Alan Watson, «Jesus and the Adulteress», Vol. 80 (1999) 100-108

Many factors contribute to a re-examination of the story of the adulterous woman (John 7,53–8,11). This essay responds to these factors by its defense of the suggestion that the woman is a re-married divorcee, at fault not with the Mosaic Law, but with the teaching of Jesus on divorce.

        2. Although she has not been tried or condemned, Jesus accepts that the woman is guilty. "Go your way, and from now on do not sin again", he says (v. 11).

        3. We are not told of the evidence for this adultery. Adultery, with its penalty of stoning to death, was very difficult to prove. Two eye-witnesses were required who could testify to the unequivocal nature of the act, to the time when and the place where it occurred⁵.

        4. The witnesses are remarkably absent from the scene: they do not appear in front of Jesus, and according to Jesus (and contrary to Scripture) it is not they who should cast the first stone.

        5. Where is the adulterer? If the woman was caught in the very act of adultery, the man would also most probably have been caught. And the man was equally liable to the death penalty; Lev 20,10: "If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death"⁶.

        6. Why was the woman brought by the Pharisees and scribes to Jesus? We are told that it was "to try him" or "to tempt him". What can this mean? The usual explanation⁷ is that this is connected with the Sanhedrin’s loss of power to inflict the death penalty. I am not convinced that the Romans had taken from the Sanhedrin the power to impose the penalty of death⁸, but let us take the worst case scenario for me and assume they had. The argument is, I suppose, that if Jesus said the woman should be stoned, then he would offend the Romans, and be in danger. This approach to the issue I find unconvincing. Why on earth would the Romans be angered if Jesus, a private individual, claimed that an adulteress should be stoned? He would not even be insisting that a verdict of the Sanhedrin should be enforced. There had been none.

        Even more to the point, on this approach the Pharisees are putting themselves, not Jesus, at risk with the Romans. It is they who claim that the law of Moses that they follow imposes the penalty of death by stoning. They even said "Moses commanded us (h(mi=n) to stone such women". The supposed scenario and its explanation are entirely implausible.

        7. The outcome, when Jesus says, "Let anyone who is among you without sin be the first to throw a stone at her" (v. 7), is psychologically unreal. The normal reaction would be for everyone to grab a rock, not to