João 8

The Light of the world at work

1 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.*There is a basic three-way split in the manuscript attestation for these twelve verses (7:53-8:11)—the three major groups represent three lines of transmission that are both ancient and independent. It follows that where two agree against one, the two presumably retain the original reading. In these verses there are 25 places where two groups agree against one, six others where 2½ agree against ½, and just one place where each of the three major groups has its own reading. It happens that one of the three groups is always in the majority (in the 31 places), so it is the only one that is always right in those 31 places—so in the one place where there is a three-way split I follow that group, because it has the best credibility quotient. 2 And at dawn He went again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; so sitting down He started to teach them.

A dirty deal

3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees bring to Him a woman caught in adultery; and placing her in the center 4 they say to Him: "Teacher, we found this woman committing adultery, in the very act. 5 Now in our law Moses commanded that such women are to be stoned;*According to Leviticus 20:10 both the man and the woman were to be executed—so where is the man? This was obviously a put-up job; if they got her "in the act" the man was probably one of them. Those guys were dirty! so what do you say?" 6 They said this to test Him, so that they might have an accusation against Him.

But stooping down*Recall that He is sitting, so He just bends forward so as to reach the ground. Jesus began to write on the ground with His finger, taking no notice. 7 But since they kept on asking Him, straightening up He said to them, "Let the one without sin among you throw the first stone at her." 8 And stooping down again He continued writing on the ground.*A small minority of the manuscripts completes the verse with "the sins of each one of them". I, for one, would like to know what Jesus wrote, and I wouldn’t be surprised if He wrote just that, but I take it that John did not record that phrase. 9 Now upon hearing this, and being convicted by their conscience, they began to go out one by one, starting with the older ones down to the least. So only Jesus was left, with the woman in the center.*The center of what? The center of the crowd—the accusers had all left, but the crowd wasn’t going any place! They hadn’t seen a show like this for a long time!

10 So straightening up, and not seeing anyone except the woman, Jesus said to her: "Where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" 11 So she said, "No one, Lord." Jesus said to her: "Neither do I condemn you.*Jesus was not even a witness, and it required at least two witnesses to condemn; so of course He could not condemn her. But He makes clear that He does not condone her behavior. Go, and from now on don’t sin any more!"