*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
They say unto him, Master,.... They applied to him in a handsome and respectful manner, the better to cover their ill design:
this woman was taken in adultery; by two persons at least, who could be witnesses of it; otherwise the accusation was not legal; see Deuteronomy 19:15; though in the case of a wife suspected of adultery, they admitted a single witness as valid (f):
in the very act; or "in the theft itself", for adultery is a theft; it is an unlawful use of another's property; see this word used in the same sense, in Heliodor, l. 1. sect. 11.
(f) Maimon. Hilchot Eduth, c. 5. sect. 2.
woman . . . in adultery . . . Moses . . . commanded . . . should be stoned--simply put to death (Deuteronomy 22:22), but in aggravated cases, at least in later times, this was probably by stoning (Ezekiel 16:40).
but what sayest thou--hoping, whatever He might answer, to put Him in the wrong:--if He said, Stone her, that would seem a stepping out of His province; if He forbade it, that would hold Him up as a relaxer of the public morals. But these cunning hypocrites were overmatched.
*More commentary available at chapter level.