Jesus and the woman caught in adultery

Jesus and the woman caught in adultery is a story from the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is in John 7:53–8:11.

A painting based on the story

In the story, Jesus was teaching in the Second Temple after coming from the Mount of Olives. A group of scribes (record keepers) and Pharisees (Jewish teachers) interrupt Jesus and speak to him. These people do not like Jesus, so they want to trick him into saying something wrong. They bring in a woman and say she was caught in adultery: having sex with a man while married to another man. They say that for punishment, she should be killed by stoning, according to the law of Moses. They ask Jesus for his answer. He starts to write something on the ground with his finger, but when they ask him again, he answers. He says that a person who has never sinned (done something bad) should throw the first stone. The scribes and Pharisees know that they have all sinned, so they leave. Jesus asks the woman if anyone has condemned her, and she answers no. Jesus says that he, also, does not condemn her. He tells her to go and sin no more.

The passage

John 7:53–8:11 in the New Revised Standard Version:

⁵³ Then each of them went home, ^8:1 while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ²Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. ³The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, ⁴they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. ⁵Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ⁶They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." ⁸And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" ¹¹She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."

— John 7:53–8:11, NRSV

Meaning

The ideas in this story are important in Christian thought. There is a message of mercy and forgiveness, and a call for holy living, without sin. The phrases "go and sin no more" and to "cast the first stone" are in common use.

History of the passage

Most scholars agree that this story was not in the earliest versions of the Gospel of John. It was added later. Scholars learned this by reading these early versions, or manuscripts.