Many of us have, prehaps at one point or another, and perhaps even used the phrase, "Let ye who is without sin, cast the first stone". And still fewer of us have ever heard or read where this reference comes from. It's an interesting story, I think and it's been on my mind for quite some time now. (No, I am not a christian anymore, but it doesn't mean that I have thrown out the baby with the bathwater ;-} )
That saying comes from a passage in the book of John, chapter 8 verses 1 through 11. The religious people at the time came to Jesus with a woman who was allegedly "caught in aultery". They wanted to try and "trap" him in his own words to make Jesus look bad and have, what they tought in their collective narrow train of thought, "solid" evidence to discredit him.
"Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" they asked.
Now here's the odd part...
"But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger"
They kept pestering him, so this is what happens next...
" 'When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them', "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground' "
The religious buggers' response?
"At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there."
And here's where a little imagination, a little conjecture and a little bit of common sense comes into play...
I think Jeesus was writing the names of the so-called "town's 'adultresses' and 'whores' ", at least according to the minds of the would-be accusers AND THE NAMES OF SOME THE MEN IN THE CROWD THAT THE WOMEN HAVE "BEEN WITH" AT SOME POINT OR ANOTHER. What makes me believe this? Here's where the idea of small towns comes to mind...
I imagine small towns as places where, among many other things, EVERYONE KNOWS EVERYBODY'S ELSES' BUSINESS. Any one of my readers who live in small towns can perhaps attest to this. But then how does Jesus become privy to this knowledge? Because he was "god"? Because he had some special powers? No and no. He got the news from the townsfolk, themselves. How? Well, let's say that chances are he did indeed have one VERY "special power"... He LISTENED to them. You see, one of the things that overly religious people have a tough time doing is listening. Not a few of us have had this experience to one degree or another with our current-day religious friends and acquaintances. Well, things weren't so much diferent back then, I'm sure one would agree. Jesus hung out with the unheard, with people that were considered "bad" and or "evil" by those who regarded themselves as "holy" and or "above the riff-raff".
So, I imagine that Jesus listened... and he REMEMBERED. And he used that bit of knowledge at the right place and at the right time: to save the life and dignity of a persecuted woman...
"Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?'"
(If the character of Jesus ever existed, I think he had a sick, coy and wonderfully TWISTED sense of humor. It was obvious they were all gone but he still asks).
"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
Essentialy we now see that the last statement was not a judgement or condemnation for he just finished saying "Then neither do I condemn you". So then what? Again, here's more conjecture and all that other good stuff... I think that Jesus did the equivalent of "buny-rabbit-ears-air-quotation marks" that we use today in our gesturing that indicates "as if". For I think that as a man of peace, he also wanted to calm the woman's fear in her distress. Imagine: you are pulled out of you home by an angry mob intent on killing you - you'd be shittin' and peeing your pants. Jesus, I'm sure was sensitive enough to catch that and wanted to calm her fears by injecting a bit of well-timed, very good-natured sarcasm.
"Hey, your accusers are gone so I guess I won't condemn you either. You can leave your 'awful life o' sin' now." And very relieved and very alive, she goes on ner merry way, no worse for wear and maybe a little better for meeting such a cool guy.
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It had occurred to me that Jesus needed not to have known who in particular did what with whom in order to have the self-righteous bastards fleeing with tucked tails from the scene which they'd created. He could have simply been writing something like this: wonder how ideed these men "know" what this woman had done if they themselves have not done the same and very possibly with this very woman? Just who do these rats think they're fooling?" And then he gets up and it it said that in the language the verse is written he literally says: Okay. The first one of you who hasn't commited THIS KIND of particular kind of sin with this woman, you ar free to go ahead and throw the first stone.
You know the rest.
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