(Jn 8:1-11)

John 8:1 Jesus then set out for the Mount of Olives.

John 8:2 But at dawn he went into the temple again, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

John 8:3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery, and placed her in the midst,

John 8:4 they say to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in flagrante adultery.

John 8:5 Now Moses, in the Law, commanded us to stone women like this one. What sayest thou?"

John 8:6 This they said to test him and to have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down and began to write with his finger on the ground.

John 8:7 And when they persisted in questioning him, he lifted up his head and said to them, "Whoever of you is without sin, let him cast the stone at her first.

John 8:8 And bowing down again, he wrote on the ground.

John 8:9 But when they heard this, they went away one by one, beginning from the eldest to the last.

Only Jesus remained with the woman there in the midst.

John 8:10 Then rising up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

John 8:11 And she answered, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and henceforth sin no more."

Significant is the verb that John uses to indicate that Jesus goes to the temple: "paraginomai". The verb is composed of the preposition "para", meaning "near, towards" and the verb "gignomai", meaning "to become". Jesus' going to the temple therefore is a becoming near and becoming more and more that temple which is not only the house of his Father, but also the figure of his new body, in which a new worship pleasing to God will be celebrated.

The context in which the story is set is that of the temple and more precisely, as v. 20 emphasises with extreme precision, the "place of treasure" which was also called the women's courtyard, because it marked the boundary beyond which women could not enter. So when the scribes and Pharisees lead the woman caught in the act of adultery by Jesus, he was teaching in the women's hall or treasury. The story of the adulteress therefore fits within the teaching activity of Jesus, and in some way is part of it.

The scribes and Pharisees lead a woman to Jesus. She is placed in the middle. It is not said exactly where, but the idea is that she is placed between the two sides, between Jesus and the religious authorities. So we find ourselves between two opposing sides in the middle of which the object of contention is placed, not so much the woman, stripped of all identity and dignity, but what she represents: a case of Torah violation. The issue therefore immediately shifts from the woman to the Mosaic Law, which condemns her to stoning. A comparison that becomes more evident in v. 5 where Moses is opposed to Jesus: 'Moses commanded us... What sayest thou?

"This they said to test him and to have something to accuse him of". On trial, therefore, is not only the woman, but with her also Jesus, who is faced with an aut aut aut: to go against Moses, upholding his critical position towards the way of understanding the Torah; or to agree with Moses, denying his position. But Jesus finds a third way: twice, in v. 6 and v. 8, it is pointed out that Jesus "began to write with his finger on the ground". John, therefore, seems to want to draw attention to Jesus' bizarre behaviour. People have wondered what Jesus was writing on the ground with his finger, and rivers of ink have been spilled in the most disparate hypotheses, which, when all is said and done, have remained so. But here the problem is not the content, that is, what Jesus was writing, but Jesus' writing itself; it is this gesture that the evangelist points out to his reader and not what Jesus wrote: "stooping down, he began to write with his finger on the ground". Moreover, it should not be forgotten, Jesus was writing on the floor of the women's hall, which was made of stone. What he wrote with his finger therefore could not remain imprinted and therefore could not even be read. 

In order to understand Jesus' behaviour, it is necessary to read carefully: "bowed down"; it is the attitude of one who approaches from the top down, almost as if to meet something or someone, who is lower than oneself. At this point Jesus "began to write with his finger on the ground". Here is what counts: "writing with his finger" on the earth, which we know, however, to be "stone". Jesus therefore bent down and wrote with his finger on the stone. To reinforce this concept there is the same verb to write which, unlike the one in v. 8, is here rendered with a particular verbal form: "katégraphen", whose primary meaning is not to write, but to engrave, to scratch, emphasising more the action of a stonemason than that of a scribe. And this is exactly what Ex 31:18 says: "When the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, TABLES OF STONE, WRITTEN BY GOD'S FINGER". God too therefore went down to Mount Sinai and there with his finger wrote his Law on stone. Jesus' behaviour therefore exactly reproduces that of God at Sinai. Jesus is therefore here rewriting the Mosaic Law with the very authority of God, reproducing its behaviour, thus declaring outdated not so much the Torah, but the way of approaching it and understanding it, according to the logic of the letter, stifling the spirit it carried.

Judaism could not transcend the physicality of the Law expressed in the letter. In fact, his adversaries "persisted in questioning him" (v. 7). Thus, Jesus challenges them, turning the accusation levelled at the adulteress against them: 'Let him who is without sin among you cast the stone at her first'. To their insistence Jesus, therefore, responds by inviting them to reflect on their common condition as sinners, since no one before God can in any way consider himself righteous and holy. The Torah must therefore be reread and recomposed from God's perspective and not man's; this is why Jesus is rewriting the Torah according to God's logic and feeling and has all the authority and power to do so.

V. 9 notes how they all went away, thus denouncing their inability to judge, because one sinner cannot stand as judge towards another sinner. Judaism with its world of the letter that accuses and condemns has disappeared, making way for a new reality, that of the Father's love that has given itself to man in the Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God in Jesus is therefore rewriting his Law according to the logic no longer of the letter, but of the spirit that vivifies it. The judgement therefore is to be carried out in forgiveness and mercy.

The account of the adulteress closes with a statement: no verdict has been passed; no judgement has been accomplished. The trial that had been established against Jesus and the woman has dissolved, for this is the time of mercy and salvation and not of judgement. The Mosaic Law loses its harsh face as a judge that condemns without appeal to flow into the economy of love and grace. That is why the representatives and supporters of the Law have disappeared and only Jesus remains, the new Moses who is rewriting with the finger of God a new law, one founded on the spirit that gives life and does not take it away.

V.11 closes with the exhortation to resume and continue that journey of regeneration that began with the encounter with Jesus expressed with that "from now on" that marks a clear break between the before and the after; a new journey begins: "from now on sin no more". In our normal understanding, not sinning means not committing sins, that is, not committing violations, whereby sinning is a doing or not doing what the divine Law commands us to do. But the expression in question goes far beyond this reductive view. In fact, the verb 'amartánō' (to sin) in the first instance does not mean to sin, but to deviate, to take a wrong turn, to stray from the truth, to fall short of the goal, to fail; hence, in the second instance, also to sin, the meaning of which, however, must be understood within those meanings from which it derives. Consequently, Jesus' invitation "not to sin" is not an invitation not to violate the Mosaic Law any more, but rather to take note of how the woman, from her encounter with Jesus, has been generated to a new life ("from now on") and in this newness of life must beware of deviating and abandoning her, not so much because someone might condemn her again, but because "from now on" abandoning her already contains in itself the sense of failing that ultimate goal towards which one has set out: God, in whose life we have already been made partakers in Christ.

At this point no one, neither the Law nor God, will condemn us any longer, because we would condemn ourselves and God can no longer do anything, because, paraphrasing St Augustine, that God who created us without us, cannot save us without us. In other words, salvation is now a gift that has been placed in our hands; it is up to us to adhere to it existentially or not. And here it is not a matter of observing some commandment or not, a banal as well as deceptive way of feeling right with God, but of keeping our existential orientation towards Him, which only the Word can nourish and sustain, preventing us from sinning, that is, from failing our first and last objective: God! And this goes far beyond the observance or non-observance of some precept.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul - Romans 9-11

(Buyable on Amazon)