Texts in Conversation
The Psalms of Solomon and John both criticize quick judgment of others while ignoring personal faults. The Psalms fault leaders for harsh actions despite hidden sins, and John echoes this when Jesus urges accusers to examine themselves first.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalms of Solomon 4:3
Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
1 Why do you sit in the council of the faithful, profane (man), when your heart is far from the Lord, provoking the God of Israel with your sins? 2 The person who speaks harshly when condemning sinners in judgment is extravagant in speech and in outward appearance beyond all (men). 3 And his hand is the first raised against him as (though he acted) out of zeal, and (yet) he himself is guilty of many sins and of self-indulgence. 4 His eyes are upon every woman without distinction; his tongue lies when he makes a contract with an oath.
Date: 65–30 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
John 8:7
New Testament
4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death such women. What then do you say?” 6 (Now they were asking this in an attempt to trap him, so that they could bring charges against him.) Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. 7 When they persisted in asking him, he stood up straight and replied, “Whoever among you is guiltless may be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground. 9 Now when they heard this, they began to drift away one at a time, starting with the older ones, until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Date: 90–110 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Jesus was neither the first nor the only Judean to excoriate fellow Judeans for hypocrisy. The author of Psalms of Solomon 4 called hypocrites who sat “in the council of the pious” to account decades before, especially for their zeal to expose and punish another’s sins while remaining complacent about their own sins ... Integrity requires turning one’s critical gaze inward, naming and turning from one’s own transgressions of Torah before dealing with another’s transgressions. The author of Psalms of Solomon would therefore approve of several traditions ascribed to Jesus. In the famous story of the woman caught in flagrante delicto, he would stand alongside Jesus as the latter invited those without sin to be the first to lay a hand against the woman, cooling their zeal to enact “justice” by reminding them of how they have winked at their own sins ..."
David A. DeSilva, The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 153.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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