Whenever the religious leaders come to Jesus to ask him a question in the Gospels, they are setting a trap for him. They present him with a situation where no matter how he answers, he is bound to give a response that they can use against him. In the case of the woman caught in adultery, the penalty prescribed by the Mosaic Law was death by stoning. If Jesus tells them not to stone the woman, they can accuse him of breaking the law. If he tells them to proceed with the execution, they can claim that his message of mercy was hollow and meaningless.
In each of the traps set by the religious leaders of his time, Jesus deflects the attack by responding in an altogether different way from what his antagonists are expecting. In the situation involving the woman caught in adultery, Jesus replies by exposing the hypocrisy of the men seeking judgment against her.
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