Have you noticed Jesus' moves yet? He shows them off with the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law first. Then he repeats them for the accused woman. Individual results vary, but Jesus makes his point, and it's all about justice.

Not the best time to be a woman

Let’s start with some ancient instructions for young men preparing for their adult leadership roles in the Jewish community. Written in approximately 180 BC, Sirach 42:9-14 reads,

“A daughter is a secret anxiety to her father, and worry over her robs him of sleep; when she is young, for fear she may not marry, or if married, for fear she may be disliked; while a virgin, for fear she may be seduced and become pregnant in her father’s house; or having a husband, for fear she may go astray, or though married, for fear she may be barren. Keep strict watch over a headstrong daughter, or she may make you a laughingstock to your enemies, a byword in the city and the assembly of the people, and put you to shame in public gatherings… for from garments comes the moth, and from a woman comes woman’s wickedness. Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good; it is woman who brings shame and disgrace.”

I don’t include this excerpt from the Apocrypha to shock or depress you but to help us form a picture of the world occupied by the people we discover in the Gospels. According to Coogan et al. though not part of most Bibles today, the Book of Sirach was once “highly regarded in rabbinic literature” and considered part of the biblical canon by the early Christian church (100 Apocrypha). This excerpt is a written record of male sentiment toward women in first-century Judaism, specifically regarding their sexuality, so it can help us understand the situation of the woman accused of adultery. Notice that in the excerpt, no one is worried about the daughter's experience, whether the events listed are within her control or not. Only the consequences to the father, the man she’s associated with, concern the author. What matters is the disgrace she can bring on the male in her life. Rachel Hachlil explains, “Women were inferior to men; a woman’s standing in the society was through association with her father, husband, brothers, or sons” (p. 83). The woman in our story has no male family member in her corner. The accusation of adultery has disgraced him, and whatever value the woman once had has vanished. She’s completely expendable, nothing more than a game piece the teachers of the law and Pharisees would happily sacrifice to capture Jesus.

But wait, there’s more.

The inequity between the woman and her accusers doesn’t stop at their gender differences. According to Jennifer Garcia Bashaw, the teachers of the law and Pharisees are a “respected group of educated Jewish leaders who meticulously keep the law of Moses” (632). What could be more threatening to a lone woman accused of a shameful sin than a mob of male experts in the law? As men who make it their business to know Mosaic law inside and out, they consider their expertise their best weapon. Here, they surround the probably illiterate woman with their accusations, and though they must know that the man she was with should be receiving the same condemnation, their expertise and privilege enable them to use the law rather than follow it.

What’s more, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees have the home-team advantage. It’s evident from their ease in interrupting Jesus’ teaching that they feel right at home in the temple. It’s their turf, and they decide what happens there. On their turf, the woman stays silent.

Sit with all that inequity, just for a moment. It’s a lot. The Pharisees and teachers of the law have extreme advantages in every category: gender, connection, education, and power. Now hear what scholars Gail O’Day and Jennifer Garcia Bashaw agree is the story’s central theme. In O’Day’s words, “It is precisely the equality of the woman and the scribes and Pharisees before Jesus that is the heart of this story” ( 77).

You may be thinking, “Well, yeah, Maren! That’s what I thought all along! She sins; they sin; Jesus doesn’t judge any of them. Let’s go out for ice cream!” But it’s way more than that. Jesus does judge in this story. He condemns a system where those who consider themselves superior can dehumanize and oppress the vulnerable woman without a second thought. Jesus isn’t being “nice” when he treats the woman and her accusers with the equality O’Day refers to. He’s fed up with the status quo and determined to destroy the accusers’ game. He might as well be flipping tables in the temple again.

For every action, an equal and opposite reaction

In their story analysis, O’Day and Bashaw illuminate a clever parallel structure. Two times, Jesus bends and writes, stands, and then speaks. The first time Jesus speaks to the powerful teachers of the law and the Pharisees. After bending to write and standing the second time, he speaks to the powerless, marginalized woman. O’Day claims, “The verbal similarities and undeniable parallels of these two scenes constitute the narrative strategy of the text through which the scribes and Pharisees and the woman receive equal treatment from Jesus” (636). Certainly, Jesus aims to keep the woman safe and dodge the accusers’ trap. However, this structure reveals his primary goal: radically abolishing a system that oppresses the most vulnerable. Though Jesus repeats the same actions with the woman as he does with the men, the opposite social positions of the characters mean his identical actions have opposite effects. Let’s dive into the details so you’ll see what I mean.

Jesus’ first change in posture happens in verse 6 when he shifts from his seated teaching position to stooping in the dirt. All eyes follow Jesus, and the humiliated woman breathes, temporarily relieved from the crowd’s searing stares. This strange stooping only incites anger in the accusers, though. They recognize Jesus’ actions as what O’Day calls a “nonanswer, whereby he discredits their challenge” (O’Day, 632). There’s nothing powerful ones hate more than being dismissed, and we see in verse 7 exactly how they’re feeling. What do privileged people do in the rare moments we’re ignored? Demand attention. The teachers of the law and Pharisees keep pestering him so they can trap him, pinning him with the pawn they’ve dragged in.

Now comes Jesus’ second change in posture. He stands, putting himself on the same level as the accusers. It’s not difficult to imagine a defiant glare in his eye as he does so. Here’s an important little detail to understand. Though threatened by Jesus, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees consider themselves better than him. In the previous chapter, while trying to arrest and even kill Jesus, they comment on his lack of education and podunk hometown (John 7:15, 7:52). In their estimation, Jesus is a nobody from nowhere, someone they feel entirely justified in trying to destroy. When he stands and looks them in the eye, he defies any difference between them. He certainly doesn’t give them the respect they’re used to commanding.

To complete the trio of actions, Jesus speaks to the accusers. “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first one to throw a stone at her.” Though he responds to them, he still doesn’t answer their question. They want to hear “yes” or “no” regarding the woman’s stoning so they can use his answer against him. Jesus refuses to play their game by insisting they turn their judgment away from the woman and onto themselves. He will not permit them to abuse the law for their purposes.

The pattern of Jesus’ movements begins again in verse 8 when he stoops down and writes in the dirt. The effect is similar to the first time. O’Day points out, “Jesus’ writing again indicates a refusal to engage his interlocutors. He has said what he has to say, and any further conversation is superfluous” (632-633). Jesus is proving himself to be the actual authority here. He’s taking the control the teachers of the law and Pharisees are used to having for themselves. Bashaw notices that this time, the “main movement is not the direction of the stares but the direction of the blame” (74). Everyone present may still watch Jesus as he stoops and writes, but internally they’re examining themselves. Again, Jesus diverts attention away from the woman; this time, he redirects it onto the accusers. Miraculously, Jesus’ tactic works. One by one, the mob of teachers and Pharisees leave as individuals. The woman stays, no longer outnumbered.

Jesus joins her from his stooped position. He raises himself to the same level as the woman, just as he did with the accusers, but with the opposite effect. Jesus’ leveling gaze at the men confronted them with their equality with an uneducated nobody. Now, Jesus’ respect for the woman lifts her from a pawn to a beloved human worthy of dignity. He denies the distance society places between them.

Finally, Jesus speaks to her. This time, instead of responding to a question, Jesus asks one. “Does no one condemn you?” Without the teachers of the law and Pharisees around to control the discourse, she speaks. “No one, sir,” she confirms. Jesus affirms her assessment, and now as O’Day says, both the woman and her accusers are “invited to leave behind a world of judgment, condemnation, and death and enter a world of acquittal and life” (638). Yes, Jesus calls all of them away from their sin, but he also calls them away from a sinful system where vulnerable people can be so easily marginalized and oppressed.

I don’t want to be a Pharisee…

Though it’s been a while since I’ve encountered a literal Pharisee, and the status of women in most parts of the world is now much higher than it was at the time of our story, tremendous inequality of all kinds flourishes. Bashaw reminds us, “Many of us need to acknowledge our lives of stability, comfort, and belonging as we read about lives in the bible characterized by exploitation, struggle, and dehumanization” (16). Many of us in the Western church need to see that our social position is more similar to the Pharisees than to the woman. I know quite personally that accepting the truth of that statement is complicated. I know it takes courage to consider new ways of understanding stories that have felt familiar since childhood and to reflect on the implications. Yes, this story is about grace and forgiveness. It’s also about justice. We don’t have to choose between them.

’Cuz they’re not fair, you see.

This podcast should be renamed “The Re-education of the English Major.” I have learned more than I thought I would about the intricacies of the Bible as literature. I’ve also learned that as a white woman growing up in a white church, I have overlooked the themes of justice interwoven into every story, from Jairus and the bleeding woman to the Samaritan woman at the well. Becoming aware of what I’ve missed has been disorienting at times. It’s made me feel distant from the God I’ve known. It’s made me want to go and immediately fix all the things. But I’m learning that God’s grace, which has been the bread and butter of my spiritual upbringing, never, ever disappears, even when I realize halfway through my life that I’ve underestimated God’s passion for justice. God’s steadfast grace is still there, still with me, leading me to a new understanding. I don’t want to miss out on the justice that is so important to God. I want to grow even when that means discomfort. Thank you for being here with me on this journey of seeing things in new ways. We’re in it together.

Works Cited

Bashaw, Jennifer Garcia. Scapegoats, The Gospel through the Eyes of Victims. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022.

Coogan, Michael D., et al., editors. The New Oxford Annotated Bible Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001

Hachlili, Rachel. “Women’s Status, Role and Social Standing in the Society of Second Temple Judaism as Conveyed by Inscriptions.” Zeitschrift Des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins (1953-), vol. 134, no. 1, 2018, pp. 63-87.

O’Day, Gail R. “John 7:53-8:11: A Study in Misreading.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 111, no. 4, 1992, pp.631-40. JSTOR, https;//doi.ort/10.2307/3267436. Accessed 17 May 2023.