What Does John 8:7 Mean in the King James?
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The first stone is conditional: whoever names her failure must first face whether they are without missing themselves.
THE MEANING
The verse makes the first act of judgment depend on the condition of the one who raises a hand. When you name another’s failure, your own standing is already part of the measure being used.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that exposing another person’s failure makes the accuser’s own condition irrelevant.
THE ROOT
ἀναμάρτητος
anamartētos
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
The Greek stem is associated with missing or erring; the prefix ἀ- (a-, without) makes ἀναμάρτητος mean “without missing” or “without sin.”
“without sin” in this verse is anamartētos. The condition describes the person who casts, not the accusation made against the woman. The phrase belongs to the same word family as ἁμαρτία (hamartia, sin or missing), joining the accuser’s fitness to judge with the failure being judged.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
This verb shows the word family as an action of going wrong, not only a label for a person.
hamartia: Sin; a missing or failure.
ἁμαρτία
The related noun names the very kind of failing that the condition excludes.
βάλλω
ballō
GROWS FROM
βαλλ-
ball-
Throw, cast, or put.
“cast” in this verse is ballō. The verse makes judgment physical: the charge becomes a stone in someone’s hand. In Matthew 7:5, a compound from the same verb family describes casting out the speck after the plank is addressed.
ALSO GROWS
ekballō: Cast out or drive out.
ἐκβάλλω
The same throwing action appears in the image of removing the speck in Matthew 7:5.
emballō: Put or throw into.
ἐμβάλλω
This compound keeps the image of throwing while directing it into something.
THE PATTERN
A judgment aimed at another is brought back under the judge’s own measure.
Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.THE THREAD
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.“Without sin” here and “sin no more” there share the ἁμαρτ- (hamart-, missing or erring) word family; the verb in verse 11 is ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō, to miss or err). The same root names both the accusers’ condition and the woman’s charge, while the verse holds non-condemnation alongside responsibility.
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