Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to John · About this commentary
Neither Do I Condemn You
John 8:1-11
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. · WEB
A woman is used as bait for a trap, and the trap closes on the men who set it.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle John 8:3.
This passage is printed differently in different English Bibles; it is treated here where it stands.
The staging is the first thing to notice. He is sitting and teaching a crowd at dawn, and a woman is placed in the middle — put on display in a temple court in front of everybody, which is done to her before a word is spoken.
"Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act" John 8:4.
The claim is exact and it convicts them as it stands. Being caught in the act requires witnesses in the room, which means this was watched. And it requires two people; the law they are about to quote condemns both Leviticus 20:10 Deuteronomy 22:22, and the man is not there.
Whoever these men are, they let one guilty party walk in order to have a case.
"Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?" John 8:5.
They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of John 8:6. The writer states the purpose, and the trap is well built. Uphold the stoning and he loses the mercy that has drawn the crowds — and puts himself against Rome , which reserved capital punishment to itself. Refuse it and he is a teacher who sets Moses aside.
But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
What he wrote is not recorded, and the guesses are all guesses. What the account does record is the posture: he bends down, away from the woman on display and away from the men standing over her, and he does not answer. The silence lets the crowd hear how long they are prepared to keep asking.
"He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her" John 8:7.
The sentence does not abolish the law and does not evade it. It applies a provision of the law itself: the witnesses were required to cast the first stones Deuteronomy 17:7, which put the burden of the execution on the men who had brought the charge.
So he grants the case and specifies who must begin. The requirement he adds is the one nobody in the court can meet.
Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground John 8:8. He looks away a second time, which spares them being watched while they decide.
They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last John 8:9.
The detail about the oldest going first is the observation of somebody who was there. The men with the most life behind them are the first to conclude they cannot throw.
Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle. She is still standing where they put her.
"Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord" John 8:10–11.
He speaks to her for the first time in the passage, and it is the first time anyone has addressed her rather than about her. Her answer is two words, and they are all she says.
"Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more."
Both halves are needed and neither will survive without the other. The first is not a verdict of innocence — the account never says she was not guilty, and the one person in the courtyard entitled to throw a stone is the one who declines to. The second is not a condition attached to the pardon; it comes after it, and it treats her as somebody with a future to conduct.
What has happened is that the only sinless man present has refused to be her executioner and told her to stop.
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