John 8:7
Bible verses · Also called: John 8:7, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone, Let him who is without sin cast the first stone, The woman taken in adultery, Neither do I condemn thee, Pericope Adulterae
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So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
The text is the New Korean Revised Version (1998), shown under a licence from the Korean Bible Society. Wording may differ slightly from the Korean Revised Version and the Revised New Korean Standard Version. Read in the Korean Revised Version
John 8:7 is the verse in which Jesus says to those about to stone a woman taken in adultery, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." It is a classic text on mercy and forgiveness, but it raises a textual problem: the entire story is absent from the oldest manuscripts.
Context
While Jesus is teaching in the temple, the scribes and Pharisees bring him a woman taken in adultery. They remind him that the law of Moses commanded such a woman to be stoned and ask what he would say. The Gospel of John states that this was a test meant to give them grounds for accusing him (v. 6). Many interpreters see a dilemma here: if Jesus rejected the law, he would be a lawbreaker; if he ordered her stoned, he would contradict his own teaching on mercy and also come into conflict with Rome's authority over capital punishment. Jesus writes something on the ground, then stands up and speaks the words of verse 7, and the people leave one by one, beginning with the eldest. Jesus then says to the woman, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (v. 11).
Interpretation
- A model of mercy and forgiveness: In this reading, Jesus does not abolish the law, yet he declines to condemn the sinner and opens the way to repentance.
- A warning against hypocrisy: The verse is taken as a reminder that those who expose and condemn the sins of others are themselves sinners before God (Matthew 7:3-5). Some also point out that the man was not brought forward, although Leviticus 20:10 requires both parties to be punished, and see this as revealing the accusers' motives.
- What Jesus wrote on the ground is not recorded in the text; various conjectures have been offered, but none can be verified.
Debates and Issues
John 7:53-8:11 is absent from the oldest Greek manuscripts, and in some manuscripts it appears after Luke 21 or elsewhere in John. For this reason most scholars hold that the story was not part of the original text of John, though it may preserve a genuine early tradition about Jesus. Many modern translations mark it with brackets or a marginal note. A widely held view maintains that it should nonetheless be respected as canonical, since the church has long read the passage and its content agrees with Jesus' other teaching.
Interpreters also ask whether it is faithful to the context to use this verse to mean that no wrongdoing should ever be pointed out. Commentators note that Jesus added "sin no more," and that the verse should be read together with other passages that teach church discipline (Matthew 18:15-17).
Related Passages
- John 8:11
- Matthew 7:1-5
- Romans 2:1
- Galatians 6:1
See also 6
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