To be caught in an adulterous act in ancient times was to know that your time on earth would soon end in a terrible death by stoning. That was the punishment faced by the woman brought to Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. Biblical scholars say that the woman was a convenient ploy in the plan of those men to trap Jesus into somehow breaking the Law of Moses. The scribes and Pharisees reminded Jesus that Mosaic Law required that she be stoned, but they asked Jesus, “what sayest thou?” (John 8:5). Even Jesus recognized that it was a question with enormous implications for both himself and the woman.

The poor woman stood there, her fate being decided by a group of men, yet there is no mention of the whereabouts of her lover. Jesus can't very well tell the men to release her, because he would essentially be saying to disobey the Mosaic Law. But Jesus knew that the group of men was no less guilty of sin than the woman. He doesn't judge her, but instead stoops down and writes on the ground with his finger. Some have suggested that he wrote the names of the men in the group who were themselves adulterers. The Gospel of John, in which this story is found, does not reveal exactly what Jesus wrote. But pressured by the men to give his opinion, Jesus takes his time to give a measured response.

The adulterous woman brought before Jesus

One by one the men began to leave. The woman apparently stands before Jesus in silence, waiting for her fate to be decided by a group of men rapidly shrinking in size. Finally, only she and Jesus remain. The woman must have felt relief and bewilderment. In her world, men held great power over the means of life and death of a woman. She might have just as easily fled after the men had left, but she didn't. Jesus stood up to face her and asked, “…where are those, thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” (John 8:10). The woman replied no man [remained]. Jesus told her that neither did he condemn her. He counseled her to go and sin no more.

The Gospel of John says no more about the woman. She may have decided to follow Jesus' advice to live more virtuously after coming so close to death in her quest for sensual pleasure. The story is both a morality lesson and also an example of how Jesus viewed women differently than the way other men saw them in first-century Palestine. He showed a more egalitarian, loving, and respectful way of treating them than they were generally treated with in their society. Not surprisingly, all types of women chose to follow him, among them the outcasts of society, widows, the lame and sick, and others who were displaced or disenfranchised.