Mary Magdalene out of whom he had cast seven devils

Larry, you say “Jesus did not condemn the Woman for her past life of Sin because Jesus knew She was demon possessed, so therefore She was not guilty of sin by reason of demonic possession.” https://www.wake-up.org/bible-characters/mary-magdalene-mystery.html#comment-2819

Larry makes a good argument and I know many people could easily agree.  Although, it is also possible Nicodemus is Jesus the “Good Teacher” who met with Jesus the Woman under the cover of darkness and is therefore the Man caught in adultery with her, Jesus the Woman.

The chief priests and Pharisees ask the temple guards why they had not brought Jesus in. The guards reply. “No one ever spoke the way this [person] does. ” The Pharisees retort. “You mean [this person] has deceived you also? Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in [this person]? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law–there is a curse on them”

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, and who was one of their number, asked. “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing [the accused] to find out what [s/he] is doing? …Then each went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn [Nicodemus] appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.

At the conclusion of the trial, Jesus the Woman speaks to the Man caught with her which implicitly includes Jesus known to the chief priests and Pharisees as Nicodemus, and everyone who is cast out when Nicodemus says, whoever is without sin, cast the first stone. She does not condemn him nor he her. Both Jesus say, “Go and leave your life of sin.”  For as Paul declares to the Romans in 3:23, all have sinned …and are justified freely by God’s Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The insanity defence or the demon possession defence robs the Woman of her own moral agency. Mark 16:9 says, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.” Scripture does not name these seven followers of Simon, to whom Jesus said…get behind me Satan (Matthew 16:23).

Knowing the Law and who Jesus is makes it easier to see these seven devils as the teachers of the law and the Pharisees backing Jesus the Good Teacher known to them as Nicodemus, who brought the Woman Caught in Adultery in for questioning. When the teachers and the Pharisees realized they too were sinners and could not cast the first stone, they were cast out, one by one (John 8:9).

Left alone, Jesus (the Teacher and the Woman) were left facing an exceedingly bitter moral dilemma. How could they work together to reconcile and bring peace and unity to their faith communities now that they had been caught in adultery and outed?