WHY AVOID THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY STORY (John 7:53-8:11)?

WHY AVOID THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY STORY (John 7:53-8:11)?

Revised on May 25, 2020

“Yahweh’s promises are promises unalloyed; natural silver which comes from the earth seven times refined”—-Psalm 12:6 NJB

“Every word of God is flawless . . . Do not add to his words or he will  rebuke you and prove you a liar”—Proverbs 30:5,6 NIV

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll”—Revelation 22:18 NIV

The phrase “Let him who has no sin cast the first stone” (paraphrased from John 8:7 KJV), has become entrenched everyday speech and in popular culture–for one thing due to the immense popularity of The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible  “The Catholic Church accepts this passage as canonical scripture” (NAB note on John 7:53-8:11). Both Protestants and Catholics preach and teach from the woman caught in adultery story without any equivocation.

The vast majority of Christians, including Pastors, do not know, and are totally unaware, in fact, that the account of the woman caught in adultery in John 7:53-8:11 was not part of the original Bible! Many people just “know”, in their “hearts”, they think, that Jesus really said these words, since they’ve heard this story all of their lives, and sermonized in churches. The phrase at John 8:7 is often used to let others know not to take sin too seriously, and not to “judge” others. It is often quoted by those who want to excuse their own deliberate sin, which they know the Bible condemns. This account violates the principles at Proverbs 30:5,6 and Revelation 22:18Why?

woman caught in adultery
The vast majority of Christians are unaware that the account of the woman caught in adultery was not part of the original Bible!

“The story of the woman caught in adultery is a later insertion here, missing from all early Greek manuscripts . . . There are many non-Johannine features in the language, and there are also many doubtful readings within the passage”—New American Bible (NAB) note on John 7:53-8:11

The evidence against this account is extensive and wide-ranging. It is omitted by a truly diverse group of ancient Greek manuscripts, and is missing from all the early Greek manuscripts, including the very important P66, P75, B, Sinaitic, plus L, N, T, W, 0141, 33, 157, 565, 1241, 1333, 1424, and many, many others. Both A and C probably did not contain it. Some other manuscripts that do contain it mark it off with asterisks or obeli. In manuscript 225 it’s after John 7:36, but in others it’s after 7:44. In f13 it’s after Luke 21:38. The missing manuscript evidence alone is more than enough proof that the passage is a fake! But there is even more, much more. When a text “moves around” in manuscripts, like this account does, it is strong evidence of its later origin, and efforts by scribes to put it where it seems to “fit”. The manuscript evidence alone is 100% against this text being original.

The syntax, vocabulary and style of writing in these 12 verses is very different from the rest of John’s writings, which is another clue as to the suspicious nature of the passage. Then there is the fact that, when these 12 verses are removed from the text, as modern translations are increasingly doing, the flow of the text from John 7:52 to 8:12 fits perfectly. The story is completely foreign to John’s account of the events regarding Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem (John 7:45-8:20) by interrupting the flow of the text.

Then, there is the problem with the story itself. Since adultery cannot be committed alone, the question arises, “Where was the man, her partner, in the act?” Jesus, being no dummy, would likely have called attention to this fact, if this account was genuine. There is no indication of any repentance on the part of this woman, or any hint of her attitude, in this account. Contrast this with the repentant attitude of the sinful woman at Luke 7:36-50, that Jesus encountered.

The account of the woman caught in adultery in John 7:53-8:11 is justified by many, even in the scholarly community, as being the recording of an actual historical event in the life of Jesus, even though it has no genuine Biblical support. The adulterous woman story is used as much as any of the legitimate Biblical accounts, often with sincere ignorance, to support the Biblical teaching of being merciful. However, the Bible has more than enough true, genuine scriptures about mercy without these 12 spurious verses (Exodus 34:6,7; Matthew 5:7; 18:21-35; Luke 10:25-37; James 3:13).

Aside from the account’s Biblical illegitimacy, a much worse and more serious problem is that the adulterous woman account is often used to excuse sinful actions. One justification for using this story is that Jesus is supposedly more merciful than Yahweh of the Old Testament. While Jesus definitely highlighted God’s mercy, he did not soft-pedal sin. For example, Jesus said, “Whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin” (Mark 3:29 NAB). He also foretold, “The Spirit will come and show the people of this world the truth about sin” (John 16:8 CEV). The woman caught in adultery story does not,“show people of this world the truth about sin.” In fact, it presents a different Jesus,” and a different kind of Good News” (2 Corinthians 11:4 NLT; Galatians 1:8 NLT).

Christians under the New Covenant are no more excused from sin than they were under the Old Law Covenant. “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 12:28,29 NIV). So the claim that God in the Old Testament was stricter, meaner, and more rigid, in dealing with our sins than the merciful, loving, forgiving Jesus in the New Testament is absolutely false. The story at John 7:53-8:11 has helped to fuel this myth. God does not change (Malachi 3:6). To use this account, even in a sincere way, is a mistaken misrepresentation of God, Jesus and the Bible itself.

The Bible, from beginning to the end, warns several times about ‘adding anything to the words of God’ (Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:5,6; Revelation 22:18,19). Obviously, this principle was flagrantly violated, and this spurious addition was put into the popularly famous KJV at John 7:53-8:11, and there were also additions to other places in the Bible. But such tamperings and additions have been uncovered by the discovery of numerous ancient, more accurate Biblical manuscripts, and also by modern Biblical textual scholarship methods to arrive at the original Biblical text. Spurious additions have now been eliminated from the text of the most current Greek Master Texts, and the modern translations that are based on them. God said He would preserve His word – and he has! “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (2 Peter 1:24,25 NIV). Satan tried to corrupt the Biblical text, but his corruptions have been not only exposed,  but also weeded out in the more accurate translations! We would do well not to bring them back in, for example, by using this spurious account of the woman caught in adultery in any kind of legitimate way, as though it was part of “All Scripture [that] is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). 

6 thoughts on “WHY AVOID THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY STORY (John 7:53-8:11)?

  1. I took your advice and obtained a NIV Bible and found that a lot of verses I memorized as a youth in Sunday school were missing!I thought I got a badly misprinted copy so I bought a NASB Bible instead and found the same verses missing

    All the missing verses were the words of Christ such as Matt. 18:11, Mark 11:26 etc.

    I have not been in church in decades and wanted a new Bible to replace my 40 year old version.

    So, according to you, the word of God is fluid then and changes from year to year like the the 1978/1984 NIV version used the gender-specific terms and the 2011 revision does not ?

  2. No, the Bible refers to “God’s everlasting word that can’t be destroyed”, so we can be certain that God has accurately preserved his word (1 Peter 1:23-25 GWT). Why the “changes” then? Actually, the omitted words were never in the original writings of the Bible in the first place, but were added many years later as copies were made. This was in violation of God’s principles, not to add to, nor take away from, his Word (Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:5,6; Revelation 22:18,19). The discoveries of much older, and more accurate, Bible manuscripts has brought about these restorations to what is now considered to be the accurate representation of the original Bible text. Praise God for it!

    1. I beg to differ from your answer. I’m sorry but I sense an assumption In your statement that the Oldest Manuscripts available ‘Now’ is the ultimate proof for accuracy. How do you defend that the manuscripts or sources used by the Tyndales, Geneva Bible etc never had those missing verses ? May be they used manuscripts much older than the Oldest ones available now. Byzantine text in my opinion is more accurate than the Alexandrian as they are geographically closer to where the Gospel authors are originally from.

      1. The verses John 7:53-8:11 do not appear in any Greek manuscript until the 5th century. The so-called “Textus Receiptus” Greek text (TR), composed by Desiderus Erasmus in 1516, includes these spurious verses, because Erasmus did not have access to any Greek manuscripts prior to the 10th century. The Tyndale Bible and the Geneva Bible were both based on the TR, and they include those verses. These 12 verses show up after John 7:53 in some manuscripts, after John 7:44 in others, and the end of John in others, and after Luke 21:38 in one manuscript. This, in and of itself, is A Priori evidence against it. The vocabulary and syntax of these 12 verses is very different from the rest of John. The account flows very well when the 12 verses are omitted, but is abruptly and unnaturally interrupted when they are included. The older Alexandrian texts are considered to be more accurate in general because they are closer in time to the originals.

  3. that story didnt show Christ actual personality and obedience to the law,adultere SHOULD be killed,Christ says heretic should be throw to see with MILLSTONE tied on their neck,Christ justify the killing of disrespectful children in mark 7:10-13,Christ says “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” in matthew 5:19,Christ is circumcised as a jew,he didnt eat unclean meat,he go to temple,he did sabbath,he did Old Testament passover,he follow ALL God’s command and thats how he is holy,He is for perfection and holiness,THAT is the real Christ Jesus,not the one that speaks against God’s law,Christ says he didnt came to destroy the law but to fulfill it,the bible says you fulfill the law by doing it ,paul said “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” (romans 13:8),Christ is simply saying to people he didnt come to tell people around to stop following God’s law,he LITERALLY say you have to obey moses law to gain eternal life to the rich young man,Paul give sacrifice offering in the TEMPLE after he did nazarite vow in acts 21:26,The bible says the law of God is FOREVER,once God give law to us it will never be broken,ITS FOREVER,when the bible says God love is forever everyone will agree and take it literallistically without trying to explain it away,but when God says the Torah (torah means Law) is forever everyone is trying to make excuses,they justify our government allowing porn,prostitution,adultery,lgbt,a bunch of wives can cheat on their HUSBAND without consequence in their life,fathers leave their pregnant woman without consequence,the bible has SOLUTION,God knows best,he didnt give us law with intention to destroy us through strictness,he give us law because thats what he want from his creation and for our guidance to Truth,Law is morality,morality is law

    1. To Kvn—Thank you for your visiting this site and your comments. Yes, it is true that the Jesus in the spurious account in John 7:53-8:11 is a little different than the Biblical Jesus. However, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4 ESV). The Mosaic Law covenant ended with the death of Jesus Christ. “Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations” (Ephesians 2:14,15 NLT). Does the end of the Mosaic Law mean that Christians can freely sin? By no means! Notice the comparison: “Anyone who rejects the law of Moses is put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Do you not think that a much worse punishment is due the one who has contempt for the Son of God, considers unclean the covenant-blood by which he was consecrated, and the spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:28,29 NAB). While Christians do not have authority to impose the death penalty like the Jews under the Mosaic Law did in ancient Israel, deliberate sins against the new covenant, which Christians are under now, are even more serious than sins against the Mosaic Law, because they can have eternal consequences. Jesus knew the this death would end the Mosaic Law, so, in preparation for this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable to God” (Mark 7:19 NLT). The termination of the Mosaic Law is further emphasized by, “don’t let any one condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality” (Colossians 2:16,17 NLT).

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