John 8:3-11
The motive of these scribes and Pharisees in bringing the woman caught in the very act of adultery was not one which longed for righteous justice to take place. They rather looked for any reason whatsoever to accuse Yeshua (John 8:6a), because they hated Him.
If you don’t understand this from the beginning, you’ll misinterpret the remainder of the text.
When my children were all little, one of them would come up to me tattle-telling about another one. I’d always listen, but often times through questioning, I’d find out they had been provoking the other child to anger. They just got mad when the other one decided to retaliate. :)
The proper understanding of this account begins by realizing the impure motives of the Pharisees. They brought the woman to Yeshua to tattle on her, but they’d been bad boys themselves, and they knew it.
Yeshua knew this, so he used wisdom in the situation. He challenged them to judge righteously. They hadn’t removed the log from their own eye, so that they could see clearly to remove the speck from their neighbor’s eye.
Once they went away, she was free to go. Yeshua’s challenge stopped them in their tracks.
All this is evidenced by the fact that they did not bring the man with whom the woman committed adultery with. The law says that both the man and the woman, justly accused of adultery, are to be put to death (Leviticus 20:10).
What is often missed by those reading this account is that Yeshua told those bringing her to stone the woman. Granted, he added the words, "he that is without sin," but what followed these words was a direct command to stone the adulteress.
I do not think Yeshua was commanding this according to the law precisely, but then again he was. He knew the law said to stone an adulteress, but he also knew the law said that the adulterer had to be stoned with her. He used wisdom by combining the phrases "he that is without sin" and "cast the first stone."
After the men listened, they began to leave one by one, beginning with the older men in the crowd. Why did these men leave? We are not told specifically, but the implication is that they were guilty of the same (or similar) sin they were trying to convict her of. The statement made by Yeshua, "he that is without sin," convicted them to the degree of causing them to walk away from the situation knowing that they were guilty before the Most High.*
When Yeshua stood up after kneeling down, he asked the woman “Where are your accusers?” She answered that no one was left. Without two or more witnesses to a capital crime, a person could not be put to death (Deuteronomy 17:6). It was also the eyewitnesses that had to be the first people to cast a stone (Deuteronomy 17:7). Without eyewitnesses, capital punishment cannot be carried out.
Sometimes readers tend to think that when Yeshua said, "neither do I condemn you,” he was violating the law. On the contrary, he was simply explaining to the woman that he had no lawful grounds to condemn her by the law, if there were no witnesses to her crime.
Did Yeshua know she had sinned? I believe he did, because of the final statement he makes in verse 11: "Go, and sin no more." However, his internal knowledge of the sin does not qualify as two or more eyewitnesses that are required by law.
Yeshua was showing grace and mercy to the woman, but the grace and mercy shown did not contradict the boundaries of the perfect law of Yahweh (Psalm 19:7).
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*This does not mean that the people who carry out the penalty of stoning must be sinless. We see at least three cases of a righteous stoning in Scripture (Leviticus 24:10-23; Numbers 15:32-36; Joshua 7:16-26).
If you don’t understand this from the beginning, you’ll misinterpret the remainder of the text.
When my children were all little, one of them would come up to me tattle-telling about another one. I’d always listen, but often times through questioning, I’d find out they had been provoking the other child to anger. They just got mad when the other one decided to retaliate. :)
The proper understanding of this account begins by realizing the impure motives of the Pharisees. They brought the woman to Yeshua to tattle on her, but they’d been bad boys themselves, and they knew it.
Yeshua knew this, so he used wisdom in the situation. He challenged them to judge righteously. They hadn’t removed the log from their own eye, so that they could see clearly to remove the speck from their neighbor’s eye.
Once they went away, she was free to go. Yeshua’s challenge stopped them in their tracks.
All this is evidenced by the fact that they did not bring the man with whom the woman committed adultery with. The law says that both the man and the woman, justly accused of adultery, are to be put to death (Leviticus 20:10).
What is often missed by those reading this account is that Yeshua told those bringing her to stone the woman. Granted, he added the words, "he that is without sin," but what followed these words was a direct command to stone the adulteress.
I do not think Yeshua was commanding this according to the law precisely, but then again he was. He knew the law said to stone an adulteress, but he also knew the law said that the adulterer had to be stoned with her. He used wisdom by combining the phrases "he that is without sin" and "cast the first stone."
After the men listened, they began to leave one by one, beginning with the older men in the crowd. Why did these men leave? We are not told specifically, but the implication is that they were guilty of the same (or similar) sin they were trying to convict her of. The statement made by Yeshua, "he that is without sin," convicted them to the degree of causing them to walk away from the situation knowing that they were guilty before the Most High.*
When Yeshua stood up after kneeling down, he asked the woman “Where are your accusers?” She answered that no one was left. Without two or more witnesses to a capital crime, a person could not be put to death (Deuteronomy 17:6). It was also the eyewitnesses that had to be the first people to cast a stone (Deuteronomy 17:7). Without eyewitnesses, capital punishment cannot be carried out.
Sometimes readers tend to think that when Yeshua said, "neither do I condemn you,” he was violating the law. On the contrary, he was simply explaining to the woman that he had no lawful grounds to condemn her by the law, if there were no witnesses to her crime.
Did Yeshua know she had sinned? I believe he did, because of the final statement he makes in verse 11: "Go, and sin no more." However, his internal knowledge of the sin does not qualify as two or more eyewitnesses that are required by law.
Yeshua was showing grace and mercy to the woman, but the grace and mercy shown did not contradict the boundaries of the perfect law of Yahweh (Psalm 19:7).
----------
*This does not mean that the people who carry out the penalty of stoning must be sinless. We see at least three cases of a righteous stoning in Scripture (Leviticus 24:10-23; Numbers 15:32-36; Joshua 7:16-26).