MARTIN CAREY
It was the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the city was crowded with festive Israelites. The feast was to remember how God had preserved their ancestors for 40 years in the desert. Not everyone was festive, however, as somewhere in a dark room, a group of men in long robes plotted in secret. Frustrated and desperate, they needed to stop their common enemy. They needed a perfect trap designed for the Galilean who had proved to be the most elusive prey. He had embarrassed them time after time with brilliant counter-questions and arguments, questions they weren’t prepared for. Now, at last, they would finally force Him either to openly trample the law of Moses, or to take the law into His own hands and invite the wrath of the Romans. No matter how He answered, He would discredit Himself before His followers. All they needed was to find suitable bait. In a city full of co-mingling Israelites, it didn’t take long for them long to find a law-breaker. Gathering a group of chosen “witnesses,” their trap was ready.
The day before, the Pharisees and scribes had hotly debated how to deal with Jesus, the troublesome Nazarene (John 7:45-52). Many people were listening to His teaching, and many said He was the Prophet that Moses foretold in Deuteronomy 18. The leaders sent the temple police to arrest Him, but they came back empty-handed and amazed. The temple guards told the Pharisees, “No man ever spoke like this man!” (7:46). They saw Jesus stand up on the last day of the feast and declare to the crowd,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (Jn. 8:37-38).
Every Israelite had learned from childhood how God miraculously provided food and precious water in the empty desert. Their thirsty ancestors had not believed in God’s care, had quarreled with Moses and had tested God, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Though they tested God, He gave them water from the rock. The Feast of Booths celebrated God’s care for them, and warned against unbelief.
The Pharisees and chief priests reviled the police as deceived and accursed.
The Pharisees and chief priests reviled the police as deceived and accursed. Then the debate turned when the eminent teacher Nicodemus admonished his peers to give the Galilean a fair hearing before condemning Him, as the law required. They asked him, “Are you from Galilee too?”
Jesus retired to the Mount of Olives for the night, escaping the hostility in the city. He arose early and went to the temple, and a crowd gathered eagerly to hear Him teach. The lesson, though, was rudely interrupted by a group of Pharisees dragging a woman through the crowd. They roughly forced her to stand up in the midst of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
They said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him (John 8:4-5).
The trap was now set, and they waited for His answer. In adultery cases, Moses’ law required that both the man and the woman be brought to trial. Here, though, the guilty man was conspicuously missing. Perhaps he had already been dealt with, or maybe he had somehow escaped. Scripture doesn’t tell us here what happened to the guilty man, although it is apparent from records that in those days, sexual sins were rampant and often went unpunished.
The Pharisees knew what the law said: when a person was accused of a capital crime, the witnesses were required to carry out the sentencing, and if the accused were found guilty, the witnesses were also to execute the accused by their own hands, whether by stoning, sword, or strangulation (Barnes, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/barnes/john/8.htm).
On that day, the Jewish leaders brought this woman to Jesus, pretending to give Him authority. This ploy, however, revealed their own cynical disregard of the law. If Jesus gave any opinion that was less than the severe penalty required by Moses, He would be accused of denying Moses’ authority. If, on the other hand, He agreed that she should die, they could accuse Him of taking authority for life and death onto Himself, authority that the Romans claimed for themselves.
We see this political dynamic played out during Jesus’ trial before Pilate. Jesus had never claimed any civil authority to rule as civil judge or magistrate. In fact, in Luke 12:13 a man asked Jesus to intervene in an inheritance dispute with his brother. Jesus replied, “Who made me a judge over you?”
Now, with this woman in tow, the leaders were trying to force Him to exercise civil authority. Either way He ruled on this adultery case, He appeared to face trouble.
Now, with this woman in tow, the leaders were trying to force Him to exercise civil authority. Either way He ruled on this adultery case, He appeared to face trouble.
To their surprise, though, Jesus did not immediately answer but bent down and began writing with His finger in the dust of the temple courtyard. Irritated by His passive response, the Jews pressed Him further about Moses, the law, and the woman’s guilt. Undisturbed, Jesus continued to write in the dirt for awhile, then stood up and said to them,
“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Then He sat down again to calmly write in the dirt. Clearly, He was not interested in rendering a judgment as they demanded, and He was keeping His thoughts to Himself. But His challenge to them reminded them what He had stated the day before: “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” (John 7:19).
A “wicked and adulterous generation”, however, had little regard for the law, and they were about to be exposed.
Twice Jesus bent down to write in the dirt. We are not told what He was writing, although many writers have stated opinions. Ellen White stated that Jesus was writing the “guilty secrets of their lives,” thus forcing them to give up their accusations and depart in shame (DA 461). John 8, however, does not support this assertion. Nevertheless, there are clues in other passages that can shed light on Jesus’ unusual, very symbolic behavior. In Jeremiah 17:13 we read:
“O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.”
Just the day before, Jesus stood in the temple and declared Himself to be the source of living water, inviting all who are thirsty to come to Him (John 7:37–38). Jesus made Himself the fulfillment of the Feast of Booths, because He is the Rock in the desert, the Bread from heaven, and the true source of living water.
The Jewish leaders knew those stories and their meanings. In fact, they had forsaken the fountain of living waters—Jesus—and were put to shame. They represented those of whom Jeremiah prophesied; they had turned away from the Lord, and their names qualified to be written in the earth by the finger of God the Son instead of written in heaven.
Jesus’ answer exposed their hypocrisy and deflated their authority to accuse anyone.
Convicted, the accusers of the woman all left one by one, starting with the eldest. Jesus’ answer exposed their hypocrisy and deflated their authority to accuse anyone. They had no power to condemn her. Jesus defeated their scheme without violating any laws while concurrently shining light on the accusers. He did not descend to the level of a local magistrate, but He rendered unto Caesar what was Caesar’s.
The Son of God is the judge of men’s souls. The measure of judgment the accusers aimed at this woman was measured back on them (Matthew 7:2).
When her tormenters were gone, the woman did not run away but remained standing in front Jesus to hear what He would say to her. Doubtless, the rest of the temple crowd was still there to see and hear as well. Jesus then asked the woman,
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:10-11).
Jesus again revealed His gracious heart to a sinful woman. Even though some scholars question the authenticity of this passage, a careful examination will reward the seeker. Looking at the context, at its portrayal of Jesus’ character and mission, and at the great themes of the New Covenant, one will see the true nature of the account. You can judge for yourself. As John Calvin said,
“But as it has always been received by the Latin Churches, and is found in many old Greek manuscripts, and contains nothing unworthy of an Apostolic Spirit, there is no reason why we should refuse to apply it to our advantage.” (Bible Hub, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/calvin/john/8.htm)
After reading many sources, I’ve concluded that this story shows the righteous but radical heart of God. Jesus did not condone the woman’s adultery, but He told her to leave her life of sin. Grace is never cheap, and God does not excuse sin. That same gracious majesty in the temple courtyard had spoken long ago to Moses on the mountain:
“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7).
He who wrote that law and covenant with His finger now showed His mercy and love to this condemned but repentant woman even as He exposed the unbelieving hearts of her accusers. A new, more glorious covenant was breaking forth, and the Old Covenant, that ministry of death, was ready to fade away. He would pay for her life with His own blood. Jesus offered her life, greater than mere freedom from a civil sentence, but real life, the light of life.
The Feast of Tabernacles just ending had celebrated God’s bringing light and life to His people in the Sinai desert. The celebration included placing great candelabras all around Jerusalem to light up the night, accompanied with music and dancing. We can share that joy, for Jesus declared Himself to be that light of life, the greatest glory of all:
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
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