John8chapter 8

The account of the woman caught in adultery, which many Bibles print here, is missing from the oldest and best Greek manuscripts, and some later copies place it elsewhere in John or in Luke. Careful readers name that openly. Many also judge that the story itself has the ring of something remembered and true, whatever its place in the text — and Bibles keep it, usually with a note, which is the honest way to handle it.

The setting of the main discourse is stated exactly: he spoke these words in the treasury. That was in the Court of the Women, where the collection chests stood and where the great lampstands of Tabernacles had just been burning. Saying I am the light of the world in that spot, days after the lamps were extinguished, was placing himself where the light had been.

The argument about witnesses is legal again. Jewish law required two witnesses for a claim to stand, and Jesus names himself and the Father as the two — which either dissolves the rule or claims something enormous, and his hearers understood which.

The stones at the end were available because the temple was a building site. Herod's project was still under construction and would be for another thirty years, so dressed and undressed stone lay in the courts. Picking one up took no searching.