His judgement. His judgement against the woman, his judgement against the religious leader and his judgement against Jerusalem itself.