notes on John 8:1-11

some things i note from the passage (help from http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/John/Jesus-Forgives-Woman-Taken):

• the woman was caught in the very act of adultery, but the man was supposedly not held accountable - what was the penalty or the law for the man who she had been caught with? from Lev 20:10 and Deut 22:22-24, the man should also have died. she seems to have been simply a pawn being used to try to frame Jesus - her actual life was not important to the Pharisees or scribes
  
• the Pharisees and scribes were apparently trying to trap Him so that they would have something to accuse Him with. if Jesus sided with the law and said the woman deserved to be stoned, His forgiveness and compassion would have been undermined. if He had not sided with the law, the Jewish people would not follow Him (His credibility would have been ruined)
• the Pharisees and scribes allude to the law of Moses, which was written by the finger of God (originally, or second?)
• after being questioned, Jesus also goes down to the ground to write with His finger, as if He is not necessarily rewriting the law (for it is fulfilled in Him), but He is showing that He has authority - He was the one who wrote and gave it in the very first place. His authority is later highlighted in that He is the only one left with the woman caught in adultery - He is the only one who has the right to condemn her
• Jesus says that anyone who is without sin can throw a stone at her. not only does no one throw a stone, but everyone turns to leave. it would have been understandable that no one threw a stone, but the fact that everybody left? it might have so cut to the hearts of the crowd that they were forced to look inwards, knowing that they were in no way different from this woman caught in adultery
• Jesus is left alone with the woman, just as we ourselves will appear before Him, face to face and one on One. all of other accusers will have nothing on us, for our sin is ultimately against God alone (Ps 51). Jesus then does not condemn her, but makes a point of commanding her to sin no more. Is this command to consciously sin no longer, as in a direct reference to her adultery?