# Let he who is without sin cast the first stone---meaning?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-he-who-is-without-sin-cast-the-first-stone-meaning/150960>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 26, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-he-who-is-without-sin-cast-the-first-stone-meaning/150960 "2003-01-26T02:30:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Heyoka13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Heyoka13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heyoka13)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-he-who-is-without-sin-cast-the-first-stone-meaning/150960/41 "2011-03-01T03:08:00Z")

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> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Again, all of this is kind of moot as this passage is, even in the most conservative versions of the Bible, considered to be added later.
> 
> Even in the NIV, a very popular Bible with fundamentalist protestants, it is noted that this story may not have been in the orgiinal book.

It’s in my King James Bible, red letter edition, without any notation.  
Jesus said it.

The King James Bible records it.

End of discussion.

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-he-who-is-without-sin-cast-the-first-stone-meaning/150960/42 "2011-03-01T11:52:20Z")

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It should be noted that the bible doesn’t record the very last thing Jesus said to the woman:

Hey, babe, you free Saturday night?

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**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-he-who-is-without-sin-cast-the-first-stone-meaning/150960/43 "2011-03-01T14:22:27Z")

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> [@dtilque](#):
>
> It should be noted that the bible doesn’t record the very last thing Jesus said to the woman:
> 
> Hey, babe, you free Saturday night?

It all makes sense now. He was writing his Facebook username in the sand.

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**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-he-who-is-without-sin-cast-the-first-stone-meaning/150960/44 "2011-03-01T15:50:07Z")

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> [@FriarTed](#):
>
> Anyway, the whole story is just so perfectly Jesusy I don’t see why people want to deny it. The Godhood & harsh moral claims I understand but why this?..
> 
> I’d love to know what he was writing on the dust tho-
> 
> the accusers’s own sins (or their mistresses names)  
> the Ten Commandment  
> Ref Daniel’s handwriting on the Wall- Mene mene tekel uparsin  
> (Numbered Numbered weighed & lacking)  
> or something entirely different

Maybe he was Banksee

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**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-he-who-is-without-sin-cast-the-first-stone-meaning/150960/45 "2011-03-03T00:04:45Z")

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> [@Heyoka13](#):
>
> It’s in my King James Bible, red letter edition, without any notation.  
> Jesus said it.
> 
> The King James Bible records it.
> 
> End of discussion.

The KJV was translated before more ancient manuscripts were discovered that didn’t include it, so there wasn’t really a big controversy at the time.

Now, whether or not those ancient manuscripts that omit it are reliable early witnesses (and not redactions or perversions), is a whole other ballgame that is a controversy among some Protestant Fundamentalists.

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