Debate over Jesus’s Claims

⁴⁵ Then the servants^(A) came to the chief priests^(B) and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

⁴⁶ The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!” ^[a](C)

⁴⁷ Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled^(D) too? ⁴⁸ Have any of the rulers^(E) or Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus^(F)—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, ⁵¹ “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?” ^(G)

⁵² “You aren’t from Galilee^(H) too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”^(I)

[The earliest mss do not include 7:53–8:11.]

[⁵³ Then each one went to his house.^[b]

8 ¹ But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.^(A)

An Adulteress Forgiven

² At dawn he went to the temple^(B) again, and all the people were coming to him.^(C) He sat down^(D) and began to teach them.

³ Then the scribes and the Pharisees^(E) brought a woman caught in adultery,^(F) making her stand in the center. ⁴ “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.^{(G) 5} In the law Moses^(H) commanded us to stone such women.^(I) So what do you say?” ⁶ They asked this to trap him,^(J) in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.

Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. ⁷ When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin^(K) among you^(L) should be the first to throw a stone at her.”^{(M) 8} Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. ⁹ When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center. ¹⁰ When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹ “No one, Lord,”^[a] she answered.

“Neither do I condemn you,”^(N) said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”]