Jesus and the Woman Accused of Adultery

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, and very early the next morning he came back to the temple. People gathered around him there, and he sat down to teach them.

While Jesus was teaching, the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman and made her stand in the middle. They said she had been caught in adultery. Then they reminded Jesus that the law of Moses commanded stoning in such a case, and they asked what he would say.

They said this to test Jesus, hoping to find a charge against him. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. When they kept asking, he looked up and said that the one among them without sin should be the first to throw a stone at her.

Then Jesus bent down again and wrote on the ground. One by one, the accusers went away, beginning with the oldest and ending with the last. Their consciences convicted them, and Jesus was left with the woman there in the middle.

Jesus stood up and asked her where her accusers were and whether anyone had condemned her. She answered that no one had. Jesus told her that he was not condemning her either, and he sent her away with a clear command not to continue in sin.