At least one ancient scribe was not satisfied with the Greek text as it came to him, and so added the words “the sins of each one of them,” to explain what Jesus wrote on the ground. This phrase should not of course be included in the translation, since it is not a part of the original text.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .