Jesus and the Case of the Missing Woman (John 7:53-8:11; 6:66-69)

Children's Lesson (click here)

I. What Comes Next?

In January of 2021, we began a study in the Gospel of John. It was entitled, “John and the Seven Signs of Jesus”. It's a study we began, but not one that we finished. Why not? Because in October of that year, we shifted to our current Reading Plan format. So if you went to our website and looked, the last message in that series (from September 26^th of 2021) would have covered John 7, vs. 37-52. What does any of this have to do with the message this morning? Well, since our readings this past week were in John, chapters 6-10, I thought I might pick up where I left off and add at least one more message to the series through John's Gospel. But... that's where I ran into some difficulty. What exactly is the next passage in John's Gospel?

If we were to travel back in time to the first centuries of the Christian faith, to one of the regions in which the Good News had taken root, and if we were able to track down a copy of the Gospel of John, this is what we would read, beginning in 7:45...

The officers [who were supposed to arrest Jesus (v. 32)] then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before [i.e., to Jesus (chp. 3)], and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

So if you think about the entire context here, which would be chps. 7 and 8, you may remember that all of this takes place in the Temple in Jerusalem during the fall Feast of Booths. Once Jesus publicly makes himself known in 7:14, John provides for us this extensive description of the inter-action between Jesus, the crowds, and the religious authorities. Over the course of eighty-five verses there is a 'ping-pong' of words: Jesus declares, the crowd debates, and the leaders dig in their heels. But again, we just heard that same progression going from 7:52 into... 8:12?!

8:12? But what about the last verse of chapter 7, verse 53? And what about the first eleven verses of chapter 8? Well, again, you would not have found those verses in the Gospel of John in the earliest centuries of the Church. They are not present in our earliest Greek copies of this section, they are not present in early copies of the entire Gospel of John, and they are not present in the earliest translations of this book into other regional languages. They are also not present in commentaries and sermons on John from that time period. Additionally, when you look at the text in 7:53-8:11, the language used is much closer to Matthew, Mark, and Luke than to the Gospel of John. For example, nowhere else does this Gospel refer to the “Mount of Olives”, but the other Gospels do multiple times. Also, John never refers to the “scribes and Pharisees” (or even “scribes”), but the other Gospels do, over and over again. So, in light of all this, we have to ask, “Why are these verses here, in our modern versions of John's Gospel?”

Answering that question isn't easy. The clearest answer is that the vast majority of the almost six thousand Greek New Testament manuscripts that include John, include these verses. Again, these manuscripts are not from the earliest centuries of the Church, but they do seem to demonstrate how this story was broadly embraced. Additionally, though there is no evidence this story was written by John and included in his original Gospel manuscript, this story is known from several references in other writings that date back to the 3^rd and 4^th centuries. Yes, the questions surrounding this account go back as far 4^th-5^th cent. leaders like Augustine and Jerome. And yet, this story was and has been widely accepted, even treasured, by so many in the Church.

So what are we to make of this account, this story of the women caught in adultery? Well, even though the evidence is strong that it doesn't belong in John's Gospel, that doesn't mean it didn't happen. There's good reason to believe that stories like this were passed along independently at first. Eventually, many of these stories were included in the Four Gospels we know today. This account is one that simply wasn't included by the Gospel writers. But clearly, it still circulated in the church, and at some point, it was so revered that a scribe added it to a copy of John's Gospel.

You see, when we examine the story of the woman caught in adultery, it does line up extremely well with what we know of Jesus from the four Gospels. But (and this is important) it doesn't bear any of the common characteristics of the fictional, Jesus stories created in the 2^nd or 3^rd centuries. It even rubs a little against 2^nd and 3^rd century Christian attitudes. So in light of this, and given its ancient roots and its eventual, widespread acceptance, I think there's a good case to be made that this is an actual story about a real-life episode from the life of Christ.

II. The Passage: “The Words of Eternal Life” (6:66-69)

Okay. So, if that's true, what should we do with a story like this? Is this inspired Scripture? Should we authoritatively preach from this text? Do we develop doctrine based on this account? Does God speak through this text in the same way he speaks through the accepted text of the Old and New Testaments? These are hard questions, aren't they?

Since there are very good reasons to believe this story is not part of John's original Gospel, then we simply cannot accept this story as part of the accepted canon of inspired Scripture. But that doesn't mean this story isn't helpful or inspiring. It absolutely is. Though this account is unique, it doesn't present any unique doctrine. It simply affirms what we already know about Christ from the inspired Gospels. Therefore, since there is so much we just don't know about this story, it is wiser to simply appreciate it as a helpful illustration or picture, but not as an authoritative text.

But... what does the existence of a passage like this mean for your confidence in the Bible you hold in your hands this morning? What if other passages have been added? What if other passages need to be removed? Can we really trust our modern, English translation? These questions, and the doubts with which they might tempt us, remind me of another passage we considered in Our Bible Reading Plan last week. Look with me at John 6, verses 66-69. When some unknown and unnamed disciples grumbled at Jesus' words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, he asserted that many of them simply didn't believe. Let's pick it up there...

[Verse 66...] After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. [67] So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” [68] Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, [69] and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

So think about why many of Christ's disciples turn back at this point. They have doubts about his word, and those doubts are tempting them to give up altogether. What's inspiring those doubts? That's answered in John 6:60, “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?'” There are many reasons that you and can I have doubts about the word of God. But Peter's response in verses 68 and 69 is such a helpful reminder for us. Our trust in the word of God is not first based on Greek manuscripts and variant readings and the historical process through which we received our New Testament. Our trust, first and foremost, is in the fact that these are “the words of eternal life”, since these are the words that point us to Jesus. Look at how Jesus describes our confidence in the word of God. 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

When a person hears the word of God, when he or she hears the gospel, and responds to it with saving faith, it means the Spirit is at work through words that “are spirit and life”. Did Peter and the others understand everything Jesus was saying to them, especially these “hard sayings”? No. And yet, that didn't turn them away. Why? Because it “is the Spirit who gives life”, through words that “are spirit and life”. You see, what God had revealed to them, through the word and the Spirit, gave them a perspective to judge what was less clear in light of what was most clear.

Okay. Does that mean we ignore hard issues like the presence of this story in so many copies of John's Gospel? Not at all. It's important to talk about it, and, for example, to point out that this has long been a known issue in the manuscript history of John's Gospel. And it's also important to point out that so many centuries have gone by, and that we have so many Greek NT manuscripts, that issues like this are already known. And wonderfully, there really aren't a whole lot of issues like this. We really can have confidence in our modern Bible translations.

III. Saving Confidence

But brothers and sisters, having confidence in the Bible you hold in your hands this morning is not the same as saving confidence in God's word. We don't have to have an answer for every question regarding the transmission of the Scriptures to believe these are “the words of eternal life”. For example, when it comes to this story of the woman caught in adultery, you don't have to know who included it and when and why in order to believe that John's Gospel really is God's word. Am I placing personal revelation over scholarship, or your personal trust over what is objectively trustworthy? Not at all. Good scholarship can help us understand how we received this text, and give us helpful reassurance about its transmission over the centuries, but good scholarship cannot save us. Only through the Spirit and the word can we “come to know that [Jesus is] the Holy One of God”.

My aim this morning has been twofold: first, to help you understand more about this story of the woman and how it ended up in your Bible, and second, to encourage you that, even though the story of this story may unsettle us, our Spirit-inspired confidence in Christ and in “the words of eternal life” is not misplaced. It is a gift. So let's walk in that confidence! When we're tempted to go to the world, to social media, to what's trending, to political chatter, to the latest data and the loudest voices, when we're tempted to listen to our feelings or our past or our critics or unhealthy examples around us, when we're tempted to go somewhere else or to someone else in order to find 'words of life', may God help us bring that temptation to him and declare, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”! May that be our confession every morning, and every time we open the Scriptures. History and scholarship demonstrate that God really has preserved his word, even through imperfect people. But only through that preserved word is God saving and guiding imperfect people, people who are now being renewed by the Spirit. May God be glorified, brothers and sisters, as we turn daily to Christ for “the words of eternal life”.