Page 90 - Gospel of John_teachers lesson_cp 1-10_Neat

beyond attending the Holy Feast would have gathered for Shacharit naturally providing an
audience to hear the Rabbi teach. He sits down to comfortably resume His instructions, in plain
sight without fear of temple soldiers coming to apprehend Him.

(John 8:3-5) – The scribes and Pharisees present the Rabbi with a woman taken into custody
while in engaging in the act of adultery. The detail that expresses, she was caught in the act
implies the encounter was engineered to take her alone into custody leaving the man selected
to solicit her involvement free from condemnation. The religious leaders bate the Messiah into
affirming how to apply the law of stoning as punishment for her sin, hoping to draw Him into
conflict with Moses, the great Patriarch of the Jewish nation.
(John 8:6) – The snare was intended to provide the temple leaders with evidence of a Rabbinic
violating the enforcement of Torah law, thereby making Him susceptible to the punishment He
failed to apply to the woman.
Without offering a response, the Rabbi begins writing with His finger in the dust upon which
they are all standing.

John 8:7- 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.
John 8:8-And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

John 8:9- And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience,
went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus
was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

Lesson Notes:
(John 8:7-9) – The leaders push Him to respond, asking again for a reply. He rises from the
ground with an unexpected answer. The Rabbi proposed a challenge greater than the one
offered to Him, saying: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone…”. He was
prepared to participate in their makeshift judgment hall, only after the one among them
without sin in this act, or any other initiated the punishment.
He returns to writing in the ground. Accounting for the gesture a second time leads to
questions about the manuscript in the dirt. What did He write that was so compelling to cause
every accuser to defect? The text offers no explanations, leaving only speculation. Among a
few to consider would be the names of each witness to the act of adultery written on the dirt
canvas.

Jewish law required that such an act be witnessed in person and that the witness offered a
verbal warning of the consequence assigned to the sinful act before it began. The witness was
expected to standby long enough to hear a formal response and report the same if the violator
did not heed the warning. The Rabbi could have written the names of those that professed to
have witnessed the infraction. Generally, the witness would be appointed by the Sanhedrin
court to cast the stones of execution; an invitation the Rabbi had already offered to the
woman’s accusers.

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