Scribbling in the dirt
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.Because of what Jesus eventually ends up saying*, it's been suggested that Jesus could have been writing down the sins of this woman's accusers.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
(John 8:3-6)
One idea I had when I read this last week was that he could have just been scribbling, testing their patience.
Another idea I had, while typing this up, is that maybe he was doodling to help himself think about how to respond.
Another thing I notice is that there is only mention of the adulteress. There is nothing said about the man she had sex with, as though he could do what he wanted, just because he was a man.
*'If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.' (John 8:7)
4 comments:
Another interesting note about this story is taht the early manuscripts and ancient wittnesses do not have this passage in it - it appears to have been added later. I wonder why?
Yeah, I noticed that. Maybe someone complained to John for leaving it out, so he issued a second edition?
possibly - but the early manuscripts are still from about 100 years after the 1st was written - so by this time we would have copies of the 2nd edition. Also as this story is not recorded in other gospels and by this time most ppl who had been with Jesus would be dead from old age or matyrdom, it's unlikely someone "remembered" and told him to put it in.
We can see that John wasn't interested really in putting in stuff people thought should be there. He has no parables and many of the stories that the synoptic gospels (Matt, Mark & Luke) have, he omitts. He also has the disclaimer at the end that if he had all the ink and parchment in the world he still wouldn't be able to get everything down. So I don't know how it got in there - it kind of DOES sound like Jesus, so maybe ur right, I dunno.
Hmmm. Maybe people complained about it not being in there, but John told them to get stuffed, but when John died they changed it?
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