YHN 8:10 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 7:53–8:11: Jesus protected a woman who committed adultery

The earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient documents do not contain this section, John 7:53–8:11. Some English translations, including the GNT, put it in brackets or parentheses. Others, including the NIV, put it in the text. However, they also say that it is almost certainly not part of the original text of John. Yet the passage is very old and may well contain a real narrative of an event in Jesus’ life.

All English translations include it in some way. So you should also include this section so that readers can learn it and refer to it. In addition to the above ways to include it, you can also put it in a footnote.

In this passage, some scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught committing adultery. They said that the law commanded them to stone an adulterer to death and asked Jesus about it. Jesus said that the person who had no sin should throw the first stone. They all left except the woman, and Jesus told her that he did not condemn her and to not sin again.

Here are other possible section titles:

Jesus saved/defended a sinful woman

Jesus refused to condemn a sinful woman

A woman adulterer received forgiveness

Paragraph 8:10–11

Jesus allowed the sinful woman to go in peace. He told her that he did not condemn her and that she should stop sinning.

8:10a

Then Jesus straightened up and asked her,

¶ Jesus straightened himself and asked her,
¶ Jesus stood up. He asked the woman,

Then Jesus straightened up: The Greek word that the BSB has translated as straightened up here indicates that Jesus stood up and faced the woman.Some later Greek manuscripts add the words “and saw none but the woman.” This reading is followed by the KJV. The shorter text as in the BSB is given an A rating by the UBS Greek New Testament, and it is recommended that you follow it. It is a participle form of the word used in 8:7b. It is recommended that you use a form of the word you used in that verse. For example:

Jesus stood up (CEV)

8:10b

“Woman, where are your accusers?

“Ma’am/Sister, where has everyone gone?
“Where are your accusers?

Woman: Jesus addressed the sinful woman with a word that the BSB translates as Woman. This was a common and polite way to address an adult female. See also the note on 2:4a, where Jesus used the same word to address his mother. In some languages such a form of address may not be natural or polite. In those languages there are two other ways you could translate this word:

Use another polite form of address. For example:
ma’am
sister
Do not translate this word but leave it implicit. Several English translations have done this. For example:
Jesus stood up and asked her, “Where is everyone…?” (CEV)

Translate this word in a way that is most natural in your language.

where are your accusers?: Jesus asked the woman where the men who accused her were. Jesus and the woman both knew the answer, that they had left. So in a sense this is a rhetorical question. Jesus was commenting on the fact that the men who accused her had all left. There are two ways to translate this question:

Use a rhetorical question. For example:
Where is everyone? (CEV)
Use a statement. For example:
They have gone away.
They have all left.

8:10c

Has no one condemned you?”

Have none of them condemned you^(sing)?”
Have none of those men remained/stayed to judge that you^(sing) should be punished?”

Has no one condemned you?: This is another rhetorical question. Jesus commented on something that they could both see, that none of the woman’s accusers had remained to condemn her. But because Jesus expected and received an answer, it is good to translate it as a question. For example:

Didn’t even one of them condemn you? (NLT)

Is there no one left to condemn you? (GNT)

condemned: The verb condemned here means “decided that a person is guilty and must receive punishment.” Here the punishment would be death. No one remained to say that the woman must die.

you: The pronoun you refers to the woman and is therefore singular and feminine.

General Comment on 8:10a–c

The BSB has placed the speech introducer “said to her” before the quotation itself. In some languages it may be natural to place it in the middle of the quotation. For example:

Jesus stood up. “Woman, where are they?” he asked. “Is there no one to condemn you?”

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.

OET interlinear YHN (JHN) 8:10