The Badly Abused Woman of John 8
by Mark Roberts, editor
She is unnamed but not unknown. She is the famous woman of John 8, who was caught in the very act of adultery and dragged before Jesus by the Pharisees and scribes (John 8:1-11). Watching this scene our curiosity seeks the details Scripture does not record. Was she embarrassed and ashamed or defiant and angry? Did the Pharisees give her time to dress properly or is she trying to cling to a bed sheet to preserve modesty and the last shred of decency she might have left? There is much we don’t know here, but John leaves no doubt: she is being abused. John 8:6 says “this they said to test Him, that they might have some charge to bring against Him.” It wasn’t about truth, or what was right. They were using her to try and find some chink in Jesus’ armor.
Sadly, she continues to be abused to this day. That abuse continues when she is used to stop the application of God’s Word to sin and error. Just try it and see how fast John 8’s woman can make an appearance. Announce that the Bible teaches homosexuality is wrong and someone will quickly say “He who is without sin…” Quote Scripture about divorce, temper, drunkenness or any other sin and someone will say “You shouldn’t be casting stones.” There it is. When Jesus said “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,” He doesn’t want anyone to speak out against or rebuke sin. Some even have used this story to support the view that grace and love must outweigh condemnation and rebuke of sin. Jesus urges, some say, people to “drop their rocks” aimed at sinners and instead love them. Yet to use John 8 in these ways is a terrible abuse of Scripture. Let’s see why.
First, “casting the first stone” does not refer to teaching against sin. It refers to executing the woman! Jesus does not talk of stones as a figure of speech or as a metaphor. The stones that day were real and would be used to put the woman to death. In a fine article from his Gospel Way website (www.biblestudylessons.com, David Pratte observes
‘Casting the first stone’ refers to killing the woman, not just rebuking her sin. It is a gross perversion to teach that people are ‘casting stones’ in the sense of John 8 when they simply rebuke people for sin! Jesus’ disciples often pointed out people’s errors, but the subject under discussion here is killing the woman for adultery. It has nothing to do with whether or not sin should be rebuked.
Second, Jesus’ language makes clear that He knows more about this situation than the Pharisees and scribes wish. Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy, especially from Deut. 13:8-9 and 17:7. Note carefully what the Scriptures say:
If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods,” which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (Deuteronomy 13:6-10, ESV).
Moses makes clear that such sin is to be dealt with great severity.
What is also clear, however, is that those who did the stoning were to be absolutely innocent of the sin being punished. They were not to “yield to him or listen to him.” Does this mean the executioners would be sinless, i.e. perfect? Of course not. If that is the criteria no one would have ever been executed. Yet the Bible shows several executions (see Numbers 15:32-36; Joshua 7:26). What does this mean? The Law simply prescribed that the executioners be innocent of sin in the matter being prosecuted. If they had partaken of idolatry, they could hardly be part of the judgement pronounced on other idolaters! Instead, they would be worthy of such judgment. Deuteronomy 13 (and its similar passage in Deut 17) shows that the hands of the executioners were to be sinless regarding the matter before them. That was the requisite for executing a sinner.
Now we turn to John 8. When Jesus presses the sinlessness of the men before Him what does He mean? Jesus means that they are involved in this matter and thus cannot bring judgment on her! In some way they were part of her immorality. Perhaps this was a “frame up.” Perhaps they had been sexually immoral with this woman as well. We don’t know how they had sinned with her but Jesus did! Jesus knew that they were not innocent of the sin before Him. He knew that they were just as guilty of sexual immorality as the woman was. He knew that they were guilty of sin in this matter. They are part of what she did, and thus are guilty with her.
Doesn’t this explain why they each left? Jesus quotes the Law that requires uninvolved innocent people to do the stoning and every man there knew that he had been caught. Jesus knew they were deeply involved in this sin and thus were just as guilty as the woman they had brought before Him. They could not stone her for they were part of her sin! Jesus knew it, and now they knew that Jesus knew. What a frightening thought!
Is there application to rebuking sin today in John 8? Only if someone is hypocritically pursuing sin while at the same preaching against others who are doing as he does! If a man is involved in drunkenness, he cannot rebuke others for their sin when he is just as guilty as they are. Such hypocrisy is not pleasing to God in any way.
Third, trying to use this text to force a distinction between grace and law is absolutely without merit. Some try to say that instead of “condemning” sinners this story says we should love them and not “judge” them. Nicole Johnson’s book Dropping Your Rocks - Choosing Love Over Judgment proposes this view. She writes:
Almost since the beginning of time, human beings have had a brutally simple way of dealing with wrong: rocks. Someone would point out the offender in the camp or the family or the clan, and everyone would come running. Picking up a cold, hard ballot of stone, they would violently cast their vote against wrong, again and again and again, until it was gone. It was their way.”
It should be noted that stoning was not done casually or as mob violence (as she implies here), nor was stoning “their way.” Stoning was prescribed by God as a means to punish sinners among Israel. Johnson wants people to believe that it is better to “love” (which means don’t condemn or rebuke sin) sinners than “throw rocks” at sinners (which means telling them God disapproves of their behavior). Yet in John 8, Jesus did exactly what Johnson says shouldn’t be done: He condemned the woman! Jesus plainly tells the woman her life of sin is wrong in God’s eyes and must stop. “Go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:11). It is hard to say sin cannot be condemned when Jesus says “sin no more,” clearly implying she had been in sin! The Lord understood real love never overlooks sin! If you know someone can’t swim and you see them heading into deep water is it loving to say nothing because you don’t want to “condemn” them or damage their self-esteem by saying “You can’t swim”? What foolishness! We would not hesitate, regardless of whether it made them feel bad or ignorant, to shout “Stop! You are in danger, you could drown!” Is doing the same thing for souls when eternal life is on the line somehow unloving?
Let no one set up a false dichotomy of grace versus law or love versus condemnation. If we love someone, we will want them to do right and we will try to help them see when they are in sin so they can repent and do right. That is exactly what Jesus did here. The Lord’s words gave the woman both hope and admonition. She had been forgiven by the Son of God but such was not a license to continue in sin, nor did it excuse what she had been doing. Stop sinning, Jesus says!
The woman of John 8 was being misused long ago by the Pharisees and scribes. Sadly, her case continues to be badly abused. Trying to use John 8 to prop up a silent, say nothing, do nothing Christianity that tolerates every sin simply won’t work. Such violates numerous other passages about rebuking sin, but even in this context, simply will not work. Let us be kind to those caught in sin, as Jesus was, but let us speak the truth as well: “go and sin no more.”