The woman taken in adultery; John 8:1-11

John 8:12 ^NASB “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life’.” For some background we need to turn back to John chapter one. The issue of light is a major theme that John wants us to pay attention to in this Gospel. Remember that John was around 90 years of age when he wrote this and has therefore had 50-60 years to contemplate, and when he writes this Gospel he writes it at different levels. In the first chapter he begins to lay the groundwork for this theme of light. Light is related to illumination, the illumination of the mentality of the human race to divine truth.

John 1:4 ^NASB “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” This is an imperfect tense of eimi [e)imi], it always was and always will be life. Life has its ultimate source in God, it does not generate in creation as a result of chance or evolution. The light that resides in Jesus Christ was the light of men. So His light is related to illumination. What John is saying is that light exists in the Logos, in God, not in creation. But what man always wants to do is take the attributes of God and transfer those into creation.

Is the section John 8:1-11 canonical?

1) The controversy. Numerous commentators and well-known teachers state that this text is not found in the oldest and best MSS. (What they really mean is the oldest are the best because they are older) But just because there is an older manuscript that doesn’t mean it is the best. Therefore the argument it that because it was not found in the oldest MSS it was not part of the original Gospel written by John and therefore not canonical. On the other hand there are those who state without qualifications that though the textual evidence against its inclusion is very strong there is also adequate evidence that this episode was in the original and therefore is canonical. Points 2-5 are arguments against inclusion. The main argument against inclusion is that it is not in the oldest MSS.

2) It is not cited by many church fathers.

3) There is the argument that there are two or three words in this section that are unique to all of Johannine literature. John didn’t use this vocabulary so somebody else must have written it is the conclusion.

4) Then there is the heresy argument that at the end where Jesus tells the woman to go and sin no more Jesus would never have said that. Jesus would never tell anybody to sin no more because none of us are sinless. However, there are some answers to these arguments.

5) Papias was an early church father who was a student of the apostle John and he wrote several things at the beginning of the second century. In Eusebius’ Ecclesiastic History, Eusebius writes: “Papias has expounded another story about a woman who was accused before the Lord of many sins which the Gospel according to the Hebrews contains. That is an apocryphal book. The question is, why was this in the Gospel according to the Hebrews? Why did Papias teach it? This all seems to indicate that not only did Papias know of it, and he lived very early, but people knew about this episode at a very, very early date. We need to ask why it was not found in John’s Gospel. Was it never there or had it been removed for certain reasons? Augustine who lived in the 5^th century says that some people had removed this section from their Bibles because they were afraid it would give wives a justification for adultery. Remember that in the early church they were dominated by asceticism, so that any sexual involvement was wrong. It is more likely in asceticism to remove a passage that deals with adultery than to add a passage that deals with adultery. So there is a reason why it could have been taken out of some copies very early. It would have been taken out of some copies very early and the reason it would not be in some old MSS is because it was taken out of the manuscript that they were copied from. The earliest of the MSS was dated about 325 AD but, as another scholar points out, the canon was pretty much solidified by 200, so that after 200 AD (the oldest MS we have is 325) it would be virtually impossible to add or delete something. None of the old MSS go back before 200 but whatever they were copied from would come from before 200, so the oldest MSS argument has some real problems.

6) It has various stylistic traits that are unique to the apostle John. For example, in 8:5 the Pharisees make the statement: “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” Then in verse 6 John explains the significance of that: “They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him.” This phrase in the Greek is touto de elegon peirazo [touto de e)legon peirazw], and it means they said this to tempt Him. This same phrase is used by John and only by John in the New Testament—John 6:6; 7:39; 11:51; 12:6, 33; 13:11, 28. So this is a very consistent style trait of the apostle John. Secondly, when Jesus addresses the woman in v. 10 He addresses her by the vocative gunai [gunai], “woman.” He did that with His mother Mary at the wedding at Cana. Only John records the Lord addressing women in this manner. Third, the phrase “sin no more” is also found in John 5:14 when Jesus healed the crippled man at Bethesda. Jesus doesn’t mean don’t sin ever again. In fact, the NIV recognises that this is much more of an idiom and catches the thrust of this: “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Jesus is saying, Don’t go and commit this sin anymore. A fourth thing related to the style is, if it is a late addition it is written and added by someone other than job he does a remarkable job of imitating John’s style, and he includes of a lot of tiny details that are historically accurate that somebody living 100 years after Jerusalem has been destroyed by the Romans would not be aware of. So it has the atmosphere of textual veracity. It fits the narrative of John.

The context is the celebration and the party atmosphere of the feast of tabernacles. In a case like that we can understand how a couple of folks from out of town might get together and get engaged in some illicit liaison and commit adultery. So that fits the context of feasting and celebration of the feast of tabernacles. Secondly, we saw the evidence of going to the house in 7:53 which also fits the context. Third, the narrative of the woman taken in adultery is used illustrate what has just been stated at the end of the last chapter: that the self-righteous Pharisees are not concerned with the Mosaic law, they are only concerned with twisting it and using it for their own religious purposes. Furthermore, it is a wonderful illustration of the point Nicodemus made at the end of the previous chapter. Though the Pharisees accuse the crowds of knowing nothing about the law, what this reveals is that the Pharisees care nothing about the law. They are not concerned with justice, they are concerned with setting Jesus up and getting Him crucified. So in this light this entire unjust judicial proceeding is merely a foreshadowing of the unjust judicial proceeding that will come about later that will culminate in Christ’s crucifixion. A fourth thing in context, the passage begins in the very early dawn. John 7:53 ^nasb “Everyone went to his home. [8:1] But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.” On the shoulder of the Mount of Olives just two miles south was the town of Bethany. That is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived. He was very close to them and probably spent the night there and got up very early in the morning to head back to the temple. John 8:2 ^NASB “Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and {began} to teach them.” Sitting down was the position of a rabbi. The sun is just beginning to come up. The sun is breaking the darkness of the night and bringing the light of the day.

All of this sets the context for Jesus’ announcement in John 8:12: “I am the Light of the world.” The interesting things about that is that one of the famous textual critics by the name of S. J. A. Hort said that the emphasis in the Light of the world must be understood in the context that Jesus is in the temple and there is the great candelabra. But if you study the Gospel of John every time Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world,” or there is mention of Jesus being the Light of the world, it is in the context of the sun versus the darkness of the night. So the context fits. Jesus is sitting down, the dawn is coming, the sun is just coming up, the Pharisees come bringing this woman they have just caught in the act. Of course, where is the man? Why isn’t he with her? According to the Mosaic law both were to be executed, it was clearly a capital crime. So when they brought her to Jesus it is in the very early dawn. This takes a very short time, maybe fifteen minutes. The place where it takes place is in the court of the women in the temple. And when it is all over with and she leaves she has to go out of a gate eastward into the sun. The crowds are there and they are looking at her walking right into the sun. Jesus then announces: “I am the Light of the world.” So this whole episode fits the context very well as a transition pointing out the duplicity and arrogance of the Pharisees and their complete disregard for the law and sets us up for the announcement by Jesus that he is the Light of the world.

The Gospel of John is a case, like case law. John says: “these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” He lays out the whole Gospel as if he is presenting a legal brief. There is a law suit between God and the world. Jesus represents God; the Jews represent fallen humanity. Jesus comes presenting evidence that He is the Messiah, the Son of God who will die on the cross, and the Pharisees reject it. The point that John is making as he goes through the seven signs of the Gospel, he is pointing out that there is more than enough evidence that Jesus is who he claimed to be. But the Pharisees have rejected Him time and time again, because the issue is not objective, rational, empirical data. The issue is whether or not you want to know God or not. The issue is volition. The Pharisees have an assumption that they know the truth and that God is not going to speak to them, at least not by a carpenter from Nazareth.

As we have seen in John’s style, John weaves together imagery and substance throughout his Gospel in order to enhance the point that he is making. This does not mean that he is playing fast and loose with the facts of history. Everything he says happened the way he says it happened. But the way he brings certain things out is just to enhance his point. Remember the whole theme of light in the Gospel of John. It is first introduced in John 1:4, 5 ^NASB “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” What is happening in this episode is Jesus shining the light of judicial truth on this episode and the Pharisees leave! The next time we read about light in the Gospel of John is in John 3:19, 20 ^NASB “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” What has just happened? The Pharisees have been in the presence of the Light and their abuse of the law is being exposed. So what do they do? They leave the Light; they run and hide. Jesus’ Light exposes the deeds of darkness. [21] “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

Just before Jesus is going to announce that He is the Light of the world John is going to relate this episode of the woman taken in adultery in order to illustrate the principle that the Pharisees love the darkness rather than the Light. When the Light is there they run for cover. The result is that their anger and hostility toward Jesus is going to increase, and they will be even further set in their course of doing away with Him.

How does the episode unfold? The scribes and Pharisees bring this woman caught in adultery and they stand her up in the midst of the crowd before Jesus, and they are going to put Him on the spot. They want to test Him. The test is twofold. They want to find out how He is going to respond and they raise the question in verse 4: “they said to Him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act’.” How very difficult it is to catch somebody in the very act of adultery. This is why many people think it was a set-up. So they were watching her and they are prepared. [5] “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” The issue is capital punishment. Because Israel is under the heel of Rome, Rome has forbidden them to execute anyone for a capital crime. They have to go to the Romans for permission. So if Jesus says to stone her they are going to show that He was not very gracious and lacks compassion and it would diminish His popularity with the crowd. It is also going to put Him in conflict with the Roman legal authorities. If Jesus says don’t stone her, then He is violating the Mosaic law and they have shown once again that He is not who He claims to be. So they think they are going to catch Him on the horns of a dilemma. [6] “They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.” Notice that Jesus is so relaxed. It is not important for us to know what He wrote because if it was important the Holy Spirit would have told us.

John 8:7 ^NASB “But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him {be the} first to throw a stone at her.’ Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. [9] When they heard it, they {began} to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center {of the court.}” They understand the point that He is making is that this entire proceeding is illegal. So they begin to sheepishly depart. [10] Straightening up, Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?’” According to the law there had to be at least two witnesses. “She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more’.”

Jesus isn’t letting her off the hook. Jesus’ mission is not to execute judgment at the first coming. He is not a judicial authority; He is not in any position to condemn her officially. So He tells her to go and not to continue as an adulteress. All of this is to demonstrate that he is Light and it sets the context for the announcement in verse 12. Again therefore, as she is departing the scene into the sunrise Jesus says: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”