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53 [a] Then the meeting broke up and everybody went home.

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and talked to them. As he was speaking, the Jewish leaders and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and placed her out in front of the staring crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Moses’ law says to kill her. What about it?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, hurl the stones at her until she dies. But only he who never sinned may throw the first!”

Then he stooped down again and wrote some more in the dust. And the Jewish leaders slipped away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until only Jesus was left in front of the crowd with the woman.

10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

11 “No, sir,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Footnotes

  1. John 7:53 Most ancient manuscripts omit 7:53–8:11.


[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]

53 Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.(A)

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.(B) The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.(C) Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap,(D) in order to have a basis for accusing him.(E)

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone(F) at her.”(G) Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,”(H) Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”(I)