John 8 - NIV LifeConnect Study Bible

8:3 This sin cannot be committed by one individual alone, so the question arises as to why only one offender was brought in. The incident was staged to trap Jesus (see Jn 8:6 and its note), and provision had been made for the man to escape. The woman’s accusers must have been especially eager to humiliate her since they could have kept her in private custody while they spoke to Jesus.

8:4 Compromising circumstances were insufficient evidence of adultery; Jewish law required witnesses who had seen the act.

8:5 The accusers altered the law slightly. Stoning was not, in fact, prescribed unless the woman was a betrothed virgin (see Dt 22:23–24). And the law required the execution of both parties (see Lev 20:10; Dt 22:22), not just the woman.

8:6 The Romans did not allow the Jews to carry out death sentences (see 18:31 and its note), so if Jesus had indicated that the woman should be stoned, he could have been seen as being in conflict with the Romans. If he had stated the opposite, however, he could have been accused of lack of support for the law.

8:12 The Festival of Tabernacles included spectacular ceremonies that symbolized multiple themes: harvest, drought, the coming winter darkness and the wilderness wandering after the exodus. Four stands, each holding four golden bowls, were placed in the heavily used court of women. These large bowls were filled with oil and lit during the feast. On this final day of Tabernacles, Jesus was teaching in the treasury located within the court of women. It was in this setting, standing beneath 16 bowls of burning oil, that Jesus identified himself as the light of the world.

8:33 The Jews’ statement that they had “never been slaves of anyone” was an amazing disregard of their Roman overlords—as well as of their Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian and Syrian oppressors. Perhaps they meant that they had never accepted servitude to others as their proper status since they were descendants of Abraham.

8:48 The Jews may have called Jesus a “Samaritan” to suggest that he was lax in Jewish observances or that he was a Samaritan by birth.

8:57 Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry (see Lk 3:23 and its note).

8:59 Those who heard Jesus could not interpret his claim as other than blasphemy, for which stoning was the prescribed penalty (see Lev 24:16).