Hello Mitchell! Thanks for writing.

Great question.

I wrote an article on what Jesus wrote in the dirt. The link should be available at the bottom of the article we’re commenting on.

But the short of it is this: I don’t think it matter what Jesus wrote, specifically. That’s why it isn’t specified.

Rather, it was the act of writing itself that was the point.

The mob carried a guilty person to Jesus and demanded He deal with it. Mobs like this have a lot of hostile energy, just waiting to pounce.

But when Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground, it broke their game. Jesus didn’t let them dictate the terms of the engagement. It let a lot of their energy and conviction fizzle out as they slowly realized Jesus wasn’t going to play their game.

Once the mob was calmer, Jesus responded. Jesus was wise enough to know you don’t confront an angry mob with an energetic response. If you do, chaos breaks out.

Instead, you lower the energy of the situation. That’s the only way an actual conversation can happen.

Jesus wrote in the ground to lower the energy, to break the mob’s force, so they would re-evaluate the situation and be more open to what Jesus had to say.