YHN 8:6 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.)

8:6a

They said this to test Him,

The men were using this question to trap Jesus,
The religious leaders asked Jesus this trick question

They said this to test Him: The pronoun They refers to the religious leaders who had brought the woman to Jesus.

The religious leaders wanted Jesus to say something that would cause trouble for him. The Law of Moses said that both the woman and the man must die. However, the Roman government then did not allow the Jews to execute (punish by killing) anyone without permission.See John 18:31–32. So if Jesus said that the woman must die, the religious leaders could accuse him of disobeying Roman law. If Jesus said that she should not die, then they could accuse him of disobeying the Law of Moses.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

They were using this question as a trap (NIV)

They asked Jesus this question, because they wanted to test him (CEV)

They were asking this to trick Jesus (NCV)

8:6b

in order to have a basis for accusing Him.

in order to obtain evidence for accusing him.
so they could accuse him of speaking against the law.

in order to have a basis for accusing Him: The Greek word that the BSB translated as basis means “to accuse someone, possibly in a law court.” The leaders wanted a reason, or excuse, to accuse Jesus of saying something wrong. They wanted to be able to accuse him of speaking against either the law of Moses or Roman law.

Here are other ways to translate this clause:

so that they might have some charge to bring against him (NRSV)

they wanted to…bring some charge against him (CEV)

General Comment on 8:6a–b

In some languages it may be necessary to explain what the religious leaders hoped to do. They hoped to force Jesus to say something that they could use to accuse him. For example:

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him. (NLT)

Paragraph 8:6c–9

Jesus did not at first answer the people who asked him about the sinful woman. He bent down and wrote something in the sand. Then he said that the person who had not sinned could throw the first stone. Beginning with the oldest, each of those who accused the woman left her. They knew that they too had sinned.

8:6c

But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger.

¶ But Jesus, he bent over and using his finger he wrote on the ground.
¶ However, Jesus leaned forward and began to write in the dirt with his finger.

But: In the Greek text this verse connects to the previous verse with a conjunction that the BSB translates literally as But. It indicates here that something happened that was not expected. The religious leaders asked a question, but rather than answer it as we would expect, Jesus did not answer it. Instead he wrote on the ground.

Translate this conjunction in a way that is natural in your language.

Jesus bent down and began to write: Jesus was sitting down and he bent over so he could write on the ground. This implies that he did not look at the religious leaders. He seemed to ignore them.

Here is another way to translate this clause:

Jesus, bending over, wrote

on the ground with His finger: The Greek phrase that BSB translates as on the ground with His finger indicates that Jesus used his finger to make letters on the ground. Use the expression that is natural in your language. For example:

in the dust with his finger (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) 8:6

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