Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and
taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters,
having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is
not mine, but his that sent me. And the scribes and Pharisees brought
unto him a woman ...; and when they had set her in the midst. They
say unto him, ... Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be
stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they
might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with _his_
finger wrote on the ground, _as though he heard them not_. So when
they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them,
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which
heard _it_, being convicted by _their own_ conscience, went out one
by one, beginning at the eldest, _even_ unto the last: and Jesus was
left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had
lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her,
Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn
thee: go, and sin no more.--_St. John vii: 14-16; viii: 3-11._
* * * * *
_NOTE BY THE ARTIST_
_The scene is represented as taking place in one of the great
cloisters or porticoes which surrounded the Temple courts, and which
like the Forum of Rome, and "Paul's Wall" in Elizabethan, London,
served the purpose of a public promenade and place of meeting. These
porticoes were of magnificent construction and proportions, the Stoa
Basilica alone, upon the south side, with its quadruple colonnade of
one hundred and sixty-two pillars, covering a great area. The Eastern
Cloister, known as "Solomon's Porch," was probably so-called as
having been erected upon the site of a similar construction in the
first Temple_.