Charles Ellicott Commentary John 8:7

"But when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." — John 8:7 (ASV)

So when they continued asking him.—He would have avoided their question and, as is implied here, continued for some time in the action of writing; but they now interrupt that action. It seems to them that He cannot avoid the snare in which they have placed Him, and that He is seeking the only escape in silence. But there is an answer that they have not considered, and this He stands up to give.

He that is without sin among you.—The word translated “without sin” is frequent in classical writers but is found in this place only in the New Testament. It takes on a special meaning here from the context and is to be understood as referring to the class of sins of which her sin was an instance. (Compare the word “sinner” as used in Luke 7:37.) Ample evidence exists of the immorality among the Jewish rulers, which gives force to these words.

Still, the wider meaning is probably not excluded. Those who ask this question about the Seventh Commandment were themselves breaking the Sixth and the Ninth.

It should be noted, in applying this answer, that our Lord does not lay down sinlessness as the necessary condition for taking part in the punishment of guilt. This would be to nullify law, for then there could be no human executive power.

He is not speaking in a case brought before an appointed tribunal, but in a case where men assume for themselves the position of judges of another’s guilt. In the judge, while he wears the robe of justice, the individual man ceases to exist, and he becomes the representative of God; but these can now speak only as men, and condemn her only by the contrast of a higher purity. (Compare Notes on John 10:34 and following.)

Let him first cast a stone at her.—The Received Text and some manuscripts (not including the Cambridge manuscript) read “the stone,” the stone referred to in John 8:5. “Let him first” means “let him first of you”; not “let him cast the first stone.” This was the duty of the witnesses. (See marginal reference.) We must not take the words to express permission only; it is an imperative, expressing command.