My Reflection on Sunday’s Gospel John 8:1-11

John 8:1–11 ESV – Bible Gateway

Each year for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, we get a selection from the Gospel of John. The chapter division here seems awkward as it splits a sentence after Jesus speaks, and there is division among the people thinking Jesus is a prophet and the Pharisees deny this. “The early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53–8:11.”[1] and so do not include this story. ”St. Jerome says the story was found in both Latin and Greek; St. Ambrose says it was always famous in the Church, and St. Augustine expounds the story.“ It seems to have been known in second-century Syria. This passage is even found in some ancient manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke. This passage is referred to as the pericope adulterae. A periscope *_pronounced_ ”peh-RIH-cuh-pee“) is an individual ”passage“ within the Gospels, with a distinct beginning and ending so that it forms an independent literary ”unit.”

In an article on this passage, Jimmy Akin references Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu and principles are used in assessing the pericope adulterae. He concludes:

This means that the pericope adulterae–by being included in the Vulgate–does not contain errors of faith or morals when properly understood.
And so those would be the two points that–in the absence of a current, binding statement from the Magisterium on the authenticity of the passage–one would naturally conclude regarding it: Critical scholarship must determine whether the passage was in the originals but, even if it was not, the passage does not contain errors of faith or morals when understood in a Catholic sense and so it may safely be appealed to as a passage from which Christians may learn.

The circumstance here is Jesus teaching people at the temple in Jerusalem and sitting down with a group when some Pharisees bring a woman to him who they say they caught in the act of adultery. There is no mention of the man she was with or that he would have equally been liable to death by stoning. This seems like a setup in which to trap Jesus. I find it hard to imagine the circumstance of how a group of Pharisees come upon this act, grab the woman, and then head to the temple to bring her before Jesus. Even Admiral Ackbar would realize this is a trap.
John Bergsma, in his commentary[2], writes that there is some possibility that this woman is just a paid actor to entrap Jesus, we just don’t know. The Pharisees lay out the charge and ask Jesus’ opinion hoping that it would go against the law Moses gave. Pure duplicity with no interest in the truth.

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen puts the circumstance well in his book Life of Christ.

“They had invoked the Law of Moses. So would He! Whence did the Law of Moses come? Who wrote it? Whose finger? The Book of Exodus answers: Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Tokens in his hands, inscribed on both sides, on the front and on the back they were inscribed. The tablets were the handiwork of God, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets (Ex 32:15–17).
“They reminded Him of the Law! He in turn reminded them that He had written the Law! The same finger, in a symbolical sense, that was now writing in the tablets of stone of the temple floor, also wrote on the tablets of stone on Sinai! Had they eyes to see the Giver of the law of Moses standing before them? But they were so bent on ensnaring Him in His speech that they ignored the writing and kept on hurling questions; so sure were they that they had trapped Him.” [3]

Meanwhile, Jesus bends down and starts writing with his finger in the dirt. The Pharisees continue to challenge him and he stands and says “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” After this, he actually bends down once more and continues to write in the dirt.

John Bergsma has some insightful commentary on the situation and the question Jesus asks them:[4]

By saying this, Jesus puts the responsibility for the woman’s execution squarely on the shoulders of the scribes and Pharisees. They certainly do think that they themselves are without sin, but they do not dare take up a stone to throw at the woman because they would immediately be arrested by the Roman soldiers who were keeping an eye on the Temple courts from the massive, adjacent Antonian fortress. The whole proceedings were probably being watched by soldiers from the parapets of this fortress, which Rome had built precisely for keeping peace in this most volatile area of Jerusalem.
So now Jesus has turned the trap on the Pharisees. If they throw stones, they will be arrested by the Romans. If they don’t throw stones, they will appear to be admitting that they have sin. In the end, they choose the shame of being outwitted in public rather than arrest, torture, and incarceration by the Roman authorities. The oldest and wisest are the first to figure out that Jesus has outwitted them; the youngest and most foolish keep hanging around, hoping there is some way out of their “checkmate.” Do not think for a moment that their decision not to throw stones was actually some kind of sincere conviction in their hearts that they truly were sinners in need of forgiveness! Certainly not! They just didn’t want to be arrested.

I had always assumed that Jesus’ question shamed them and they walked away knowing they were hypocrites. I now see his point as being more likely.

Now as to Jesus writing in the dirt, we do have to wonder why is this detail here? What was he writing? There are several common theories regarding this.

Jesus gives “a sign of indifference, showing that he refuses to be drawn into this trap.” [5]
That he is writing down the sins of the Pharisees.
Or that this is an allusion to scripture.

As the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture points out regarding the third theory.

…Jesus’ gesture is a subtle allusion to Jer 17:13, which literally reads, “O Hope of Israel, O †YHWH, all who abandon you will be put to shame, those who turn away will be written in the earth because they have abandoned the Fountain of Living Waters.” By writing on the ground, Jesus would be reminding the woman’s accusers that they too are sinners subject to God’s judgment, sinners who refuse Jesus’ invitation to come in faith to him, the “Fountain of Living Waters” (Jer 17:13; John 7:37).

I find this interesting in that towards the end of the previous chapter in the Gospel of John, Jesus references the “Fountain of Living Waters” after he says “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. This interpretation goes back to Saints Augustine and Ambrose and is the one most well-attested to today.

After the Pharisees leave there are no longer any witnesses left to accuse her. Jesus says “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” Again we see the same mercy Jesus shows us when we go to confession that forgiveness is contingent on contriteness and a genuine desire to avoid the specific sin.

Closing off with John Bergsma:[6]

The Lord is ever forgiving. He does not condemn but encourages us to “go and from now on do not sin any more.” Yet he does not lie to us by telling us we can attain eternal life while indulging in sin. The Lord never tells us an untruth. Since salvation is by definition an “exodus” or freedom from sin, we cannot be saved while we are still sinning. Sin is what we are saved from. In the words of Pope Francis, “God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.”[7]

Sources

St. John’s Gospel: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary for Individuals and Groups. Steve Ray, 2002 ↩
bergsma ↩
Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ (New York: Image Books/ Doubleday, 1990), 184–85. ↩
bergsma ↩
Francis Martin, William M. Wright IV ↩
bergsma ↩
Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World Evangelii Gaudium (November 24, 2013), §I.3. ↩

My Reflection on Sunday’s Gospel John 8:1-11

Sources

The Weekly Francis – Volume 405

The Weekly Francis – Volume 406

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