Herman Ridderbos on verse 11: "Here, as in vs. 10, 'condemn' is used in the legal sense of 'sentence'." -- Ridderbos, The Gospel of John, p. 291 That she had not already been sentenced is implicit to Christ's use of the word "condemn". Thus, in asking the question, Christ is using the language of the law in giving relief to the woman that those who had accuse her were no longer around with their accusations. As for my "conjecture" Carson says: "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. This is a direct reference to Deut. 13:9; 17:7 (cf. Lv. 24:14) - the witnesses of the crime must be the first to throw the stones, and they must not be participants in the crime itself. Jesus' saying does not mean that the authorities must be paragons of sinless perfection before the death sentence can properly be meted out, nor does it mean that one must be free even from lust before one can legitimately condemn adultery (even though lust and adultery belong to the same genus, Mt. 5:28). It means, reather, that they must not be guilty of this particular sin." -- D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, p. 336 Chad Richard Bresson Xenia, OH http://breusswane.blogspot.com/ -- Read the Sound of Grace pages at http://www.soundofgrace.com To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: soundofgrace-unsubscribe@... To view our online archive go to our web page at http://www.associate.com/groups/soundofgrace