What were the Hebrew / Greek / Aramaic characters the Savior wrote when the woman in adultery was brought to Him?

[nuclearfuels]

What were the Hebrew / Greek / Aramaic characters the Savior wrote when the woman in adultery was brought to Him?

[Benjamin McGuire]

Nobody knows.

[Pyreaux]

It should be Aramaic if he wrote a random thing, unless he was writing scripture, a commandment, definitely not Greek, but I believe there is dispute over whether the account happened at all.

[webbles]

Ambrose of Milan (from the mid 300s) hypothesized that it was "earth accuses earth", a reference to the phrase "for dust you are and to dust you will return".

 

11 minutes ago, Pyreaux said:

It should be Aramaic if he wrote a random thing, unless he was writing scripture, a commandment, definitely not Greek, but I believe there is dispute over whether the account happened at all.

I don't think the dispute is whether the account happened at all.  It is over whether it was in the original manuscript of John.  There's a bunch of early extant manuscripts of John that either don't have the account or include the account with a special marker.  And there are words in the account that aren't used anywhere else in John.  But, there is also non-gospel references to this story, including several from Papias who wrote in the early 100s.  So the account probably did happen but was added to the Gospel of John at a later date.

[Grug the Neanderthal]

My opinion is that he was listing sins that her accusers were guilty of that were also punishable by death under the law of Moses.

I believe that this is why they dispersed and didn’t argue that there sins were not as serious as hers and that they were qualified to put her to death. 

[The Nehor]

I think Jesus was coming up with an unbeatable Tic-Tac-Toe strategy.

[Doctrine 612]

Had a buddy tell me he found a interesting translation error here.but never showed me where.

but said it should read he dug or draw out/ remove.

mad in Christ was picking up a stone to show the crowd. Then went down to gather more stones.

 

[mfbukowski]

"GOTCHA!"

Names?

Edited March 6, 2023 by mfbukowski

[Navidad]

There are tons of speculations and ideas about what He wrote. No one knows.  Maybe some day in eternity, you and I can go and ask Him! The thing I like best about the account is that it was the oldest guys who recognized the truth in whatever He wrote and they left first. With age comes a certain amount of wisdom!

[Pyreaux]

On 3/4/2023 at 12:20 AM, The Nehor said:

I think Jesus was coming up with an unbeatable Tic-Tac-Toe strategy.

If you go first, take the upper right, lower left, then a remaining corner, you should either win (if they took the middle) or tie.

20 hours ago, Doctrine 612 said:

Had a buddy tell me he found a interesting translation error here.but never showed me where.

but said it should read he dug or draw out/ remove.

mad in Christ was picking up a stone to show the crowd. Then went down to gather more stones.

Strongs G#1125: γράφω grapho; A primary verb; "to grave, scrape, scratch, engrave", especially "to write, draw letters"; figuratively, to describe.

[Buckeye]

It was actually Latin - QED. 

[InCognitus]

My guess is that he wrote, "Mom, stay out of this one."

Edited March 7, 2023 by InCognitus

[Islander]

On 3/3/2023 at 6:36 PM, nuclearfuels said:

What were the Hebrew / Greek / Aramaic characters the Savior wrote when the woman in adultery was brought to Him?

No one knows with certainty. However, we do know that the Savior ALWAYS acted according to the true Law of God and also always pointing to true righteousness. His teachings were living illustrations of who He was and what His work was about. Based on the Law and the rabbinic traditions we have interesting possibilities. If we look at the event described in John 8 and we dig into the Old Testament and Jewish tradition for the elements of the passage, some very interesting parallels emerge that could shed some light (maybe) into the scene.

Whenever someone was caught in adultery, both the man and the woman would be brought to the Nicanor temple gates and formally accused. If witnesses could be gathered to confirm that adultery had indeed been committed, then there was a certain ceremony that would be done in order to bring judgment. However, in this instance they only brought the woman. This was a violation of the Oral Law of God. (Mid. 1:4)

Secondly, the priest was commanded to then bend down and write the law that had been broken, together with the names both accused, in the dust of the floor of the Temple (which Jesus did). The priest could write the law and the names anywhere, as long as the marks were not permanent – and the dust of the floor of the Temple was the most common place. By doing this, Jesus showed these accusers that THEY were not keeping the law, but He ALWAYS would. In addition, two actual eyewitnesses must be present, and there is no mention of the witnesses’ presence in this scene. The Scribes and Pharisees just say she was caught in the act. But by whom?

On the yearly celebration of Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), the High Priest would immerse up to 11 times in a Mikveh (a baptismal tank) in order to be ceremonially clean between each separate portion of the day’s sacrifices. After the ceremonial process of the day was finished, there was a celebration at his home. At the conclusion of the night, the High Priest would walk out his doorstep and quote this verse: “Oh YHVH, the Immerser (BAPTIZER ) of Israel, all those who leave your way shall be put to shame (publicly embarrassed), those who turn aside from my ways will have their names written in the dust and blotted out, for they have departed from YHVH, the fountain of Mayim Hayim (the waters of life)..” Jer. 17:13 (literal translation). Every adult man in Israel would have heard this recitation at least once a year since the age of 12. 

So Jesus had opened the door to repentance for them y showing their blatant violation of the law. They could have been embarrassed and then repented before the LORD. but instead they refused, rejected the Messiah, and in turn had their names written in the dust. This passage in Jeremiah is a Messianic prophecy of what Jesus would do when He came – and in this passage in John, we see Jesus fulfill the prophecy. “And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” v.8-9

They heard the voice of God in their conscience, the Spirit of God bringing to their remembrance all the times they heard the High Priest quote the verse — but instead of receiving the conviction and repenting, they departed from Him. Just as it was prophesied!

One day we'll know with certainty. What is undeniable is that those in attendance knew and understood. The silence and surrender of the mob is all the more telling. 

[LoudmouthMormon]

Quote

"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. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

One popular speculation I've heard from various ends of Christianity: Jesus wrote the names of some of the folks with rocks, next to the name of their favorite prostitute, or similar indication that He knew what was up.   Hey, as far as speculations go, it's as good as any other.

[california boy]

I have it on good authority that Christ wrote "Well at least you aren't gay."

[Peppermint Patty]

I would like to think Jesus had a good sense of humor. I can imagine him writing. "Help me, I'm surrounding by idiots."

[The Nehor]

C.S. Lewis gave an opinion on the writing in the dirt:

“Another point is that on that view you would have to regard the accounts of the Man as being legends. Now, as a literary historian, I am perfectly convinced that whatever else the Gospels are they are not legends. I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear that they are not the same sort of thing. They are not artistic enough to be legends. From an imaginative point of view they are clumsy, they don’t work up to things properly. Most of the life of Jesus is totally unknown to us, as is the life of anyone else who lived at that time, and no people building up a legend would allow that to be so. Apart from bits of the Platonic dialogues, there are no conversations that I know of in ancient literature like the Fourth Gospel. There is nothing, even in modern literature, until about a hundred years ago when the realistic novel came into existence.  In the story of the woman taken in adultery we are told Christ bent down and scribbled in the dust with His finger. Nothing comes of this. No one has ever based any doctrine on it. And the art of inventing little irrelevant details to make an imaginary scene more convincing is a purely modern art. Surely the only explanation of this passage is that the thing really happened? The author put it in simply because he had seen it.“

 

[The Nehor]

On 3/7/2023 at 8:41 PM, california boy said:

I have it on good authority that Christ wrote "Well at least you aren't gay."

Makes sense. I have had several of his followers say that to me.

[Navidad]

I think He wrote: "Stop ranking, dehumanizing, normalizing, and generalizing her." These are after all the four favorite sins of many religious folks!

[Mathete]

The Savior was consistent, always teaching all the way to the cross. Many know John 3:16, but we must keep it in the context of this gospel, spelled out in the first chapter 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”  and it goes on to say in verse 14 “the Word was made flesh” . He being that word always taught it. Sharpen up for me here, the passage you are talking about is John 8:4-9. The law only applied to a “betrothed damsel” (Deuteronomy 22:24); and to show the Lord knew their thoughts, and Knew also that this was another man’s “wife”. He complied with the law prescribed in “such” a case (Numbers 5:11-31), and stooped down and wrote the curses (as required in verse 23) on the ground. The answers are in the word if you have eyes to see.

[The Nehor]

The gospel writer wrote that Jesus was just writing in the dirt. I trust that if the content of what Jesus wrote was important that the writer would have included it. Our attempts to assume it must be important and even confidently lay out what Jesus had most likely written is pretty arrogant.

[Mathete]

 As we study and get to actually get to know the Savior, who is the word (John 1:1-14) we will learn His character. He is a teacher of scripture. Have he not read? If we are diligent in our study, having the Holy Spirit as our guide we will get more and more understanding. It’s kind of like working on a jigsaw puzzle, we look at a few pieces and don’t know how they fit. As we assemble the puzzle, we remember that piece we saw earlier and now know where it goes. Ponder this scripture when thinking about it; 1 Corinthians 2:14 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

[mfbukowski]

Has anyone written with a stick in dirt?

Legibly?

How long of a message could he have written? Whatever it was, I am sure whoever tried to read it saw the message they needed to see.

[The Nehor]

9 hours ago, Mathete said:

 As we study and get to actually get to know the Savior, who is the word (John 1:1-14) we will learn His character. He is a teacher of scripture. Have he not read? If we are diligent in our study, having the Holy Spirit as our guide we will get more and more understanding. It’s kind of like working on a jigsaw puzzle, we look at a few pieces and don’t know how they fit. As we assemble the puzzle, we remember that piece we saw earlier and now know where it goes. Ponder this scripture when thinking about it; 1 Corinthians 2:14 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So you are claiming it is one of the mysteries of God that was revealed to you. One of the ones Book of Mormon talks about not teaching since we are commanded only to teach those things generally revealed? Uh-oh…..someone is in trouble for breaking one of God’s strict commands.

[Pyreaux]

Pay no mind to that one @Mathete he just a non-serious... sugar glider? What is that thing?