John 8:1-27

1 [Then everyone went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 Early the next morning he went back to the Temple. All the people gathered around him, and he sat down and began to teach them.

3 The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery, and they made her stand before them all.

4 "Teacher," they said to Jesus, "this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.

5 In our Law Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death. Now, what do you say?" ¹

6 They said this to trap Jesus, so that they could accuse him. But he bent over and wrote on the ground with his finger.

7 As they stood there asking him questions, he straightened up and said to them, "Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her." ²

8 Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground.

9 When they heard this, they all left, one by one, the older ones first. Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there.

10 He straightened up and said to her, "Where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you?"

11 "No one, sir," she answered. "Well, then," Jesus said, "I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again."]

12 Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. "I am the light of the world," he said. "Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness." ³

13 The Pharisees said to him, "Now you are testifying on your own behalf; what you say proves nothing." ⁴

14 "No," Jesus answered, "even though I do testify on my own behalf, what I say is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going. You do not know where I came from or where I am going.

15 You make judgments in a purely human way; I pass judgment on no one.

16 But if I were to do so, my judgment would be true, because I am not alone in this; the Father who sent me is with me.

17 It is written in your Law that when two witnesses agree, what they say is true. ⁵

18 I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me also testifies on my behalf."

19 "Where is your father?" they asked him. "You know neither me nor my Father," Jesus answered. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also."

20 Jesus said all this as he taught in the Temple, in the room where the offering boxes were placed. And no one arrested him, because his hour had not come.

21 Again Jesus said to them, "I will go away; you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot go where I am going."

22 So the Jewish authorities said, "He says that we cannot go where he is going. Does this mean that he will kill himself?"

23 Jesus answered, "You belong to this world here below, but I come from above. You are from this world, but I am not from this world.

24 That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. And you will die in your sins if you do not believe that "I Am Who I Am'."

25 "Who are you?" they asked him. Jesus answered, "What I have told you from the very beginning.

26 I have much to say about you, much to condemn you for. The one who sent me, however, is truthful, and I tell the world only what I have heard from him."

27 They did not understand that Jesus was talking to them about the Father.

Cross References

• 1. 8.5Leviticus 20.10;Deuteronomy 22.22-24.
• 2. +28.7Susanna 34.
• 3. 8.12 +2Ws 7.26; +1Mt 5.14;John 9.5.
• 4. 8.13John 5.31.
• 5. 8.17Deuteronomy 19.15.

Footnotes

• [a]. [Many manuscripts and early translations do not have this passage (8.1-11); others have it after Jn 21.24; others have it after Lk 21.38; one manuscript has it after Jn 7.36.]
• [b]. What I have told you from the very beginning; [or] Why should I speak to you at all?