John 7:53-8:11 Throwing Stones, Not a Good Idea 10/21/18-pm Leonardo da Vinci painted the The Last Supper in a church in Milan - It is a beautiful work of art which took him from 1494 to 1498 to complete - It is not a small painting either, like the copies we are used to, but it measures 15 feet high by 29 feet wide The story is told that at the time that Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper, he had an enemy who was a fellow painter - Da Vinci had had a bitter argument with this man and despised him When Da Vinci painted the face of Judas Iscariot at the table with Jesus, he used the face of his enemy so that it would be present for ages as the man who betrayed Jesus - He took delight while painting this picture in knowing that others would actually notice the face of his enemy on Judas As he worked on the faces of the other disciples, he often tried to paint the face of Jesus, but could not make any progress - Da Vinci felt frustrated and confused In time he realized what was wrong - His hatred for the other painter was holding him back from finishing the face of Jesus - Only after forgiving and making peace with his fellow painter and repainting the face of Judas was he able to paint the face of Jesus and complete his masterpiece 1 Tonight, our tour of the Gospel of John brings us a story of forgiveness - This passage is often referred to as the woman caught in adultery - And the fact that she seems to be easily forgiven by Jesus has caused problems with some throughout the years Many versions of the Bible set this passage within brackets - List it in a footnote - Or cast doubt upon it with a footnote - Of the English Bibles, only the King James Bible prints it as a normal part of the text 1 Hot Illustrations, 2001, (Youth Specialties, El Cajon, CA) Page 1
If you are following along in the NIV, you probably noticed that this passage is printed in italics - And that the passage begins with the notation: [The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53 8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.] 2 John MacArthur writes that, This section dealing with the adulteress most likely was not a part of the original contents of John. External manuscript evidence representing a great variety of traditions is decidedly against its inclusion, for the earliest and best manuscripts omit it However, he concludes that, In spite of all these considerations of the likely unreliability of this section, it is possible to be wrong on the issue, and thus it is good to consider the meaning of this passage and leave it in the text, just as with the ending of Mark 3 There are arguments in favor of its inclusion in the Bible as well - First, about 1,350 continuous-text manuscripts of John contain the narrative 4 - And second, the story fits the context well What I find interesting is that virtually all Alexandrian manuscripts omit it, and virtually all Byzantine manuscripts include it - This is an extreme oversimplification, but the difference between these two is basically one of omission - The Byzantine manuscripts of the Gospels are about 12 pages longer than the Alexandrian text The Byzantine manuscripts constitute 90% of the ancient Greek text that survive to this day - Yet, most English Bibles, except the King James and the New King James are based on the Alexandrian texts 2 This notation has been taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., (Published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI) 3 The MacArthur Study Bible, John MacArthur author and editor, 1997, (Word Publishing, Nashville, TN) 4 The Moody Bible Commentary, 2014, (The Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, IL) Page 2
To return to the text for today, that of the woman caught in adultery - Of the controversy surrounding this passage, Bishop John Charles Ryle wrote that, I lean decidedly to the side of those who think the passage is genuine, for the following reasons: First, The argument from manuscripts appears to me inconclusive. We possess comparatively few very ancient ones. Even of them, some favor the genuineness of the passage Secondly, The argument from the (early Church) seems to me more in favor of the passage than against it. On the one side, certain Fathers say nothing about the passage, but at the same time say nothing against it. On the other side, men of such high authority as Augustine and Ambrose not only comment on the passage, but defend its genuineness, and assign reasons for its omission by some mistaken transcribers 5 Finally, the inclusion of this passage in the King James Bible makes it a part of American Christian culture - So whether or not you feel it should be a part of God s Word - The mere fact that it has been accepted and read by believers for the last 400 years warrants our consideration and study As I studied this passage this week I was puzzled as to why this passage was omitted from the manuscripts we find in the Alexandria, Egypt library, which constitute roughly 10% of the most ancient texts Edward Hills offers an excellent theory - He notes that, The facts of history indicate that during the early Christian centuries throughout the Church adultery was commonly regarded as such a serious sin that it could be forgiven, if at all, only after severe penance 5 Bishop J C Ryle, as quoted by The Biblical Illustrator, Joseph S. Excell, editor, originally published 1887 in London, England, public domain Page 3
So Hills theorizes that there were objections to the story of the adulterous woman brought to Christ, because she seemed to have received pardon too easily His point is that it is surely more reasonable to believe that this story was deleted from John's Gospel by over-zealous disciplinarians than to suppose that a narrative so contrary to the morals of the early Christian Church was added to John's Gospel from some non-biblical source There would be a strong motive for deleting it, but no motive at all for adding it, and the prejudice against it would make its insertion into the Gospel text even more difficult 6 The Church has always walked a fine line between legalism and grace - On one hand we need to have standards, or we will be no different than the world around us But on the other hand, we need to be willing to show the love of Christ to others - And you cannot do that by being harsh and judgmental Adultery is one of those places of sin where the world has gotten increasing soft - Behavior that would have been outright scandalous 40 years ago - Would more likely be greeted with a smirk and a wink today Even our language has changed - When two unmarried twentysomethings lived together we used to say they were living in sin - Today they are cohabitating Even harsher are the rules spelled out in the Old Testament - Of course one of The Ten Commandments says, You shall not commit adultery. 7 - Then the 22nd chapter of Deuteronomy spells out many Laws of Sexual Morality - Including the one referred to in tonight s passage that the Pharisees used to call for the death penalty 6 Defense of the pericope de adultera by Edward F. Hills is taken from chapter 6 of his book, The King James Version Defended, 4th edition (Des Moines: Christian Research Press, 1984) 7 Exodus 20:14 Page 4
It is however doubtful that the Pharisees actually cared whether or not the adulterous woman was punished by death - They were just trying to trap Jesus If Jesus said the woman should not be executed, they would accuse him of violating Moses law - If he urged them to execute her, they would report him to the Romans, who did not permit the Jews to carry out their own executions He did neither of these - Instead He bent down and wrote on the ground - Whatever He wrote was not recorded here - Maybe He wrote the sins of the woman s accusers - Maybe He wrote the law of Moses that required that both the man and woman be executed - Maybe it was something else - We just do not know And where is the guilty man anyway? - Were the Pharisees afraid of him? - Did he overpower them and run away? - Or was he part of the trap; someone to victimize the girl so the Pharisees could drag her before Jesus? - We just do not know that either What we do know is that Jesus diffused the situation - And then offered the woman grace - But notice that she does not get away with her sin completely - Jesus tells her to go and sin no more After all her accusers left - John 8:10-11 record that, Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more. 8 Forgiveness is so much better than throwing stones - Perhaps you are sitting here thinking that you will never be caught in adultery like the woman in this passage - But, remember the words of Matthew 5:28 8 Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quoted has been taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, 2001 by Crossway (Good News Publishing, Wheaton, IL) Page 5
It was there that Jesus warning is recorded - He said, But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. I survived being a teenage boy and a young man - And from that experience I can tell you that it was difficult to look at a beautiful woman and not have some thoughts drift into lust My personal trick was to pray for her - It becomes much more difficult to have inappropriate thoughts for someone you are praying for However, looking over my whole life, I am sure there are enough lustful thoughts to put me in the same category as the adulterous woman in today s passage Maybe that is not your problem - But I can guarantee you that there is something you need forgiveness for - Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Fortunately, Jesus offers forgiveness for sinners like the woman in tonight s passage - And for sinners like you and I too - Again from Romans, chapter 6, verse 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. It seems like such a simple choice: sin and death or the free gift of God which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord - Yet, it is a choice that all of humankind old enough to understand needs to make I am not sure why so many choose to turn away from that precious gift of forgiveness and salvation and head down the sinful road to destruction - But I surely hope you are not among them and have chosen the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord Page 6