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

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

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.”]

The Light of the World

¹² Jesus spoke to them again: “I am^(O) the light^(P) of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”^(Q)

¹³ So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴ “Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going.^{(R) 15} You judge^(S) by human standards.^[b](T) I judge no one.^{(U) 16} And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.^{(V) 17} Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.^{(W) 18} I am the one who testifies^(X) about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

¹⁹ Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?”

“You know neither me nor my Father,”^(Y) Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”^{(Z) 20} He spoke these words by the treasury,^(AA) while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

Jesus Predicts His Departure

²¹ Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; ^(AB) you will look for me, and you will die in your sin.^(AC) Where I’m going, you cannot come.”^(AD)

²² So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’^(AE)?”

²³ “You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above.^(AF) You are of this world; ^(AG) I am not of this world.^{(AH) 24} Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

²⁵ “Who are you?” they questioned.

“Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them. ²⁶ “I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me^(AI) is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.”^(AJ)

²⁷ They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man,^(AK) then you will know that I am^(AL) he, and that I do nothing on my own.^(AM) But just as the Father taught me, I say these things. ²⁹ The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,^(AN) because I always do what pleases him.”

Truth and Freedom

³⁰ As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Fellowship with God

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light,^(A) and there is absolutely no darkness in him.^{(B) 6} If we say, “We have fellowship^(C) with him,” and yet we walk in darkness,^(D) we are lying and are not practicing the truth.^{(E) 7} If we walk in the light^(F) as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus^(G) his Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away^(A) and the true light^(B) is already shining.^(C)