1. Don’t be so quick to judge others.
2. Make sure to inquire from the Law of Moses about how to judge this matter.
3. There is now no condemnation in the Messiah.
4. Jesus chose this moment to show that women were emancipated from society’s presuppositions.
Option 2 is the correct answer.
The Torah clearly states in Deuteronomy 17:7, “The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.”
In other words, those who directly witnessed the crime were required to initiate the judgment.
However, in the account in John 8, this requirement was not met:
- No valid witnesses were present
- The man involved in the adultery was absent, though the Law requires both parties to be present (Leviticus 20:10)
The case was therefore legally incomplete and unjust. As a result, there were no grounds for a lawful judgment, and certainly no basis for stoning.
Some argue that with the Messiah’s advent, the Torah was done away with. This incident further substantiates Yeshua’s upholding of the Torah while exposing the injustice and hypocrisy of those who brought the accusation. It prompted the accusers to examine whether they met the Torah’s standard as witnesses and judges.