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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 8:6 - 8:6
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6. πειράζοντες. This verb is frequent in the Synoptists of trying to place Christ in a difficulty; never so used by S. John, who, however, uses it once of Christ ‘proving’ Philip (Joh 6:6).
ἵνα ἔχ. κατ. This clause must be borne in mind in determining what the difficulty was in which they wished to place Him. It seems to exclude the supposition that they hoped to undermine His popularity, in case He should decide for the extreme rigour of the law; the people having become accustomed to a lax morality (Mat 12:39; Mar 8:38). Probably the case is somewhat parallel to the question about tribute, and they hoped to bring Him into collision either with the Law and Sanhedrin or with the Roman Government. If He said she was not to be stoned, He contradicted Jewish Law; if He said she was to be stoned, He ran counter to Roman Law, for the Romans had deprived the Jews of the right to inflict capital punishment (Joh 18:31). The Sanhedrin might of course pronounce sentence of death (Mat 26:66; Mar 14:64; comp. Joh 19:7), but it rested with the Roman governor whether he would allow the sentence to be carried out or not (Joh 19:16): see on Joh 18:31 and Joh 19:6.
κάτω κύψας κ.τ.λ. It is said that this gesture was a recognised sign of unwillingness to attend to what was being said; a call for a change of subject. McClellan quotes Plut. II. 532: ‘Without uttering a syllable, by merely raising the eyebrows, or stooping down, or fixing the eyes upon the ground, you may baffle unreasonable importunities.’ Κατέγραφεν means ‘kept writing’ (comp. Joh 7:40-41), or ‘began to write, made as though He would write’ (comp. Luk 1:59). Either rendering would agree with this interpretation, which our translators have insisted on as certain by inserting the gloss (not found in any earlier English Version except the Bishops’ Bible), ‘as though He heard them not.’ The Greek is μὴ προσποιούμενος, which Stephens admitted into his editions of 1546 and 1549, but not into that of 1550, which became the Textus Receptus. But it is just possible that by writing on the stone pavement of the Temple He wished to remind them of the ‘tables of stone, written with the finger of God’ (Exo 31:18; Deu 9:10). They were hoping that He would explain away the seventh commandment, in order that they themselves might break the sixth.