The woman caught in adultery · The Temple, Jerusalem

Neither do I condemn you

Dragged into the Temple as a trap for Jesus, a woman waits to be stoned. Jesus writes in the dust and answers her accusers first.

A Lux Fidei short film · 1:05AI dramatization with recorded AI narration. Scripture and sources below.

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It is dawn in the Temple, and a woman is being dragged through the crowd.

The scribes and Pharisees have caught her in adultery. The law prescribes death, and the trap is set for Jesus: contradict Moses, or condemn her. Jesus bends down and writes on the ground with His finger.

They keep pressing. He stands. Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. Then He bends down again. They leave, one by one, the oldest first.

Then He speaks to her, the only one who has not been asked anything. He does not say the act was nothing. Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again. Mercy and truth in the same sentence.

This is what confession is: the accusers gone, the sin named, a way forward given. Put down the stone you are holding, and bring what you have been hiding to a priest.

Lord Jesus, You wrote in the dust and waited. Free me from the stones I carry and the ones I have thrown. Let me be seen by You, and go and sin no more. Amen.

The scribes and Pharisees brought her to Jesus in the middle of His teaching. The law prescribed death; the trap was to make Him either contradict Moses or condemn her. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground. When they kept pressing, He stood and said that the one without sin should throw the first stone. They left, one by one, the oldest first.

Then He spoke to her, the only one who had not been asked anything. He did not say the act was nothing. He said He did not condemn her, and He told her to go and not sin again. Mercy and truth arrived in the same sentence. The Church reads this scene at the heart of Lent because it is what confession is: the accusers gone, the sin named, and a way forward given.

Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.

John 8:11, RSV-CE

Sources and further reading

John 8, RSV-CE

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