Grace Bible Chapel, June 9, 2024, Greg Rhodea PhD
I. The Story of the Woman Caught in Adultery
7:52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53–8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]
8:53 Then they all went home, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
II. Textual Assessment:
Part of John’s Gospel
A. The Textual Problem of the New Testament
The originals of the New Testament have been lost, and only hand-written copies have survived, called manuscripts.
The problem is that when these manuscripts are compared, they do not agree in every place. In fact, there are lots of disagreements. Every place where one manuscript disagrees with another one is called a variant. Our story today is an example. Some manuscripts of John have this story; some manuscripts of John do not have it.
So how do we know what the original wording was? Has the original wording been lost?
B. The Solution: Textual Criticism
Textual Criticism is the study of the copies of any written document whose original is unknown or nonexistent, for the primary purpose of determining the exact wording of the original.
By carefully comparing the different wordings found in the various manuscripts, scholars can discern with great confidence what the original text is. While there are some places where we are not sure which variant is original, none of these variants impacts a central teaching of Christianity that is not clear elsewhere in Scripture.
C. The Method of Textual Criticism Applied to Our Passage
- Some Christians suggest the best way to determine the original wording if there is a variant is to simply count the manuscripts and go with whatever wording is supported by the most manuscripts. But there are some problems with this:
a. God doesn’t tell us how he preserved Scripture.
b. The belief that the majority must preserve the original is a false assumption.
c. Some manuscripts look more carefully copied than others, and we should give attention to this. - The best method is to look at all the evidence, not just the number of manuscripts. The most important guideline is “Choose the reading that best explains the rise of the others.”
First we want to think through the Wording of the variants.
a. The harder reading is to be preferred. Scribes tended to smooth out the text in terms of harmonizations, grammar, style, and theology.
(This doesn’t apply too much to the story of the woman caught in adultery.)
b. The shorter reading is to be preferred. Scribes tended to add to the text more than they subtracted from it—though the text grew only 2% over 1400 years.
(This certainly applies to our story. It’s much easier to see why a well-meaning scribe would add in this “bonus content.” It’s much harder to see why a scribe would want to remove this story.)
c. We also want to pay attention to what a scribe might have changed, but also which reading makes more sense for the author to have written in terms of style and context.
(This applies a little bit to our story. Removing the story fits the context and gives a smooth transition from 7:52 to 8:12. Some of the vocabulary and style of the story also don’t seem quite at home in John.)
RESULTS FROM EXAMINING THE WORDING: It seems much more likely based on wording that this story was added in at some point instead of having been removed at some point. Most significantly, it’s hard to see how this story could have been skipped unintentionally, and it’s hard to understand why a scribe would want to remove it intentionally.Second, we want to think through what Manuscripts support which reading.
a. Our oldest manuscripts of John’s gospel do not have this story at all: P66 (around year 200); P75 (3d century); Aleph (4th century); B (4th century). These manuscripts are considered very reliable.
b. The oldest manuscript that includes the story is from the 5th century (D). This manuscript is considered somewhat wild, as it freely adds and removes content.
c. Some manuscripts that include the story indicate with special markings that it was questionable (1424; 230).
d. No Greek-speaking church father comments on this story until the 12th century.
e. It shows up first in manuscripts associated with Rome (D, and manuscripts translated into Latin).
f. Interestingly some late manuscripts include it in different places (see the NIV note above).
RESULTS FROM EXAMINING MANUSCRIPTS: It is clear the oldest and best manuscripts of John omit this story.Third, we want to put together the evidence from Wording and from Manuscripts.
a. In this case, both streams of evidence point in the same direction—this story was certainly not original to John.
b. It appears that this story was a piece of oral tradition about Jesus that circulated in the region of Rome and was first included in John’s gospel in that area, especially in Latin versions. It spread eventually to most later manuscripts.
c. Though not original to John, it may indeed be an authentic story of Jesus that was preserved (see John 20:30).
III. Theological Assessment: A Good
of What We
of Jesus Elsewhere
A. Jesus is the Author of the Law and therefore its true interpreter (see John 8:6, 8; compare Exod 31:19).
B. As the sinless one, Jesus is the only human judge who can’t be judged himself (see John 8:46).
C. Jesus, as the judge, is willing and eager to forgive sinners (John 8:11).
The Bottom Line
Don’t let
Suggested Video
For a great presentation on why we can trust the text of the New Testament, see this video by Dan Wallace: “Is What We Have Now What They Wrote Then?”
Sources
For Part 2 of these notes I am indebted to: “Laying a Foundation: New Testament Textual Criticism” by Daniel B. Wallace, in Interpreting the New Testament Text, ed. Bock and Fanning, Crossway: 2006.
For Part 3 I am indebted the sermon “Go and Sin No More” by Peter Gurry (Feb 11, 2024, Trinity Bible Church, Phoenix AZ).