Rightly dividing the word in this story shows us that the woman was likely not guilty of Adultery at all.
The key to understanding this story begins in John 8.6
[SUP]6 [/SUP]They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
This means the scribes and pharisees were going to do anything to trap Jesus and put him to death for cause....This is really the main motivation in the story.
The Bible does not state they caught a harlot in the very act of Adultery it says they caught a woman . The Boible does not say if she was single or married, it just states a WOMAN was brought before Jesus. Distorted communicated Bible knowledge or wrongful pastor and teacher assumption tells us the woman was a harlot, but the Bible does not say that...this is important for what I say below
If you look at Leviticus 20.10 it says: [SUP]10 [/SUP]‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
That is only part of the Law regarding Women in Adultery. I am not going to put all the verses, but we must also look at Numbers 5.11-31 which is a test for Adultery the Priests had to follow.
The woman brought before Jesus did not have have the man that she had sex with, neither was the Adultery test given to her, both were needed to fulfill the law.
When Jesus was writing in the ground he was was fulfilling the prophecy found in Jeremiah 17.1-18, and especially Vs 13. This passage has to do with those who have deceitful heart and trying to test or catch the Lord doing something wrong.
When Jesus said yeah if you guys have no sin, go ahead an start throwing rocks.....they dropped them, because he wrote them into the earth as Jer 17.13 says he would, because of their deceitful hearts. IOW Jesus busted them on their primary motivation.
The pharisees and scribes sole motivation in this story was to trap Jesus and they would go to any length to do it. The real lessons learned here are:
Organized religion will go to any length to destroy the testimony of Jesus.
Organized religion will go to any length to destroy innocent lives[the Woman] in their pursuit to discredit the testimony of Jesus.
We see the manifold graces of Jesus towards the woman and the scribes and pharisees,and we must also flow in those graces.
We see that once Jesus meets us at our level we get our choice back regarding SIN
I have personal opinions on this, and that is what I offer here. Again these are opinions only.
I am not settled on the fact the woman was a harlot and truly engaged in adultery.
I believe it was likely she was raped by the younger pharisee /s and was only a pawn in a plot to trap Jesus and have him killed. Because of this she was under serious condemnation and guilt , because she knew what the scribes and pharisees were doing and how they were using her.
I believe that when Jesus did not condemn her and said go an sin no more, he was releasing her from the condemnation and guilt of being used in the plot and made sure she understood that she just got her choice back regarding SIN.
I do not agree with those attempting to make this women an harlot and was Mary Magdalene, etc, those are opinions and not found in scripture..
The Bible says they brought a WOMAN, not a HARLOT, that is so very important in this story.