Writing in the sand

Who is Jesus? part 82 – John 7:53-8:6

There is an urban myth that a child wrote in their homework:

Infants have infancy,
Children have childhood,
Adults have adultery.

Now I cannot believe that a child wrote that, as it is too sophisticated a pun, but I do think it’s a great play on words.

⁵³ [[They went each to his own house, ¹ but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. ³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst ⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” ⁶ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷ And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. ¹⁰ Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]

John 7:53 – 8:11 ESVUK.

I took a break from continuing through John’s Gospel for two weeks, to have a look at earlier passages again in the light of what was written later. I never knew when I took on this task that this book had so many layers.

It was a good place to have a break. John himself breaks up his dialogue. John 7: 14 to the end of chapter 8 is a continuous story, with the story of the woman found in an act of adultery, or rather the story of the Scribes and Pharisees caught in an act of hypocrisy.

The interrupted passage is like this:

7:14-24 First Dialogue: Moses and Christ – The Law and redemption.
7:25-36 Second dialogue: the claims of Christ – Missing the real reason and playing hide and seek.
7:37-44 Third dialogue: the claims of Christ – Come and drink living water.
7:45-52 Third dialogue: the claims of Christ – Making your mind up.
8:12-20 Third dialogue: the claims of Christ – I am the Light of the World.
8:21-30 Third dialogue: the claims of Christ – Another game of hide and seek.
8:31-59 Third dialogue: Abraham and Christ – The truth will set you free.

John 7 and 8 is all one dialogue, except for this passage about this woman that interrupts it, and this passage has been included in [[double brackets]] because it is not in some old versions of John’s Gospel and appears in another place in other ancient versions. In some old versions, it even appears in Luke’s Gospel instead of in Paul. New Testament scholar NT Wright has said that the language used is closer to Luke than to John¹.

But I think it belongs here. Not because things happened in that order, they didn’t. Despite the differences in style, despite it not being in the old versions of John’s Gospel, and despite it breaking up John’s dialogue, it still belongs here. It belongs here because John’s Gospel is about to take a darker turn. Some of the harshest criticisms made by Jesus are about to be said. This story of harshness to the accusers but sympathy to the victim is a good set-up for that.

Why did the Scribes and Pharisees come to Jesus, rather than take her to a Roman court? A Roman court is no good for an adultery conviction, as Roman culture did not see it as an offence. Prostitution and having mistresses were common in both Roman and Greek culture.

The Jews, however, had three cardinal sins that Jews should allow themselves to be killed rather than commit: These are idolatry, murder and forbidden sexual relations. But the Jewish authorities have a big problem, they are under the boot of Rome and are not allowed to carry out a death sentence. Only the Roman governor can do that.

One man and one woman married for life is not the natural way of doing things. It is unknown outside the Judeo-Christian tradition.

There is something else there, too. They are trying to catch Jesus out. If Jesus says, “That’s right, she should be stoned,” that will ruin his reputation as a friend of publicans and sinners? On the other hand, if he’d said. “No. She should not be stoned,” then he’d be breaking Jewish law, which would also ruin his reputation, even though this was not an issue with Rome. Rome and Greece had monogamous marriage; a man was restricted to one legal wife, but it was very lenient in the way it was practised.

That’s the cultural background.

In the story, did you notice how rude the Scribes and Pharisees were? Such was their arrogance that they barged in on Jesus as he taught in the Temple. They were trying to make an example of Jesus and spoil his ministry. Jesus did not answer; he just stooped down and wrote in the dust. Was this just to give himself thinking time?

We are not told what he wrote. Usually, when that happens in the Bible, we have no need to know. I believe that we have the Bible that God wants us to have. Yet it has not stopped people from speculating:

Some say that he wrote the words from the book of Daniel, the frightening appearance of handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar. Baniel interpreted it like this: ‘And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. ²⁶ This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; ²⁷ Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; ²⁸ Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.’ (Daniel 5:25).

Others said that he was making a list of the heart and the eyes, like in Matthew 5:28, part of the Sermon on the Mount. “²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Others thing hewas writing the Ten Commandments, which were written by the finger of God, showing that he was God.

Or that he was writing out the Levitical law in full, reminding them that the man should have been present.

St. Augustine proposed that Jesus’ writing in the dust was a deliberate prophetic gesture pointing to Jeremiah 17:13, which says, “Those who turn away from me will be written in the dirt, for they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water”. As this comes immediately after the passage where Jesus had proclaimed himself the fountain of living water, it feels good to me. Except that the two events are unlikely to be consecutive.

It could be that Jesus was giving their questions the contempt they deserved.

Or it could be that it was a deliberate pause, writing a second time to leave the accusers time to leave.

But all that is speculation.

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¹John For Everyone Part 1 (New Testament for Everyone Book 5) Kindle edition, p. 111.