I have borrowed from Mr. Paul Heyse’s drama, Maria von Magdala, the idea of two situations in my play, namely, at the end of the first act, the intervention of Christ, who stops the crowd raging against Mary Magdalene with these words, spoken behind the scenes: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone;” and, in the third, the dilemma in which the great sinner finds herself, of saving or destroying the Son of God, according as she consents or refuses to give herself to a Roman.

source https://www.free-ebooks.net/drama/Mary-Magdalene-A-Play-in-Three-Acts