N5-13: What was Yeshua writing in the dust with his finger in front of the suspected adulteress?

Okay, today we’re going to finish up our analysis of the story of the woman accused of adultery in John 8.

So where are we at?

Let’s get our bearings here.

When the accusers brought the alleged adulteress to Yeshua, understand that the statement “she was caught in the act” is key.

They were demanding the death of this woman as required by the law in Leviticus, and if she really wasn’t “caught in the act”, then the situation would default to Numbers 5 which outline the procedures for SUSPECTED adultery.

So first operating under the law in Leviticus, Yeshua calls for the witnesses to come forward by casting the first stones.

However, no witnesses come forward.

So Yeshua had no choice but to move to the next step which are the procedures for suspected adultery in Numbers 5.

Let’s quickly review what those procedures are in order.

-The jealous husband brings his suspected wife to a priest together with a barley offering.

-The priest escorts the woman to the front of the Tabernacle.  

-The Priest puts Holy Water into a special cup and also adds some dust taken from the floor of the Tabernacle.

-The Priest hands over the barley to the woman and unbinds her hair.

-The Priest holds the cup containing the mixture of holy water and Tabernacle floor dust and recites an oath in front of the woman. 

-The Priest writes down the oath he has just uttered and washes off the ink of the letters from the surface of the sheepskin scroll into the cup (now filled with Holy Water and dust from the tabernacle floor).

-The barley the woman was holding is presented to HASHEM as a burnt offering (OLAH in Hebrew) on the Altar.

-The woman drinks the concoction now containing the three elements of Holy Water, dust, and ink.

-The woman is guilty, her reproductive organs will be rendered useless.  

What I’d like to do now is show you how every element and required ingredients of the Law as explained in Numbers 5 was present in the story of the alleged adulterous brought before Yeshua in John 8.

First, we are told that the suspected adulteress is to be brought before a High Priest.

Now who is Yeshua considered to be?

That’s right.

He’s considered to be our High Priest.

Second, we’re told this event was taking place at the Temple Court and that there was dust on the floor.

Boom!

Here we have the requirement for holy dust met.

Now how about the requirement for Living or Holy Water?

Well, read these words from Yeshua.

“but whoever drinks of the water
that I will give him shall never thirst;
but the water that I will give him will become in him
a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
-John 4:14

“He who believes in me,
as the Scripture said,
‘From his innermost being
will flow rivers of living water.'”
-John 7:38

“Everyone who drinks
this water will be thirsty again, 
but whoever drinks the water
I give them will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give them
will become in them
a spring of water welling
up to eternal life.”
-John 4:13-14

As one who was given Hashem’s Spirit beyond measure, was not Yeshua also called “Living Water”?

I believe one could possibly argue that in his very being Yeshua fulfilled the “holy water” requirement.

However, I think one could also argue that the situation never escalated to that because the Scripture says that the husband is to bring the wife to the priest, and the husband never showed up in the first place.

So things never progressed to the point where the the water, dust, and ink drink mixture was created.

Now notice we also have the element of writing involved here.

We are told that Yeshua was writing in the dust.

What exactly was he writing?

Remember that I told you that any Biblical oath by definition must always have God’s Name YHVH?

Minus God’s name there is no oath, period!

Of course, I can’t be dogmatic about this but if we’re going to go by the pattern set down in Numbers 5 about the oath having to be written, I would argue that Yeshua was writing down the Hebrew letters YOD-HEI-VAV-HEI. 

But again, in this “trial“, none of the necessary parties showed up.

The husband wasn’t present and no witnesses came forward.

Hence, things never progressed to creating the holy water, holy dust and ink concoction.

Yeshua stopped the process prematurely by telling the woman: “Go and sin no more; I’ll not condemn you“.

Now I need to make something clear here.

“Condemn” in this context does NOT mean to find somebody guilty.

Let me say that again.

In this context, when Yeshua used the word “condemn“, it did NOT mean he was declaring the woman guilty and then he was just going to let her go.

Biblically speaking, to condemn somebody meant to assign them the death penalty.

Recall from our studies a while back that the “Curse of the Law” was condemnation or receiving the death penalty.

Let me make it super simple clear for you.

“Condemnation” equals to “receive the death penalty“.

Got it?

So Yeshua was basically telling her, “Look there are no witnesses to testify against you, you’re husband didn’t even show up to accuse you, therefore, I’m not going to assign the death penalty to you.”

Yeshua was doing the right thing, because he had no basis to assign the death penalty to this lady.

No witnesses, no husband, no condemnation, period.

Indeed, Yeshua was following the Torah perfectly.

So to conclude, we pretty much see every element of Numbers 5 in John 8. 

We’ve got the High Priest, the Holy Water (if we’re interpreting Yeshua as being Living Water), Holy Dust, and Holy Writing all taking place at the Temple.

The takeaway for today is that in this scene pretty much everything can be explained via the Torah.