¹ but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
² Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
⁴ they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
⁵ Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?"
⁶ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
⁷ And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
⁸ And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
⁹ But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
¹⁰ Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
¹¹ She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."

• Jesus is teaching in the temple, and He warns against judging "by appearances" (7:24,8:15)
• (v.5) "in the law": Deut 22:22-24 prescribes stoning for both the married woman who commits adultery and the partner.
• Why was the woman alone? Where was the partner in adultery and the woman's husband?
• (v.6) The test may be similar to the incident with the Roman coin (Mk 12:13-17). Since Rome did not allow the Jews to put anyone to death, would Jesus obey Moses or Rome? It may also have been that they were just challenging his habitual compassion toward sinners.
• This is the only occasion in which Jesus is mentioned as writing anything. What He wrote is not stated, but according to a suggestion formulated by St. Jerome it is often held that He wrote the hidden sins of the woman's accusers.
• Perhaps the movement of his finger allows Jesus to be silent. His eyes would be cast down, His gaze averted from the very ones who would soon press for His death. This suggestion presents Jesus silent before His own accusers, in keeping with the portrait of Isaiah's "suffering servant" who "opened not His mouth" (Is 53:7)
• "First to throw": the warning in Jesus' words may have carried a reference to the law. Deut 17:7 acknowledges that those who are witnesses against an accused person have special responsibility for that person's death. They have to strike the first blow, the rest of the people following. Jesus uses the law to respond to their use of the law.
• "Elders" may be a reference to their status as leaders of the people, not necessary as a reference to their age.
• (v.9) "Jesus was left alone with the woman." It was Saint Augustin who best described this scene: "Two figures were left, misery and mercy."

The scribes and Pharisees are not interested primarily in the Law of Moses, or the woman's fate, but rather in trapping Jesus. Again, Jesus is precisely the "more powerful one" as predicted by John the Baptizer (Lk 3:16).

1. Who is on trial here?
2. Recall a time when I found myself too ready to condemn someone. Did I draw a distinction between "the sin" and "the "sinner?"

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A synthesis by the Vietnamese Christian Life (Dong Hanh) Community