1. In contrast to those who retired to their homes (vii. 53), Jesus retired to Mount Olivet, where He often spent the night in prayer (Luke xxi. 37; vi. 12). Mount Olivet, separated from Jerusalem by the brook of Cedron, was a Sabbath day’s journey from the City (Acts i. 12); that is to say, about seven and a‐half stadia, and therefore less than an English mile. 2. Et diluculo iterum venit in 2. And early in the morning he templum, et omnis populus came again into the temple, venit ad eum, et sedens and all the people came to docebat eos. him, and sitting down he taught them. 2. Early on the morning that followed the eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles (see vii. 37), He came again to the temple, and all the people who were assembled in the City from the various parts of Palestine, came to Him, and He was teaching them. 3. Adducunt autem scribae et 3. And the scribes and pharisaei mulierem in Pharisees bring unto him a adulterio deprehensam: et woman taken in adultery; and statuerunt eam in medio. they set her in the midst, 3. While Jesus was engaged in teaching the people, the Pharisees bring to him a woman who had been caught in adultery, *in the very act*, as we learn from the Greek of verse 4. 4. Et dixerunt ei: Magister, 4. And said to him: Master, haec mulier modo deprehensa this woman was even now taken est in adulterio. in adultery. 5. In lege autem Moyses 5. Now Moses in the law mandavit nobis huiusmodi commanded us to stone such a lapidare. Tu ergo quid dicis? one. But what sayest thou? 5. It is not stated anywhere in the Pentateuch that the adulterer and adulteress should be _stoned_, but it is, that they should be put to death (Lev. xx. 10). Doubtless the death was by stoning, as is indicated in Ezech. xvi. 38‐40. 6. Hoc autem dicebant 6. And this they said, tentantes eum, ut possent tempting him, that they might accusare eum. Iesus autem accuse him. But Jesus bowing inclinans se deorsum, digito himself down, wrote with his scribebat in terra. finger on the ground. 6. They hoped to entrap our Lord; for if he acquitted the woman they could charge him with being an adversary of the Mosaic Law (Lev. xx. 10); while if He condemned her to death, they could charge Him with defying the Roman Law, which at this time denied to the Jews the right of inflicting capital punishment (John xviii. 31). What Jesus wrote it is impossible to say. Probably it was His intention to signify by this turning away to something else that He wished not to have anything to do with the matter in question.