John 7:53-8:11 and Textual Criticism

This is a brief discussion of the textual question that I will provide as a bulletin insert this Sunday.

Why is John 7:53-8:11 set apart in my Bible?

The passage we are studying today, John 7:53-8:11, is set apart in most modern translations. There is usually an explanatory note that says that this passage was probably not part of the original writing of John. Why do scholars think that is so, and why is this passage still included in our Bibles?

We have a great number of manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today, dating back to the 2^nd century. We have more manuscripts from later periods, and also a large number of manuscripts of early Bible translations. Very few manuscripts read exactly alike; there is usually some variation between them. This is due to the fact that they were copied by hand, and occasionally the copyist would make a mistake.

Fortunately, we have so many manuscripts of many different types that we are able to figure out by studying them what the original wording was. The process by which we do this is called “textual criticism.” This isn’t the kind of criticism that questions the reliability of the Bible, but is the process of recovering as best we can the original wording of the Bible.

We have a lot of confidence that most of the New Testament we have today is exactly what was written by the original human authors. Where there are differences, they do not affect any point of Biblical teaching or call into question any doctrine we believe.

This passage is one of the longer passages that are questioned by scholars. Here are a few of the reasons for this:

1) This passage is not found in the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament.

2) This passage is not found in the oldest translations of the New Testament.

3) The earliest commentators on the New Testament do not mention this passage.

4) Many manuscripts which include this passage set it apart from the rest of the text, much like we do in our modern translations.

5) Where this passage is found, it sometimes is put in a different place in John, and in some manuscripts it is even found in Luke instead.

So if there are so many questions, why do we keep this passage in our Bibles today? Some reasons scholars keep this passage:

1) Some very early church writers mention a story circulating at their time that sounds much like this one.

2) Jerome, who made the Latin translation we call the Vulgate, around AD 400, mentions it as existing in many manuscripts he used.

3) Augustine (also around 400) writes that he believes the passage was “removed” by some who were concerned that the passage gave license to adultery.

4) There is a general consensus that this story is a genuine account of an incident in the life of Jesus that circulated in the early church. It eventually became attached to a gospel account (which is why it shows up in different places). The sayings and actions of Jesus here are very much in character with what we see of Him in the rest of the Gospels.

I believe that we have here in this passage a genuine story about Jesus, acting in mercy toward a sinner, and that we can study this passage with profit.