What do you think Jesus wrote in the Dust?

John 8:1-11 "...Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group (most likely naked) and said to Jesus, “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 were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they continued questioning him, he straightened up and said, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 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. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”     “No one, sir,” she said.    “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

I am aware of the issue with the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. (Known as the Pericope Adulterae.) However, I believe the incident occurred. First Century Israel was an oral culture, and the disciples originally spread the story of Jesus orally. Just because it was not added into the written account of John's gospel until later does not mean it did not exist orally prior to that. Its later addition may have only been a case of determining where it best belonged. The most likely explanation is that papyrus wasn't always readily available and the church was poor. In these early recordings, it would have been practical to leave out some of the longer sayings of Jesus or the disciples if they hadn't possessed enough papyrus--especially since much of the Bible was common knowledge anyway since it was primarily being passed on orally. 

We know from the last verse of the gospel of John that many of the things Jesus did were not recorded. It is understandable why the Pericope is missing in early manuscripts, or why accounts may have varied in the gospels as to who was present at the tomb on Resurrection morning. There are simple but compelling argument for these things. Scrolls had a limited amount of space. Only so much information could be added to a scroll. It was a laborious, time-consuming, and expensive task. Writing was a highly specialized endeavor. Saying that scripture is unreliable because the names of the women differ at the tomb, or because the account of the woman caught in the act of adultery is not in early manuscripts, are weak arguments grasping for straws. The list of women at Jesus's tomb always include Mary Magdalene, and Luke 8:3 tells us that along with Mary Magdalene and Joanna, many other women were present at the tomb. Once again, these events were related orally for several years before being written down. This was an oral culture, and like all oral cultures, it was capable of great feats of memory.

As for the account of the woman caught in adultery, and what Jesus wrote in the dust, I have heard some good guesses. When I was a teenager, I learned in Bible study that Jesus probably wrote the names of the accusers alongside a list of their sins. It was seen as a fulfillment of Jeremiah 17:13, “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.” Others think He was writing the greatest commandments: to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength." And "to love your neighbor as yourself."

Some guess that He was merely doodling or showing his aversion to entering into the conversation. (I doubt those suggestions. Though Jesus may have been showing her the respect of a gentleman by not looking at her shame, especially if she were naked.)

My own guess is that He wrote Deuteronomy 22:22. “If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel." By only bringing the woman, they were in violation of the Law of Moses. When He said, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone", they were trapped. They were trapped because they had violated the Law by not also bringing the man. It was easy to prove they were not without sin because they were sinning at that very moment. I suspect they were further trapped because, if this theory is correct, their hand was being forced to bring forth the man, and they obviously wanted to protect him. He was most likely complicit in the trap in the first place. 

So what do you think Jesus wrote in the dust? (And I know you're out there. You show up in my stats.)