John 7:53–8:11 – “Jesus and the woman caught in adultery: Do you judge the way we do, Jesus?”
(Josiah Hall)
John 7:53–8:11 [[7:53 They went each to his own house, 8:1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 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. 7 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.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 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. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]
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Christians have historically referred to this passage as the pericope adulterae, or “the episode of the adulterous woman.” This label, however, misrepresents the passage’s focus. The episode’s conflict pivots not around the woman herself, but rather on the scribes’ and Pharisees’ attempt at entrapping Jesus. In its current context,* the episode follows a debate that John records between Nicodemus and other Pharisees about how to respond to Jesus in John 7:45–52. In that debate, Nicodemus reminds his fellow Pharisees that they should not be quick to judge Jesus, for the Jewish law did not condemn anyone without first giving them the opportunity to defend themselves (7:51).
In our passage today, the scribes and Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery before Jesus and ask him to pronounce a summary judgment. (Note: This is not a formal trial, not least because the man whom the woman would have been caught in the act with has mysteriously not been brought before Jesus.) They imply that if Jesus does not condemn her then he opposes the Law given by Moses. Jesus, however, adroitly navigates the trap. He neither condemns the woman, nor declares her innocent, but instead invites whoever is innocent of sin to be the first to enact judgment.
In its context, Jesus’s response does three things. (1) It highlights the human tendency to be quick to judge others and slow to judge ourselves. This tendency is why God gave the Law that Nicodemus referenced in 7:51. God commanded Israel (and by extension us as Christians) to withhold hasty judgment because he knew that we are quick to excuse ourselves and condemn others. In contrast, Jesus does not judge hastily, or according to appearances, but based on the condition of our hearts (8:15–16; also, 5:30).
(2) Jesus shifts the focus away from the accused woman and challenges the crowd to first consider themselves. Jesus does this by twice drawing in the dirt. John does not tell us what Jesus wrote, but the very act of writing in the dirt would draw the accusing crowds’ eyes away from the woman and create space for them to consider Jesus’s challenge: “am I without sin?”
(3) Jesus’s remark causes the departure of every accuser (beginning with the oldest), leaving him and the woman alone. As is often observed, Jesus neither condemns the woman nor excuses her, but instead commands her to sin no more. In the context of John’s Gospel, however, recall that the focus of sin primarily relates to how one responds to Jesus. Thus, Jesus is not speaking merely to the woman’s sexual practices. Rather, he is calling the woman to respond in belief to the only member of the crowd who does not have any guilt of his own. The very fact that Jesus remains when all others leave reveals his innocence, his authoritative ability to rightly understand God’s Law, and his ability to judge truly—all characteristics that John argues point to Jesus’s unique identity as the divine Son. Jesus’s instruction to the woman, then, invites her, and us, to decide how we will respond to him.
*Most English Bibles print this passage within brackets and include a footnote at the beginning, which states that “the earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11.” Many later manuscripts do, however, include the passage (most of them at this point in the Gospel, though some after 7:36, 21:25, or Luke 21:38). This inclusion is why our English Bibles (following that church tradition) include it. Although the passage may not be part of the original Gospel, its depiction of Jesus lines up very well with what we know of Jesus’s compassion and how he responds to attempts to entangle him in interpretive traps, and it may depict an historical event. While we should be hesitant about basing any doctrines or key conclusions about Jesus solely on this passage, we can still recognize in it an event that the church throughout history has preserved as a helpful example of Jesus and his character. This is why we provide the interpretation of the passage in its current context in the Gospel in the blog for today.
Weekly Prayer Focus: Planning for Capital Campaign
Daily Prayer Request: “A Process that Values All Givers.” Please pray that our Capital Campaign can be conducted in a way that values the contributions of all people – whether those are big givers or those that can only give the proverbial “widows penny” (Mark 12:41-42).