YHN 8:11 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.

8:11a

“No one, Lord,” she answered.

“No, sir,” she replied.
The woman replied, “None of them.”

No one: The pronoun No one indicates that none of the men who accused the woman had remained to condemn and punish her. Translate this in a way that is a natural response to the question in 8:10c. For example:

None of them

No (CEV)

Yes, that is so.

No one has condemned me.

Lord: The Greek word that the BSB translates literally as Lord was a polite way to address a man. See 5:7a, where the same word is used, although the BSB translates it as “Sir.” Place this word in the sentence where it is natural in your language.

8:11b

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared.

And Jesus said, “Then I do not condemn you^(sing) either.
“I do not judge that you^(sing) should be punished either,” said Jesus.

Then neither do I condemn you: This clause indicates that Jesus refused to condemn the woman to death. He did not say that the woman had not sinned, but neither did he say that she should die. It is implied that he forgave her instead.

8:11c

“Now go and sin no more.”

Go now and stop sinning.”
“You^(sing) may go. Do not ever commit sins again.”

Now go: This verb phrase is a command that gave permission to the woman to leave and go home. She was free to go. Here is another way to translate this phrase:

You may go

and sin no more: The clause that the BSB translates as sin no more means “stop sinning.” It implies that the woman was in fact guilty of the sin that they accused her of. However, it does not imply that she had sinned in this way regularly or as a habit.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

don’t sin anymore (CEV)

do not sin again (NRSV)

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.