John 7:53-8:6 53And they went each to his own house, 1but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2And at dawn he came again to the temple and all the people came to him, and sitting down he taught them. 3And the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, 4they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. 5Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Therefore, what do you say?” 6But they said this in order to test him, that they might have charges brought against him. But Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
The next story is well known, but it is also controversial among Bible scholars because it is not found in the oldest and most reliable manuscripts for many centuries and in many translations (66,75 א B L N T W X Y Δ Θ Ψ 0141 0211 22 33 124 157 209 788 828 1230 1241 1242 1253 2193). The story appears in medieval manuscripts and in different places. The language style of this section is different than other parts of John and has some similarities to Luke’s writing. The story also interrupts the discussion at the end of chapter 7, which picks up again in verse 12. The strong conclusion is that it was not part of the original version of John. However, the historicity of it is another question. This section appears to be an oral story that circulated in the early church and was added later into the manuscript tradition. There is nothing inconsistent with what we know about Jesus. It also fits the general storyline of the growing controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees. Beyond the academic questions raised by textual critics, as part of the accepted text of the Bible, this passage still offers spiritual challenge and further insight into the person of Jesus.
The Feast of Booths had ended, and people went home. The Mount of Olives was a favorite resting place for Jesus while he was in Jerusalem (Luke 21:37). The next day, Jesus continued his teaching ministry in the temple courts. People often gathered in the outer courts of the temple to listen to rabbis. Jesus appeared as a great rabbi. Many people were attracted to what he taught because his words had power, authority, and truth. The scene so far was typical and uneventful. However, the careful reader of the previous passage knows that the religious leaders were after Jesus to arrest and kill him.
The scribes and Pharisees scheme a test at the cost of a woman’s life. The scribes were the teachers of the law. These two groups question and challenge Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels but are only mentioned together in John’s Gospel in this passage. These two groups were the supposed legal experts who knew the law and had developed elaborate teachings about it. Somehow, a woman had been caught in adultery, in violation of the seventh commandment in Exodus 20:14. It is curious why only the woman is brought to Jesus and not her partner, for adultery takes two people. Women were often treated as second-class citizens and without all the rights of men. It may have been easier to deal with a weak woman than the man involved. The details of the backstory are not known, and it accomplishes nothing to speculate.
The Jewish scholars appeal to the Torah about what to do with her. According to texts such as Leviticus 20:10; 22:-23-24; Deuteronomy 22:22, the woman deserved to be stoned to death. The legal experts had an open and closed case. It should have been easy to trap Jesus now. Verse 6 gives their motive. They did not really care about the woman or what happened to her. If they did, they would have already condemned and stoned her. What they were after was to trap Jesus and find some way to accuse him of breaking the law. If he broke the law, even the smallest part of it, his credibility with the people would be lost and the Jewish leaders could remove him from a place of influence. They thought they had an easy solution to a growing problem.
Jesus’ response was to start to write on the dirt. People have speculated what he wrote. There are countless things he could have written. The act itself was symbolic. Divine writing is given several times in the Bible, including God writing out the Ten Commandments on stone tablets and the writing on the wall for Belshazzar in Daniel 5. In imitation of these, Jesus could have written an Old Testament text or the verdict. However, there is no way to know, nor should we try to guess. At this point in the story, the reader is left wondering what Jesus’ response will be. Indeed, he does seem trapped in a legal bind, but because his the Truth and the Wisdom from God, he knows the hearts of people and how to offer both grace and law.
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