John 8:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

Navigator

John 8:3

Comments

The scribes and Pharisees try to set Christ what they think is an inescapable trap. It seems that they had thought rather carefully about this for some time. Actually, the law of stoning had fallen into disuse. The law of stoning as a punishment was only for the case of a betrothed woman, not for adultery generally in the ancient law, an engaged woman, who is unfaithful even before the marriage ceremony. That was considered the worst of all, but it was in disuse. One ancient Jewish commentator put it like this – the nation had become so adulterous that if they had continued stoning in such cases, they would run out of stones before they ran out of offenders. Well, that is Jewish humour, but it points to the reality that adultery had become too common for this punishment. But what the scribes thought was this: Let’s put this problem to this so-called Messiah – what do we do if the case comes up where we should stone somebody, since we are prevented by the law of Rome by doing so? Only Rome can administer the death sentence, more usually by beheading or strangling or crucifixion. But we are not permitted to, so what should we do? Obey Rome or obey God?So, there was an interruption, a tremendous disturbance, and these illustrious Pharisees, and scribes with them, burst into the area, where he taught, with a steely determination to interrupt proceedings and to embarrass the Lord as much as they possibly could. Behind them they were trailing some poor woman taken in an overnight arrest. The authorities were alerted by some means, and so there she was caught in an adulteress situation, in fornication, and she is dragged in, almost triumphantly because, now, the cunning of the Pharisees meets with this opportunity to trap and ensnare Him.

Application

Questions

There are some ancient manuscripts of the New Testament that do not have this passage about the woman taken in adultery at all, and for that reason many liberal and unbelieving scholars believe it is not authentic. In some modern translations of the Bible it will be marked as, ‘Not in such-and-such manuscripts’. Of course, those manuscripts that leave out this account are at fault and are in error, and generally the suggestion is that they come from fairly corrupt sources, and the priests who made them did not want this account to be in the New Testament because they felt it would encourage adultery. They felt that the Lord appears to be quite slack in his dealing with adultery. So human beings, possibly, have stood in judgement on the passage and taken it out. However, in the most reliable manuscripts and the oldest, it is certainly there, that the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery.

One of the points that unbelieving scholars make is – this is not like John. John never uses this phrase, ‘the scribes and the Pharisees’. Matthew, Mark and Luke do, but John does not. When John wants to refer to the leaders of the Jews, he simply says, the Jews. But it is actually vital in this instance that John should particularly identify the scribes and the Pharisees, because it is those two parties alone that would ever have put up this problem and this test to Christ. The Pharisees stood out in that they were meticulous in insisting on the literal application of every element of the ceremonial law, including all the penalties. To them, righteousness consisted in honouring every detail of ceremony and the penalties for offences. Furthermore the scribes were the scholars, the doctors of the law. They were the professors in the Rabbinical schools who did nothing else in their life but study the ancient law of God, and debate it. Roman law forbids us carrying out the stoning of a betrothed woman who commits adultery even before her marriage ceremony but what does the law say? The Sadducees would not have brought a charge like this. They were not that interested in the law. They were the kind of more liberal wing of the Judaism of the time. So it is absolutely relevant that John departs from his usual practice of saying, the Jews, and specifically identifies these two parties, the scribes and the Pharisees.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

John 8:3 Commentary and Bible Study