John 8:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And what then did the Lord answer? What did Truth proclaim? How did Wisdom speak? How did Righteousness respond when they tried to slander Her?

He did not say, "Do not stone her," lest He seem to speak against the law.

But God prevented Him from saying, "Stone her," for He came not to lose what He had found, but to seek what had been lost.

What then did He answer? See how just, how meek, how true His answer is: "He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

This is the voice of justice. Let the sinner be punished, but not by sinners. Let the law be fulfilled, but not by those who transgress the law.

What then did the Lord Jesus answer? What did Truth answer? What did Wisdom answer? What did Justice Herself answer, upon whom slander was being laid?

Finally, raising His head, He said to them: “He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” “Without sin” is expressed in Greek by the word anamartetos. Therefore, whoever says that it is one thing to be without sin and another to be anamarteton, that is, sinless, should replace the Greek word with a new expression. Or, if it has been rendered in Latin as accuracy of translation requires, then it is evident that anamarteton is nothing other than sine peccato, without sin.

When the Jews demand punishment, Jesus bows His head. Having nowhere to lay His head (Mt 8:20), He raises it again to pronounce judgment: “He who is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone at her.” See also Jn 8:11.

Do you see the wisdom of Him who is Wisdom itself, and how skillfully He exposed their malice? See how He both fulfilled the law and spared the woman. He commanded the one among them who was without sin to begin stoning her, knowing that none of them was sinless.

He who does not first judge himself does not know how to judge rightly in another. Even if he has learned by report that he must judge rightly, he cannot judge another’s transgressions when the consciousness of his own innocence gives him no criterion for judgment.

Nevertheless, on the following day the Lord again came to the temple. There, in one of the porches, after resolving the question of the sinful woman brought to Him, He again wished to draw all the people's attention to Himself.

He cried aloud to the people: "I am the light of the world. He who comes to Me shall not walk in darkness."

This was, as it were, an encouragement for everyone constrained by the Sanhedrin's decree to leave that gloomy assembly, without fearing that he would incur destruction.

The light of the nations, which Israel had been until then, had grown dark. A new sun was rising, both for the sons of Israel who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, and for the Gentiles.

Jesus Christ spent the night after the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles on the Mount of Olives. The next morning He again came to the temple.

All the people who had not yet dispersed to their homes after the feast hastened to gather around Him. Jesus Christ sat down and began to teach.

At this time the scribes, learned in the law, and the Pharisees, strict zealots for legal righteousness, brought to Him a woman taken in adultery, either a married woman or a betrothed maiden; Lev 20:10; Deut 22:23-24.

Tempting Him, they asked, "Moses commanded in the law that such women be stoned. What do You say?"

Such a law concerning adulterers and adulteresses had indeed been given by Moses, as noted above. But in the time of Jesus Christ it was not applied.

The silence of Jesus irritated the accusers, and they continued to question Him. That is, they repeated their question many times, while He remained silent and continued to write with His finger on the sand. At last Jesus raised His head, looked at the impatient accusers, and said, “He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then, not even wishing to see what impression His words had made on His deceitful enemies, He again bent down and wrote on the ground.

The Savior saw their insolent malice, which delighted in the moral shame and misery of their neighbor, and He was ashamed for His people. As though He had not heard the question addressed to Him, He bent His face downward and silently wrote with His finger on the ground. Then, having calmed His spirit, the Savior raised His thoughtful gaze and gently said to the insolent questioners: “He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Having said this, He lowered His eyes again and continued writing on the floor. But this was enough. The cunningly devised malice fell into dust.

"He who is without sin among you," and so forth. This does not mean sinlessness in general, which is impossible for man, but innocence or guilt regarding the particular sin of which the accusers had begun to speak.

It refers not to the particular manifestation found in the accused woman, but to the general sense: sin against the commandment concerning chastity. See Lk 7:37, and compare Jn 5:14.

"Let him first cast a stone at her." According to the law (Deut 17:7), in stoning, the first stones were to be cast by the witnesses of the condemned person's guilt, on whose testimony he had been condemned.

Only afterward did all cast stones. This law aimed to impress upon them the importance of testimony in accusation and the awareness of the accusers' special responsibility.

But Jesus stooped down and wrote with His finger on the ground, paying no attention to them. The phrase "paying no attention," rendered from Μη προσποιουμενος, is an explanatory addition.

According to Jerome, the Savior wrote on the ground the sins of the stern accusers of the sinner. According to Ambrose, He wrote a rebuke of their failure to attend to themselves.

But in the Evangelist it is not clear whether the Savior traced definite words or merely made marks. It is clear only what He wished to show.

Those who accuse another with an unclean conscience are not worth speaking with. Before all else, they must turn their attention to themselves. They must consider themselves, who they are and what they are like.

The Lord compels each of the accusers to look into his own conscience, and either to refrain from applying the law to the accused woman, or else to declare his own sinlessness.

As we see, not one of the accusers dared to do the latter, despite all their malice.

The Lord transfers the law from the sphere of the letter into the moral sphere. He shows that among men there is no one without sin, and all need mercy.

To the sinner, the Lord shows that for him too there is a door of salvation in the Lord's great love.

The accusers, convicted by conscience, that guardian of the "image and likeness of God" in man, begin to go out, "beginning with the elders."

The Savior, it is said, when He saw her and perceived that they were preparing to stone her, said to those intending to cast stones at her: “He who has not sinned, let him first take a stone and cast it.” That is, if someone thinks he has not sinned, let him take a stone and strike her.