mpact and homogeneous as this Gospel.
And an incident such as this, which would be quite in keeping with the
matter of the synoptical Gospels, is felt rather to interrupt than to
forward the purpose of John to record the most characteristic and
important self-manifestations of Christ.

But as the paragraph is here, and has been here from very early times,
and as it is good Gospel material, it may be well briefly to indicate
its significance.

1. First, it reveals the unscrupulous malignity of the leading citizens,
the educated and religious men, "the Scribes and Pharisees." They
brought to Jesus the guilty woman, "tempting Him" (ver. 6); not because
they were deeply grieved or even shocked at her conduct; nay, so little
were they impressed with that aspect of the case, that, with a
cold-blooded indelicacy which is well-nigh incredible, they actually
used her guilt to further their own designs against Jesus. They
conceived that by presenting her before Him for judgment, He would be
transfixed on one or other horn of the following dilemma: If He said,
Let the woman die in accordance with the law of Moses, they would have a
fair ground on which they could frame a dangerous accusation against
Him, and would inform Pilate that this new King was actually adjudging
life and death. If, on the other hand, He bid them let the woman go,
then He could be branded before the people as traversing the law of
Moses.

Underhand scheming of this kind is of course always to be condemned.
Setting traps and digging pitfalls are illegitimate methods even of
slaughtering wild animals, and the sportsman disdains them. But he who
introduces such methods into human affairs, and makes his business one
concatenated plot, does not deserve to be a member of society at all,
but should be banished to the unreclaimed wilderness. These men posed as
sticklers for the Law, as the immovably orthodox, and yet had not the
common indignation at crime which would have saved them from making a
handle of this woman's guilt. No wonder that their unconscious and
brazen depravity should have filled Jesus with wonder and embarrassment,
so that for a space He could not utter a word, but could only fix His
eyes on the ground.

Making all allowance for the freedom of Oriental manners from some
modern refinements, one cannot but feel some surprise that such a scene
should be possible on the streets of Jerusalem. It reveals a hardened
and insensible condition of publ