Remember Jesus writing in the dust in last Sunday’s Gospel with the woman caught in adultry? Well I found this interesting tidbit over at Fr. Longenecker’s blog
…In fact, the riddle of what he was writing in the dust is resolved by the first and greatest Bible scholar, St Jerome. He picks up that Jesus’ action is an allusion to Jeremiah 17:13. Remember that Jesus is preaching and living in the tradition of the prophets who not only spoke God’s word, but acted out God’s word in dramatic actions. So when Jesus writes in the dust he echoes the verse in Jeremiah, “O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.” Jesus is writing the names of the Scribes and Pharisees in the dust, and saying that they have turned away from the Lord, the hope of Israel….
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