YHN 8:3 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 8:3–6b

The Jewish religious leaders set a trap for Jesus. They wanted to force Jesus to say something that they could use against him in a trial. They asked him to decide what to do about a woman who they found committing adultery. (That means that she was having sexual activity with someone who was not her husband.)

8:3a

The scribes and Pharisees, however, brought to Him a woman caught in adultery.

¶ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought to him a woman who had been caught committing adultery.
¶ Some teachers of the law and Pharisees came up to him. They were leading a woman whom someone had seen in bed with a man who was not her husband.

The scribes and Pharisees: The scribes and Pharisees were the authorities on the Jewish religious law. This phrase also occurs in Matthew 23:2, 13, 15, and in reverse order in Luke 15:2. See how you translated it there. Because not all the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus, it may be natural to say:

Some of the scribes and Pharisees

scribes: The Greek word that the BSB translates as scribes refers to men who studied, interpreted, and taught the Law of Moses. The original work of these men was to make copies of the laws of Moses by hand. In New Testament times, that was no longer their main task. They remained the recognized experts on the law though.

Here are some ways to translate this word:

teachers of the law of Moses (CEV)

teachers of religious law (NLT)

experts on the law

Pharisees: The Pharisees were a Jewish religious group or party. It was very important to them to obey all of the Jewish religious laws very carefully and exactly. Some, or possibly most, of the scribes were also Pharisees.

Here are some ways to translate this word:

Transliterate the word Pharisees according to the sounds of your language and indicate that it refers to people. For example:
Farisi members
men of the Parises
Transliterate the word Pharisees and indicate that it refers to a group of people with certain beliefs. For example:
people belonging to the Farise religious sect/group
members of the religious group called the Farasi

See how you translated Pharisees in 4:1 and 7:48, and translate it the same way here.

brought to Him a woman caught in adultery: In this context the word brought indicates that the men had ordered or forced the woman to come with them. They led her to Jesus. In some languages it may be necessary to say where the men brought her. For example:

brought to him/Jesus a woman who had been caught in adultery

a woman caught in adultery: This phrase indicates that someone had seen this woman lying with a man who was not her husband. Use an expression that is suitable for public use and for public reading in church.

The verb phrase caught is passive. There are at least two ways to translate it:

Use a passive verb. For example:
a woman who had been caught in bed with a man who wasn’t her husband (CEV)
a woman who had been seen in an immoral act
Use an active verb. For example:
we^(excl) have caught this woman in bed with another man
someone has seen this woman committing adultery

adultery: The Greek word that the BSB translates as adultery indicates that the woman was married to someone else. It does not indicate whether or not the man was married.

8:3b

They made her stand before them

After forcing/causing her to stand in front of everyone,
They stood her in the middle of the group.

They made her stand before them: The Greek expression that the BSB translates as before them is more literally “in the middle.” The religious leaders forced the woman to stand in front of the people who were there listening to Jesus. They wanted to accuse her publicly. Here is another way to translate this phrase:

and made her stand there in the middle

In some languages it may be natural to start a new sentence here. For example:

They made her stand in front of everyone. (GW)

They put her in front of the crowd. (NLT)

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) 8:3

SR Greek word order (including unused variant words in grey)

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

Paragraph 8:3–6b

8:3a

8:3b

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