Explanation: The script in Cranach's painting is from John 8:7 - "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," and this statement is the central hinge upon which the incident turns and in which the dilemma presented in the story finds its resolution. In the painting, Cranach depicts the scribes and Pharisees as they try to find a way to accuse Jesus by placing him in a moral and political conundrum. If he told them to stone the woman taken in adultery he would be violating Roman law which reserved the right of capital punishment to itself. However, if he did not command her to be stoned he would be violating the spiritual law of Moses which was binding on the conscience of all Jews. He solved the dilemma by saying that the one who was without sin should cast the first stone at her. This upheld the Mosaic law by judging that she deserved to die. However, when he put the burden of execution on anyone who was innocent he also judged her accusers for the wickedness that was in their own hearts, as they themselves recognized as each one from the eldest to the youngest slipped away. When the accusers left, and Jesus and the woman were alone, he forgave her and exhorted her to repent by going and sinning no more. He thus satisfied his chief mission, which was to save others as he had said to his disciples shortly before this incident: "For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:56).

^{John 8:1-11      1} Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. ² And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. ³ And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, ⁴ They said unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. ⁵ Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what say you? ⁶ 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. ⁷ 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. ⁸ And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those your accusers? has no man condemned you? ¹¹
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.

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