3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
4 they said to Him, “Teacher,1 this woman was caught in aadultery, in the very act.
5aNow Moses, in the law, commanded us2 that such should be stoned. But what do You3 say?”
6 This they said, testing Him, that they amight have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger,1 as though He did not hear.
7 So when they continued asking Him, He1 raised Himself up and said to them, a“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 Then those who heard it,abeing convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
Moses in the law ... - The punishment of adultery commanded by Moses was death, Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22. The particular manner of the death was not specified in the law. The Jews had themselves, in the time of Christ, determined that it should be by stoning. See this described in the notes at Matthew 21:35, Matthew 21:44. The punishment for adultery varied. In some cases it was strangling. In the time of Ezekiel Ezekiel 16:38-40 it was stoning and being thrust through with a sword. If the adulteress was the daughter of a priest, the punishment was being burned to death.
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