His action says that their silly attempt to entrap Him is hardly worth His notice, that He is not going to jump at their bidding, that He would not be baited into error. What He wrote on the ground matters little. He ignores them and their question, treating the latter with the disdain it deserves.
Jesus, though, does not react as they planned: "But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear" ( John 8:6). They knew that He "consorted" with sinners, and having questioned Him or criticized Him about it at other times ( Mark 2:16 Luke 7:34, 37-39 15:1-2 etc.), they expected to use His compassion for them against Him. Then they ask a leading question, testing Him, as verse 6 plainly states, to frame Him when He spoke against God's law. Barging into the room, the Pharisee's drag her out-leaving the man-and haul her to the Temple to display before Jesus. When she stole away to her tryst with the unmentioned man, they were ready. The Pharisees had probably been watching the woman for quite some time, planning to use her to discredit Jesus before the multitudes. We can imagine that, despite the early hour, quite a crowd had already gathered there in the Temple precincts, and this is precisely what the Pharisees wanted, an audience to witness what was about to take place. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him and He sat down and taught them.
Jesus, however, almost always treats such sinners the same way, unlike the scribes and Pharisees. The gospels contain several examples of Jesus having to deal with a sinner-a harlot, a tax collector, even whole crowds who only wanted to get something for themselves from Him. The episode in John 8 of the women caught in adultery offers a stark contrast between the scribes and Pharisees and Jesus Christ in terms of their reactions to sin.
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