Ver. 1. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives] His usual oratory. There he prayed by night, and then early in the morning he came again into the temple to preach. Thus he divided his time between praying and preaching. So did the ministers of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 33:10, and of the New, Acts 6:2. So must all who will do good of it; since Paul may plant, Apollos water, but God only gives increase, 1 Corinthians 3:6. V er. 2. And taught them] [See Trapp on “Joh 8:1”]
Ver. 3. And the scribes, &c.] Deest haec historia apud quamplurimos interpretes. (Beza.)
Ver. 4. In the very act] Gr. in the very theft; perhaps to intimate the great theft that is in adultery, whiles the child of a stranger carries away the goods or lands of the family; which therefore the adulteress is bound in conscience to confess, επ’ ψυτοφωρω. St Paul gives ch arge, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in the matter; that is, in the matter of the marriage bed; but that every one possess his vessel, that is, his wife, the weaker vessel in sanctification and honour, as some interpret it. Defraud, i.e. in re Venerea, in adulterio. Sic intelligunt Jerome, Chrysost., Heinsius.
Ver. 5. Such should be stoned] Adultery was to be punished with death. Society and the purity of posterity could not otherwise continue among men; which is well observed by divines to be the reason why adultery is named, under it all uncleanness being forbidden, when yet other violations are more heinous, as sodomy and bestiality; nevertheless, other sins do not so directly fight against society, which the law mainly respects. (Huet of Cons.)
Ver. 6. And with his finger wrote on the ground] That he wrote downward (as the Syrians then did, and as the Chinese now do, and so their lines at the top do begin again) is very probable. But what he wrote (whether those words, Jeremiah 22:29, or those Matthew 7:3) nothing certain can be determined; the Scripture is silent; and where the Scripture hath not a tongue, we need not have ears; write he did (like himself we may be sure, as Quintilian saith of Julius Caesar, illum eodem animo scripsisse, quo bellavit, that he wrote with the same spirit he sought,) and perhaps he thus wrote on the ground to show that sin, which is written before God, Isaiah 65:6, and graven as it were with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond, Jeremiah 17:1, is pardoned and blotted out by Christ as easily as a writing slightly made in the dust. Maslus in Gram. Syr.
Ver. 7. He that is without sin among you] Not that is impeccable, and not subject to sin (as the Greek, αναμαρτητος, may here seem to sound), but that allows not himse lf, wallows not in some gross sin, yea, perhaps in this very sin Clodius aecusat moechum. (Juvenal.) Thus our Saviour wrings those supercilious and censorious hypocrites, who hated virum, non vitium; as it is said of Crassus the Roman, that he was very severe against covetousness in others, when there was not a more covetous person than himself. Carere debet omni vitio qui in alterum paratus eat dicere, said a heathen. He had need be unblamable that blameth another. And therefore the apostle, after that he had said, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them rather”; he soon after addeth, “walk circumspectly, not as fools,” &c., Ephesians 5:11,15. Anabaptiatae scripserunt adulteria non esse punienda per homines, &c. Joh.. Manl.
Ver. 8. And again he stooped down] In sign of slighting, or that he might give them the more confidence of going out, see John 8:6. Our Saviour dealt by this adulteress somewhat like as the Areopagites dealt by the dame of Smyrna, whom they appointed to appear some hundred years after, to show that they would neither condemn not acquit her. (Rous, Arch. Att.)
Ver. 9. Convicted by their own conscience] Which is God’s spy and man’s overseer, index, iudex, vindex: a sign, a judge a defender, so that sinners are self-condemned αυτοκατακριτοι, and often betrayed by their own blushing and heart beating, when yet the offence is secret. Yea, a man feels an inward shame in his own heart, disgracing and abusing him, though he make no outward show of it. For albeit an innocent person, upon the foulness of an aspersion, may conceive shame, as did David, Psalms 44:15, yet it is usually the effect of an ill conscience.
Ver. 10. Where are those thine accusers?] She might have answered as Tertullian in another case not unlike, Facti sunt a corde suo fugitivi, they are fled before their own consciences, which convicted them, as it were, by argument, John 8:9, ελεγχομενοι.
Ver. 11. Neither do I condemn thee] Hence an Anabaptist will argue that adultery is not to be punished (as they did from that text, “whoremongers and adulterers God will judge,” therefore men ought not to meddle with them). But they may as well say that inheritances are not to be divided between brethren, because our Saviour refused to divide them, Luke 12:14, it being without the lists of his calling, no proper employment of his.