![]() No Eastern Father cites the passage before the tenth century. All the early church fathers omit this narrative: in commenting on John, they pass immediately from 7:52 to 8:12. They are also missing from the earliest forms of the Syraic, and Coptic Gospels and from many Old Latin, Old Gregorian and Armenian manuscripts. The most notable exception is the Western unical D, known for its independence in numerous other places. These verses are present in most of the medieval Greek miniscule manuscripts, but they are absent from virtually all early Greek manuscripts that have come down to us, representing great diversity of textual traditions. Carson offers a lengthy discussion about the manuscript evidence for John 7:53-8:11 and as to whether this story belongs in the gospel of John. ![]() The passage appears to have been inserted by some copyists. ![]() In some manuscripts the passage appears in other locations in John and even the book of Luke. The early Greek church fathers do not refer to it. Some very old ancient manuscripts contain white space between John 7:52 and John 8:12 which would indicate that the copyist left out this story. These doubts exist because the John 7:53 through John 8:11 does not exist in the earliest and most reliable ancient manuscripts. Unfortunately there are serious doubts that the events in this story actually occurred. Consequently some teach that we should be more tolerant. Jesus never condemned her and only warned her to not do it again. We are not told what Jesus wrote on the ground or why the religious leaders left, starting with the older men and finally the younger men. The story has been appealed to by many as a wonderful act of forgiveness and even tolerance by others. We know nothing about her husband or her lover. Maybe it was a trap designed to see if Jesus would condemn only the woman. ![]() On the surface it appears that the woman was singled out by the religious leaders. ![]() One wonders why the story does not mention anything about the man who was also engaged in the sexual activity. It would also have been a very fearful experience since the Mosaic Law required that the woman and her lover be killed (Leviticus 20:10 Deuteronomy 22:22). That would have been extremely embarrassing to be caught in a sexual act. Apparently someone entered a room while she and her lover were engaged in sexual activity. This study is about a woman caught in adultery. ![]()
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