John 7:45-53
The Jewish Leaders Do Not Believe
Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees. They asked the guards, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
“You mean he has fooled you also?” the Pharisees asked. “Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob knows nothing about the law. There is a curse on them.”
Then Nicodemus, a Pharisee, spoke. He was the one who had gone to Jesus earlier. He asked, “Does our law find a man guilty without hearing him first? Doesn’t it want to find out what he is doing?”
They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Look into it. You will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
Then they all went home.
John 8:1-11
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At sunrise he arrived again in the temple courtyard. All the people gathered around him there. He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman. She had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of the group. They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who was not her husband. In the Law, Moses commanded us to kill such women by throwing stones at them. Now what do you say?” They were trying to trap Jesus with that question. They wanted to have a reason to bring charges against him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. They kept asking him questions. So he stood up and said to them, “Has any one of you not sinned? Then you be the first to throw a stone at her.” He bent down again and wrote on the ground.
Those who heard what he had said began to go away. They left one at a time, the older ones first. Soon only Jesus was left. The woman was still standing there. Jesus stood up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Hasn’t anyone found you guilty?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then I don’t find you guilty either,” Jesus said. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
