“…Jesus stooped down and with his finger, He wrote on the ground.” – John 8:6

The Pharisees had just brought an adulteress before Jesus and demanded, “So Jesus… what do you say?”

6 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 Bible doesn’t tell us what Jesus wrote in the sand that day. Maybe He wrote scripture.
Perhaps He was writing, “Where is the man?” Doesn’t adultery involve two? Or perhaps He was writing the sins of the Pharisees who were accusing this woman.

Maybe Jesus just needed time to collect His thoughts, because He was angry that they were humiliating this woman just to get at Him.

What did Jesus write? We don’t know. The Greek verb used “κατέγραφεν” indicates that Jesus was writing letters or words, and not drawing disinterested doodles or drawing a line between the accused and her accusers.

A common explanation is that Jesus’ finger was writing on the ground the names of sins, sins which those in the crowd had committed, sins which the finger of God had written of long before, on the stones of the commandments atop Mount Sinai. Perhaps Jesus wrote the words: “Sacrilege, Rebellion, Adultery, Theft, Deception, Coveting.”

What do you think Jesus wrote in the sand? Please share your opinion!