Re-read it to say 'he who is perfect shall cast the first stone.' Same point. He's pointing out that no one is free from flaws, from sin. That it is hypocritical to stone someone for committing a sin when the stone throwers themselves had sinned in their own way.

believed in.

The King James bible (and derivatives) comment on this in verse 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." To me that implies that they thought of things they had done wrong, and decided they had committed sin and so left.

But other versions just state that they all left, without the mention of conscience. At any rate I don't think the text is clear in asserting the concept of original sin; but it also doesn't provide counter evidence.

Bryant

(and I am no biblical scholar) that the concept of original sin came from Paul and other later writers and not from the teachings of Jesus.

I don't even want to start on the whole "dying for our sins" thingy.

Though Irenaeus formalized the doctrine of original sin in the 2nd century, it was largely ignored until Augustine began writing about it two centuries later. Augistine based his ideas on his reading of Paul's works.

it can be a very strange concept, depending on where one thinks the "sin" comes from.

What I was taught about it was that one should be very careful about judging and condemning others because everyone has their faults.

Even if one does not believe in the concept of original sin, is there any adult individual who is without sin?

Does anything tell us what he wrote? Is it the scribes and pharisees who are leaving, so the assumption is that they could read what he wrote?

Personally, it reminds me of an old Western where the good guy looks at his fingernails before blasting the bad guy.

wondering why it was recorded that he wrote on the ground with his finger and that he did it twice.

The explanation I like best is that Jesus teaches us to act in humility, in light of our own faults, before and after addressing the faults of others.

instance, Jesus wrote some sins which the onlookers had committed, and they, recognizing themselves as being , in effect,
called out for their own sins, left. the scene.

that the "adulteress" was a professional, and that Jesus wrote the names of the men in the mob who had been her johns. She is sometimes conflated, with no real evidence to support the identification, with Mary Magdalene.

He who has not offended God cast the first stone. That is what he meant.

"1 JUDGE not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_and_the_Beam

was that nobody was qualified to to cast a stone. Mote and beam, again.