4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.



Ver. 4. In the very act] Gr. in the very theft; perhaps to intimate the great theft that is in adultery, whiles the child of a stranger carries away the goods or lands of the family; which therefore the adulteress is bound in conscience to confess, åð ’ øõôïöùñù . St Paul gives charge, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in the matter; that is, in the matter of the marriage bed; but that every one possess his vessel, that is, his wife, the weaker vessel in sanctification and honour, as some interpret it. {a}



{a} Defraud, i.e. in re Venerea, in adulterio. Sic intelligunt Jerome, Chrysost., Heinsius.