John 8:1

Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

VIII.

(1) It is an instructive example of the way in which the artificial division into chapters often mars the sense. that one verse of this section is found at the close of the last chapter, and the remainder in this.

Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.—The Mount of Olives is nowhere mentioned by St. John. In John 18:1 he describes the locality, but without this name (see Note there). His habit, moreover, in giving topographical details of Palestine is to explain them for his Greek readers. (See Note on John 4:5.)

Benson Commentary

John 8:1-2. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives — Went to lodge there, that he might be out of the reach of his enemies, and that in retirement he might, by secret converse with his heavenly Father, be animated to all the labours and dangers before him. And early in the morning — In order that his retirement might not break in upon the opportunity of public service, which the present concourse of people at Jerusalem afforded him; he came again into the temple — With a view to teach the people, great numbers of whom coming to worship there, before they returned to their respective habitations in the country; (the feast being now ended;) came unto him — Flocked around him, to receive his instructions; and, notwithstanding the late conspiracy which had been formed against him, he sat down and taught them — As freely and as boldly as he had ever done. Such was his compassion for them, and his zeal for the glory of his heavenly Father!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-11 Christ neither found fault with the law, nor excused the prisoner's guilt; nor did he countenance the pretended zeal of the Pharisees. Those are self-condemned who judge others, and yet do the same thing. All who are any way called to blame the faults of others, are especially concerned to look to themselves, and keep themselves pure. In this matter Christ attended to the great work about which he came into the world, that was, to bring sinners to repentance; not to destroy, but to save. He aimed to bring, not only the accused to repentance, by showing her his mercy, but the prosecutors also, by showing them their sins; they thought to insnare him, he sought to convince and convert them. He declined to meddle with the magistrate's office. Many crimes merit far more severe punishment than they meet with; but we should not leave our own work, to take that upon ourselves to which we are not called. When Christ sent her away, it was with this caution, Go, and sin no more. Those who help to save the life of a criminal, should help to save the soul with the same caution. Those are truly happy, whom Christ does not condemn. Christ's favour to us in the forgiveness of past sins should prevail with us, Go then, and sin no more.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Mount of Olives - The mountain about a mile directly east of Jerusalem. See the notes at Matthew 21:1. This was the place in which he probably often passed the night when attending the feasts at Jerusalem. The Garden of Gethsemane, to which he was accustomed to resort John 18:2, was on the western side of that mountain, and Bethany, the abode of Martha and Mary, on its east side, John 11:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 8

Joh 8:1-11. The Woman Taken in Adultery.

1, 2. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives—This should have formed the last verse of the foregoing chapter. "The return of the people to the inert quiet and security of their dwellings (Joh 7:53), at the close of the feast, is designedly contrasted with our Lord's homeless way, so to speak, of spending the short night, who is early in the morning on the scene again. One cannot well see why what is recorded in Lu 21:37, 38 may not even thus early have taken place; it might have been the Lord's ordinary custom from the beginning to leave the brilliant misery of the city every night, that so He might compose His sorrowful and interceding heart, and collect His energies for new labors of love; preferring for His resting-place Bethany, and the Mount of Olives, the scene thus consecrated by many preparatory prayers for His final humiliation and exaltation" [Stier].John 8:1-11 Christ letteth go uncondemned the woman taken in adultery.

John 8:12-30 He declareth himself to be the light of the world,

and justifieth his doctrine against the Pharisees.

John 8:31-32 He promises freedom through knowledge of the truth

to those Jews who believed on him,

John 8:33-47 confutes their vain boast of being Abraham’s seed,

and the children of God,

John 8:48-58 answereth their reviling by showing his authority and

dignity,

John 8:59 and by miracle rescueth himself from their attempts

to stone him.

A mountain within less than two miles of Jerusalem, whether our Saviour, when he was at Jerusalem, was wont often to withdraw, for privacy and devotion, Matthew 24:3 26:30 Luke 21:37 22:39.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. Which lay eastward of Jerusalem, about a mile from it; hither Christ went on the evening of the last day of the feast of tabernacles; partly to decline the danger, and avoid the snares the Jews might lay for him in the night season; having been disappointed and confounded in the daytime; and it may be for the sake of recreation and diversion, to sup with his dear friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, who lived at Bethany, not far from this mount; and chiefly for private prayer to God, on account of himself as man, and for his disciples, and for the spread of his Gospel, and for the enlargement of his interest; this being his common and usual method, Luke 21:37.

Geneva Study Bible

Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 8:1-3. ʼΕπορ.] down from the temple.

εἰς τ. ὄρ. τ. ἐλ.] where He passed the night; comp. Luke 21:37. Displays the synoptic stamp in its circumstantiality of description and in the use of words; instead of ὄρθρου (Luke 24:1), John uses πρωΐ (John 18:28, John 20:1; comp. πρωῑìα, John 21:4); for πᾶς ὁ λαός John uses ὁ ὄχλος and οἱ ὄχλοι; καθίσας ἐδίδ. αὐτ. is synoptical; on ἐδίδασκεν, however, without mention of the topic, comp. John 7:14; the γραμματεῖς never appear in John; nor does he anywhere name the Mount of Olives.

The crowd of people, after the conclusion of the feast, would not be surprising, considering the great sensation which Jesus had caused at the feast.

The expression “Scribes and Pharisees” is the designation in the synoptic narrative for His regular opponents, answering to the Johannean οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι. They do not appear here as Zealots (Wetstein, Kuinoel, Staeudlin), whose character would not correspond either with their questioning of Jesus or with their subsequent slinking away; nor even as a Deputation from the Sanhedrim, which certainly would not have condescended to this, and whose delegates would not have dared to let the woman slip. It is rather a non-official tentative attack, like several that are narrated by the Synoptics; the woman has just been taken in the very act; has, as a preliminary step, been handed over to the Scribes and Pharisees for further proceedings; has not yet, however, been brought before the Sanhedrim, but is first made use of by them for this attempt against Jesus.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 8:1. καὶ ἐπορεύθη ἕκαστος … The position of these words almost necessitates the understanding that the members of the Sanhedrim are referred to. But in this case the contrast conveyed in the next clause, Ἰησους δὲ ἐπορεύθη, is pointless.—εἰς τὸ ὄρος τῶν ἐλαιῶν, to the Mount of Olives. Cf. Matthew 24:3; Matthew 26:30; Mark 13:3. Lodging probably in the house of Lazarus, He returned to the city before dawn (John 8:2) ὄρθρου δὲ πάλιν παρεγένετο εἰς τὸ ἱερόν. Plato, Protag., 310 A, reckons ὄρθρος a part of the night.—καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς ἤρχετο, i.e., those designated ὁ ὄχλος in the preceding chapter.—καὶ καθίσας, and He sat down and began to teach them. But this quiet and profitable hour was broken in upon.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. the mount of Olives] S. John nowhere mentions the Mount of Olives (comp. John 18:1), and when he mentions a new place he commonly adds an explanation: John 1:44, John 4:5, John 5:2, John 6:1, John 19:13; John 19:17. The phrase for ‘went unto’ is not found in S. John. Both occur in all three Synoptists.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 8:1-11. Ἰησοῦς δὲ—καὶ μηκέτι ἁμάρτανε) The wisdom and effectual power which Jesus evinced in the history of the adulteress are so great, that it is strange this remarkable portion of the Gospel history should be accounted by many in the present day as uncertain. It is also omitted in the Codex Ebnerianus, but only from verse 3; and at the end of the Gospel according to John it is so supplied, and attached to verse 2, that it is readily apparent, that the transcribers removed only from public reading this portion, which they acknowledged as genuine. In the book, Joh. Lami de Eruditione Apostolorum, describing the Florentine Greek manuscript of the four Evangelists, he says, ‘In the Gospel of John, Iambic verses were written in the end. There comes first an index of the nineteen chapters. The tenth chapter had been omitted, and, out of the regular order, in the front, there was recounted περὶ μοιχαλίδος, concerning the Adulteress, whose history is extant in the Gospel itself. The writing is of the twelfth century.’—P. 230.[217]—ἐπορεύθη, went) as one who had no home. Comp. ch. John 7:53, “Every man went unto his own house.”—εἰς τὸ ὄρος τῶν Ἐλαίων, to the mount of Olives) to that mountain, in which they were afterwards about to take Him; ch. John 18:2, “Judas also, which betrayed Him, knew the place; for Jesus oft-times resorted thither with His disciples;” whereas they had only made the attempt, but in vain, at ch. John 7:30.

[217] The passage is omitted by ABCT MSS. of the oldest class, LXΔ; by the Old Latin Cod. Vercellensis, the Peshito Syriac, the Memphitic, and Thebaic; by Origen and Chrysostom. D is the oldest MS. that has it; also the Old Latin Cod. Veronensis; the Vulgate; the Æthiopic.—E. and T.

John 8:1