John 8
The woman caught in adultery
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle, they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act. Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?” They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle. Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”
Early in the morning, as Jesus teaches in the temple, scribes and Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery and ask whether she should be stoned as the law of Moses commands. Jesus writes on the ground, then says that whoever is without sin should throw the first stone. The accusers leave one by one, and Jesus tells the woman he does not condemn her and to sin no more.
What does this mean?
Scribes were experts in the law of Moses. "Convicted by their own conscience" (KJV) means their consciences accused them. No one knows what Jesus wrote on the ground, and interpreters have offered many guesses.
Historical context
This passage (7:53 to 8:11) is in both the KJV and the WEB, but it is absent from the earliest surviving manuscripts of John, and in some later manuscripts it appears elsewhere in John or in Luke. Most scholars think it was not part of John's original text, while many regard it as an early and authentic tradition about Jesus. The law prescribed death for both partners in adultery (Leviticus 20:10); the man is not brought. Whether Jewish courts could carry out executions under Roman rule is debated.
Why does it matter?
The story turns a trap into a question about the accusers themselves, and has become one of the best-known episodes in the Gospels.
Editorial notes, not scripture.