John 8:5

John 8:5. Now in the law Moses commanded to stone such: what therefore sayest thou concerning her? The words ‘concerning her,' which do not occur in the Authorised Version, but which the best authorities lead us to accept, throw light upon the scene. It is not a mere abstract contrast between Moses and a new Lawgiver that is before us: it is a special case. By the way in which Jesus deals with this woman shall the end of His enemies be gained. The law of Moses expressly decreed death by stoning only to a betrothed virgin who proved faithless, and to her seducer (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). It has been inferred, therefore, that this woman was only betrothed, not married. The supposition is unnecessary. It is enough to remember that adultery (in the ordinary sense of the word) was punishable with death; and that, in a case of violation of the Sabbath, the Divine command to punish the transgressor with death was interpreted to mean putting him to death by stoning (Numbers 15:35). We need thus have no hesitation in believing that the same mode of punishment would be applied to all sins similar in character to that which alone has the penalty of stoning expressly attached to it.

It is hardly possible to pass by without notice the singular italicised clause of the present Authorised Version at the end of John 8:6, ‘ as though he heard them not.' The clause is intended for a translation of certain words of the Complutensian text which Stephens adopted in his editions of A. D. 1546 and 1549, but not in that of 1550, which became the Textus Receptus. The words are not found in any early English Version, neither in Wycliffe nor Tyndale, nor Coverdale, nor the Great Bible, nor the two Gene van Versions. They are also absent from the Rheims Version of A.D. 1582. They first occur in the Bishops' Bible. In the Version of A.D. 1611 they are not printed in italics. Dr. Scrivener says that they were not italicised earlier than A.D. 1769.