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What Was Christ Writing On The Ground?

Do you all remember when the Pharisees brought to the Savior a woman who was caught in the act of adultery?. They wanted to test him whether he will agree with stoning her to death or not since it was permisible on Moses's Law. But what did the Savior do when they approach him? it was in the scriptures that He was writing on the ground, did you ever wonder what he was writing?.

JB was telling some time ago that a leader in the Church here in Trinidad was saying that what Christ was writing down on the ground was the sins of the people who were accusing the woman. I found this very interesting. I research more about it and I could not find any LDS perspective (if anybody can find it, please post it!) but I did find this from another religion but I think we could still use it as a study but of course, not as an official thing

"When the tempters posed the question, "What sayest Thou?" a deathly silence fell: silence among the crowd which had gathered; silence among the judges of the sinful woman; silence and bated breath in the soul of the accused woman. A great silence falls in large circuses when the tamers of wild beasts bring forth tame lions and tigers and command them to perform various movements, to assume various positions and do tricks at their behest. But we see before us no tamer of wild animals, but the Tamer of men-a task significantly more difficult than the former. For it is often harder to tame those who have become wild on account of sin, than to tame those who are wild by nature. "What sayest Thou?" once more they pressed Him, burning with malice, their faces contorted.

Then the legislator of morality and human conduct stooped down to the ground, smoothed out the dust with the palm of His hand, and began to write (John 8:6). What did the Lord write in the dust? The Evangelist maintains silence concerning this and does not write of it. It was too repulsive and vile to be written in the Book of Joy. However, this has been present in tradition, and it is horrible. The Lord wrote something unexpected and startling for the elders, the accusers of the sinful woman. With His finger He disclosed their secret iniquities. For these pointers-out of the sins of others were experts in concealing their own sins. But it is pointless to try to hide anything from the eyes of One Who sees all.

"M (eshulam) has stolen treasures from the temple," wrote the Lord's finger in the dust.
"A (sher) has committed adultery with his brother's wife;
"S (halum) has committed perjury;
"E (led) has struck his own father;
"A (marich) has committed sodomy;
"J (oel) has worshipped idols."

And so one statement after another was written in the dust by the awesome finger of the righteous Judge. And those to whom these words referred, bending down, read what was written, with inexpressible horror. They trembled from fright, and dared not look one another in the eye. They gave no further thought to the sinful woman. They thought only of themselves and of their own death, which was written in the dust. Not a single tongue was able to move, to pronounce that troublesome and evil question, "What sayest Thou?" The Lord said nothing. That which is so filthy is fit to be written only in filthy dust. Another reason why the Lord wrote on the ground is even greater and more wonderful. That which is written in the dust is easily erased and removed. Christ did not want their sins to be made known to everyone. Had He desired this, He would have announced them before all the people, and would have accused them and had them stoned to death, in accordance with the law. But He, the innocent Lamb of God, did not contemplate revenge or death for those who had prepared for Him a thousand deaths, who desired His death more than everlasting life for themselves. The Lord wanted only to correct them, to make them think of themselves and their own sins. He wanted to remind them that while they carried the burden of their own transgressions, they shouldn't be strict judges of the transgressions of others. This alone did the Lord desire. And when this was done, the dust was again smoothed over, and that which was written disappeared. "

https://www.stvladimirs.ca/library/christ-writing-ground.html

Ground The Writing Christ What

I have heard it suggested many times in the past that the Savior wrote down names of those in the crowd who had in fact committed adultery with this woman. This then being why they all turned and left one at a time especially since he said that the one without sin should cast the first stone.

I find it interesting that it is not recorded what was written. We do not even know for sure if it was anything intelligible at all. However the theory put forth by LDS's post I find quite plausible. I don't know how the person preaching this could know it though since it wasn't written down. How can we know for sure exactly what was written. While I think it makes sense that he wrote down sins of the accusers, how is it possible for us to know eactly what these sins were?

It is possible that even John didn't know what was written and that is why it wasn't recorded. If this is the case perhaps it really was because the Savior didn't want the guilty men to be formally accused just as the "preacher" in LDS's posting says. I especially like the part about writing it in dust so that it could be easily erased, but I think that might just be symbolism we attribute to it more than reality. For me the reality is that the dust was what was available for him in which to write, but I don't think it necessarily contains the same symbolism we find in parables, etc., as the "preacher" is suggesting, although, I suppose it is possible.

What Was Christ Writing On The Ground? Studies Doctrine Mormon

I think there were some old writings were they found a similar story about Christ and this woman and it mentions the sins Christ wrote on the dust. I made a research but I couldn't find anything about it, but I do know this theory is based on some old ancient writings.

I agree with you 100%, I liked the part about the dust too but I find that's only the interpretation of the person, as you say, Jesus used it because probably was the only thing available at that moment. Is interesting because I was reading the same story in Jesus the Christ but the author don't mention anything about him (Jesus) writing the sins of the people on the dust, and if we check the footnotes of the scriptures it says 'Teaching Method'. But I like this theory also because it makes a lot of sense to me.

Ground The Writing Christ What

Why did he have to be writing anything in particular? Just his words were enough to confound any man. His scribbling on the ground might have actually to be to detract attention from the woman to himself.