John 7:53–8:11 · “the story of the adulteress (John 7:53–8:11)”
Καὶ ἐπορεύθη ἕκαστος εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ ... (7:53–8:11)
Metzger summarises the evidence: the passage "is absent from such early and diverse manuscripts as Papyrus 66.75 Aleph B L N T W" and many others; Codices A and C are damaged here, but measurement suggests they lacked it too; it is missing from the oldest Syriac and Coptic versions, some Armenian and the old Georgian, the Gothic, and several Old Latin manuscripts; and "no Greek Church Father prior to Euthymius Zigabenus (twelfth century) comments on the passage". Where it does appear it wanders: after John 7:52 in most, but after 7:36, 7:44 or 21:25 in others, and after Luke 21:38 in the f13 family, and it is often marked with asterisks or obeli. The earliest Greek manuscript with it is the 5th-century Codex Bezae (D). The early evidence for it as Scripture is Western: some Old Latin texts, Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome, who put it in the Vulgate. Augustine suggested that some had removed it "fearing, I suppose, lest their wives should be given impunity in sinning"; Metzger and Hort answer that this would not explain why the surrounding verses 7:53–8:2 are missing too. Yet the story itself looks old: Eusebius reports that Papias (early 2nd century) told "another story of a woman, who was accused of many sins before the Lord, which is contained in the Gospel according to the Hebrews", perhaps the same story; and the 3rd-century Syrian Didascalia Apostolorum clearly alludes to it (elders set before Jesus a woman who had sinned, leave the judgment to him and go out, and he sends her away uncondemned). Raymond Brown, a Catholic scholar, concludes that it was "a later insertion" into John and that its style is "more Lucan than Johannine", while noting that "there is nothing in the story itself or its language that would forbid us to think of it as an early story concerning Jesus"; Metzger likewise says it "has all the earmarks of historical veracity", and the conservative Protestant Tregelles, who rejected it as Scripture, still wrote "I accept the narrative as true". What the evidence settles: the passage was not originally part of the Gospel of John. What it does not settle: whether the event happened, and whether the passage belongs in the canon, which the churches have answered (see below).7 sources7 sources1. Metzger 19712. Brown 19663. Tregelles 18544. Hippo 19005. Didascalia Apostolorum II.24.6, in F. X. Funk, Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum, vol. 1 19056. Caesarea7. this site's data
| “And every man went unto his own house” | KJV |
|---|---|
| “ἐπορεύθη ἕκαστος εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ” | SBLGNT, RP2018, TR-Boyd |
| “[And they went every man unto his own house” | ASV |
Also: John 7:52 · John 7:53 · John 8:12 · Luke 21:38