John 8:3

ἄγουσι δὲ οἱ γραμματεῖς … κατειλημμένην. The scribes and the Pharisees, who in the synoptics regularly appear as the enemies of Jesus, bring to Him a woman taken in adultery. In itself an unlawful thing to do, for they had a court in which the woman might have been tried. Obviously it was to find occasion against Him that they brought her; see John 8:6. They knew He was prone to forgive sinners. καὶ στήσαντες … τί λέγεις; “And having set her in the midst,” where she could be well seen by all; a needless and shameless preliminary, “they say to Him, Teacher,” appealing to Him with an appearance of deference, “this woman here has been apprehended in adultery in the very act”. ἐπʼ αὐτοφώρῳ is the better reading. Originally meaning “caught in the act of theft ” (φώρ), it came to mean generally “caught in the act,” red-hand. But also, as the instances cited by Kypke show, it frequently meant “on incontrovertible evidence,” “manifestly”. Thus in Xen., Symp., iii. 13, ἐπʼ αὐτοφώρῳ εἴλημμαι πλουσιώτατος ὤν, I am evidently convicted of being the richest. See also Wetstein and Elsner.