John 8

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1but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down, and taught them.

3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle,

4they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act.

5Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?”

6They 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.

7But 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.”

8Again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.

9They, 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.

10Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”

11She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”

12Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

13The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

14Jesus answered them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you don’t know where I came from, or where I am going.

15You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.

16Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me.

17It’s also written in your law that the testimony of two people is valid.

18I am one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

19They said therefore to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me, nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

20Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. Yet no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

21Jesus said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can’t come.”

22The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, that he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?”

23He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.

24I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

25They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.

26I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”

27They didn’t understand that he spoke to them about the Father.

28Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.

29He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn’t left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

30As he spoke these things, many believed in him.

31Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples.

32You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

33They answered him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will be made free’?”

34Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.

35A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever.

36If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

37I know that you are Abraham’s offspring, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.

38I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”

39They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.

40But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this.

41You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”

42Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.

43Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word.

44You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.

45But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me.

46Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

47He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God.”

48Then the Jews answered him, “Don’t we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?”

49Jesus answered, “I don’t have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.

50But I don’t seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges.

51Most certainly, I tell you, if a person keeps my word, he will never see death.”

52Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and you say, ‘If a man keeps my word, he will never taste of death.’

53Are you greater than our father, Abraham, who died? The prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

54Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is our God.

55You have not known him, but I know him. If I said, ‘I don’t know him,’ I would be like you, a liar. But I know him, and keep his word.

56Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it, and was glad.”

57The Jews therefore said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”

58Jesus said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.”

59Therefore they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden, and went out of the temple, having gone through the middle of them, and so passed by.

Commentary

8:1-11 Christ neither found fault with the law, nor excused the prisoner's guilt; nor did he countenance the pretended zeal of the Pharisees. Those are self-condemned who judge others, and yet do the same thing. All who are any way called to blame the faults of others, are especially concerned to look to themselves, and keep themselves pure. In this matter Christ attended to the great work about which he came into the world, that was, to bring sinners to repentance; not to destroy, but to save. He aimed to bring, not only the accused to repentance, by showing her his mercy, but the prosecutors also, by showing them their sins; they thought to insnare him, he sought to convince and convert them. He declined to meddle with the magistrate's office. Many crimes merit far more severe punishment than they meet with; but we should not leave our own work, to take that upon ourselves to which we are not called. When Christ sent her away, it was with this caution, Go, and sin no more. Those who help to save the life of a criminal, should help to save the soul with the same caution. Those are truly happy, whom Christ does not condemn. Christ's favour to us in the forgiveness of past sins should prevail with us, Go then, and sin no more.

"\nAnd early in the morning he came again into the temple,.... Which shows his diligence, constancy, and assiduity, in his ministerial work, as well as his courage and intrepidity; being fearless of his enemies, though careful to give them no advantage against him, before his time:\n\nand all the people came unto him; which also commends the industry and diligence of his hearers, who were forward to hear him, and were early at the temple for that purpose, and that in great numbers:\n\nand he sat down and taught them; he sat, as his manner was;\n[See comments on Mt 5:1]; and taught them as one having authority, and such doctrine, and in such a manner, as never man did; with all plainness, boldness, and freedom.\n\n\n "

CHAPTER 8Joh 8:1-11. The Woman Taken in Adultery.1, 2. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives—This should have formed the last verse of the foregoing chapter. "The return of the people to the inert quiet and security of their dwellings (Joh 7:53), at the close of the feast, is designedly contrasted with our Lord's homeless way, so to speak, of spending the short night, who is early in the morning on the scene again. One cannot well see why what is recorded in Lu 21:37, 38 may not even thus early have taken place; it might have been the Lord's ordinary custom from the beginning to leave the brilliant misery of the city every night, that so He might compose His sorrowful and interceding heart, and collect His energies for new labors of love; preferring for His resting-place Bethany, and the Mount of Olives, the scene thus consecrated by many preparatory prayers for His final humiliation and exaltation" [Stier].

"\nAnd the Scribes and Pharisees,.... The members of the sanhedrim, who had been so miserably disappointed the day before, were no less diligent and industrious in their wicked way, seeking all opportunities, and taking all advantages against Christ; and fancying they had got something whereby to ensnare him, and bring him into disgrace or danger, they pursue it; and\n\nbrought unto him a woman taken in adultery; who, as some conjecture, might have been taken in it the day before, in one of their booths; being drawn into it through intemperance and carnal mirth, which at this feast they greatly indulged themselves in; which shows, that they were far from drawing the Holy Ghost at this time upon them; that on the contrary, they fell into the hands, and under the power of the unclean spirit: who this woman was, is not material to know; what is pretended to be taken out of the annals of the Spanish Jews, is no doubt a fable; that she was the wife of one Manasseh of Jerusalem, an old man, whose name was Susanna {d}:\n\nand when they had set her in the midst; of the company, as the Persic version reads, to be seen by all the people. This history of the woman taken in adultery, is wanting in the Alexandrian copy, and in other ancient copies; nor is it in Nonnus, Chrysostom, and Theophylact; nor in any of the editions of the Syriac version, until it was restored by De Dieu, from a copy of Archbishop Usher's; but was in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, and in the Harmonies of Tatian and Ammonius; the former of which lived about the year 160, and so within 60 years, or thereabouts, of the death of the Evangelist John, and the other about the year 230; it was also in Stephens's sixteen ancient Greek copies, and in all Beza's seventeen, excepting one; nor need the authenticness of it be doubted of; Eusebius {e} says, it is in the Gospel according to the Hebrews; nor should its authority be called in question.\n\n{d} Vid. Selden. Uxor Hebr. l. 3. c. 11. p. 377. {e} Hist. Ecless. l. 3. c. 39.\n\n\n "

"\nThey say unto him, Master,.... They applied to him in a handsome and respectful manner, the better to cover their ill design:\n\nthis woman was taken in adultery; by two persons at least, who could be witnesses of it; otherwise the accusation was not legal; see\n De 19:15; though in the case of a wife suspected of adultery, they admitted a single witness as valid {f}:\n\nin the very act; or "in the theft itself", for adultery is a theft; it is an unlawful use of another's property; see this word used in the same sense, in Heliodor, l. 1. sect. 11.\n\n{f} Maimon. Hilchot Eduth, c. 5. sect. 2.\n\n\n "

"\nNow Moses in the law commanded us, that such should, be stoned,....

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