On Not Preaching John 7:53-8:11
As most of you probably know, we have come to the famous passage in John, often referred to as “the woman caught in adultery.” It’s a remarkable passage that I think we all find great beauty and grace. The story rings true of the Pharisees, as well as of Jesus. We are confronted with our own struggles with pride and judgmentalism. Christ is far more gracious than any of us and if anyone truly had the right to condemn, it’s him. And yet, as we continue to see with Jesus, he is incredibly merciful. Throughout Scripture and in our own lives, the people of God continue to commit spiritual adultery against the Lord and, as in the story, he forgives and then calls his people to “go and sin no more.”
However, there is a problem with this passage: it is not original to John’s gospel. You have probably noticed before that there is a note in your Bible that says something like, “The earliest manuscripts do not contain these verses.” Somewhere along the way of transmission, it was inserted into John. Perhaps the incident happened, but there is significant evidence against this passage being inspired Scripture.
Since that is the case, as much as I love the story and wish I could preach it, I’m not able to do so. As you know, sermon texts come only from God’s Word. You’ll never hear a sermon at FRPC based on a good hymn, the Westminster Confession or an ancient Creed. As wonderful and true to Scripture as these things may be, they are not Scripture.
This may give rise to questions such as, “Well, then why is this in my copy of the Bible? How do I know I can trust the rest of the Bible?” These are good questions that often require longer answers than a little blog post can fully offer, but only focusing on the second question (because it’s the more important of the two), consider this: though we do not have the original document of John’s gospel, we have access to so many early Greek manuscripts (thousands) that we have the ability to reconstruct what John’s gospel looked like in its original form. That we can say that the verses in question are not original should not cause us to be less certain that what we have is what John (inspired by the Holy Spirit) originally wrote, but that we are more certain.
No doubt, there is much more that could be said on this topic, but for now, I’m going to offer you an article and a sermon. The article addresses the issues surrounding this passage in John and the question of whether one should preach it. It’s a longish article, but I would encourage you to take the time to explore it. It may not answer all of your burning questions on the topic, but the author does a great job laying out the various concerns and giving some wisdom on the subject.
The sermon is from RC Sproul. RC took the position that the text is not original to John, but he believes it to be Scripture. I love RC, but I don’t agree with his conclusion. One thing you may find helpful is that he lays out the text-critical issues before he moves to the text. So in just about 7 minutes, you’ll have a firmer grasp of the questions surrounding the passage. Then, if you are so inclined, you’ll hear a sermon from him on the passage.
If you have any questions about any of this, please do not hesitate to ask!