PERICOPE ADULTERAE. The section in the Gospel of John containing the story of the adulteress (John vii. 53-sill. 12) is thus designated. It is clearly an interpola tion. It does not appear in a large number of manu scripts, and " in many a copy it has been merely added, often in a small hand, on the margin " (C. R. Gregory). The verses did not originally form part of the Gospel of John. The story seems to have been widely circulated (at first orally) and read. Eusebius says that it found a place in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. But there are many various readings. Dr. Gregory thinks that " there are in the whole New Testament no other dozen verses that exhibit such a manifold variation of reading." One of the variations, chiefly found in manu scripts on Mount Athos, makes the story, as described by Dr. Gregory, very dramatic. " At the close of the eighth verse, when Jesus again turns away from the Pharisees and again writes on the ground, we are told what He wrote. For the sentence Is made to say : He wrote upon the ground the sins of each single one of them. Of course, that Is aimed at these accusing Pharisees. We see the people crowding around Jesus. In the midst of the group are half a dozen or more scribes and Pharisees, who have brought the woman to Jesus and have stated her sin. They think to lay a snare for Him. They have no fear for themselves. The ninth verse completes the change that turns the tables upon the Pharisees. It does not read : And they when they heard It. It reads : And they when they read it. The Pharisees accused the woman. Jesus wrote on the ground, affecting not to bear them, as also an old reading suggests. They badger Him until He looks up at them
and curtly says: He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her. And then He stoops down and again writes upon the ground. What is He writing there? The foremost Pharisee is of course the oldest. It was his right to be in front. He looks down at the sand at the word that Jesus has just written, and sees there the name of a great sin that he has done, but which he thinks is known to no one. Like a flash his conscience wakens. Verse ninth says : And they, when they read it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest unto the last. This oldest Pharisee has turned and edged his way out of the crowd as fast as he could. Jesus has swept His hand across the sand to smoothe it over, and has again written some thing. This word the next Pharisee reads, and recognis ing a hidden sin of his own, he too flees. And thus it goes on till the accusers are all away. And Jesus is left alone with the woman in the centre of the group of people. Jesus looks up at her and asks her—we can hear the scathing irony of the words—Where are they? Doth no man condemn thee? Yes, indeed, He may well ask where they are. They have gone off, thinking of their own sins. Their own thoughts are now accusing and perhaps weakly excusing them, but chiefly condemning them. And the woman answers: No man, Lord. And Jesus said : Neither do I condemn thee. Go thy way, and from henceforth sin no more." See C. R. Gregory.