15 The Woman Caught in Adultery (John 7:53-8:11)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome back to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Thanks so much for listening. Today is the 15th talk in my series on the Gospel of John, and we will be studying John chapter 7, verse 53, through chapter 8, verse 11. In this season of the podcast, and in this study, we have been focusing on the big picture that John is painting. Instead of going through the details of each of the verses, we are looking at the overarching themes in the Gospel. So we have been taking big sections and chapters at a time looking at the themes John is developing. And as we've seen, John has been arguing that eternal life comes to those who believe that Jesus is the Christ. He's primarily exploring the issues that surround belief, such as evidence, the evidence that Jesus is the Christ, the importance and veracity of testimony, and the dynamics of belief and unbelief. Well, today we come to the story of the woman caught in adultery. Because your Bible may or may not contain that story, I decided to give the story its own podcast. But still, we're going to stick to the themes and not go into a lot of detail. First, let's talk about why some Bibles omit this story. Many translators choose to leave this story out because there is a lot of evidence that this story was not in the original text of the Gospel of John. As you probably know, we don't have the original manuscripts of any of the books of the Bible, but we have hundreds and in some cases tens of thousands of copies of the New Testament documents. There is an entire field of study that looks at this issue and weighs and evaluates the copies we have and decides whether a particular copy was altered in some way. The copies we have are sorted into families, and you can think of those families as like a tree. If the original document is the trunk, then the copies are the branches that come off that trunk. As copies of copies are made, the branch gets longer and thicker. Some branches are very large and deep, and from one copy, hundreds and thousands were made. Hundreds of copies fit into that branch. Other branches are smaller, they're like twigs, maybe, because fewer copies of the first copy were made. And we call those branches families. Families tend to have the same variations. For instance, one family might get its start because the monk doing the copying transposed two words. He wrote Christ Jesus in a particular verse, where the document he was copying said Jesus Christ in that same verse. And then that switch gets carried down his family branch. People who study these branches have discovered that some are more reliable than others. Now, if all this is new to you, don't worry. More than 99% of all the families of all the copies agree with each other. In other words, less than 1% of the texts in the Bible have a variant reading at all. Most of the variants are changes like the one I just mentioned. One manuscript has Jesus Christ, another manuscript has Christ Jesus. No major doctrine of the Christian church is affected by the variants among the manuscripts. The vast majority of variations make no difference at all to the meaning of the text. Let me say that again. The vast majority of the variations make absolutely no difference to the meaning of the text. The biblical manuscripts we have are extremely reliable. The story we're looking at today is unusual in that the entire story is a variant. So John's verse 753 to John 8.11 is the entire story, and it is the one and only case where the entire story is a variant. As I understand it, the best, most reliable manuscripts do not include this story in the Gospel of John. And if you omit this story, the text reads very well without it. Some manuscripts place this story later in the Gospel of John, some manuscripts place it in the Gospel of Luke. From my limited research, it seems very likely that the story was added later, or at least it belongs someplace else. If you've been following this series, you'll notice the story does not contain any of the big themes of the Gospel of John. And to me, that is just extra evidence that the story was added later. I expect one of the apostles related this story and it was handed down orally, and then one day some monk who was making a copy of the Gospel of John decided he'd better write the story down because it was being forgotten. So he put it in his copy of John. But who knows, that's wild speculation. While this story does not seem to belong in the Gospel of John at this point in the Gospel, there is widespread consensus among the scholars that the story is authentic. Most people I read believe it does come from an apostle and should be included somewhere in the New Testament, maybe not here in John, but somewhere. Now, I have no idea how they figure such information out, but I will leave that question for future scholars to sort out. For our purposes, I'm going to assume that the story does not belong at this spot in the Gospel of John, but that the story is true and reflects an actual event from the life of Jesus. Therefore, I decided to give it its own podcast, and I'm going to ask what can we learn from it? But since I want to keep this series to a big picture study of the overall structure and themes of the Gospel of John, I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail. We're going to cover this section briefly and then move on. Okay, let's get started. At this point in the Gospel, John has been highlighting the growing tension between Jesus and the Jewish leadership. And this story fits into that growing conflict, but it doesn't include any of our themes of testimony and belief. Let me read this story for you. It starts in John 753, the last verse in chapter seven, and goes through eight hundred eleven. They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, 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? They said this to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 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. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, 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. The story opens quietly enough. After spending the night on the Mount of Olives, Jesus returns to the temple to teach. If this event is properly placed in the Gospel of John, then it would have occurred during the Feast of Tabernacles, because that's where we were in the last chapter. If it's not properly placed in John's Gospel, then who knows when it occurred? As Jesus is teaching, the scribes and the Pharisees interrupt him. They drag a woman before him, claiming she was caught in the very act of adultery. They remind him the law of Moses prescribes stoning in such cases, and demand to know what he thinks should be done. Well, the first question we want to ask is, are they right? Are they right about the law of Moses? And basically they are. Adultery is forbidden in the Ten Commandments. The law defined adultery as a sexual relationship between two people, at least one of whom was married to someone else. Deuteronomy 2222 prescribes capital punishment for both the man and the woman caught in adultery, and the specific form of capital punishment was stoning. Deuteronomy 22 goes on to say if either of the guilty parties is engaged or betrothed, but not yet married, that is also considered adultery. The scribes and the Pharisees are legally correct on the basics. But there is a big gaping hole in the story, which is where is the man? The Jewish leaders claim this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. If that is the case, where is her equally guilty partner? Did he escape? Was he someone of importance and they didn't want to besmirch his reputation, so they let him go? We don't know. But the fact that he's missing casts a very large shadow of doubt over the veracity of their words and the purity of their motives. Now fortunately, their motives are clear, the author tells us what they are. John 8 6 tells us they're testing Jesus because they want to bring some charge against him. And it's likely, it sounds like the Pharisees might even have set this woman up to trap Jesus. John tells us the scribes want to test Jesus so they can accuse him of something, and so we want to ask the question, to whom would they accuse him? At this time the nation of Israel was under Roman occupation. The Romans permitted the nations that they conquered to exercise a significant degree of self-rule, but not when it came to the death penalty. If a conquered nation wanted to execute someone for a crime, that verdict had to come through the Roman judicial system. That's why later in the gospel, after his arrest, Jesus is sentenced by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate and not by the Jewish high priest. Now the Pharisees are laying a clever trap for Jesus. If Jesus says, go ahead, stone the woman, they can run to the nearest Roman headquarters and report him, and that will likely get him arrested and maybe executed himself. But if Jesus says, don't stone her, then they can run back to the Sanhedrin, their own governing body, and say, look, this Jesus is a heretic because he denies the law of Moses, and they can discredit him. So they figure no matter what he says, they're going to get him in trouble. But Jesus didn't answer. He bent down and wrote in the sand on the ground with his finger. Now this is the only mention in scripture of Jesus writing anything, and that tells us he was literate, a fact we could probably have expected because of his knowledge of the Old Testament. But given his humble birth, literacy was not a given in that culture. Of course, the million dollar question here is, what did he write? The story doesn't say, but many people and commentators throughout church history have speculated about what he wrote. Some people say that this is an allusion to Exodus 31.18, where God writes the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets with his finger, and perhaps Jesus is writing out the Ten Commandments in the sand with his finger in like manner. Some people think that this mention of his writing is a reference to Jeremiah 17.13, which reads, 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. So perhaps Jesus is writing Jeremiah 1713 and asking them to consider who are they following? Have they turned away from God or not? Others see this as a reference to the Roman judicial system. A Roman judge would write his verdict down before he announced it, and Jesus could be doing that. No one knows what Jesus actually wrote, but my favorite theory is linked to the answer that Jesus gives in verse 7. In 8.7 it says, 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. So my favorite theory of all the ones I found in my research is that Jesus wrote out a list of sins. Imagine him looking at one accuser and writing thief, then looking at the next accuser and writing embezzler, and then looking at the next one and writing liar, and then maybe cheat or drunkard, adulterer, and so forth. The accusers could easily find themselves in the words in the sand. Then when he stands up, he says, Go ahead, the person without sin can throw the first stone. They would literally have to step over their own sins written in the sand to find a rock. Well, if that's what happened, it would be particularly convicting for them. Now of course that is pure speculation, but it makes a really poignant visual image. Jesus' words about casting the first stone are important because the law has more to say about capital punishment. This is Deuteronomy seventeen six through seven. On the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses, the one who is to die shall be put to death. A person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. The law prescribed that those accusing someone of a capital crime had to participate in the execution. So if you accuse someone of a crime that was worthy of being put to death, you had to be on hand to throw the first stone. That requirement acted partly as a deterrent to false witnesses. I imagine it would be quite difficult to throw the first stone if you knew your testimony was a lie. Now notice Jesus didn't hedge between Jewish law and Roman law. He sided with Moses, he gave his verdict, by law the woman was guilty. But then he examined the accusers and he found them guilty too. Jesus is the only one present who could throw the first stone. Instead, he bent down and started writing again, and one by one the accusers left. I like to imagine that as he continued writing out their sins, eventually their conscience convicted them, and they left. But again, we don't really know what he wrote. Finally, Jesus is left alone with the woman, and he asks her, Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you? And she says, No one, Lord. I think it's significant that she called him Lord. It's possible she was addressing him simply as sir, which would have been the polite form of address for a rabbi. But I like to think that by the grace of God she understood she was in the presence of the Messiah and that she is repentant and is seeking his mercy and is calling him Lord because she means it. But again, that's just wishful thinking on my part. We are not told the state of her soul or the condition of her belief. Jesus responds to her with perhaps the sweetest words any sinful human being could ever hear. I don't condemn you either. Every genuine believer longs to hear those words from our Lord and Savior. And then he says, Go and sin no more. And I think he means be done with this kind of life. You're forgiven, now repent and believe. You can see how this story seems out of place in John's gospel, but it does fit with what we know about Jesus. It adds to our understanding of the growing conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees. We see the Pharisees engaged in another attempt to discredit Jesus and get him in trouble. But we have consistently seen John tell a story, then report how people responded to it. He tells us who believed, who didn't believe, and who was still questioning and what they were thinking about who Jesus is. We get no such report here. I think if John himself had included this story, we would see at least some kind of comment, like the crowds were amazed and some believed, or the Pharisees wanted to kill him even more, or the woman fell at his feet in gratitude and her whole family believed he was the Messiah, something like that, because John has always been very interested in how people are responding to Jesus. Eight chapters into this gospel, we have consistently seen John's primary interest is in how people respond to Jesus. And this story, as beautiful and poignant as it is, does not contain anything related to our main themes. But this story does teach a theme that we've talked about a lot in other podcasts, and that is our essential equality before God. All of us human beings stand equal before our Creator. I am no more or no less important than you, and you are no more or no less important than me. We are equally sinful, and we will find the same grace through the same Savior. And this story makes the same point that Paul makes in Galatians six. Let me read you Galatians six. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each will have to bear his own load. In this section of Galatians, Paul is talking about how their emphasis on law keeping is leading to what he calls biting and devouring each other. As they focus on proving themselves to be good people by keeping the law, they start thinking highly of themselves and condemning others who don't measure up to their standards. When they catch others in transgression, they become impatient with these other screw-ups, and it leads to conflict, boasting, and strife. Instead, Paul is saying, live in a way that reflects your understanding that you are saved by grace through faith, that you are all equally sinful and equally saved, and no one is better than anyone else. He says, even if anyone is caught in transgression, even if you're dealing with a situation where someone has clearly done something wrong, like this woman caught in adultery, how should you respond? There should be a response. You don't ignore the problem, it's appropriate to respond, but the response needs to come from a place of humility and gentleness, recognizing that you too could easily commit the same sin. Rather than responding with competition or condemnation or arrogant superiority, you were to respond from a position of humility. So instead of, well, fortunately for me, I am not screwed up like you have done here, so let me help you with my vast wisdom. That's not the attitude. The attitude should be, as he says in 6 2, bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. We are to approach this person who's been caught red handed with the understanding that they have the same burden of sin that. we have, we both struggle under the weight of our sin. Our job is to lighten their load by calling them back to mercy, by reminding them there is grace and forgiveness, and by teaching them from the Word of God. We do not approach them with the superiority of, well, I've kept the rules and you haven't, so let me correct you so you can be perfect like me. Rather, we lighten their load by showing them mercy and grace and forbearance and forgiveness and the recognition that we are all sinners and it's hard to be a sinner. Paul says if you think you're something, you deceive yourself. In other words, if you think you're better than these people, you're deceiving yourself. If you think you're better than your neighbor, you're going into this situation on the wrong foot. If you think you never commit the same sin and that you are somehow better than your brother or sister who did commit that sin, then you're deceiving yourself because you're a sinner too. And that's human nature. When I catch someone else in sin, it's easy to be self-righteous because hey, I'm not the one who messed up at least not this time and not in that way. In this situation you have fallen into trespass. I haven't, I'm up, you're down so it's easy to get puffed up about myself. And Paul wants to nip that kind of attitude in the bud. He says examine yourself. Examine your own work. Before you go into that situation to correct your neighbor take a long hard look at yourself. God doesn't grade on a curve. In this particular test you don't get a better grade because your friend did worse than you did in this circumstance. Forget about that other person and take a look at yourself. Boast about yourself alone not how you compare to your neighbor. And then there's not so much to boast about because when I take a long hard look at myself I realize I'm a sinner too. I don't have a leg up because I avoided this particular sin on this particular day. The fact that someone else messed up does not make me a better person. I'm a sinner too. How other sinners are doing is irrelevant to my standing. I'm to bear my own load. I'm to be responsible for my own behavior no matter what everyone else is doing. So when it comes to other people's sins, I should seek to bear their burdens, to lighten their load by being merciful, patient and forgiving. I humbly correct them with the goal of encouraging and helping them, not condemning them but when it comes to my own sins, I need to be brutally honest and accept responsibility and recognize my own need for mercy. I think Paul could have written this section to the Pharisees who are dragging the woman before Jesus take a long hard look at yourself before you throw that first stone. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means but also shows you how to figure it out. The blog version of this podcast is on Wednesdaytheword.com slash John 15. You can hear all the previous episodes in this season of the podcast on my website just go to wednesdaytheword.com or scroll down through your podcast feed. On my website there's no charge, no spam and no ads. It's all free to help you improve your study skills and further your understanding of scripture. If you've been blessed by this podcast please subscribe leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen but most importantly tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. A big thank you to Reggie Coast for providing our theme music you can find more of Reggie's music at heartfeltmusic.org Thank you for joining me today I'm Krisan Marotta and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word