Pelagius is one of my heroes (see Alan E. Johnson, Free Will and Human Life, pp. 8-9). I’ll never forgive Augustine for persecuting him.
Historical Christianity apparently paid no mind to the biblical account of Jesus’s reaction to the proposed stoning of a woman caught in adultery (John 8:2-11):
Early in the morning [Jesus] came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir. And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
This is the text of the New Standard Revised Version. Personally, I prefer the more memorable account in the King James Version in which I was brought up during the 1950s:
2 And early in the morning [Jesus] 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 say 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 sayest thou?
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 thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Historical Christianity apparently paid no mind to the biblical account of Jesus’s reaction to the proposed stoning of a woman caught in adultery (John 8:2-11): This is the text of the New Standard Revised Version. Personally, I prefer the more memorable account in the King James Version in which I was brought up during the 1950s: