The Woman Caught in Adultery — John 8:1-11
The scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery and set her in the midst of the crowd in the Temple. They test Yeshua: the Law of Moses commands that such a woman be stoned. What do you say?
John 8:1-11
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" 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. 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." And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 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.
Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."
- John 8:1-11
The passage is textually disputed — absent from the earliest Greek manuscripts and likely a later insertion — but universally recognized as authentic in spirit and preserved in the canon.
Yeshua writes on the ground. What he writes is unknown. The accusers depart, beginning with the eldest. He does not condemn. He does not excuse. He forgives, and commands transformation.