Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter is one of the most widely-read books in our society.  It has been adapted into many different plays and movies.  Hawthorne’s book is named for the Puritan practice of “belling” or “tagging” a person with a scarlet letter indicating their crime.  In this case, it is the letter “A”; that of a pregnant woman named Hester Prynne who is married to a husband she hasn’t seen in years.

There is much historical truth in the background to Hawthorne’s novel.  In 1694, the Massachusetts Bay Colony adopted laws of governance including The Charters and General Laws of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay (Published by order of the General Court, Boston, 1814), pages 277-278. Here we read:

[Chapter XXVIII] reads: “[I]f any man be found in bed with another man’s wife, the man and woman so offending, being therof convicted, shall be severely whipt, not exceeding thirty stripes… And if any man shall commit adultery, the man and woman that shall be convicted … shall be set upon the gallows by the space of an hour, with a rope about their neck, and the other end cast over the gallows, and in the way from thence to the common gaol shall be severely whipt, not exceeding forty stripes each; also every person and persons so offending shall forever after wear a capital A of two inches long and proportional bigness, cut out in cloth of a contrary colour to their cloaths, and sewed upon their upper garments, on the outside of their arm, or on their back, in open view…”

This Puritan practice might have been inspired by an event in the book of Genesis, where “the mark of Cain” is mentioned. This reference deals with a crime committed by Cain against his brother Abel. In a fit of jealous rage, Cain murdered his brother.  It is worth reading Cain’s subsequent conversation with God (Genesis 4:9-15):

Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’

‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’

The Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.

Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.’

Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is more than I can bear.

Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’

But the Lord said to him, ‘Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.’ Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”

God loved Cain even as He loved Abel.  But as often as I read this passage, I cannot conclude that God was so incensed with Cain that He was ready to consign Cain to eternal punishment.  He talks to Cain with patience and a sense of reason.  When the word “curse” arises, it is not God saying “I curse you” but rather the suggestion is that by murdering his brother, Cain came under a universal, preexisting sanction which was the consequence of his crime.  It was a law which God was most likely bound to uphold and apply.  Murder is murder, whether a Russian soldier executes a Ukrainian civilian, or a mother’s boyfriend accidentially suffocates her baby because it “cries too much,” or a farmer puts a shepherd to death with or without premeditation.

There were certain earthly consequences for Cain’s crime described in the passage, yet God spared Cain’s life.  God would have taken no pleasure in taking Cain’s life according to what we know.  And, the mark Cain received was not so much to make life miserable for him, but to spare his life.  Who is to say that Cain won’t be in Heaven with Abel?  Perhaps Cain repented of his sin against Abel and God in His mercy forgave Cain even as God promises to forgive us when we repent and ask for forgiveness? I truly believe that God is more forgiving to us than we are to each other and particularly as we are to ourselves. If only more people would seek His forgiveness. And He invites us to do just that in Isaiah 1:18, where He says:

‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Why suffer the shame, guilt, humiliation and ostracism of Hester Prynne when God has something so much better in mind for you?

This post is about scarlet letters.  And forgiveness. The protagonist in Hawthorne’s book was forced to wear the letter “A” for the crime of adultery.  Cain’s letter–his mark–might have been the letter “M” or “מ” had there been a written language at that time.  But there are other letters of shame as well. There is the letter “C” for collaborators, for instance.

Another era, another mark

After the Germans were driven out of France in 1944, a country which they had occupied for several years, the French turned on themselves. The resistance (La résistance) vented their anger on women and girls who were known or believed to be collaborators with the Germans during the occupation. These women were rarely spies, but instead ordinary people thrown into a situation they never wanted and could not see a way out from. They made choices out of despair, fear, loneliness or self-preservation. In some instances, they may not have had a choice. A German soldier named Fritz might have been a lonely teenager drafted against his will and he might have met a lonely French girl (Marie) his age who was also against the war. They might have fallen in love, believing it was the only sane thing to do in an unsane world. If fate favored the Germans in the end, Fritz might have been punished. Instead, it was Marie. Look closely at the accompanying photo (left) A crowd has snatched some unfortunate woman off the street or from her home accused rightly (or wrongly, as no one really cared) of being a Nazi sympathizer and an enemy of France. They’ve shaved her head to disgrace her and painted or carved on her forehead a swastika. Look at the faces in the crowd. Some are self-righteous. Some people look smug, one is laughing. Could those be the same faces that Jesus saw when he encountered the woman about to be stoned (described immediately below)? Who would Jesus identify with were he there in France?

An event such as what we see in the photo of the shorn woman above changes people. Change can be for the good, but not necessarily so. How can the people in the photo ever forgive the woman they marked as a collaborator, and why would they want to? And how can the woman mistreated as she was, forgive her assailants? She was the victim.

The ancient Greeks in the Apostle Paul’s time laughed at the Gospel, particularly where Jesus says we should love our enemies. In Matthew 5:43-44 Jesus said:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

[Obviously, Jesus is not talking about Fritz and Marie here, and I doubt they were thinking of this verse whenever they secretly met.]

The Greeks could not understand how they could, why they should, see the humanity in people they saw as different than them. In Plato’s time, you were either Greek or a barbarian. To Jews, you were either Jewish or gentile. It’s a human response to paint people we dislike as somehow nonhuman, vermin or disgusting. Hate and mistrust is a powerful motivator. Jesus is saying that anyone can love somebody who loves them back, but what about people who don’t love us?

Somebody has to be the adult in the room. I can empathize with whose tragic people we read about. They had a son killed in Afghanistan. Maybe a daughter was taken from them by a drunk driver? Or, their child was molested. How can the family be expected to forgive the perpetrator? The answer is that few, if any of us, have that capability, but a healing is important, or more than one life will have been destroyed. I’ve personally known people (e.g. alcoholics) who drink because of something that happened many, many years ago and they cannot come to grips with it, or find closure. Jesus is showing us that there is a way forward. You may not be able to find the forgiveness in your heart, but it can be given to you if you sincerely ask for it. Though it may seem hopeless or impossible for us, we’re told in Matthew 19:26 “. . .with God all things are possible.”

Casting stones

One of the more repeated encounters in the life of Jesus deals with the woman charged with adultery.¹ The passage comes from chapter 8 in the Gospel of John.  It was common practice thousands of years ago to stone both men (such as Stephen, the first Christian martyr) and women (as described in the footnote) for capital crimes.  More than likely, however, women were put to death and men got off with having their backs whipped or perhaps their hands slapped.

Jesus knew she was guilty.  The account says as much.  But he took her side against a crowd of indignant men of all ages (some of whom might have liked to have hooked up with the woman, themselves, had an opportunity presented itself. Who knows what secrets lie in people’s hearts?)  Others were just convinced of their own moral superiority.  The men saw this as an opportunity to trap Jesus, and they asked him what should be done to the frightened woman (not that they had any authority to harm her.)  Jesus said they could stone her if they wished, but the first stone must be thrown by someone who was not sinful, themselves.  The account notes that the older men were the first to drop the rocks in their hands and eventually the younger ones followed.  They left Jesus and the woman alone.  Jesus refused to condemn the woman in their conversation, but he didn’t condone the sin, because his parting words were “Go, and sin no more.”

This story should convince us that as humans, we sin, regardless of what our sin is.  We know from elsewhere in Scripture (I John 1:9) that if we confess our sin to our heavenly Father, then God forgives us our sin and does not condemn us, even as His Son refused to condemn this woman.  In computer science, this is called an “if/then” conditional statement.  In psychology it is called operant conditioning.  This means if you do something first (e.g. confess, tell God you are sorry for whatever you have done and ask for forgiveness), then something (usually rewarding) will occur in the future.  And the reward in this example is eternal life in Heaven with our Creator who loves us. With Abel and possibly Cain. Maybe even with Hester?

The account in John might be even happier had society decided to end the barbaric act of stoning forever after this encounter with Jesus.  But unfortunately, this was not to be.

The more things change, the more they remain the same

Earlier this year the Taliban government in Afghanistan announced that it will resume stoning women for violating Sharia (Islamic) law.  Nothing was said concerning male offenders.

Hibatullah Akundzada, the secluded ruler of Afghanistan was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying:

‘I am administering God’s Hudud,’ Akundzada said, using an Arabic word that literally translates to ‘limits,’ and refers to the sets of laws and punishments prescribed by Islam. ‘They [secular governments and womens rights advocates] object to it, saying public stoning and hand-cutting are against their laws and human rights… Islam is a divine religion that deserves respect, but you insult it instead.'” 

Speaking on NPR, journalist Ruchi Kumar who covers events and politics in Afghanistan noted:

So basically, the Taliban have been stoning and flogging. Public executions have been happening under the Taliban rule since they took over. However, the most recent announcement by the Taliban supreme leader is remarkable because it focuses very specifically on women.”

The U.S. affiliated Radio Free Europe covered an unsanctioned stoning in rural Afghanistan in 2015, and an (edited) video of it can be found here, courtesy of a free press and human rights groups.

Wikipedia notes that:  “Iran, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, northern Nigeria, Afghanistan, Brunei, and tribal parts of Pakistan Iran, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, northern Nigeria, Afghanistan, Brunei, and tribal parts of Pakistan” still have stoning as a form of capital punishment for women.

Women in these countries are not forced to wear a letter.  They are often dispatched soon after being judged guilty, and in countries with Sharia law, your crime (whether serious or not) is against Allah, and not the government or some organization, private individual or family member.  

When many of us sin, we choose to condemn and beat up on ourselves, not realizing that it is God who we have sinned against and Who has the power to heal and cleanse us.  We cannot do this ourselves.

Lady Macbeth

Take Lady Macbeth.  Lady Macbeth was the wife of a Scottish nobleman in William Shakespeare’s play of the same name (“Macbeth”). She talks her husband into killing Duncan the King and she climbs over his dead body to the throne as a queen who has power to rule the roost as regent over her husband (now the King.)

However, the crime has stained her soul.  At night, she wanders the palace and imagines blood on her hands.  This is called a compulsive repetition.  Read from Macbeth, Act 5, scene 1 for yourself:

[Enter Lady Macbeth, with a candle]

Gentlewoman:   You, here she comes. This is her very guise, and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.

Doctor:  How came she by that light?

Gentlewoman:  Why, it stood by her. She has light by her continually; ’tis her command.

Doctor:  You see, her eyes are open.

Gentlewoman:  Ay, but their sense is shut.

Doctor:  What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.

Gentlewoman: It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thuswashing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.

Lady Macbeth:  Yet here’s a spot.    

Doctor:  Hark, she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

Lady Macbeth:  Out, damned spot, out, I say. — One, two — why,then, ’tis time to do’t. — Hell is murky. — Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard! What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old manto have had so much blood in him?

Doctor:  Do you mark that?

Lady Macbeth:  The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?What, will these hands ne’er be clean? — No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that; you mar all with this starting.

Doctor: Go to, go to. You have known what you should not.

Gentlewoman:  She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. Heaven knows what she has known.

Lady Macbeth:  Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh.

The Queen saw blood (Duncan’s blood) on her hands when no one else could. At night she would wipe one hand against the other repeatedly and futilely trying to rid herself of her imaginary stain. Her sin. Eventually, and according to the play, she ends her life.  As brief as candles are in this life, her candle was exceptionally brief.

Captain Rodrigo Mendoza (“The Mission”)

In the 1986 film “The Mission,” Captain Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro) plays a slave trader who brutally murders those members of the South American native Guaraní tribe that he cannot catch or subdue.  Whether men, women or children, it makes no difference to him.  Mendoza is introduced as a haughty, arrogant mercenary who knows no other law than his own.  But with as much blood on his hands as Mendoza has, his heart has over the years turned almost to stone. The Jesuit priest Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) arrives and Mendoza meets him. Father Gabriel is eventually able to penetrate Mendoza’s aloofness and the renegade soon believes and wants to change his ways and be washed clean of his sins–restored to the Faith.  However, he is convinced that God is not powerful enough to do this Himself.  Otherwise, it is too easy and there is no pain or suffering involved.  So, he seeks salvation through self-punishment.  Father Gabriel convinces Mendoza to join him on a visit to the Guaraní village which is located high in the mountains. Mendoza, in an act akin to self-flagellation, puts together a net full of heavy, awkward metal objects, and ties it to his back, making it difficult to walk, yet alone, climb to some great height.  But they arrive after much suffering on Mendoza’s part, and the first few minutes when he counters the tribe and they recognize him as their mortal enemy are very, very touching.  I encourage you to watch it here.

Mendoza had become an enemy to the childlike people of the Amazon, even as our sin puts us at enmity with God. Yet, when the Guaraní  understand that Medoza was truly sorry for his sin and the crimes against their people, and wanted their forgiveness, they responded in kind, even as God responds to our sorrow and sin. As the Psalmist David writes: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (51:17.)

Question: How many of us are carrying baggage, or some monkey on our back day after day after day (“to the last syllable of recorded time?”) How many of us are accused by the devil (or accuse ourselves) routinely? And how much energy does it rob us of?

If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts

As I reflect on my life, I met many men and women who, whether through shame or guilt or pride cannot ask God for forgiveness.  They know they had a “major oops” moment in their life, what Reddit calls a TIFU moment (and please don’t ask me to explain that acronym here.) Why don’t they talk to God even as Cain did? Maybe they don’t know He exists.  Maybe they don’t believe He will forgive them?  Maybe, they think their crime is too heinous?  But if the Nazis Armed Forces Chief Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel could kneel and ask God for forgiveness for waging war on humanity, and if God could forgive him, then I’m sure there is enough mercy to go around for you and me. Then, perhaps, some people cannot forgive themselves?  And Christians have just as much baggage in many cases as those who are not believers. They need forgiveness on a regular basis, too.

These are objections in the previous paragraph are myths, and I hope that I can dispel these false assumptions in this post, either by using passages from Scripture or examples from the lives of others.

He knows . . .

The Apostle John knew there were people who could not live with themselves. This is why he wrote:
“If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” In other words, God knows what you’ve done. You cannot surprise Him. Privacy advocates say that the average person in the U.S. is caught on one camera or another about seventy times a day! God sees us every second. King David says in Psalm 139:

O LORD, You have searched me  and known me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; 

You understand my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down; 

You are aware of all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, 

You know all about it, O LORD.

You hem me in behind and before; 

You have laid Your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, 

too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? 

Where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; 

if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.”

God was there when Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fathered Hester Prynne’s child, even if only in Hawthorne’s mind. He was there when the French mob beat the woman in the photo above. He was personally there when the woman in the Gospel was about to be stoned. God would have washed the invisible stains from the hands of Lady MacBeth had she asked, and he would have climbed that mountain with Captain Mendoza as he sought to be healed.

What does it mean when John says God is greater than our hearts? The Greek word used here for “greater than” is μείζων. It means “surpassing others in nature or power.” The commentator Marvin Vincent in his series “Word Studies” adds “when our heart condemns us we shall quiet it with the assurance that we are in the hands of a God who is greater than our heart.” It means surpassing other created beings whether human or supernatural, in power. The power to forgive.

Martin Luther knew about condemnation. When we was imprisoned in the castle at Wartsburg,  the devil appeared to him one night carrying three large scrolls. Luther reported several encounters with Satan at night while at the Wartsburg and on this occasion, Luther asked the devil impatiently what was on the scrolls. “This!” the devil yelled. The three scrolls together had every sin Luther had ever committed in chronological order. Satan sneered at Luther contemptuously as Luther slowly read the scrolls. “There is one thing you have forgotten” Luther finally said. The devil asked him what? Luther replied “On the bottom of each scroll write ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin.'” At that mention, the devil cursed and left.

The more you’ve sinned, the more God is willing to forgive

The book of Romans is packed with information about forgiveness. When I think of sin that multiplies in someone’s life, I think how they might become overwhelmed, how the sin might “boil over.” Then, I think of a story I read about how maple syrup is made from maple tree sap. One of the major problems in making syrup is that it tends to boil over, causing you to lose syrup while creating a big mess. Simply removing the vat with the syrup from heat will not stop the process. But there is a way to stop this from happening, and here is advice from one of the better known regional companies:

In the old days, sugar makers tied a piece of fat above the boil, and as the steam heats the fat, the fat drips into the boil. So to prevent boil overs, we use a bit of fat to calm the foam. 

To battle the boil over, there are a few things you can do. We use a bit of flavorless oil on a spoon to keep the foam at bay. You can use butter, but keep in mind that the end product will no longer be vegan. Sometimes we find ourselves in a pinch or under a time crunch, and reach for whatever fat is nearby. We’ve had success with olive oil, canola oil, coconut oil, and butter.”

God can stop the sin in your life from boiling over. In Romans 5:20, the Apostle Paul says that where sin in someone’s life was great, God’s grace was much more available. You might say that “a little sin needs only a little forgiveness and a big sin needs much more forgiveness,” but theologically that would not be correct. Yet, it serves to illustrate this example.

Then there is guilt. Guilt has a psychological component as well as a spiritual one.

Think about a time you felt guilty. What made you feel this way? What impact did it have on you? How did you respond? Probably, your description of the cause starts with an ‘I….’. This is because guilt is linked not with an external event, but with our own behaviour, a sense we’ve done something we shouldn’t, or not done something we should’ve. This makes guilt more complicated than some other emotions, because we have to have a sense of morality, a set of standards or values we believe we should live up to. We feel guilty when we sense a shortfall between our own behaviour and these standards or values.

What impact did guilt have on you? Each emotion has an impact on five different areas of our lives: feelings, bodily responses, facial expression, thoughts and behaviours. Guilt tends to be less intense than other emotions, unpleasant, but quite frequent and with a tendency to linger. We may give a great deal of thought to what we did (or didn’t do) and what to do about it. These thoughts can go round and round in our minds, distracting us from other things and making it difficult to sleep or to relax. The crowd of thoughts and ideas, and the unpleasant feeling, make us want to withdraw from others, and to refrain from sharing our wrongdoing.

Like grief, guilt does not go away unless it is addressed. But once the psychological and spiritual concerns and consequnces of guilt have been resolved, then the party who was, but who no longer is, guilty must let go of their guilt. Again from psychology, we have the counsel of Erik Erikson who pioneered the stages of psychological development in people. The first stage begins in infancy (“Trust vs Basic Mistrust”) and I am now in the final stage, called “Integrity vs. Despair.” Erikson defines this as

a retrospective accounting of one’s life to date; how much one embraces life as having been well lived, as opposed to regretting missed opportunities,” 

I had a wonderful personal counsellor (Dr. Susan Fisher) from 1999 until 2019 after Deena and I got married. She once asked me how I reflected back on my life. I told her that I wasn’t always the best husband or father or role model to my students and if I could change things (like spending more time with my children when they were small) I certainly would, but I can’t change the past or undo what I’ve done. I think most people (at least most men feel likewise.) So, while I may occasionally feel a bit sad about my past life choices on some anniversary or another, I don’t feel guilty. If I did feel guilty at this point, then it would be because I did not trust God for forgiveness. Erikson would probably give me a grade of A- for integrity as he defined it, perhaps even an “A.” But it is nothing that I’ve earned or accomplished on my own.

Divine forgivness is more than feeling sorry

In II Corinthians 7:10, Paul notes “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” The question then is what is Godly sorrow. Let me answer this by flipping the adjectives around. Worldly sorrow is what we subjectly feel. Matthew tells us of Judas who betrayed Jesus (27:3):

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.”

The question is, did Judas repent? He certainly knew he had done something terrible, but then he checked out, just as Lady Macbeth did. A careful character study of Judas suggests that he may have been trying to force Jesus’ hand to seize power, or at the very least, Judas likely did not expect Jesus to be crucified. Judas set in motion certain acts which got out of hand. The word for “repented” in this verse is μεταμεληθεὶς, which means Judas felt worldly sorry, not the Godly sorrow (μετανοέω) where a person has a change of heart and is receptive to God’s grace. Deena will testify to how much I love animals. I might accidentially hit a chipmonk with my car, and I’ll certainly feel bad for the rest of the day. But will it by itself motivate me to be a better driver? Probably not (something for the chipmonks in our neighborhood to keep in mind.)

Judas, and millions and millions of other ordinary people (perhaps even a few billion) who were born after him have experienced worldly sorrow over one thing or another. And some, like St Augustine lived with his girlfriend before his conversion for many years while she, like Hester Pyrnne, gave birth to his child. Augustine’s heart broke with worldly sorrow after his conversion when they parted (I understand it was his Augustine’s mother’s doing that kept them from getting married but I don’t remember.) Women (including Augustine’s lover) shaped his personality and he is one of the three most influential and admired Christians since the first century ended. We don’t know the name of his domestic partner as author Peter Krauss notes below:

“Two other women are referenced by Augustine though they do not have names: “Tacita” (the young girl with whom Augustine was arranged to be married when in Milan) and “Una” (the unnamed concubine whom Augustine says was the “only woman he ever loved”). These placeholder names, given to us by scholars for their humanization, mean “the silent one” and “the one” respectively.

Further, Krauss notes:

it was the women in Augustine’s life who taught him most about what he is most famous for, and thus ‘whether they knew it or not, the people in Augustine’s life—the women in his life—had a profound impact on the lives of Christians for centuries to come.’”

Forgiveness as a conditional statement

The Lord’s Prayer seems to imply that for us to receive forgiveness, we, ourselves must be willing to forgive others. Jesus says “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Others should enjoy the same relief from bondage that we do.

Afterword

I felt fairly sure in my spirit that this was an important post for me to write. Possibly, someone, somewhere that visits my blog will find this useful. I had been spinning my wheels the last two weeks writing about “Putin and Poo” or “Global warming” or “Myth and imagination.” I hope I’ve been intuitive enough to understand what the point was in me writing this and that I didn’t miss touching all the necessary bases. God bless you all!

Footnotes

---

^[1]Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, ² but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. ³ As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

⁴ “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

⁶ They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

⁹ When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”