Daily Bread - Nov 17 2006

John 8:3 - "But the scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman having been taken in adultery and stood her in their midst."

Many scholars believe that the passage contained in John 7:53 through John 8:11 is not original. The story of the woman caught in the act of adultery is considered by these scholars to have been an oral tradition in the early church but was not in the original manuscript of the gospel of John.

However, it is equally important to remember that most of these scholars doubt that John the brother of James the son of Zebedee and disciple and apostle of Jesus Christ wrote this gospel. Their basis for not believing that this passage is original is that approximately 27 manuscripts out 5130 omit this passage. In any other discipline, the 27 manuscripts would be viewed as being wrong and the majority would be considered as the more accurate representations of the original. Those who argue to omit this passage believe that they should give more weight to the older manuscripts such as a (Sinaiticus), B (Vaticanus), p66 and p75. The assumption is that these older manuscripts are more accurate. Unfortunately, there are many reasons to question the accuracy of some of these particular "older" manuscripts. There are also some of the oldest manuscripts which contain this passage, such as, p23, p25, p37 p45, A, and others.

Another bias of these scholars is the assumption that the shorter version of a passage is likely to be the original. This is yet another reason they argue to exclude this passage on the adulterous woman. It is argued that the list of manuscripts that do not contain this passage are diverse from different geographical areas, but the same argument can be used in favor of this passage. It is also argued that the majority of lectionaries do not mention this passage, yet in the legalistic and institutionalized Christian environment such as were in Rome, Greece, and Egypt it is not surprising that it would not have been popular to talk about an adulterous woman having been so favorably treated by Jesus.

Jerome said in (A.D. 346-420) that this passage was contained in "many Greek and Latin manuscripts" while he was yet alive. Certainly these manuscripts that were available to Jerome were an accurate representation of the original gospel.

Blessings,

Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
www.abidingplace.org