The Woman Caught in Adultery (John 7:53–8:11)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 33 (on John 8:1–11) Source: trans. John Gibb and James Innes, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf107/npnf107.iii.xxxiv.html

On the snare the accusers laid, into which they thrust their own heads:

When did such men prepare snares, into which they did not first thrust their own heads? Behold, the Lord in answering them will both keep righteousness, and will not depart from gentleness. He was not taken for whom the snare was laid, but rather they were taken who laid it, because they believed not on Him who could pull them out of the net.

On "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her":

He did not say, Let her not be stoned; lest He should seem to speak against the law. But God forbid that He should say, Let her be stoned: for He came not to lose what He had found, but to seek what was lost. What then did He answer? ... "He that is without sin of you," saith He, "let him first cast a stone at her." O answer of Wisdom! How He sent them unto themselves!

On the mystery of His writing upon the ground:

What else does He signify to you when He writes with His finger on the ground? For the law was written with the finger of God; but written on stone because of the hard-hearted. The Lord now wrote on the ground, because He was seeking fruit.

On the voice of justice, that the sinner be punished but not by sinners:

This is the voice of Justice: Let her, the sinner, be punished, but not by sinners: let the law be fulfilled, but not by the transgressors of the law.

On the two who alone remained:

The two were left alone, the wretched woman and Mercy.

On "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more":

We have heard the voice of justice, let us also hear the voice of clemency. ... And He said, "Neither do I condemn thee;" ... Dost Thou therefore favor sins? Not so, evidently. Mark what follows: "Go, henceforth sin no more." Therefore the Lord did also condemn, but condemned sins, not man.

St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

On the accuser who does not first judge himself, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on John (on John 8:7) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on John, trans. J. H. Newman, 1845. Public domain. Full text: https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/CAJohn.htm

On why the man who spares not himself cannot rightly judge another:

For he who judges not himself first, cannot know how to judge correctly in the case of another. For though he know what the offence is, from being told, yet he cannot judge of another's deserts, who supposing himself innocent, will not apply the rule of justice to himself.

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)

Exposition of the Gospel of John (on John 8:6) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on John, trans. J. H. Newman, 1845. Public domain. Full text: https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/CAJohn.htm

On the finger that had once written the law on stone:

His writing with His finger on the ground perhaps shewed, that it was He who had written the law on stone.

Alcuin (c. 735–804)

Commentary on the Gospel of John (on John 8:6) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on John, trans. J. H. Newman, 1845. Public domain. (a later Carolingian compiler, quoted here where he supplies the moral sense) Full text: https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/CAJohn.htm

On the ground as the human heart and the finger of discretion:

The ground denotes the human heart, which yieldeth the fruit either of good or of bad actions: the finger jointed and flexible, discretion. He instructs us then, when we see any faults in our neighbours, not immediately and rashly to condemn them, but after searching our own hearts to begin with, to examine them attentively with the finger of discretion.