What does John 8 verses 1-12 mean?

Answer 1

The scribes and the Pharisees were trying to trick Jesus into saying something wrong so that they would have some charge to bring against Him.

They brought a woman caught in the act of adultery, and they made her stand before Jesus. The accusation of adultery was made about the woman.

The trick was clear. They wanted Jesus to contradict the Law of Moses. If they could succeed in doing that, then they could turn the common people against Jesus. They reminded Jesus that Moses, in the law commanded that a person taken in the act of adultery should be stoned to death. The Pharisees hoped Jesus would disagree, and so they asked Him what He had to say on the subject. They had no real charge against Jesus and were trying to manufacture one. They knew that if He let the woman go free, He would be opposing the Law of Moses and they would accuse Him of being unjust. If, on the other hand, He condemned the woman to death, then they might use this to show that He was an enemy of the Roman government, and they might also say that He was not merciful. Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger.

Dissatisfied, the Jews kept insisting that He make some reply. So Jesus simply stated that the penalty of the law should be carried out, but that it should be done by those who had committed no sin. Thus Jesus upheld the Law of Moses. He did not say that the woman should be free from the penalty of the law. But what He did do was to accuse every one of these men of having sinned themselves.

So what does this mean for us today? Jesus didn't condemn the woman but neither did He ignore or condone her sin. He told her to go and sin no more. God will forgive any sin in your life but repentance, a change of heart, about your sin should result in a change in your ways.

Answer 2

John 8:1-12 is known as the pericope adulterae. It tells of a woman caught in adultery and the attempts of the scribes and the Pharisees to use her example to trick Jesus, who was up to the task and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Jesus is saying that the greater sin is one of standing in judgement on the moral behaviour of others.

This passage is not in the early manuscripts of John's Gospel and is believed to have been added centuries later. There is no evidence that the event ever occurred.