7: " The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death." — It sent their minds home to their own private lives. " Whatever the woman may deserve, are you the people to find fault with her? " — It neither condemned nor justified the adulteress, and yet showed our Lord's reverence for the law of Moses. "I decline to pronounce sentence on this woman, because I am not the judge. You know yourselves what the law is in such cases as well as I do. You have no right to assume that I do not reverence the law as much as yourselves. But since you profess to honour the law of Moses so much, I remind you that this same law requires the witnesses to be the executioners. Now are you the persons who ought to punish this woman, however guilty she may be? Do you yourselves come before me with clear consciences about the seventh com- mandment?"
Many think that when our Lord said " he that is without sin," He meant the expression to be taken in a general sense. I can- not hold this view. It would involve the awkward conclusion that no one could be a judge at all, or punish a criminal, be- cause no one is altogether and absolutely " without sin." I am decidedly of opinion that our Lord referred to sin against the seventh commandment. There is too much reason to think that such sin was very common among the Jews in our Lord's time. The expression " an adulterous generation " (Matt. xii. 39; xvi. 4; and Mark viii. 38) is full of meaning. (See also Rom. ii. 22; Luke xviii. 11; and James iv. 4.)
8. — [And again he stooped down, etc.'] This repeated act would greatly add to the weighty solemnity of the sentence which had just fallen from our Lord's lips. " I have given my opinion ; — now what are you going to do? I wait for your reply."
9. — [And they which heard... conscience.'] This sentence seems to me to confirm the opinion, that when our Lord said " he that is without sin," He referred to sin against the seventh command- ment. A general charge would hardly have produced the effect here described. A charge of breaking the seventh command- ment would be just such an one as a man would shrink from, if made publicly. The sin is peculiarly one which brings with it afterwards a certain sense of shame. It is commonly a deed of darkness and done in secret, and the doer of it dreads the light.
The power of conscience stands out here in a very striking manner. It is a part of man's inward nature which is far too little remembered by ministers and teachers. Fallen and cor- rupt as man is, we must never forget that God has left him a certain sense of right and wrong, called conscience. It has uo power to save, or convert, or lead to Christ. But it has a power to accuse, and prick, and witness. Such texts as Rom. ii. 15 and 2 Cor. iv. 2 should be carefully considered.
[Went out.. .beginning. ..eldest.. .last.] The words "eldest "and
JOHN, chap. vin. 73
" last " in this sentence are in the plural number, which does not appear in the English version. The oldest would probably have the greatest number of sins on their minds.
[Jesus was left alone, and the woman... midst.'] This must of course mean that the Scribes and Pharisees who accused the women were all gone away. It does not necessarily follow that the crowd of hearers who were about our Lord when the case was brought to Him had gone away. They must have stood by, and seen and heard all that passed.
10. — [When Jesus had lifted up himself, etc.~\ How long the pause must have been during which our Lord stooped down and wrote on the ground a second time, we are not told. But it must probably have been several minutes. When it says that our Lord " saw none but the woman," it must mean " none of the party which came and interrupted His teaching, except the woman." The accusers had disappeared, and the accused alone remained.
The question that our Lord put to the woman must have been for the satisfaction of the crowd around. Let them mark from the question and answer that the case had fallen to the ground. No evidence was offered. No accuser appeared. No sentence therefore could be pronounced, and none was needed.
11.— [She said, No man, Lord.] We may observe here that our Lord, with merciful consideration, did not ask the woman whether she was guilty or not. Thus she could with truth re- ply to His question, and yet not criminate herself.
[Jesus said... neither do I condemn... sin no more.] The mingled kindness and perfect wisdom of this sentence deserve special notice. Our Lord says nothing of the question whether the woman deserved punishment, and what kind of punishment. He simply says " I do not condemn thee. It is not my province or offence to judge or pronounce any sentence." — Nor yet does He tell the woman that she may go away without stain or blem- ish on her character. On the contrary He implies that she had sinned and was guilty. But in the absence of witnesses she might go away clear of punishment. — Nor yet does He say " Go in peace," as in Luke vii. 50, and viii. 48.
"Go," He says, "and sin no more." How anyone, in the face of this text, can say that our Lord palliates and condones the woman's sin, it is rather hard to understand. That He re- fused to condemn her is clear and plain, because it was not His office. That He ignored or connived at her sin, as Hengsteu- berg says, (in his argument against the genuineness of the whole passage,) can never be proved. The very last words show what he thought of her case : — " Sin no more." She had sinned, and had only escaped from lack of evidence. Let her remember that, and' "sin no more."
Augustine remarks, "How, Lord? Dost thou then favour 4
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