A controversial passage.
Why? It looks like it has been added to the gospel. It is its own complete little story, and it kind of upsets the flow of the story already going on.
So, it looks like what bible critics call an insertion, but at the same time critics also recognise that it is very authentic. So, there is some confusion there.
The resolution
1. Is to recognise that this passage is an interruption, but we don’t need to assume because of this that it is not inspired by the Holy Spirit, or that John didn’t write it. It is a deliberate interruption.
Why deliberate? Because John wanted us to think about another place in the scripture where there is a very similar story which is also an interruption to a bigger story - the story of Tamar in Genesis 38.
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John 8 |
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Woman in John 8 |
Story of Tamar |
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1 |
The story appears as an insertion or interruption |
Interrupts the story of the Pharisees rejection of Jesus |
Interrupts the story of the rejection of Joseph by his brothers |
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2 |
Woman as main figure |
An unnamed woman |
Tamar |
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3 |
Accusation is sexual sin |
“a woman caught in adultery” |
“Tamar has played the harlot” |
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4 |
Guilt undeniable |
“in the very act” |
“she is with child by harlotry” |
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5 |
Penalty indisputable: death |
“…Moses commanded us to stone such women” |
“Bring her out and let her be burned!” |
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6 |
Male offender not present at trial. |
Unnamed offender |
Judah |
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7 |
Hypocrisy of accusers exposed |
Pharisees leave, older ones first |
Judah recognized them (i.e. his signet and staff) |
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8 |
Accusation dropped |
Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” |
“She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” |
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9 |
Offending stops |
Go. From now on sin no more.” |
And he did not have relations with her again. |
2. The first thing to recognise is that the details of the story of Tamar are extremely similar to that of the woman caught in adultery.
3. The second thing to recognise is that the details of the story that gets interrupted are also very similar. In Genesis, the story of Tamar interrupts the longer story of the rejection of Joseph by his brothers. In John, the story of the woman caught in adultery interrupts the longer story of Jesus’ rejection by his own people.
4. John wants us to think back to Genesis, and recognise that Jesus is re-living or embodying the life of Joseph. Joseph had a very close relationship to his father, he was favoured by His father, and God spoke to him personally in dreams, and for these reasons he was hated by his own brothers. In the story, they rejected him completely and threw him into a water-less pit, intending to kill him. As a result of their rejection Joseph suffered, but as a slave in Egypt later rose to become a great king, second only to pharaoh. The parallel should be plain: Jesus is being despised by His own brothers on account of his close relationship to his father, and his claim to speak and act for God. They will sentence Him to death, but John wants us to see what God planned long ago - that Jesus will go on to be exalted and rise to kingship.
5. All of this is simply to recognise that, odds on, this interruption is deliberate. The whole passage is authentic, it is part of John’s gospel. Just because it is an interruption, that does not have to create a problem with its authenticity. It is an interruption on purpose, to make us recognise what is going on here in terms of the bigger picture of the wisdom of God.
Exposition
John 8:1-6
What we have here is a situation orchestrated by the religious leaders to put Jesus in a very tight spot:
They wait till a large audience gathers.
They bring a woman unquestionably charged with sin.
They put Jesus on the spot to see if he will say something against the law. “In the Law of Moses it is written...But you, what do you say?”[1]
Pressure! If he supports the Law it will seem like He is condemning her to death; if he doesn’t, they will have him.
Note, there is no compassion for the woman, she is just a tool.
[1] He said he didn’t come to abolish the law - let him prove it in a pressure situation.
What is the background here?
It is satanic. The religious leaders are possessed by a satanically-driven hatred for Jesus. Jesus knows it: “You are of your Father, the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning.” (Note that the word for accuse and Satan are the same in the Hebrew tongue.) Satan is the main player here; the religious leaders are his puppets. This is his show.
6a Jesus does something odd
But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
What does Jesus write on the ground? Why does he do so? John does not tell us, and hence there has been a lot of speculation on this point. I am not going to try to guess what, but look at the things John has told us to try and understand why he did so.
- stoop – this word indicates a bent posture of humility (NT x2; LXX x19[1]).
- finger – (lit) “with the finger” Jesus was writing in the earth. This signifies the finger of God, which in scripture (with the definite article) refers only to God’s finger when He wrote the 10 commandments on two stone tablets (Exod 31:18; Deut 9:10).
- Lastly, here is “the finger” writing in the ground – or “earth” – which is what people are made of.
If we take these ideas together, we have a rather vivid picture of Jesus as the God-man. On the one hand he is the law-giver and judge of all the earth, but here he is stooped down, having humbled himself, to take on flesh. Like the word written in the earth, he is the word embodied in earth, or human flesh.
Why does this matter? Because the religious leaders have just said “In the Law of Moses it is written.” Now John is reminding us who Jesus actually is - the one who gave us the seventh commandment, the one that wrote “Do not commit adultery” in the first place.
[1] Often includes the idea of “to the ground” e.g. at Exod 34:8; Num 22:23; 1 King 24:9; 28:14; 3 King 1:31; 18:42; 2 Chron 20:18; etc.
There is a definite irony here. Jesus knows all about the Law, every jot and tittle. This is the point John is making, and he is making it without putting any words in Jesus’ mouth.
John 8:7-8 Jesus responds: “Fire away!”
7 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.”
8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Jesus’ response is to invoke the Law. He is not excusing her, as many think, but he is actually saying, “Go for it” - but at the same time he is reminding them of something else: a point of procedure: “The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people” (Deut 17:7). The witness must throw first.
What gives Jesus the confidence to say this? Answer: he knows another verse:
If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.’ (Lev 20:10)
The Pharisees have tried to put their case beyond doubt by saying the woman was caught “in the act.” But if she was really caught in the act, then the witnesses must also know who the other party is, and even though they know who he is, they have chosen not to bring him before Jesus.
9 The effect
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.
The clear implication: they know that Jesus knows that they know who the guy is – and that they are unwilling to see him stoned along with the woman. As soon as one or two of them picks up a stone, Jesus will say to him: “Since you are the witness, where’s the guy she was with? Since you are without sin, you had better go fetch him too.”
That’s hypocrisy, in that they are acting innocent, but actually breaking the law by protecting the other culprit. They solve the problem by avoiding it - sneaking off – before he asks them directly. Jesus has exposed their hypocrisy.
10-11 The outcome
10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”]
Jesus is left alone with the woman in the center of the crowd.
He says “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” This is not to say she is innocent; it is just to say, no one is there to condemn her.
She says, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”
How could Jesus not condemn her, when she was indeed guilty? Under the Law, she has no-one to condemn her, so it is perfectly legitimate for Him to say “Go.” Does He know she is guilty? Of course, because He says “Stop sinning, from now.” Which shows He is concerned about that aspect.
To Sum Up:
Jesus finds Himself in a stitch-up involving a woman caught in adultery. The religious leaders put him in a position where He will either look bad, or break the law.
Jesus stoops down and writes on the ground, which is John’s way to remind us that He is the God-man: God, the law giver, stooped down, in human form.
Eventually Jesus says: let the one without sin start the stoning, which is a reminder to them of how the law says you go about stoning someone. He knows that this will identify the witnesses, who will be able to explain who the other guilty party is. This is exactly what the woman’s accusers don’t want, so they start leaving.
This leaves the woman without anyone to condemn her. This leaves Jesus in a position where He too can legitimately say “Neither do I condemn you.”
Jesus has found a way to rescue this woman without breaking the law. He is giving her a second chance.
Application
This is a story about something that happened in Jesus’ life which shows us God’s attitude towards sin. How do we interpret and apply it?
How not to apply this passage.
It would be a mistake to interpret this story as showing that Jesus showed a lenient attitude towards sin because He knew that everyone has sin, so it is just hypocritical for us to judge others for their sin.
The reason is the teaching in the NT is the exact opposite - we are instructed to judge sin both in ourselves and in the church. If you have read the New Testament you will know that there are many verses that state this plainly, or assume it.
So, yes, we all make mistakes, we all have a sinful flesh, we all have a log in our own eye - but as believers we are not slaves to sin. God has made provision for us to escape continual sin and he expects us to seek Him out on that. So we cannot take Jesus’ words here and apply them in this way to the church.
How to apply this passage
The point of the Gospel of John is given at the end of the book:
“…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.” (20:31)
That is the point of the Gospel. To believe in Jesus, and to have life in His name.
What we have here is a microcosm of the whole world, of every human. We are in the centre of this drama. In front: God, the law-giver and judge; beside us Satan, the accuser. The problem we face – and everyone faces it – is sin. Like the woman, we are guilty, we deserve to die. Satan knows it, so he is accusing us before God, claiming the right to have us.
Now this story tells us to believe in Him, and have life in His name.
1. Believe in Him.
As John the Baptist puts it, the one who does not believe will not see life, the wrath of God rests on them (3:36). That is the position of the unbeliever. But God had provided an escape – he has stooped down, taken a position of humility, taken upon himself the form of sinful flesh, and died in your place. Your choice is either to accept that gift, or reject it. If you receive that gift, you escape death and hell. That’s why we call it “getting saved.”
2. Have life in his name.
We tend to think of sin as what we do. But sin is also what we are. We do what we do because we are what we are – sin comes out of our hearts.
How do we escape that? Is it really possible to “go, and sin no more”?
The answer is, yes, bit by bit, that is exactly what Jesus had made possible for us. That’s part of the gospel. Jesus did not just stoop down and take on flesh to die for us, but also to live a perfect life for us. And he wants to do that today. When we believe on Him, he plants His life in our hearts by His Spirit, like a little seed, and we have the privilege of yielding to that life, and watching it grow.
Now, we need to remember that we have an adversary. Satan can and does seek legal grounds to bring death into our experience of life, and our sin is his entry-point.
This is not about losing your salvation. God sets limits on what the devil may do, but it is still a fact that he accuses us, and he does not do so for no reason at all. His goal is to see you in a waterless pit, like Joseph. Water is life, and sin will allow him to take it from us.
So, this means we have to take sin seriously. We can’t make excuses for it in ourselves or others. We have to engage with what the bible teaches about being united with Jesus in his death and in his life. We have to yield to him on every point that He brings to our attention. That is the only way to “go and sin no more” like Jesus said.