“Better a sinful person who knows that he has sinned than a righteous person who knows that he is righteous.”�R’ Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz
“Two men went up into the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘G-d, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.12 �I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘G-d, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:10-14
This is to teach you that anyone who humbles himself, the Holy One, Blessed be He, exalts him, and anyone who exalts himself, the Holy One, Blessed be He, humbles him.
Eiruvin 13b�The William Davidson Talmud, Koren-Steinsaltz, Sefaria.org
לְלַמֶּדְךָ שֶׁכׇּל הַמַּשְׁפִּיל עַצְמוֹ – הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַגְבִּיהוֹ, וְכׇל הַמַּגְבִּיהַּ עַצְמוֹ – הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַשְׁפִּילוֹ
‘If any man’s wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him, and a man lies with her carnally . . . and there is no witness against her . . . The priest shall bring her near, and set her before HaShem; and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water. . . He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse, and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.”�Numbers 5:12-24
“The Kohen shall have the woman stand before HaShem and uncover the woman’s head…”�Numbers 5:18
“If his wife goes aside.
(She) deviates from the path of modesty.”�Sforno on Parashat Nasso, Mesorah Publications, ltd., pg. 664
“In the course of the sotah ceremony, which determines whether a woman was unfaithful to her husband, G-d’s Name is written on a shard of clay that is then dipped in water, causing the Name to be erased. It is as if G-d is saying, “My Name, which was written in holiness, may be erased in order to bring out peace between husband and wife.”�Rebbe Nachman’s Torah, Parashat Naso, Breslov Research Institute, pg. 30, cf. Chullin 141a
“Now very early in the morning, he came again into the Temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down, and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the midst, they told him, “Rabbi, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act. Now in our Torah, Moses commanded us to stone such. What then do you say about her?” They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Yeshua stooped down, and wrote on the ground with his finger.”�John 8:2-6
“This history of the woman taken in adultery, is missing in the Alexandrian copy, and in other ancient copies; nor is it in Nonnus, Chrysostom, and Theophylact; nor in any of the editions of the Syriac version, until it was restored by De Dieu, from a copy of Archbishop Usher’s; but was in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, and in the Harmonies of Tatian and Ammonius; the former of which lived about the year 160, and so within 60 years, or thereabouts, of the death of the Evangelist John, and the other about the year 230; it was also in Stephens’s sixteen ancient Greek copies, and in all Bezae’s seventeen, excepting one; nor need the authenticity of it be doubted of; Eusebius says, it is in the Gospel according to the Hebrews; nor should its authority be called in question.”�John Gill’s Commentary on the New Testament
"Of Matthew he (Papias) had stated as follows: Matthew composed his history in the Hebrew dialect, and everyone translated as he was able." The same author made us of testimonies from the first epistle of John and likewise that of Peter. He also gave another history of a woman who had been accused of many sins before the L-rd, which was also contained in the gospel according to the Hebrews.”�Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3:39, Hendrickson Publishers, pg. 106
And the priest said: I will give you to drink of the water of the ordeal of the L-rd, and He shall make manifest your sins in your eyes. And the priest took the water, and gave Joseph to drink and sent him away to the hill-country; and he returned unhurt. And he gave to Mary also to drink, and sent her away to the hill-country; and she returned unhurt. And all the people wondered that sin did not appear in them. And the priest said: If the L-rd G-d has not made manifest your sins, neither do I judge you. And he sent them away. And Joseph took Mary, and went away to his own house, rejoicing and glorifying the G-d of Israel.
Protoevangelium of James 16, New Advent
Together these coincidences have convinced some scholars that the Protevangelium specifically alluded to the pericope adulterae here. If so, then the author and his audience must have known the story well enough that an oblique allusion was sufficient to call the tale to mind. They must also have regarded the story with a degree of affection that an inter-textual allusion of this sort might lend authenticity to the author’s own narrative.
Jennifer Knust, Tommy Wasserman, To Cast the First Stone Introduction, Journal of Early Christian Studies, pg. 496
But He, the Searcher of hearts, asked her and said to her:? Have the elders condemned thee, my daughter? She saith to him: Nay, Lord. And he said unto her “Go thy way: neither do I condemn thee.”
Didascalia, Chapter 7, R. Hugh Connolly, Oxford, �Clarendon Press, 1929. EarlyChristianWritings.com
“…the work proves on closer examination to be based, like the Didache, upon an original Jewish work.”
Jewish Encyclopedia, “Didascalia”, Kaufmann Kohler
Didascalia Apostolorum
The Teaching of the Apostles (circa 230 CE)
Didymus the Blind
(313 – 398 CE)
"It may here be pointed out that the story of the woman taken in adultery, found now only in the current text of John (7:52-8:11) - though actually belonging to Mark 12:18 or 12:35 - is to be found in Codex Bezae; it also occurs in several MSS., in Luke 21:38; other Gospels omit it, seeing in it something opposed to current morals (this in itself argues its genuineness: none could have invented it at a later date.“� �Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth, translated from the original Hebrew by Herbert Danby, The Macmillan Company, pg. 69
“It was taught: Forty years before the destruction of the Temple the right to judge capital cases was withdrawn…”�Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 2:2, edited by Jacob Neusner, Hendrickson Publishers, cf. Sanhedrin 41a
“Before marriage, one who engages in intercourse with her is liable to be executed by stoning. . . As all those who are rendered conspiring witnesses are led to their deaths via the same mode of execution…”�Mishnah, Sanhedrin 11:6, Sefaria.org
“HaShem delivered to me the Two tablets of stone written with the finger of G-d.”
Deuteronomy 9:10
“The the magicians said to Pharoah, “This is the finger of G-d!”
Exodus 8:19
“It was the office of the priest, when he tried a suspected wife, to stoop down and gather the dust off the floor of the sanctuary; which when he had infused into the water, he was to give the woman to drink: he was to write also in a book the curses or adjurations that were to be pronounced upon her… In like manner our Savior stoops down; and making the floor itself his book, he writes something in the dust, doubtless against these accusers whom he was resolved to try, in analogy to those curses and adjurations written in a book by the priest, against the woman that was to be tried.”�J.B. Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament form the Talmud and Hebraica
“When G’d fashioned man, He took from the dust around the earthen altar, and thus vapor rose to irrigate that dust, so that man was formed from dust and water. When man became corrupt and sinned, he became a vessel of earthenware on account of this dust contained in the material he was made of. . . This is why the sotah is given water to drink out of a vessel made of earthenware.”�R’ Isaiah Horowitz, Shney Luchot HaBrit, translated by R’ Eliyahu Munk, Volume 3, pg 861
“But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.”�John 8:7-11
“When adulterers multiplied the ceremony of the bitter water was discontinued and it was R’ Yochanan ben Zakkai who discontinued it, as it is said, ‘I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your brides when they commit adultery’ (Hosea 4:14)”�Sotah 47a, Soncino Press Edition
“If she says, ‘I am pure,’ they bring her up to the east gate which is by the entrance of Nicanor’s gate where they give suspected women the water to drink…”�Sotah 7a, Soncino Press Edition
“Now very early in the morning, he came again into the Temple…”�John 8:2
“When the woman had drunk the bitter water, if she be guilty, her looks turn pale, her eyes swell up . . . So they turn her out of the Court of the Women . . . The same hour that she dies, the adulterer also, upon whose account she drank the water, dies too. . . But this is done only upon condition that the husband hath been guiltless himself: for if he have lain with any unlawfully himself, then this water will not try his wife.”�J.B. Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament form the Talmud and Hebraica
“You may see by these passages how directly our Savior levels at the equity of this sentence, willing to bring these accusers of the woman to a just trial first. You may imagine you hear him thus speaking to them: “You have brought this adulterous woman to be judged by me: I will therefore govern myself according to the rule of trying such by the bitter waters . . . (if) the woman upon whom a jealousy is brought, though she be indeed guilty, yet if the husband that accuses her be faulty that way himself, she cannot be affected by those waters, nor contract any hurt or danger by them. If the divine judgment proceeded in that method, so will I at this time. Are you who accuse this woman completely guiltless of this kind of sin? Whosoever is so, ‘let him cast the first stone.”�J.B. Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament form the Talmud and Hebraica
“I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust, and I cast its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.”
Deuteronomy 9:21
“He took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.”
Exodus 32:20
“The suffering endured by the Jewish people parallels the suffering of the sotah (wanton woman). The bitter waters that the sotah must drink represent the Jews’ suffering during the exiles (Zohar III, 124). The humiliation of being forced to drink the bitter waters that will prove her guilt or innocence is a means of forgiveness. If she is clean of sin, the waters she drinks (i.e. her suffering) will bring her relief from suffering and she will be blessed with fertility. . . The same applies to the Jewish nation. Despite their suffering throughout the exiles, the “bitter waters” they have “drunk” serve to make the Jews “fertile” and to grow physically, financially and spiritually.”�Rebbe Nachman’s Torah, Parashat Naso, Breslov Research Institute, pg. 28, cf. Commentary on Likutey Moharan, Volume 1, Breslov Research Institute, pg. 5, footnote 6
מִקְוֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל ה׳ כָּל-עֹזְבֶיךָ יֵבֹשׁוּ יסורי (וְסוּרַי) בָּאָרֶץ יִכָּתֵבוּ כִּי עָזְבוּ מְקוֹר מַיִם-חַיִּים אֶת-ה׳
“You hope of Israel, HaShem! All that forsake You shall be ashamed; they that depart from You shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Hashem, the fountain of living waters.”�Jeremiah 17:13
וּשְׁאַבְתֶּם־מַיִם בְּשָׂשֹׂון� מִמַּעַיְנֵי הַיְשׁוּעָה
“Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation.”
Isaiah 12:3
“Where are your accusers?
Does no one condemn you?”
“No one sir.”
“Neither do I.
Go and sin no more.”
John 8:11