True Story . . . ?

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and, making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.  Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.  When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.  Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, sir.”  And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

John 8:3-11

I suspect that this is one of the most cherished bible passages in the New Testament.  I know that when I was a Christian I found it very moving - though now I can recognize the  problems with it, namely that the God of the Hebrews sure loved to find reasons to have people stoned to death - and yet - here in the above verses is Jesus going directly against what was commanded - by God - in Deut. 22.

A few years ago I had been having a regular ongoing (weekly) discussion with a young Jehovah's Witness couple.  I can't remember what we were discussing this one particular day, but at one point during the conversation I felt the need to bring up this passage in John concerning the woman caught in the act of adultery. 

 

I was aware that the last half of Mark 16 was not found in the most ancient copies, so some bible versions don't include it, others do, and some include it but have a footnote explaining that it is of questionable origin - but I was not aware that this passage in John 8 suffered from the same condition - questionable origin.

My JW friends were quite knowledgeable about the bible, so when I mentioned this passage to them and they got a confused look on their face, I was perplexed - had they never read this passage? How could anyone who is familiar with the bible not be familiar with the story of the woman caught in adultery?  So I opened up my NRSV bible and found the passage to read to them, only to discover a footnote similar to the longer ending of Mark 16, explaining that this passage is of questionable origin.  

Then it dawned on me - the Jehovah's Witnesses read ONLY from their own bible - the New World Translation, which omits these questionable passages (but does include a footnote as well).  They were not familiar with these verses because they have never, ever, in their entire lives, heard a sermon (preached dozens of times) on this passage because it is not included in their New World Translation.

This experience gave me an odd feeling, even now, as a non believer.  The story of Jesus turning the table on the Pharisees and then forgiving the woman for her adulterous ways, was always an important passage in my mind, and here these Jehovah's Witnesses, who seemingly are more familiar with the bible than the vast majority of Baptists that I have known, have never heard of it, but they hadn't heard of it for good reason - it was not in the earliest extant copies, and was therefore not included in their bible - FOR GOOD REASON!

bob

r.u.reasonable@gmail.com