John 8:10

Joh 8:10-11. When Jesus saw none but the woman — None of those who had been soliciting his judgment, but only the woman they had brought before him; he said, Where are those thine accusers? — Is there no one remaining to bear witness against thee? hath no man condemned thee — Hath no judicial sentence been passed upon thee? She said, No man, Lord: Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee — Neither do I take upon me to pass any such sentence, nor to order thee to be punished at this time: but thou must not therefore think that I approve thy conduct. Thou hast committed a great sin, and I charge thee to beware of committing it any more. Let this deliverance lead thee to repentance. “The English word condemn,” says Dr. Campbell, “is used with so great a latitude of signification, for blaming, disapproving, as well as passing sentence against, that I thought it better, in order to avoid occasion of mistaking, to use a periphrasis, which hits exactly the meaning of the Greek word κατακρινω, in these two verses.” He therefore renders the expression in the former verse, Hath no man passed sentence upon thee? and in the latter, Neither do I pass sentence on thee. “In this transaction Jesus appears unspeakably great, having displayed on the occasion a degree of wisdom and knowledge, power and goodness, vastly more than human. His wisdom he showed in defending himself against the malicious attacks of his enemies; his knowledge, in discovering the invisible state of their minds; his power, in making use of their own secret thoughts and convictions, to disappoint their crafty intentions; and his goodness, in pitying, and not punishing instantly, one who had been guilty of an atrocious act of wickedness.” — Macknight.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 8:10. Καὶ μηδένα θεασάμενος πλὴν τῆς γυναικός) The preposition πλήν, which is employed by John in no passage of all his writings, betrays the fact of these words being a gloss unknown to the ancients: he has everywhere expressed the force of that preposition by some other word.[218]—ἐκεῖνοι, those) They had now fled far away.

[218] Therefore Beng. here clearly approves of the omission of this clause (which the larger Ed. had less sanctioned), along with 2 Ed., and also the Vers. Germ.—E. B. [D Vulg. and several Versions, and Ambrose and Augustine, all omit the words.—E. and T.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_8:10-11. Οἱ κατήγ.] who have accused thee to me, as if I were to be judge.

οὐδείς] is emphatic: Has no one condemned thee? Has no one declared that thou art to be stoned? Were it not so, they would not have left the woman to go free, and all of them gone away. The κατέκρινεν here designates the sententia damnatoria, not as a judicial sentence (for the γραμματεῖς and Pharisees had come merely as asking a question concerning a matter of law or right), but simply as the judgment of an individual.

οὐδὲ ἐγώ σε κατακρ.: I also do not condemn thee. This is not the declaration of the forgiveness of sin, as in Mat_9:2, Luk_7:48, and cannot therefore justly be urged against the historical genuineness of the narrative (see, in particular, Hengstenberg); nor is it a mere declinature of judicial competency, which would be out of keeping with the preceding question, and with the admonition that follows: on the contrary, it is a refusal to condemn, spoken in the consciousness of His Messianic calling, according to which He had not come to condemn, but to seek and save the lost (Joh_3:17, Joh_12:46; Mat_18:11); not to cast out sinners; not to quench the smoking flax, etc. He accordingly does in this case what by His office He is called to do, namely, to awaken and give room for repentance[9] in the sinner, instead of condemning; for He dismisses her with the admonition μηκέτι ἁμάρτανε. Augustine well says: Ergo et Dominus damnavit, sed peccatum, non hominem. How striking the force of the negative declaration and the positive admonition!

[9] In connection with the marriage law, it is clear from this passage that, in the case of adultery, repentance on the part of the guilty party makes the continuance of the marriage allowable.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 8:10 . ἀνακύψας … Jesus, lifting His head and seeing that the woman was left alone, says to her: Ἡ γυνή … κατέκρινεν ; “Woman,” nominative for vocative, as frequently, but see critical note, “where are they? Did no man condemn thee?” That is, has no one shown himself ready to begin the stoning?

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Christ would not take upon him the civil Magistrates office: he contented himself to bring sinners to faith and repentance.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Woman, &c.--What inimitable tenderness and grace! Conscious of her own guilt, and till now in the hands of men who had talked of stoning her, wondering at the skill with which her accusers had been dispersed, and the grace of the few words addressed to herself, she would be disposed to listen, with a reverence and teachableness before unknown, to our Lord's admonition. "And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more." He pronounces no pardon upon the woman (such as, "Thy sins are forgiven thee" [compare Luk 5:28; Luk 7:48] --"Go in peace" [compare Mar 5:34; Luk 7:50; Luk 8:48]), much less does He say that she had done nothing condemnable; He simply leaves the matter where it was. He meddles not with the magistrate's office, nor acts the Judge in any sense (Joh 12:47). But in saying, "Go and sin no more," which had been before said to one who undoubtedly believed (Joh 5:14), more is probably implied than expressed. If brought suddenly to conviction of sin, admiration of her Deliverer, and a willingness to be admonished and guided by Him, this call to begin a new life may have carried with it what would ensure and naturally bring about a permanent change. (This whole narrative is wanting in some of the earliest and most valuable manuscripts, and those which have it vary to some extent. The internal evidence in its favor is almost overpowering. It is easy to account for its omission, though genuine; but if not so, it is next to impossible to account for its insertion).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(10) Where are those thine accusers?—Here again the Cambridge MS. has a shorter reading—“Where are they?” “Hath no man condemned thee?” or, more exactly, Did no man condemn thee? The “man” is in contrast to “thine accusers” or “they.” “Of all who brought the charge against thee, was there not one to condemn thee?” The question is put to her to lead to thoughts of her sin. He has spoken words which have carried a lesson to them: he has now a lesson for her.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. none but the woman] The word for ‘but’ or ‘except’ occurs nowhere in S. John’s writings excepting Rev_2:25; frequently in S. Luke, five times in S. Matthew, five times in S. Paul’s Epistles, once in S. Mark, and nowhere else.

hath no man condemned thee?] Literally, Did no man condemn thee? But here the English perfect may idiomatically represent the Greek aorist; see on Joh_8:29. The word for ‘condemn’ is a compound not found anywhere in S. John’s writings, but occurring nine times in the Synoptists. S. John uses the simple verb, which means ‘judge,’ but often acquires the notion of judging unfavourably from the context (see on Joh_3:17 and Joh_5:29).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then spake Jesus again unto them,.... Syriac fragment of Bishop Usher's, published by De Dieu, prefaces this verse thus, "when they were gathered together", Jesus said, &c. that is, the Scribes and Pharisees, who went out and returned again; or some others of them, who came after this, to whom Christ addressed himself thus:

I am the light of the world; which he might say, on occasion of the rising sun, which was now up, and might shine brightly in their faces; see Joh 8:2; which is , "the light of the world", as Aben Ezra in Psa 19:8 rightly calls it: thus on occasion of the water in Jacob's well, he discoursed of living water; and upon the Jews at Capernaum mentioning the manna, he treated at large concerning himself as the bread of life: and he might also make use of this character, and apply it to himself, with a view to some passages in the Old Testament, which speak of him under the metaphor of the sun, as Psa 84:11, and represent him as the light; and the Jews (t) themselves say, that light is one of the names of the Messiah; and God himself is called by them, the light of the world (u): and likewise he may have regard to those pompous titles and characters, which the Jewish doctors assumed arrogantly to themselves, and oppose himself to them; for they not only called Moses their master, , "the light of the world" (w), and also the law of Moses (x), but their Rabbins and doctors; See Gill on Mat 5:14. By the world here is meant, not the whole world, and all the individuals of it; for though Christ, as the Creator of all things, is the light of men, and does lighten every individual man with the light of nature and reason, yet not in a spiritual and saving manner, as is here intended; nor the whole body of the elect of God, though they are sometimes called the world, being the better part of it, and are made light in the Lord, in a special sense; nor the Jews only, and the chosen of God, among them, though Christ was a great light to many of them, that sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death; but the Gentiles are here designed, who were usually called by the Jews, the world; See Gill on Joh 3:16. And these were in gross darkness before the coming of Christ, about the Divine Being, concerning the object, nature, and manner of worship; the Scriptures, the law, and Gospel; the Messiah, and his office and work; the Spirit of God, and his operations of grace; the resurrection of the dead, and a future state; now Christ came to be a light of the Gentiles, as well as the glory of his people Israel: our Lord seems to have respect to the prophecy of him, in Isa 42:6, as well as alludes to the sun in the firmament; whose light is diffused to all the nations of the earth, and not confined to one spot of land only: but since Christ was the minister of the circumcision, and was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, it may be asked, how could he be the light of the Gentiles? to which it may be replied, that he was so by his apostles, who were sent by him with the light of the Gospel, into all the world; and by his Spirit, who enlightens the minds of men, who were darkness itself, with the light of Christ: for he is not only the author and giver of the light of nature to all men, but also of the light of grace to all his chosen ones, Gentiles as well as Jews; who, in his light, see light; see themselves lost and undone, and him to be the only willing, able, suitable, and complete Saviour; and behold wondrous things in the doctrines of the Gospel, and have some glimpse of glory; and he is likewise the author of all the light of glory the saints enjoy in the other world; the Lamb is the light of that state; he is their everlasting light, and their glory; and happy are they who are his followers now:

he that followeth me; not corporeally, but spiritually, by faith; for as believing is expressed by coming to Christ, so by following after him: compare with this, Joh 12:46; and with love and affection to him, the desires of the soul being unto him, and to the remembrance of him; and in the exercise of every grace and discharge of every duty, in imitation of him; and through a variety of sufferings and tribulations, pressing after him as the guide, captain, and forerunner: and such

shall not walk in darkness; in the darkness of unregeneracy, not knowing what they are, and where they are, and whither they are going; for such know they are in the light; and though they were blind, now they see; they know in whom they have believed, and that they are in Christ, in the covenant of grace, and in the love of God, and are going to heaven and eternal happiness; such shall not walk in the darkness of unbelief; but walk by faith on Christ; nor in the darkness of error, but in the truth of the Gospel, and as becomes it; and though they may sometimes walk without the light of God's countenance, yet light shall arise to them; and such "shall not go into darkness", as the Ethiopic version renders the words, into outer darkness, or the darkness of eternal death:

but shall have the light of life; the grace of God abiding in them now; which as it is a well of living water, springing up to eternal life, so it is a shining light, which increases to the perfect day: as darkness and death, so light and life go together; grace, which is enlightening, is also quickening and comforting, and issues in eternal light and life; a light that will never be extinguished, and a life that will continue for ever, with never fading joys and pleasures; see Job 33:30.

(t) Bereshit Rabba, fol. 1. 3. Echa Rabbati, fol. 50. 2. & Jarchi in Psal xliii. 3. (u) Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 15. fol. 217. 2. (w) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 114. 3. (x) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 4. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

Ver. 10. Where are those thine accusers?] She might have answered as Tertullian in another case not unlike, Facti sunt a corde suo fugitivi, they are fled before their own consciences, which convicted them, as it were, by argument, Joh 8:9, ελεγχομενοι.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hath no man condemned thee? - Jesus had directed them, if innocent, to cast a stone, thus to condemn her, or to use the power which he gave them to condemn her. No one of them had done that. They had accused her, but they had not proceeded to the act expressive of judicial condemnation.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The close of the former verse told us, that though the scribes and Pharisees were gone, yet the woman was left in the midst, expecting Christ’s sentence. Christ knew well enough that the scribes and Pharisees, this poor woman’s accusers, were gone; but yet he acts warily, and calls for her accusers, and asks if no man had condemned her? Thereby intimating, that the law against adultery was a just law; and if the crime were proved against her, she deserved to die; but she must first be convicted, and condemned. He asks her, If she were condemned? For then he had nothing to say.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. No man condemned thee?—They had all individually condemned her in opinion, holding her as really guilty. None of them had condemned her legally, so as to hold her liable to the legal execution.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Jesus lifted up himself,and said to her, Where are they? (these thy accusers). The question (with or without the additions) implied that our Lord had not seen the obvious effect of his words upon the accusing party. There was no triumph in his eye, no flush of victory over his enemies. Hath no one condemned thee? pronounced upon thee the sentence of condemnation? Has no one declared that thine is a case of stoning?No one? Then the judgment has yet to be uttered, if it be left with him. Shall he cast the first stone; and leave the multitude, having tasted blood, to complete the terrible work? She said, No one, Lord. And he said (to her), Neither do I condemn thee. He had not come to condemn, but to save. A time is coming when the Father would commit all judgment into his hands when his awful word, "I know you not," or "Depart from me," will be the signal of doom. But now his mission is to heal, not to wound; to comfort, not to punish; to reveal the heart of God, not to execute the crude judgments of men; to soothe, not to stone. He does not say, "Be of good courage; thy sins are forgiven." he does not say, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; Her faith hath saved her;" but, Go, and henceforth sin no more. He justifies the position that he will not quench the smoking flax nor break the bruised reed. He condemns the sin, but for a while spares the sinner. He refuses to set up his judgment against Moses, or take into his human hands the administration of civil or political law. He does not say, "Go in peace," or "Go to peace;" but from this moment, this awful "now" (apo tou nun), "sin no more." The reticence and abruptness of the narrator are not like the style of apocryphal writers. Such a narrative could not have been invented by the second-century disciples, by docetic Ebionites, by the ordinary fabricators of apocryphal literature. If the text is so varied, conflicting, and ill-sustained as to envelop it in doubt; if the place in the gospel narrative be uncertain; if the use of a few words suggests a non-Johannine source; and if the position between Joh_7:52 and 8:12 be difficult to accept; there is yet nothing inconsistent with the Johannine teaching, or the sublime and unapproachable originality of the character of the Johannine Christ. The narrative will remain for all time an illustration of the blending of judgment with mercy, which has received its highest expression in the life work and Person of the Christ.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hath no man condemned thee? - Hath no judicial sentence been passed upon thee?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

10. Omit καὶ μηδένα θεασάμενος πλὴν τῆς γυναικός after Ἰησοῦς, and ἐκεῖνοι οἱ κατήγοροί σου after εἰσιν. Γύναι for ἡ γυνή.

10. A gloss, καὶ μηδένα θεασάμενος πλὴν τῆς γυναικός, has been inserted here, as in Joh 8:6; Joh 8:9: πλήν occurs nowhere in S. John’s writings excepting Rev 2:25. Ἐκεῖνοι οἱ κατήγοροί σου is another insertion.

οὐδείς σε κατέκρινεν; Did no man condemn thee? shewing how long He had waited for an answer to His challenge. Κατακρίνω occurs nine times in the Synoptists, but not in S. John, who uses κρίνω.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. For ἀνακύψας (cf. v. 7), fam. 13 with Λ has ἀναβλέψας.

After ὁ Ἰης. the rec., with EGHK, adds the gloss καὶ μηδένα θεασάμενος πλὴν τῆς γυναικός, but om. DMS and fam. 13. πλήν is never used by Jn.

D 1071 have εἶπεν τῇ γυναικί, but MSUΓ fam. 13 have εἶπεν, Γυναί. The rec., with cursive support, has εἶπεν αὐτῇ, Ἡ γυνή, the nom. with the article being used for the vocative, a Hebraic use that occurs Mar 14:36, Mat 11:26, Luk 10:21, but not in Jn. (see on 17:21).

ποῦ εἰσίν; The rec. adds ἐκεῖνοι οἱ κατήγοροί σου, and fam. 13 has the gloss, omitting ἐκεῖνοι; but om. DMΓΛ 1071.

οὐδείς σε κατέκρινεν; The compound κατακρίνειν is not Johannine.

In this verse, Jesus is represented as waiting for a little before He spoke. “Has no one proceeded to condemn you?” is His question at last.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 10, 11. By the οὐδὲ ἐγώ, neither do I, Jesus gives the woman to understand that there was nevertheless one there who, without acting in contradiction to the rule of justice laid down in Joh 8:7, might really have the right of taking up the stone, if He thought it fit to do so; but this one even renounced it through charitable feeling and in order to leave her the opportunity of returning to virtue: “Go, and sin no more.” We must not see in the words of Jesus: I do not condemn thee, a declaration of pardon similar to that which He addresses to the penitent sinful woman in Luk 7:48; Luk 7:50. Bengel rightly remarks that Jesus does not say: “Go in peace: thy sins are forgiven thee.” For the sinful woman who is in question here did not come to Jesus by reason of a movement of repentance and faith. By not condemning her, Jesus simply grants her the opportunity for repenting and believing. It is a promise of forbearance, not justification; comp. Rom 3:24-25 (πάρεσις). And by saying to her:Sin no more, He indicates to her the path on which alone she can really lay hold upon salvation.

Thus vanish all the moral difficulties and all the historical improbabilities which Hengstenberg and others claim that they find in this story. As Reuss says: “The authenticity of the fact seems to be sufficiently established.” This incident is in every point worthy of the wisdom, holiness and goodness of Him to whom it is attributed. Jesus clearly distinguished the judicial domain from the moral domain; He wakened in His adversaries the consciousness of their own sinfulness, and He made this woman understand how she must use the opportunity of grace which is accorded to her. Finally, in the words: Where are the accusers? we think we hear, as it were, the prelude of that triumphant exclamation of the Apostle Paul: “Who shall accuse? Who shall condemn?” (Rom 8:33-34.)

The internal characteristics of this inimitable incident of the life of Jesus locate it chronologically in the same period with the other analogous facts related by the Synoptics, that is to say, immediately after the entrance into Jerusalem on Palmday (Luke 20; Matthew 22, etc.). It is, moreover, at this moment only that so explicit a recognition of the authority of Jesus on the part of the members of the Sanhedrim can be understood.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.