John 8:1-11 — Sermon Prep & Expository Preaching Guide
Scripture
John 8:1-11
Historical Background · Verse-by-Verse Commentary · Reception History
What is the historical and cultural background of John 8:1-11?
A Text the Church Has Long Embraced — and Scholars Have Carefully Examined
The passage known as the pericope adulterae (John 7:53–8:11) is absent from the earliest and most reliable Greek manuscripts of John's Gospel — including Papyrus 66 (𝔓66) and Papyrus 75 (𝔓75), as well as the great fourth-century codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. When the passage does appear in manuscript tradition, it sometimes surfaces after Luke 21:38 or at the very end of John's Gospel, betraying its fluid location in the transmission history. The modern critical editions (NA28 and UBS5) mark it with double brackets, signaling that it does not belong to the original text of John as reconstructed from the earliest witnesses.
What does each verse of John 8:1-11 mean?
vv. 1–2: Teaching at Dawn
The passage opens with Jesus apart from the city — resting or praying on the Mount of Olives — before returning at the earliest hour of the morning. The Greek genitive ὄρθρου places his arrival at first light, and the imperfect verb ἐδίδασκεν ("he was teaching") signals an activity already in progress: the lesson was underway when the scribes and Pharisees broke in. The imperfect's ongoing aspect is not incidental. It creates a specific dramatic frame — a scene of sustained, peaceful instruction suddenly shattered by calculated disruption.
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