The Woman Caught in Adultery (John 7:53--8:11)

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Paraphrase

Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?” “No one, Master.” “Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”

Summary

The scribes and Pharisees fail to trap Jesus by requesting a hasty judgment against a woman caught in the act of adultery. Jesus reveals the hypocrisy of His detractors and calls them to self-examination, even as He calls the sinful woman to consider her error. The Lord’s greatest desire is to deliver us from sin through repentance and faith, rather than condemn us for our sins. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the worst of us, by His sacrifice on the cross.

Comment

Our text is a difficult portion of John, not because it is hard to understand, but because it is hard to know whether this incident should be included in John’s Gospel as an authentic part of inspired Scripture. Many versions put these verses in brackets, with a note explaining that it is not included in the earliest manuscripts of John. So I must give you a mini-lecture on textual criticism.

As you probably know, we do not possess any of the original copies of the New Testament books. Our New Testament is based on the translation of thousands of Greek manuscripts that are, for the most part, remarkably close in their readings. When there are variations between the manuscripts, they are usually only of minor significance. For example, in our text last week in John 7:40, some manuscripts read, “when they heard these words.” Others read, “these words of His” or “His word,” or, “the word,” or, “this word.” Obviously, it doesn’t make much difference which reading is adopted.

John 7:40 ESV

When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”

Textual criticism is the discipline where scholars evaluate both external and internal evidence to try to determine which reading is most likely the original. External evidence refers to weighing the various manuscripts in light of their age, how widespread is their distribution, and what text type they represent. Internal evidence refers to evaluating the probabilities of what a scribe might have done, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to result in the various readings. Both internal and external evidence have to be compared and evaluated.

There are two longer texts where the manuscript evidence is so varied and late that many scholars question their authenticity: Mark 16:9-20 and here, in John 7:53-8:11. Let me add that there are no major doctrines at stake in these or in any other textual variants. With rare exceptions, we can be sure that what we read is what the original authors wrote.

The problem is that our earliest and best Greek manuscripts do not contain this passage. Codex Vaticanus (B), Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph) and Codex Washingtonianus (W)—three of the most important MSS—do not give the slightest indication that the story of the woman taken in adultery is part of the original. In fact, no Greek manuscript prior to the ninth century (with the exception of the bilingual manuscript Codex Bezae) has the story. None of the church fathers who wrote in Greek commented on this passage until the twelfth century, although many of them made reference to the passages which immediately precede and follow it.

A recent manuscript discovery (also in the Bodmer library) of a Coptic version of the Bible in the Bohairic dialect, contains the Gospel of John which is dated by its editor in the fourth century (300-400 A.D.). Passages which textual scholars have previously recognized as critically suspect (John 5:3b-4, etc.) and the passage under discussion (John 7:53–8:11) are not present in this manuscript.

The most crucial evidence against this spurious passage, however, comes from the Bodmer II Papyrus (P66). It is highly significant that this earliest complete text of John's Gospel does not have the account of the adulterous woman. There is no mark or hint at either 7:53 or 8:12 of this MS that either scribe or corrector knew anything additional belonging here.

In many of the late Greek manuscripts which do have the story, it is marked so as to inform the reader that it is an insertion. Furthermore, the manuscripts which have the account vary so much from each other in wording that there are at least sixty different readings. Someone has determined that this is an average of five variants for each verse of the twelve-verse unit--a much higher average than is found in the rest of John's Gospel. The account also occurs in other locations in the New Testament. Some have it after John 7:36; others after John 21:24; still others after Luke 21:38.

The style and vocabulary of the story in Greek are quite different from that which John employs in the rest of the book. It does not in any way contribute to John's account, but to the contrary, disrupts the context. How meaningful the two declarations of Jesus become—the "Water of Life" and the "Light of the World"—when we understand their setting coincident with the last day of the great Feast of Tabernacles. But if the unit 7:53–8:11 remains in the text of John's Gospel, then both the incident of the adulterous woman and the discourse on "light" occur at the Temple on the day after the feast has closed, for 8:2 reads, "Early in the morning he came again to the temple."

John 7:53–8:1

John 7:53–8:1 ESV

They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

The abrupt opening is reminiscent of Jesus’ pattern during the week before his passion, the week in which Jesus spent the nights in Bethany, travelling to and from Jerusalem each day, with pauses along the way at the Mount of Olives (cf. Mark 11:11–12, 19–20, and especially Luke 21:37).

Mark 11:11–12 ESV

And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.

Mark 11:19–20 ESV

And when evening came they went out of the city. As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.

Luke 21:37 ESV

And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet.

That is as plausible a setting for this incident as any other suggestion.

John 8:2

John 8:2 ESV

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

Several expressions in this verse are typical of Luke-Acts (or in one case of Matthew as well): orthos (“dawn”) is found in the New Testament elsewhere only in Luke 24:1; Acts 5:21; paraginomai (“appear”) and laos (“people”) are common in Luke-Acts, rare in John.

Luke 24:1 ESV

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

Acts 5:21 ESV

And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

And for he sat down to teach them cf. Matthew 5:1–2; Luke 4:20; 5:3.

Matthew 5:1–2 ESV

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

Luke 4:20 ESV

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

Luke 5:3 ESV

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

The content of this verse is closely paralleled by Luke 21:38, again referring to the week of Jesus’ passion.

Luke 21:38 ESV

And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.

The outer court served as the venue for many scribes to gather their students around them and expound the law to them. Jesus used the same facilities, even if his content could not easily be compared with what the others taught.

John 8:3–4

John 8:3–4 ESV

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.

Because the venue was so public, it was easy enough for officials and opponents to mingle with disciples and bring up hard cases. The teachers of the law (lit. “scribes”) and the Pharisees are often mentioned together in the Synoptics, but never in the genuine text of John. The scribes were the recognized students and expositors of the law of Moses, but so central was the law in the life and thought of first-century Palestinian Jews that the scribes came to assume something of the roles of lawyer, ethicist, theologian, catechist, and jurist. Most of them, but certainly not all, were Pharisees by conviction (cf. John 1:19ff.).

These religious authorities, then, approach Jesus with nominal respect: Teacher is doubtless the equivalent of “Rabbi” (cf. John 1:38).

John 1:38 ESV

Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”

The woman they bring with them was caught in the act of adultery. Adultery is not a sin one commits in splendid isolation: one wonders why the man was not brought with her. Either he was fleeter of foot than she, and escaped, leaving her to face hostile accusers on her own; or the accusers themselves were sufficiently chauvinistic to focus exclusively on the woman. The inequity of the situation arouses our feelings of compassion, however guilty she herself was. In any case, the next verses suggest that the authorities in this case are less interested in ensuring that evenhanded justice be meted out than in hoisting Jesus onto the horns of a dilemma.

John 8:5–6a

John 8:5–6a ESV

Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.

The authorities’ quotation of the law (Moses commanded us to stone such women) raises a widely disputed question: Was the woman married, or single and betrothed? Stoning is the biblically prescribed punishment for a betrothed virgin who is sexually unfaithful to her fiancé, a punishment to be meted out to both sexual partners (Deuteronomy 22:23–24).

Deuteronomy 22:23–24 ESV

“If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Elsewhere (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22) death is prescribed for all unfaithful wives and their lovers, but no mode (such as stoning) is laid down.

Leviticus 20:10 ESV

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Deuteronomy 22:22 ESV

“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

In the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 7:4), however, the two cases are sharply differentiated: the offence in the first instance is punishable by stoning (it is viewed as the more serious of the two), and the second by strangling. That would mean the woman in this passage was betrothed, not married. It is rather doubtful, however, that the distinction existed in Jesus’ day.

Although capital punishment by stoning is still meted out today in some Muslim countries for the offence of adultery, there is little evidence that it was carried out very often in first-century Palestine, especially in urban areas. John suggests as much: the authorities were not interested in the intrinsic merits of this case, still less in assuring that justice be done and be seen to be done, but were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

There are several Synoptic parallels (Mark 3:2; 10:2; Luke 6:7).

Mark 3:2 ESV

And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

Mark 10:2 ESV

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

Luke 6:7 ESV

And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.

If Jesus disavowed the law of Moses, his credibility would be instantly undermined: he could be dismissed as a lawless person and perhaps be charged in the courts with serious offences. If he upheld the law of Moses, he would not only be supporting a position that was largely unpopular but one that was probably not carried out in public life, and, worse, which would have been hard to square with his well-known compassion for the broken and disreputable, his quickness to forgive and restore, and his announcement of the life-transforming power bound up with the new birth.

It is even possible, as Jeremias suggests, that formal agreement with the law of Moses could have been interpreted in such a way as to get him into serious difficulty with the Roman overlord. If in the name of Moses he pronounced the death sentence on this woman, and it was actually carried out, he would have been infringing the exclusive rights of the Roman prefect, who alone at this period had the authority to impose capital sentences (cf. John 18:31–32).

John 18:31–32 ESV

Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

If this is part of the dilemma the authorities planned for Jesus, this narrative takes on the flavor of the trap recorded in Mark 12:13–17.

Mark 12:13–17 ESV

And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.

John 8:6b–8

John 8:6b–8 ESV

This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.

Why and what Jesus wrote on the ground cannot be ascertained. A longstanding interpretation in the church has been that he wrote part of Jeremiah 17:13:

Jeremiah 17:13 ESV

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.

Some suggest that Jesus was imitating the practice of Roman magistrates who first wrote their sentence and then read it; but it is far from clear that Jesus wrote a sentence (at least, a sentence for the woman), and in any case this explanation is less than satisfactory for v. 8.

Others suggest that the first time Jesus stooped down he wrote, “Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness” (Exodus 23:1b), and the second time, “Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty” (Exodus 23:7). This seems to give the woman more than her due.

Some have suggested that what Jesus wrote is entirely incidental. The action of writing was itself parabolic, and what really counted—as if Jesus were saying, in effect, “You are the people of whom Scripture speaks!” In the absence of parallels, however, it is hard to see how the opponents would have read so much into Jesus’ action. The truth is that we do not know.

At one level, his writing on the ground was a delaying action that failed to satisfy Jesus’ opponents, so they kept on questioning him. However ambiguous his writing may be to us today, the words with which he finally responded are clear enough: If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. This is a direct reference to Deuteronomy 13:9; 17:7 (cf. Leviticus 24:14)—the witnesses of the crime must be the first to throw the stones, and they must not be participants in the crime itself.

Deuteronomy 13:9 ESV

But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.

Deuteronomy 17:7 ESV

The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Leviticus 24:14 ESV

“Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

Jesus’ saying does not mean that the authorities must be paragons of sinless perfection before the death sentence can properly be meted out, nor does it mean that one must be free even from lust before one can legitimately condemn adultery (even though lust and adultery belong to the same genus, Matthew 5:28).

Matthew 5:28 ESV

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

It means, rather, that they must not be guilty of this particular sin. As in many societies around the world, so here: when it comes to sexual sins, the woman was much more likely to be in legal and social jeopardy than her paramour. The man could lead a “respectable” life while masking the same sexual sins with a knowing wink. Jesus” simple condition, without calling into question the Mosaic code, cuts through the double standard and drives hard to reach the conscience.

John 8:9

John 8:9 ESV

But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Many manuscripts specifically say that the accusers were “convicted by their own conscience” (av), but their stunned departure testifies as much. Those who had come to shame Jesus now leave in shame. When they have gone, the woman is still said to be “in the midst” (av; Gk. en mesō). All John means is that the ring around her has melted away, and she was still standing there (NIV).

John 8:10–11

John 8:10–11 ESV

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Alone with the woman, Jesus addresses her for the first time. His form of address, Woman (gynai), is entirely respectful (cf. John 2:4; 4:21; 19:26; 20:13).

John 2:4 ESV

And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

John 4:21 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

John 19:26 ESV

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

John 20:13 ESV

They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

He does not here ask if she is guilty, but if there are others who condemn her. That she is guilty is presupposed by the final words of v. 11: Go now and leave your life of sin. But she answers his question with a direct No-one, sir (Gk. kyrie, which means “sir” as readily as “lord” or “Lord”). Only now does Jesus come close to answering the question that was first set him. Regardless of the exigencies of the law of Moses, in this instance Jesus says neither do I condemn you. The confidence and personal absoluteness of Jesus’ words call to mind that Jesus came not to condemn but to save (John 3:17; 12:47).

John 3:17 ESV

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 12:47 ESV

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

Jesus’ words also prompt us to remember the Synoptic accounts that assign Jesus, like God himself, the right to forgive sin (Matthew 9:1–8).

Matthew 9:1–8 ESV

And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

The proper response to mercy received on account of past sins is purity in the future. NIV’s leave your life of sin establishes the point directly, even if the expression almost paints the woman as an habitual whore (though the Greek bears no such overtones).

In-Class Questions

1. Why does the church tend to overlook the sins of hypocrisy, legalism, gossip, and pride, but judge sins like drunkenness, immorality, homosexuality, etc.?

2. What can we learn about witnessing from Jesus’ pattern of giving the Law to the self-righteous, but offering grace to sinners?

3. An unbeliever asks you, “Why can’t God just forgive sins? Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?” Your answer?

4. Why does a true understanding of God’s grace never lead to licentious living? Can we emphasize His grace too much?