THE STRANGE CASE OF JOHN EIGHT

PASTOR RYAN LADEN – DEVOTIONALS

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The Text: John 7:53-8:11 (NIV)

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.” 

Translations

In most all modern English translations of the Gospel of John, this pericope (self-contained section) is set apart by either brackets or a different type face. Added to this separation from the rest of the text, the reader will often find accompanying explanations or notes. 

In the NIV the following note is included:

“The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11.”

Question

For the casual reader of the Bible, this is an extremely odd comment and situation to find in the middle of a Bible book. Understandably, many will just note this page with a question mark and then move on with their reading. 

After all, the message of this separated pericope is powerful and easy to understand. The grace of God seems to drip off the page as we hear about how Jesus responded to this terrible situation. 

Problem

The fact that you are reading this article suggests that you are interested in learning more about this passage and its background. 

The “problem” posed by this passage can be summed up as follows:

1. Locations – By comparing the texts of thousands of copies of the Gospel of John, in multiple languages, and across the centuries, we have learned that this pericope has at times appeared in different places, or in some texts not at all, throughout the manuscript history of the Gospel of John. 

2. Greek – In the oldest Greek copies of the Gospel of John, this entire encounter is missing completely (principally, P66, P75, Siniaticus, and Vaticanus).

3. Latin – The oldest Latin language translation of the Greek text to contain the pericope can be dated to around 400 AD, but the Greek text from which it was translated has been lost to time.

4. Church Fathers – There is some early church commentary on this encounter between Jesus and this woman caught in adultery. The most significant comes from Papias, a student of the Apostle John’s school in Ephesus. His work dates to around 110 AD. According to Eusebius of Caesarea,  (Ecclesiastical History, ca. 300AD), Papias made note of a story concerning a situation that involved Jesus and a woman “accused of many sins”. This is believed to be a reference to this same situation, but certainty cannot be ascertained without more information.

Question

Based on these issues, there has arisen a question about whether the encounter was originally included in the Gospel of John. 

Exclude

Those that argue to exclude the pericope do so based on their desire to echo the earliest Greek manuscripts in their exclusion of the encounter. They recognize the early inclusion in the Latin, Syriac, and Coptic texts, but hold to the primacy of these early Greek manuscripts. 

Include

Many point to the early use and familiarity with the story amongst the Church Fathers from the early 100’s AD onward. They point to the inclusion of the text in the earliest Latin texts as a sign that the text was well known and well used by those of a Western (Roman / Latin / European) background over those of an Eastern background (Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Ethiopian). 

Options

The “problem” of identifying the origin and authenticity of this single event in the Gospel of John seems to come with three options. They are as follows:

1. Insignificant

Most Christian readers of the Bible do not see this issue as one that requires a lot of debate and worry. Most value the text, value its message, and value its inclusion in the Gospel. They do not see the content of this encounter as controversial or polemical and so they happily accept it as presented in our modern translations. 

2. Negative

A small number of people respond negatively to the uncertainty regarding this text. Often, those that are arguing for this text to be excluded from the Gospel of John, also are those who argue against the authority and reliability of the Bible at large. They use this uncertainty to add to their list of complaints about the Bible and often these complaints are simply used as a shield to stop them from seeing the text of the Christian Bible as inspired truth. 

3. Transparency 

The third approach sees this discussion as a positive sign of transparency surrounding the textual history and reliability of the Christian Bible. The reason this pericope is being discussed at all stems from the desire of Christian scholars to be open and honest about all that we can say concerning the reliability of every part of the biblical text. 

Unlike other ancient writings, modern biblical scholarship has thousands of significant copies, compilations, and commentaries on the provenance or source of the biblical text. No other ancient document is as well attested and studied. As such, there will be more discrepancies between these thousands of documents than there can be for any other ancient book or writing.

These discrepancies are made public, are studied and debated relentlessly by people who care about the accuracy and reliability of the biblical text. The fact that the modern English translations name these concerns is not meant to be a sign of weakness or doubt, but just the opposite. They are evidence that what we are presented in our Bible today is the most accurate, most reliable, most original version of the Christian Bible possible.

So what to do?

So what is to be the conclusion of the honest reader of John 7:53-8:11?

Inclusion and reliability are this author’s treatment for this text. 

This conclusion is based on the following criteria:

1. Exclusion for political reasons. 

The Eastern branch of the early Christian church seemed to exclude this encounter for less than scholarly reasons.  

The author of the Latin Vulgate, Jerome, was a man of incredible scholarship. He gave his life to the production of the best Latin translation of the Christian Bible possible at that time. In 417 AD, Jerome found that this pericope was found in the majority of the Greek and Latin manuscripts that he encountered during his lifetime of research. This same opinion was shared by Ambrose of Milan and Augustine (ca 350 AD). It was Augustine’s conclusion that the passage was excluded by the Eastern church leaders because they feared that it showed Jesus Christ being too light on the sin of adultery. 

This cannot be said for certain, but it does speak to motive for exclusion by one section of the church and not another. 

2. Inclusion based on use

The earliest church leaders spoke of this encounter. There was no question whether the situation occurred, only which texts would include it, and which would not. It seems that this pericope was valued by many in the earliest and messiest days of biblical transmission. It seems that those who valued this text, made sure to include it, even if there were questions about its place in the Gospel. 

3. Inclusion based on grace

The text itself fits well within the message of John’s gospel, even if its word selections are slightly different than other parts of John’s gospel. The message is one that hits home as a genuine expression of the gospel of grace given by Jesus Christ. The conflicts involved seem to reflect the other conflicts presented in John’s Gospel. Were it not for the textual notes, there would be no reason to question this text at all. 

Conclusion

Whether you keep it in its current location within the Gospel of John, or remove it and hold it alongside other treasured antidotes from the life of Jesus found in the writings of the Church Fathers makes no difference. 

•   Without the pericope, John’s Gospel still reads with the authority of the Christ. 
•   With the pericope, John’s Gospel reads all the same, but with one more excellent example of what it looks like to be forgiven for sin and called into obedience to Christ. 

Whatever the conclusion is for the reader, the message of the encounter is worth studying and applying to your own walk with God. 

The questions surrounding this text’s place in the Gospel, do not remove the Gospel that is found in this text!

In Christ, 

Ryan Laden

PASTOR RYAN LADEN

Works at MTN. CHURCH

Former Senior pastor at Warnbro Community Church

Studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Studied at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Studied at Baylor University

Studied at Texas Tech University

Went to Castle Hills First Baptist

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