John 8:1-5

8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ¹  8:2 Early in the morning he came to the temple courts again. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach ²  them. 8:3 The experts in the law ³  and the Pharisees ⁴  brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of them 8:4 and said to Jesus, ⁵  “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 8:5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death ⁶  such women. ⁷  What then do you say?”

¹ sn The Mount of Olives is a hill running north to south about 1.8 mi (3 km) long, lying east of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley. It was named for the large number of olive trees that grew on it.

² tn An ingressive sense for the imperfect fits well here following the aorist participle.

³ tn Or “The scribes.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

⁵ tn Grk “to him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ sn An allusion to Lev 20:10 and Deut 22:22-24.

⁷ sn The accusers themselves subtly misrepresented the law. The Mosaic law stated that in the case of adultery, both the man and woman must be put to death (Lev 20:10, Deut 22:22), but they mentioned only such women.