Priest said yesterdays gospel was not by John

[buffalo]

Yesterday our priest told us the Gospel story of the adulterous women was not found in early manuscripts and was added later.

Does someone know the facts on this?

 

[gvogt4]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericope_Adulter%C3%A6

I guess my question would be how did he incorporate that information to the enhancement of the Faith and/or the daily application of the readings?

 

[Fidelis]

From the NAB footnotes:

[7:53-8:11] The story of the woman caught in adultery is a later insertion here, missing from all early Greek manuscripts. A Western text-type insertion, attested mainly in Old Latin translations, it is found in different places in different manuscripts: here, or after John 7:36 or at the end of this gospel, or after Luke 21:38, or at the end of that gospel. There are many non-Johannine features in the language, and there are also many doubtful readings within the passage. The style and motifs are similar to those of Luke, and it fits better with the general situation at the end of Luke 21:but it was probably inserted here because of the allusion to Jeremiah 17:13 (cf the note on John John 8:6) and the statement, “I do not judge anyone,” in John 8:15. The Catholic Church accepts this passage as canonical scripture.

From the Navarre Bible Commentary:

1-11. This passage is absent from many ancient codexes, but it was in the Vulgate when the Magisterium, at the Council of Trent, defined the canon of Sacred Scripture. Therefore, the Church regards it as canonical and inspired, and has used it and continues to use it in the liturgy. It is also included in the New Vulgate, in the same position as it occupied before.

St. Augustine said that the reason doubts were raised about the passage was that it showed Jesus to be so merciful that some rigorists thought it would lead to a relaxation of moral rules–and therefore many copyists suppressed it from their manuscripts (cf. “De Coniugiis Adulterinis”, 2, 6).

The bottom line, whether it was written by John or not, this episode is apostolic in origin and inspired Scripture.

 

[patg]

Yesterday our priest told us the Gospel story of the adulterous women was not found in early manuscripts and was added later.

Does someone know the facts on this?

I haven’t checked all my sources but it appears that it isn’t found in any of the earliest surviving manuscripts (including the two 3rd century papyrus - P66 and P75 and the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus). The first surviving Greek reference seems to be in the Codex Bezae of the fifth century. This, of course, doesn’t factually rule out it being present earlier but I doubt it is possible to do that.

 

[Jay3gsm]

A priest at our church said the same thing, mentioned something about how the writing style could be seen to be different from the other works in John. But he didn’t dwell on the point too much

 

[Ron_Conte]

In my opinion, the Gospel of John was written by John the Apostle, but it was completed by his disciples. The addition of that story by his disciples may have been something that John himself taught verbally to his disciples, something that John witnessed, so they felt free to add it as they worked on his Gospel.

Ron

 

[Gnosis]

The addition of that story by his disciples may have been something that John himself taught verbally to his disciples, something that John witnessed, so they felt free to add it as they worked on his Gospel.

Thats not really possible unless John had disciples that inherited his oral teachings long after the third century.

 

[Fidelis]

Thats not really possible unless John had disciples that inherited his oral teachings long after the third century.

That’s presuming, of course, that the autograph (original) or immediately subsequent manuscripts **did **contain it, but were omitted in **later **manuscripts. There could any number of possible scenarios. We really have no way of knowing. All we know for sure is that the Church has defined this as inspired Scripture, and within the canon, has traditionally placed it at the beginning of John 8. Works for me.

 

[Ron_Conte]

I believe that John was written in the first century A.D., and completed by John’s disciples sometime after his death (late first or early second century A.D.). So certainly some of his disciples could have known him personally, or personally heard him speak.

I don’t think the story was in the Gospel originally, as John wrote it. I think it may be one of the stories that John often related about Jesus verbally, and later someone added it to his Gospel.

Ron