What Did Jesus Write?

When Jesus confronted the crowd that was threatening to stone the woman caught in adultery in John 8:2-11, what did he write on the ground with his finger?

This question came up in my men's group this morning, in the context of the larger question "Did Jesus ever write anything down?" First, the passage from John we were discussing:

Early in the morning [Jesus] 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. What do you say about her?" 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. (John 8:2-6, RSV-CE)

The fact is, since the Scriptures don't explicitly say in this passage, we don't really know what he wrote--or even if he was writing or drawing (the literal Greek says he was "tracing."). One theory I've heard is that he was simply doodling to show his unconcern with the debate going on around him. I myself favor what is found in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Gospel of John:

8:8 wrote…on the ground: What Jesus inscribes in the dirt is unknown but probably symbolic. * The gesture may recall Jer 17:13, a warning that those who forsake the Lord “shall be written in the earth” because they have rejected the “fountain of living water”. The Pharisees fall into this category for rejecting Jesus, who has just been identified as the source of “living water.” (see John 7:38).

Here is the passage from Jeremiah (17:13):

O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake thee shall be put to shame; those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.

In other words, Jesus gave them a 'two-fer' here. Not only did he (1) show those around him that he knew what their sins were, and that they had better think of mercy as well as justice, and (2) Those more educated Pharisses standing near-by, remembering the context of the entire quote from Jeremiah, would be challenged again for their not believing in Jesus.

Question Box: Where Do I Begin?

Q. I just bought my first Bible: where do I start? Do I just dive in or should I have a more structured approach?

A. After a couple of decades of reading and studying the Bible, and of creating and leading Bible studies, I think I've come to the conclusion that to really read the Bible in a way that will help you grow in knowledge and, more important, spiritually, a two track aproach is the best: Devotion and Study.

First, you should be reading the Bible everyday. Just reading it; praying to the Holy Spirit before and after, reading little by little, meditating on that little bit and over time becoming familiar with it. This is really the basis of growing in love for God and his Word and it is something that comes over a long time of doing it. A ready-made way of doing this, of course, is by using the readings that the Church hears at daily Mass. That alone is enough to feed your soul and help it grow.That's number one.

At the same time, if you really want to grow in an in-depth knowledge of the Scriptures (which will also benefit you in your daily Bible reading), you need to study the Scriptures in a more systematic manner. Some people like "topical" Bible studies where you study a theme of Scripture for several weeks (like, for example, about famous men or women in the Bible, courage, faith, stewardship, parenting, discerning God's will, etc.). Personally, I prefer starting out by getting involved in a study which gives you a broad picture of salvation history. Two very popular programs are Jeff Cavins "Great Adventure/Bible Timeline" series and another series Cavin's did with Dr. Scott Hahn on EWTN called "Our Father's Plan." Studies like this will help you get that "Big Picture" that will make the rest of your Bible study come alive and be more understandable.

After that, you should start studying the Bible book by book. There are several ways you can do this. You can join a good Catholic Bible study group if there is one being offered near you. Also, there are a lot of good Catholic Bible study guides and commentaries that you can use (like the Ignatius Study Bible and the Navarre Bible commentaries) to go through each book one by on your own. If you like to download mp3s, there are some very good Catholic Bible studys that you can download and listen to at your leisure. Some can be found at ewtn.com in their audio library (especially studies on the Gospels). There is a site called St. Irenaeus Ministries that has on-going Catholic studies of many books of the Bible. Just these alone should keep you busy for a while.

So, to re-cap: the best way to learn the Bible is to read a little of it every single day for spiritual edification and to grow in familiarity. At the same time, be studying at least one book of the Bible all the time so that you can grow in knowledge and have a solid foundation to your daily Bible reading.If you need more information or resources, please visit my main webpage, found here.

Hope that helps. :)