John 8:6

There have been several suggestions about what Jesus may have written in the dust, all of which are guesses. Perhaps He wrote the words of Jeremiah 17:13 b: "Those who turn away on earth will be written down, because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord." Perhaps He wrote Exodus 23:1 b: "Do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness." [Note: Derrett, p. 187.] Perhaps he wrote the sins of the woman’s accusers. Jesus may have written the same words that He proceeded to speak giving a visual as well as an audible decision. Incidentally, this is the only record of Jesus writing that we have in the Bible.

If the account of this incident is complete, the writer must have felt that what Jesus wrote was secondary to His act of writing since he did not identify what He wrote. Perhaps Jesus was reminding the scribes and Pharisees that God had originally written the Ten Commandments with His finger (Exodus 31:18). Jesus’ act reminds the reader of this and so suggests that Jesus is God. As God gave the Old Covenant by writing with His finger, so God (Jesus) was giving the New Covenant by writing with His finger. Perhaps Jesus also wrote on the ground to delay answering His critics. This would have had the double effect of heightening their anticipation of His reply and giving them time to repent. The mention of this act here anticipates His doing the same thing again later (John 8:8).