Bible Study series: John 8:1-11 Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
For the Greek text, click here:
At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 8:1-11
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 But at dawn he went back to the temple, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. 3 Then the teachers of the law and the Pharisees led a woman, seized while committing adultery, and after they stood her in the middle, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was seized in the very act of committing adultery. 5 And Moses commands us in his law that such women must be stoned. So what do you say?” 6 (They were saying this to test him, so that they could to accuse him.) But Jesus bent down and with his finger began to write in the ground. 7 As they were persisting in asking him, he got up and said to them, “Let the one without sin among you be the first to throw the stone at her.” 8 And he bent back down and wrote in the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left, each one, beginning with the older ones. He was left, alone, the woman being in the middle. 10 Jesus got back up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from here on, sin no more.” (John 8:1-11)
Comments
If you want a little discussion on the manuscripts and this wonderful section of Scripture:
Here is a passage in Luke 7:36-50 about a “sinful woman” who barged into Simon the Pharisee’s house during a dinner, where she was uninvited and did not belong. Note the similar statements by Jesus at the end:
44 When he turned to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she moistened my feet with tears and dried them with her hair! 45 You gave me no kiss of greeting, but from the moment I came in she has not ceased kissing my feet! 46 You did not anoint my head with olive oil, but she anointed my feet with aromatic ointment! 47 Thanks to this, I say to you, ‘her sins which are numerous are forgiven, because she loved much. The one forgiven little loves little.’”
48 He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The ones reclining (at table) began to say among themselves, “Who is this one who forgives sin?” 50 But he said to the woman. “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” (Luke 7:44-50)
No, this pericope about the woman caught in adultery was not “stolen” from Luke 7:36-50, though some scholars place John’s pericope in Luke’s Gospel. Simon the Pharisee lived up in Galilee where the story took place. This scene in John 8:1-11 happened in Jerusalem, in the temple precinct. Rather, people sin in similar ways, no matter where they are. Jesus expressed forgiveness in both cases for the same or similar sexual sins. Whether part of the Gospel or not, there is a universal quality to this story. It boils down to this:
Law or Mercy?
Or
The Law of Moses or the Mercy of Jesus?
Bottom line: based on Luke 7:36-50, this story about the adulterous woman has the ring of authenticity about it, though we can never prove it by the weight of the manuscripts.
Now let’s look into the story itself, as a whole, not verse by verse.
The environment is the temple, the holy place. The accusers, teachers of the law (also called scribes in some translations) and Pharisees, must have felt an extra-sacred duty to seize her and bring her before the teacher. They also reference the law of Moses, which commands them to stone the adulterer to death (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22-24). Lev. 20:10 says to stone both of them.
See my commentary on Lev. 20:
Punishments in Leviticus 20 from a NT Perspective
See this link for a short write-up about the teachers of the law (also called scribes) and the Pharisees:
Quick Reference to Jewish Groups in Gospels and Acts
They treated her roughly, by bringing her in the middle of the people who were listening to his teaching. They made her stand in the middle of all of them. Yet, where is the man? It takes two to commit adultery. So these accusers, young and older, may be protecting someone they may have known. Was it a son or nephew of one of the teachers of the law or Pharisees? We will never know. Whatever the case, they have prejudice against womankind. They probably held stones in their hands, ready to throw them at her. He did not say that they should look for stones and then be the first to throw them. He said the sinless one can be the first throw his, as if they all had rocks in their hand.
Jesus’s response was a masterpiece of rhetoric and gesture. He kept silent for a while, but why? Could it be that he was collecting his thoughts, hearing from his Father? Was he waiting for the accusers to wake up and see their own human frailty and sinfulness and hypocrisy? And what was he writing in the ground or dirt (not on a stone)? Was it “hypocrites”? Was he writing out a list of sins which plagues all of humanity? “I desire mercy” (referring to Hos. 6:6)? Once again, we will never know for sure, but Hos. 6:6, which he quotes twice times in his ministry (Matt. 9:13; 12:7), is the strongest possibility. It fits the ending of the story as well.
They did not like his silence, so they persisted or continued with questioning him. It is easy to imagine them gesticulating wildly and even shouting. “Come on! How hard could it be to answer a simple legal question! Stop dawdling!” He straightened up and spoke the famous words of wisdom.
In Greek it literally reads, “the sinless one.” If you are sinless, then be the first to throw the stone at her. This word of wisdom stopped their shouting and insistence. The older ones reflected on their own lives. Then one by one, they slinked away, humbled.
A teacher or lawyer in the law could have replied that the law must have its effect, even though the ones who carry out the law are not sinless. If that were the case, no one breaking the law would be punished. But this clunky interpretation misses the atmosphere of the scene and Jesus’s anointing and rhetorical force. Jewish law said that an adulterer could not execute an adulterer. So does this mean that everyone who left one by one had committed adultery? Probably some did, but not everyone. He could see this was a mob of religious hypocrites who were about to carry out mob justice or rough justice. The penalty was going to be irreversible—death. They could have caught her, shown her mercy, released her, and told her to sin no more, which is what Jesus did. Instead, they used her as an instrument to get at Jesus, so they could bring a charge or accusation against him. “He defied the righteous and holy law of Moses in a clear case! He set himself above it and broke it!” And if he had said to execute her, the Roman authorities could have accused him of breaking their law, which prohibited Jews from executing criminals without the authorities’ permission. Or they could accuse him of hypocrisy. “He says he’s a friend of tax collectors and sinners, but here he is condemning a sinner to death!”
Jesus’s reply walked the line between upholding the literal reading of the law of Moses and the many passages in Scripture that talk about mercy. The old Sinai covenant was going to be made obsolete with the New Covenant, ratified by his death on the cross, but this scene with the accused woman standing there was not the time to dispense with the law—not yet.
What Does the New Covenant Retain from the Old?
One Decisive Difference Between Sinai Covenant and New Covenant
However, some see a connection between his writing in the dirt and Exod. 31:18:
18 When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. (Exod. 31:18, NIV)
And then Exod. 32:15 is also relevant. Moses inscribed or wrote the law on stone tablets.
In effect, Jesus was superseding the old law. He went for the heart. Normally, the teachers of the law and Pharisees would not have backed down, but something about Jesus—we now know it was the Spirit’s anointing—and what he wrote in the dirt must have given them reason to pause.
Finally, Jesus straightened back up again and asked her where her accusers went. He was alone. This emphasizes the fact that “only he met his own qualification; only he ‘was the one without sin’ (v. 7)” (Klink, comment on v. 9). Has no one condemned her? In other words, has no one thrown the first stone? She stood in the midst in v. 9 means that more people were there besides the accusers. Jesus looked at her. He addressed her as “woman.” He was not harsh to her any more than he was harsh with his mother (John 2:4 and 19:26). He was not harsh to the Samaritan woman, either, when he called her “woman.” You can see my comments in those two chapters:
He was not harsh to any of the three, but the word does keep a distance from this woman and his mother. Jesus, the sinless one, was not going to throw a stone at her, either. Instead he told her to go, and from now on, to sin no more. No, this was not a command to achieve moral, sinless perfection right then, but it was a command not to commit the specific sin of adultery ever again. After a scare like the one she just experienced, let’s hope she followed his command. He did not excuse the sin, but he did not allow her to die because of it. The New Covenant was on its way, with this act of forgiveness, but as noted, he still had to complete his mission to his fellow Jews under the soon-to-be obsolete Sinai covenant.
Recall that Jesus claimed authority to forgive sins in the Synoptics:
19 When they did not find a way to carry him in, because of the crowd, they went up to the roof and lowered him down through the tiles with the stretcher in the middle of them, in front of Jesus. 20 When he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven for you.” 21 And the teachers of the law and Pharisees were reasoning, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who is able to forgive sins except God alone?” 22 Jesus knew their reasoning and in reply said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier to say? ‘Your sins are forgiven for you’? Or to say, ‘get up and walk’? 24 So that you know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, ‘Get up and pick up your bedding and go to your home. 25 And instantly he arose in front of them and picked up what he was lying on, and left for his home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement grabbed hold of everyone, and they began glorifying God, and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today!” (Luke 5:19-26 // Matt. 9:1-8 // Mark 2:1-12)
This may be one more tiny piece of evidence that this story in John 8:1-11 belongs in the Gospels.
Please read these verses for how forgiving God is:
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Ps. 103:10-12, NIV)
And these great verses are from Micah:
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea. (Mic. 7:18-19, ESV)
How to Forgive Adultery and Fornication
GrowApp for John 8:1-11
1. Have you ever messed up—sinned—really badly? Did you get caught at it? Has God forgiven you on your repentance? Or do you still doubt his forgiveness?
2. How does it feel to have your sins completely forgiven?
3. Go and sin no more. Have you been trapped by your former sins? How did you get out of them and overcome it.
RELATED
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 