Sin Is Just a Stone's Throw Away
We approach a very common story in John 8. It is the morning after the Feast of Booths. Jesus is up early and still teaching. The pharisees detect and opportunity to trap Jesus. They bring out a woman they claim is an adulteress and the story unfolds.
I don't think it's a surprise to those listening to this podcast that we use AI to help dig deep into scripture. Just so you know that none of these podcasts are a one-way AI conversation, today, we left the commentary and the challenges intact. The answers that we came away with by challenging the original answers help provide a deeper and I think better interpretation than if we had just left the AI to provide its own commentary. That commentary, while not wrong, needed a human touch.
Here's an example (pulled from the notes). We bantered about on the presence or absence of an actual witness.
AI Commentary and Common Interpretation: If there is a qualified witness here, untainted by sin in this matter, let him step forward and begin.
Challenge to think deeper: I submitted that I think he is saying: In the absence of a qualified witness, who among you is willing to pick up the first stone. A witness is not qualified by the absence of sin. The law says that a witness is qualified because of direct knowledge. I think Jesus is calling them out. He's saying: Ok - since you don't have a witness, who among you is qualified to accuse another sinner of anything. Jesus has just reduced the entire crowd to a bunch of sinners pointing accusatory fingers at each other!
Another AI Commentary (and common interpretation): Given the legal setting, this cannot mean absolute sinlessness (which would nullify the Law) and moral superiority in general.
Challenge: I think that this is EXACTLY what Jesus means! First, there are no witnesses. In the absence of a witness, all we have is a group of sinners. It no longer matters what the accusation is - there's no witness! This is sinner against sinner and finger pointing. Jesus is raising the stakes by stating: "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Nobody is without sin. It's a foregone conclusion.
We also just speculate on what Jesus is writing on the ground. AI gets nervous about that! In the end, we had to affirm with the AI that we were only speculating... nothing in the text leads us to anything beyond speculation. I do think that comparing what Jesus was writing to what was written on the wall makes a compelling statement. But let's be clear - what we think is pure speculation. I added the question to my bucket list to ask Jesus about this when I meet up with Him on. I'll be sure to let you know what He said! LOL.
