John 7.53-8.11 The Woman Caught in Adultery

　

The religious leaders have not been able to catch Jesus violating the Mosaic Law since he’s fulfilling it in full. Jesus, however, is not concerned about whether or not He breaks the oral or Mishnaic Laws. In this section the religious leaders are going to try and get Jesus to contradict the Mosaic Law when they bring a woman accused of adultery before Him in the temple courtyard.(Tabernacles is over, this is the 8^th day, a special holy day called Shemini Atzeret.)

They bring a woman before Jesus who they accuse of “catching in the very act of adultery.” The law of Moses commands a person “accused” of adultery to be stoned to death (Deut 22.22-24; Lev 20.10). They want to know what Jesus says they should do. They hope He will say something that violates Mosaic Law. Jesus stoops down and begins to write with His finger on the ground or dust on the stone pavement of the courtyard. They continue to ask Jesus and as He continues writing on the ground. He tells them, “He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.”

One by one they begin to leave as Jesus continues writing. He looks up and sees no one there and asks the woman, “Where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She replies, “No”, and Jesus tells her, “Then neither do I, Go and sin no more.”

In the Greek the emphasis is not on what Jesus is writing on the ground--the emphasis in on His finger. The reason for this is that there are 613 laws in the Mosaic Law of which ten comprise the Ten Commandments--of which the sin of adultery is one. The Ten Commandments were written on stone tablets by the finger of God (Ex 31.18; 32.15-16; Deut 4.13; 9.10). The other 603 were written on parchment by a man. The focus on the fingers show Jesus knows all that the Mosaic Law has to say about this sin. He is writing in the dust of the stone pavement with His finger--He knows exactly what the law says.

There is a lot going on here that is understood only from the Hebraic perspective. First of all if they had really caught this woman in the act of adultery, where is the man that was caught with her? They are lying--they are trying to entrap Jesus. If they are accusing her of adultery they need two or three witnesses to speak against her. No one has spoken up as a witness, they are speaking as a group. Under Mosaic Law the witnesses are required to throw the first stones. Moses also wrote that the witnesses must not be guilty of the same sin (Deut 13 and 17) the accused is accused of!

Jesus was not telling them if they were perfect they could throw the stones--this is not about judging someone as taught in many sermons--this is about the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law did not require a person to be perfect without sin to judge some one--otherwise there would be no executions. If Jesus was telling them they had to be perfect to judge this woman He would have been violating Mosaic Law. He was telling them if none of them had committed this sin themselves they could begin the stoning. Where was the man who committed adultery? They all slinked away. This was an illegal condemnation and not one witness was willing to throw the first stones. The Pharisees won’t try this ploy again--they will only accuse Him of violating Mishnaic Law from now on.

Notes from: The Life of Messiah from a Jewish Perspective by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum