Chapter 30—Go and Sin No More
Early on the following morning, Jesus “came again into the temple,
and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.”
While Jesus was engaged in teaching, the scribes and Pharisees
brought to him a woman whom they accused of the sin of adultery,
and said to him, Master, “now Moses in the law commanded us that
such should be stoned; but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting
him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and
with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.”
The scribes and Pharisees had agreed to bring this case before
[350]
Jesus, thinking that whatever decision he made in regard to it, they
would therein find occasion to accuse and condemn him. If he should
acquit the woman, they would accuse him of despising the law of
Moses, and condemn him on that account; and if he should declare
that she was guilty of death, they would accuse him to the Romans
as one who was stirring up sedition and assuming authority which
alone belonged to them. But Jesus well knew for what purpose this
case had been brought to him; he read the secrets of their hearts, and
knew the character and life-history of every man in his presence. He
seemed indifferent to the question of the Pharisees, and while they
were talking and pressing about him, he stooped and wrote carelessly
with his finger in the sand.
Although doing this without apparent design, Jesus was tracing
on the ground, in legible characters, the particular sins of which the
woman’s accusers were guilty, beginning with the eldest and ending
with the youngest. At length the Pharisees became impatient at the
indifference of Jesus, and his delay in deciding the question before
him, and drew nearer, urging the matter. But as their eyes fell upon the
words written in the sand, fear and surprise took possession of them.
The people, looking on, saw their countenances suddenly change,
and pressed forward to discover what they were regarding with such
an expression of astonishment and shame. Many of those who thus
245