THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY

Introduction

The story of the woman caught in adultery is generally regarded as an authentic story about an event in the life of Jesus. In its usual location (after Johannes 7), the passage disturbes the context. However, the passage does not appear in any early Greek manuscripts of Johannes. It is omitted by the following:

Manuscript	MS Date
p66	c. 200
p75	III
	c. 325
B	IV
C (app.)	V
L	VIII
N	VI
T	V
W	V
F	VI
33	IX
plus the following

The passage is included in certain miniscules including "family 1" (f¹), "family 13" (f¹³), and 1333. It is found in manuscript D and part of the Latin tradition.

In some of the manuscripts where it is found, the passage appears after Lukas 21:38; at the end of Lukas; or in other locations. The passage most commonly appears after Johannes 7:52 in the later manuscripts.

In this translation, the passage will appear separately. Because of the nearly unanimous agreement that the story represents an authentic tale in the life of Jesus, it must appear somewhere, even though it may have been written much later by followers of Jesus who had passed on the story orally before then. However, scholars are also in strong agreement that the passage was neither part of Lukas nor part of Johannes originally. Therefore, it does not belong with either of those accounts but separately, as it appears here. Interestingly, nowhere in the canonical writings does Jesus write anything, except for in this passage. Some variants add that he wrote down the sins of the woman's accusers, but this is clearly a later addition. Perhaps his writing was meant only as a sign that he was ignoring them.

The Translation

[And each one went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mountain of Olive Trees. Now at dawn he happened by the temple court again, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.]
Now the scribes and the Perushim led a woman grabbed during adultery and stood her in the middle. They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was grabbed in the act of committing adultery. Now in our Torah, Moses gave the precept for such people to be stoned. So, what do you say?" [Now they said this to test him, so that they would have a reason to accuse him.]

Now Jesus bent down and wrote in the ground with his finger. Now as they continued to ask him, he stood up and told them, "The one of you who is sinless should throw the first stone at her." And again he bent down and wrote in the ground.

But those who heard exited one by one, beginning from the older people, and he was left alone-- and the woman who was standing in the middle. Now Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Is no one condemning you?" Now she said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go on, and from now on, sin no longer."

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