“Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. Now Moses in the law commanded us to stone women like this, but what do you say about her?” And this they said, testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of.'
The purpose in their question was not to learn. All really knew what the correct answer was. The purpose was to test Him so that they could accuse Him. If He agreed that she should be stoned as the Law required then He could be accused before the Romans of encouraging disobedience to the Roman law which did not allow the Jews to inflict the death penalty in such a case. If He said otherwise they could accuse Him of disregarding the law of Moses, which would denigrate Him as a prophet in the eyes of the fiercely patriotic people.
Eye witnesses were in fact necessary before bringing a charge of adultery so it was important that she was ‘caught in the act'. The fact that the woman was seen as worthy of stoning may suggest that she was betrothed. If she had been married she would have been due to be strangled (per the Mishnah - the oral Jewish law which was in existence by at least 2nd century AD, and forms part of the Talmud). The ‘adultery' would not be with her betrothed, for sexual intercourse was permitted between betrothed persons.
‘To stone women like this', literally ‘to stone such' (feminine pronoun). We notice again the exclusion of the man's guilt for both were liable to the same penalty (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22). It was human prejudice at work, not divine law.
‘But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground.'
Jesus' immediate response was to stoops down and writes with His finger on the ground. There is little point in surmising what He wrote as we have no idea, and those who preserved the story did not think it important enough to tell us. But His action was clearly intended to calm things down and to take all eyes off the unfortunate woman. (‘as though He heard them not' has little support in early manuscripts). The Jewish leaders probably thought that He did it because He was trapped and was playing for time.
However, it may be intended to have had a further significance. In the Old Testament the Covenant itself was written ‘with the finger of God' (Exodus 31:18), a fact well known to all. It may be then that Jesus was intending to imply that in Him One was here Who could, if He chose, rewrite the Law. Was He by this indicating that He Himself had written the Law in the first place? Let them recognise with whom they were dealing.