John 8:1-11

Read John 8:1-11 The men who asked Jesus if he would support the execution of a woman caught in adultery

John 7:53-8:11 has a long history but does not appear in the earliest manuscripts we have today.  It first appears in manuscripts we have that reach back to around AD 400.  Some manuscripts have it in different places in the Gospel of John (for example, at the end) and some manuscripts place it after Luke 21:38, which has language very similar to John 7:53.  However, the passage was well-known long before 400.  The church historian Eusebius, writing in the early 300s, relates a similar story that he said was told by Papias (who died around AD 130 and knew the apostle John personally).  The Didascalia Apostolorum, a book of teachings about the Christian life written in the 200s, refers to this story with specific details and Jesus’s words, and directs bishops to follow Jesus’s example of mercy.

Augustine and Jerome, both of whom were leading theologians in the late 300s and early 400s, cited this story in arguments they made in defense of Christianity.  They knew that it did not appear in some manuscripts, but they considered it part of Scripture.  Augustine suggested that it might have been deleted from the original Gospel of John by men who were afraid their wives might commit adultery (Wasserman).  Most modern scholars think that it was added to John’s Gospel and placed in its present position to connect with Jesus’s statement in John 8:15: “I judge no one.”  They note that the style of its language is different from that of the rest of John’s Gospel.  If it was added, it was probably circulating in the oral tradition in the early church before it was set down in writing and included in the Gospel.  The way it presents Jesus is very authentic to Jesus’s style of deflecting attempts to trap him.  The story is also appropriate to this chapter of John because by the end of this chapter the religious leaders are picking up stones to throw at Jesus (8:59).

In John 7:53, we see that Jesus does not stay overnight in the city of Jerusalem.  He crosses the Kidron River, just east of Jerusalem, and stays on the Mount of Olives, which is a mountain ridge (or high hill) across from the walled Old City on the other side of the Kidron Valley.

Early in the morning, Jesus returns to the Temple area of the city.  What is he doing in verse 2, when the next incident occurs?

The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman to Jesus.  What do they accuse her of, and what do they say the Law of Moses requires?

They accuse her of adultery.  In Deuteronomy 22:22-24, and also in Leviticus 20:10, the punishment for adultery is death for both the man and the woman.

Verse 6 tells us that they are testing him to see if they can bring a charge against him.  If he agrees with the Law of Moses, how could that lead to a charge against him?  If he disagrees with the Law of Moses, how could that get him in trouble?

If he agrees with the Law of Moses, the Pharisees could report him to the Roman authorities, because the Jews were not allowed to exercise capital punishment under Roman occupation.  If he disagrees, they can say he is clearly not the Messiah since he is contradicting Moses.

Jesus does not respond to their question.  He bends down and writes on the ground.  John does not tell us what he is writing.  What do you think he is writing on the ground?

Some scholars seen in verse 6 a reference to Jeremiah 17:13, which is sometimes translated to say that those who turn away from God shall be written in the earth because they have forsaken the Lord, who is the fountain of living water.  Jesus just identified himself as the source of living water in the previous passage (7:38) and now is writing in the sand in response to people who have turned away from him.  However, Jeremiah 17:13 is not entirely clear and some versions of the Bible translate it as saying that those who turn away from God shall be enrolled or recorded in the netherworld (rather than written in the earth).

What does Jesus say in verse 7, when they keep challenging him?

What do you think Jesus’s statement in verse 7 means?

Jesus continues to write on the ground, and the scribes and Pharisees leave, one by one.  Why do you think they leave?

It is interesting that the elders are the first to leave.  Are they wiser?  Do they realize they are wrong to be trying to trap him (unlikely), or that they are wrong in their treatment of the woman?  Do they realize that if Jesus says the woman should be stoned, they don’t want to risk the ire of the Romans by carrying out an execution in such a public place?  One popular idea is that Jesus was writing in the sand the sins of the men, starting with the eldest – but that’s only speculation.

The man who supposedly committed adultery with this woman was not brought to Jesus as the woman was.  What does that suggest to you?

In verse 10, what does Jesus ask the woman?

In verse 11, Jesus says to the woman, “Go, and from now on, sin no more.”  What is he telling her to do, and how can she take it to heart?

Jesus also calls us to stop sinning.  How can we do a better job of that?

We may be more successful when we focus less on not sinning and more on staying in a continual relationship with Jesus where we are always walking in his light.  He does not expect us to try to tough it out and resist sin by our own power, but to let him empower us to do right.

Jesus neither condemns the woman nor condones adultery.  How can we approach people with the same attitude as Jesus shows here?

This Story is About the Death Penalty

In this passage, the Pharisees and Jesus are talking about capital punishment.  When Jesus talks about “throwing a stone,” he is talking about participating in an execution.  In the Law of Moses, Deuteronomy 17:7 says that, when someone has committed a crime that is subject to the death penalty, the witnesses to the crime are the ones whose hands shall be raised first – i.e., the witnesses are the ones who are supposed to be the first to pick up a stone and cast it at the condemned person – and the rest of the people shall follow. 

When Jesus says, in verse 7, that the one who is without sin should be the first to throw a stone, he is not speaking metaphorically.  He is responding to their question about capital punishment and speaking literally about the first steps in an execution.  The Law said that the witnesses should throw the first stones to execute a person.  Jesus says those without sin should throw the first stones to execute a person.  When capital punishment is practiced in our day, we don’t stone people to death.  How would Jesus say it if he was referring to capital punishment in our day?

In modern terms, Jesus’s words are the equivalent of, “Let the one who is without sin inject the deadly drug, release the poisonous gas, fire the rifle, flip the switch, tie the noose and trip the trap door.”

Jesus says, “Let the one who is without sin be the first to throw a stone” (verse 7).  He also says, “Neither do I condemn you” (verse 11), which means: Neither do I condemn you to death.  What does this suggest to us about Jesus’s view of capital punishment?

How can we apply Jesus’s approach to the death penalty today?

No one in our day is without sin, so the clear implication is that no one should be involved in executing another person.  Many Christian groups also oppose the death penalty because they think only God should take a life (“Thou shalt not kill”).  The Catholic Church argues that since every human being is made in the image of God and has an inherent dignity that cannot be taken away, the death penalty is never permissible (The Vatican).

If we take this teaching about the death penalty to heart, how can we respond to capital punishment in our society in a manner consistent with Jesus’s approach?  How can we be a voice for not killing?

In “In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus signals His opposition to the death penalty,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy describes the work of Catholic Mobilizing Network in the United States.

Think about the men who brought this woman to Jesus.  The Gospels tells us about times when Pharisees picked up stones to try to stone Jesus.  In the Acts of the Apostles, Stephen is stoned to death.  Why do you think people are sometimes so focused on killing other people?

Hopefully none of us is this focused on killing people.  But we may still have condemning attitudes toward people we think are wrong or who cross us.  What might be our ways of acting in judgment, where Jesus might want us to take a different approach?

Take a step back and consider this:

Christians sometimes describe Jesus’s approach to the woman caught in adultery as: “hate the sin, love the sinner.”  This saying encourages us to draw a distinction between judging (and perhaps condemning) people and making judgments about their acts.

The saying troubles me, however, because it still uses judgmental language to characterize the person.  When we call someone a “sinner” in that way, we are suggesting that they are different from us: they, the sinners, commit that sin, but the rest of us don’t do that.  It turns the person we are talking about into an “other” rather than one of “us.”

That saying also highlights the fact that people are rather selective about what sins we should “hate” so much that we call the perpetrators of those sins “sinners.”  People my use that phrase when they are talking about someone who commits a sexual sin.  But what about other sins?  James denounces wealthy people who withhold wages from their workers (James 5:4-5).  Do we say we “hate the sin but love the sinner” when we are talking about wealthy corporate executives who enrich themselves but refuse to pay their workers a living wage?  Do we use it for other forms of injustice?  Do we use it for sins we commit; or only for sins that other people commit?

The situations that lead us to use that phrase may reveal more about our biases and which sins we think are most egregious than it reveals about the gospel.

St. Paul says that “even if a person is caught in some transgression, you who are spiritual should correct that one in a gentle spirit, looking to yourself, so that you also may not be tempted” (Gal. 6:1, NABRE).  For that reason, I would rather say: “Speak honestly but graciously about sin, knowing that you too are not perfect, and love the person who commits a sin the way you would want to be loved when you sin.”

Are there sins for which you choose to call the person who commits that sin a “sinner”?  If so, which sins lead you to use that label?

Are there ways that you use the words “sin” and “sinner” that might have the effect of putting other people in a category that is different, and perhaps lower, than yourself?

Jesus told the woman not to sin any more but did not call her a sinner.  How can we treat others with the same grace and gentleness and avoid putting them in categories we don’t use for ourselves?