(John 7:53 KJV) And every man went unto his
own house. (John 8:1-11 KJV) Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. {2}
And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people
came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. {3} And the scribes
and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had
set her in the midst, {4} They say unto him, Master, this woman was
taken in adultery, in the very act. {5} Now Moses in the law
commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? {6}
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus
stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though
he heard them not. {7} So when they continued asking him, he lifted up
himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone at her. {8} And again he stooped down, and wrote on the
ground. {9} And they which heard it, being convicted by
their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest,
even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in
the midst. {10} When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but
the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no
man condemned thee? {11} She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto
her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Because of the length of this passage, I will only post it once and then
state where it is included, omitted, or bracketed which means the editors of
the translation in view reject it.
KJV - Included
1611 KJV - Included
1587 Geneva Bible - Included
1568 Bishop’s Bible - Included
1539 Great Bible - Included
1537 Matthews Bible - Included
1535 Coverdale Bible - Included
1526 Tyndale Bible - Included
1382 Wycliffe Bible - Included
Counterfeit Versions
(FN=Footnote) (B=Bracket)
(1881 RV) - (FN - B) Most of the ancient authorities omit John vii.
53-viii. 11. Those which contain it vary much from each other
(CSB) [The earliest mss do not include 7:53–8:11.]
(NIV) (FN) (The earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient
witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11.)
(NASV) (FN - B) John 7:53-8:11 in not found in most of the old
manuscripts
(AMP) (FN) John 7:53 to 8:11 is absent from most of the older
manuscripts, and those that have it sometimes place it elsewhere. The story
may well be authentic. Indeed, Christ's response of compassion and mercy is
so much in keeping with His character that we accept it as authentic, and
feel that to omit it would be most unfortunate.
(NLT) (FN) The most ancient Greek manuscripts do not include John
7:53–8:11.
(ESV) (FN - B) The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11. Some
manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11; others add the passage here or after
7:36 or after 21:25 or after Luke 21:38, with variations in the text.
(CEV) (FN) don't sin anymore: Verses 1-11 are not in some
manuscripts. In other manuscripts these verses are placed after 7.36 or
after 21.25 or after Luke 21.38, with some differences in the text.
(NKJV) (FN) (7:53) The words And everyone through sin no more
(8:11) are bracketed by NU-Text as not original. They are present in
over 900 manuscripts.
(NCV) (FN - B) Some of the earliest surviving Greek copies do not
contain 7:53—8:11.
(HCSB) (B)
(NAB-Roman Catholic) (FN) 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.
(NWT-Jehovah’s Witnesses) (FN)* Manuscripts א B Sys omit
verses 53 to chapter 8, verse 11, which read (with some variations in the
various Greek texts and versions).
Textus Receptus - Traditional Text
Included
Hort-Westcott Text - Critical Text
Included but in brackets
Published Greek Texts With Corruptions
Omits or Brackets (7:53-8:11) Greisbach, Johann - 1805 (In brackets or margin) Lachmann, Karl - 1842 Tischendorf, Constantine - 1869 Tregelles, Samuel - 1857 Alford, Henry - 1849 revised in 1871 Wordsworth, Christopher - 1856 revised in 1870 Westcott and Hort - 1881 Weiss, Bernhard - 1894 Nestle - 1927 as revised in seventeenth edition in 1941 Nestle-Aland - 1979 - Twenty Sixth Edition Nestle-Aland - 1993 - Twenty Seventh Edition Nestle-Aland - 2012 - Twenty Eighth Edition United Bible Societies - 1983 - Fourth Edition Von Soden, Freiherr - 1902
Corrupted Manuscripts
This verse is omitted, changed, or bracketed in the following
manuscripts:
Aleph 01 - Sinaiticus -
Nineteenth Century Counterfeit
A 02 - Alexandrinus - Fifth century
B 03 - Vaticanus - Fourth century
C 04 - Ephraemi Rescriptus - Fifth century
L 019 - Seventh century
N 022 - Sixth century
T 029 - Fifth century
Delta 037 - Ninth century
Psi 044 - Eight/Ninth/ century
037 - (Majuscule) Ninth Century
038 - (Majuscule) Ninth century
33 (Miniscule) - Ninth Century
565 - (Miniscule) - Ninth century
P 66 - circa 200 AD
P 75 - Third Century
The bold manuscripts are the three primary manuscripts where this
passage is omitted.
Manuscripts that agree with the Textus Receptus for these verses
D 05 - Bezae Cantabrigiensis - Fifth century
G
011 - Cambridge - Ninth Century
G 012 - Ninth Century
K 017 - Ninth Century
M 021 - Ninth Century
U 030 - Ninth Century
036 - (Majuscule) Tenth Century
28 - (Minuscule) - Eleventh Century
700 - (Minuscule) - Eleventh Century
892 - Minusucule) - Ninth Century
1009 - (Minuscule) - Thirteenth Century
1010 - (Minuscule) - Twelfth Century
1071 - (Minuscule) - Twelfth Century
1079 - (Minuscule) - Tenth Century
1195 - (Minuscule) - Ninth Century
1216 - (Minisucule) - Ninth Century
1344 - (Minuscule) - Twelfth Century
1365 - (Minuscule) - Twelfth Century
1546 - (Minuscule) - 1263 A.D.
1646 - (Minuscule) - 1172 A.D.
2148 - (Minuscule) - Fourteenth Century
2174 - (Minuscule) - Thirteenth Century
Byzantine Text (450-1450 A.D.)
Affected Teaching
John 7:53-8:11 is the narrative concerning the woman caught in adultery.
For some reason the Gnostic butchers did not see fit to include this account
in their manuscripts and had intentionally omitted it. If you look at the
modern version footnotes, they claim that the most ancient authorities do
not contain it. They have denied three other ancient authorities which
contain the passage. The Old Latin Vulgate Bible (circa 170 A.D.), The Greek
Vulgate Bible (circa 150 A.D.), and the Byzantine Text which reigned from
450-1450 A.D. Even D 05 from the fifth century contains it. The evidence
that this passage of Scripture is authentic is great. The two primary
manuscripts where it is missing is Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. These two
manuscripts differ from each other in 3000 places in the Gospel alone. This
passage of Scripture has been preserved by God from the originals to the
King James Version we have today. I want to include an article by Dr.
Jeffrey Khoo on this passage of Scripture.
The Woman Taken In Adultery (John 7:53-8:11)
An inspired account of John’s Gospel proving Jesus Christ as Light of
the World
Jeffrey Khoo
The story of the woman taken in adultery in John 7:53-8:11 is called the
pericope de adultera. Modernistic scholars have attempted to remove
this whole passage from the Bible. According to Westcott, “This account of a
most characteristic incident in the Lord’s life is certainly not a part
of John’s narrative.” Not only has it been said that the pericope de
adultera was not a part of John’s Gospel, both Westcott and Hort
insisted that the story “has no right to a place in the text of the
four Gospels.”
The Westcott-Hort based NIV has this misleading statement concerning the
authenticity of John 7:53-8:11: “[The earliest and most reliable manuscripts
and other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11].” What are these so
called “earliest” and “most reliable” manuscripts which do not have the
pericope de adultera? They are Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus,
both 4th century manuscripts. Those who reject the pericope de
adultera do so on a presuppositional bias that these 2 codices which
omit it are superior manuscripts.
Are the above codices really reliable? According to Dean Burgon, a godly
and renowned Bible defender of the last century, the codices Vaticanus and
Sinaiticus are among “the most corrupt copies in existence.” Burgon
wrote, “I am able to demonstrate that every one of them singly is in a high
degree corrupt, and is condemned upon evidence older than itself” (for a
full discussion, refer to John William Burgon’s The Revision Revised
[Collingswood NJ: The Bible For Today, 1981 reprint], 548 pp). Although the
above two codices may be “earliest” they are by no means “most reliable.”
There is abundant evidence in support of the authenticity of the
pericope de adultera. John 7:53-8:11 is found (1) in many Greek uncials
and minuscules mainly of the Majority or Byzantine text-type, (2) in the
ancient versions or translations: Old Latin, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic,
Armenian, and Ethiopic, and (3) in the writings of the Church Fathers:
Didascalia, Ambrosiaster, Apostolic Constitutions, Ambrose, Jerome, and
Augustine.
Jerome (AD 340-420), the translator of the Latin Bible called the
Vulgate, said this about the pericope de adultera: “. . . in the
Gospel according to John in many manuscripts, both Greek and Latin, is found
the story of the adulterous woman who was accused before the Lord.” Jerome
considered the pericope genuine, and included it in his Vulgate.
Self-styled textual critics who arrogantly say: “This text has no place
in Scripture; I will never preach from it!,” should rather heed these wise
words of Calvin: “it has always been received by the Latin Churches, and is
found in many old Greek manuscripts, and contains nothing unworthy of an
Apostolic Spirit, there is no reason why we should refuse to apply it to
our advantage.”
It must be noted that if John 7:53-8:11 is removed from the Gospel, it
leaves a vacuum between the words “out of Galilee ariseth no prophet (7:52),
and “Then spake Jesus again unto them” (8:12). In 7:40-52, we find the
private dialogue and debate among the Jewish populace, and between the
temple servants and Pharisees over Jesus’ identity; whether He was the
Moses-like Prophet (Deut 18:15) or not. Jesus was out of the picture at that
time. It is thus quite awkward to introduce Jesus so abruptly in 8:12 where
it is recorded that He spoke to them “again.” Jesus in verses 12-16 was
teaching what is righteous judgment. The pericope de adultera
provides the link between the two episodes. Jesus taught them “again”
because He had already begun teaching the people before he was interrupted
by the scribes and Pharisees (8:2-3). Jesus’ “light of the world” discourse
clearly fits the context of the pericope de adultera. The Jewish
religious leaders had failed to exercise righteous judgment because in
condemning the adulteress, they failed to judge themselves for they were
equally sinful (8:7-9). Jesus’ judicial and yet merciful treatment of the
adulteress clearly demonstrates that He alone as the light of the world is
the true and perfect Judge (8:12).
The divinely inspired account of the woman taken in adultery rightfully
belongs to the Gospel of John. Let us not hesitate to use it for our
encouragement and comfort.
Recommended reading: John William Burgon, “The Woman Taken in Adultery:
A Defense of the Authenticity of St John 7:53-8:11,” in Unholy Hands on
the Bible (Lafayette: Sovereign Grace Trust Fund, 1990), F1-16; and
Edward F Hills, The King James Version Defended (Des Moines: The
Christian Research Press, 1984), 150-9.
Dr Jeffrey Khoo is the academic dean of Far Eastern Bible College.