What was considered by many to be the holiest of Jewish celebrations, the Feast of Booths, was then in progress. With all the people gathered around Jesus at that time, an opportune moment had arisen for His enemies to try to trap Him.
They presented Him with a woman caught in the act of adultery, arguing that, according to Moses, she should be stoned (cf. Jn 8:3-5).
However, the law promulgated by the great Old Testament prophet – “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death” (Lv 20:10) – presupposed that two people were involved. Where, then, was the second offender?
Might not he not have been one of the very accusers who, like his predecessors – men grown old in evil (cf. Dn 13:52) – had successfully blackmailed a weak daughter of Israel into prevaricating?
The fact is that Our Lord Jesus Christ was faced with a Machiavellian question: to absolve the adulteress, breaking the Mosaic Law; or, by condemning her, to break the Roman Law, which prohibited Jews from the right over life and death.
Certain that they had cornered the Divine Master, the Pharisees watched Him intently. But “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger” (Jn 8:6).
Jesus’ attitude and the content of the inscription have been debated among exegetes, but it is worth emphasizing that it is the only mention in the Gospels of Him having written something. He leaned over and wrote. Was it a way of disdaining those who wanted to incriminate Him?
St. Jerome1 shares the hypothesis that the words Our Lord traced on the ground, in front of all those around Him, revealed the sins committed by the accusers, who deserved the same punishment as the adulteress.
Enriching His written reproach with the grave, harmonious and distinctive reply, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7), the Saviour produced a surprising effect: they “went away one by one, beginning with the elders” (Jn 8:9).
With no more accusers or witnesses to be heard, the trial was effectively over, according to Mosaic and Roman law. It was a shameful defeat for the Pharisees. The just and Divine Judge then turned to the defendant to declare the sentence, to which He added a recommendation: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more” (Jn 8:11).
By divine design, the virgin Apostle did not leave us the legacy in his Gospel of the words written on the “pages” of this sublime work composed by Our Lord Jesus Christ at this moment of crushing victory over the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. Nevertheless, we can undeniably read between the lines, in clear and shining letters, its title: Forgiveness. ◊
Notes
1 Cf. ST. JEROME. Adversus pelagianos. L.II, n.17: PL 23, 553.
