John 8:1-13

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?” 8:6 (Now they were asking this in an attempt to trap him, so that they could bring charges against ⁸  him.) ⁹  Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. ¹⁰  8:7 When they persisted in asking him, he stood up straight ¹¹  and replied, ¹²  “Whoever among you is guiltless ¹³  may be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8:8 Then ¹⁴  he bent over again and wrote on the ground.

8:9 Now when they heard this, they began to drift away one at a time, starting with the older ones, ¹⁵  until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 8:10 Jesus stood up straight ¹⁶  and said to her, “Woman, ¹⁷  where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 8:11 She replied, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”]] ¹⁸ 

Jesus as the Light of the World

8:12 Then Jesus spoke out again, ¹⁹  “I am the light of the world. ²⁰  The one who follows me will never ²¹  walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 8:13 So the Pharisees ²²  objected, ²³  “You testify about yourself; your testimony is not true!” ²⁴ 

[8:1]  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.

[8:2]  ² tn An ingressive sense for the imperfect fits well here following the aorist participle.

[8:3]  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.

[8:3]  ⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[8:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “to him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:5]  ⁶ sn An allusion to Lev 20:10 and Deut 22:22-24.

[8:5]  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.

[8:6]  ⁸ tn Grk “so that they could accuse.”

[8:6]  ⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author of 7:53–8:11.

[8:6]  ¹⁰ tn Or possibly “Jesus bent down and wrote an accusation on the ground with his finger.” The Greek verb καταγράφω (katagrafw) may indicate only the action of writing on the ground by Jesus, but in the overall context (Jesus’ response to the accusation against the woman) it can also be interpreted as implying that what Jesus wrote was a counteraccusation against the accusers (although there is no clue as to the actual content of what he wrote, some scribes added “the sins of each one of them” either here or at the end of v. 8 [U 264 700 al]).

[8:7]  ¹¹ tn Or “he straightened up.”

[8:7]  ¹² tn Grk “and said to them.”

[8:7]  ¹³ tn Or “sinless.”

[8:8]  ¹⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.

[8:9]  ¹⁵ tn Or “beginning from the eldest.”

[8:10]  ¹⁶ tn Or “straightened up.”

[8:10]  ¹⁷ sn Woman was a polite form of address (see BDAG 208-9 s.v. γυνή 1), similar to “Madam” or “Ma’am” used in English in different regions.

[8:11]  ¹⁸ tc The earliest and best mss do not contain 7:53–8:11 (see note on 7:53).

[8:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Then again Jesus spoke to them saying.”

[8:12]  ²⁰ sn The theory proposed by F. J. A. Hort (The New Testament in the Original Greek, vol. 2, Introduction; Appendix, 87-88), that the backdrop of 8:12 is the lighting of the candelabra in the court of women, may offer a plausible setting to the proclamation by Jesus that he is the light of the world. The last time that Jesus spoke in the narrative (assuming 7:53-8:11 is not part of the original text, as the textual evidence suggests) is in 7:38, where he was speaking to a crowd of pilgrims in the temple area. This is where he is found in the present verse, and he may be addressing the crowd again. Jesus’ remark has to be seen in view of both the prologue (John 1:4, 5) and the end of the discourse with Nicodemus (John 3:19-21). The coming of Jesus into the world provokes judgment: A choosing up of sides becomes necessary. The one who comes to the light, that is, who follows Jesus, will not walk in the darkness. The one who refuses to come, will walk in the darkness. In this contrast, there are only two alternatives. So it is with a person’s decision about Jesus. Furthermore, this serves as in implicit indictment of Jesus’ opponents, who still walk in the darkness, because they refuse to come to him. This sets up the contrast in chap. 9 between the man born blind, who receives both physical and spiritual sight, and the Pharisees (John 9:13, 15, 16) who have physical sight but remain in spiritual darkness.

[8:12]  ²¹ tn The double negative οὐ μή (ou mh) is emphatic in 1st century Hellenistic Greek.

[8:13]  ²² sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[8:13]  ²³ tn Grk “Then the Pharisees said to him.”

[8:13]  ²⁴ sn Compare the charge You testify about yourself; your testimony is not true! to Jesus’ own statement about his testimony in 5:31.