Sermon Tone Analysis

Today, as we continue making our way through the Gospel of John, we come now to chapter 8...

And we come to a story that is very familiar within Christianity...

So let’s go ahead and read through the text...

I’m sure most of you - if not ALL of you - have heard of this story before...

But what most of you may NOT have heard of before is that most NT scholars today - do not believe that this story was part of the original writing of John...

Instead they believe it was added in - centuries later...

Don Carson, who teaches at Trinity, and is in my view one of the best New Testament scholars in the world, writes, “Despite the best efforts . . . to prove that this narrative was originally part of John’s Gospel, the evidence is against [them], and modern English versions are right to rule it off from the rest of the text (NIV) or to relegate it to a footnote (RSV).”

(The Gospel According to John, 333)

Bruce Metzger, one of the world’s great authorities on the text of the New Testament until his death in 2007: “The evidence for the non-Johannine origin of this paragraph of the adulteress is overwhelming.”

(A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 219)

Leon Morris: “The textual evidence makes it impossible to hold that this section is an authentic part of the Gospel.”

(The Gospel According to John, 882)

Andreas Köstenberger: “This represents overwhelming evidence that the section is non-Johannine.”

(John, 246)

And Herman Ridderbos: The evidences “point to an unstable tradition that was not originally part of an ecclesiastically accepted text.”

(The Gospel of John, 286)

All of these men, and many more agree that this story in the Bible was not original to John...

And instead was added centuries after John....

And so what would render this text NOT being authentic to John…?

Here are some of the reasons why they think it’s not authentic to John himself...

1.

The story is missing from all the Greek manuscripts of John before the fifth century.

2. All the earliest church fathers omit this passage in commenting on John and pass directly from John 7:52 to John 8:12.

3.

In fact, the text flows very nicely from 7:52 to 8:12 if you leave out the story and just read the passage as though the story were not there.

4. No Eastern church father cites the passage before the tenth century when dealing with this Gospel.

5. When the story starts to appear in manuscript copies of the Gospel of John, it shows up in three different places other than here (after John 7:36; 7:44; 21:25), and in one manuscript of Luke, it shows up after 21:38.

6.

Its style and vocabulary is more unlike the rest of John’s Gospel than any other paragraph in the Gospel.

So - with all of this said…why is it even IN HERE?

It’s in here because it DOES show up in later manuscripts...

BUT - if we KNOW or have a VERY GOOD inclination that a particular passage wasn’t ORIGINAL to a biblical author...

We definitely don’t want to BASE our theology on that passage.

And so if you’re thinking right now - WHY PREACH on this...

My answer is - What we preach on today - the TRUTH that we preach on today…will NOT FIND IT’S BASIS solely in this passage.

The TRUTH we look at today - will be BASED in the REST of SCRIPTURE...

And THIS PASSAGE will simply POINT to what we’ll look at today...

The message of this story - AGREES with the rest of Scripture!

This story was PRESERVED throughout the centuries because the early church LOVED this story.

What did they love about it?

They loved the message of it...

And we’ll see what that message is.

SO - let’s get to it...

In this story, Christ is back in the Temple teaching the people...

And while He’s teaching - it says...

Now, just a side note about the language used here - the Author uses the word “SCRIBES”...

“the scribes and the Pharisees brought the woman in”

Nowhere else in this gospel do we find this word “Scribes”…used

John always used the phrasing - “Jews…or Chief Priests and Pharisees”

(just another indication that this story doesn’t belong here)

So the Pharisees bring this woman before Jesus and declare that she was caught in the act of adultery...

And then they say...

So first - let’s go to the law to see what it says...

So here’s the Law...

This is what the Pharisees were pointing to…and saying - SEE Jesus - she should be put to death!

But Jesus knows what they’re trying to do!

We can read this verse here and see what?

Who is supposed to be put to death in this scenario?

The woman....AND.....the man!

Where’s the man?

They said they what - CAUGHT her in the act?

MEANING - the man was there!

They KNOW who it is!

Are these Pharisees really concerned about JUSTICE?

NO - they’re not!

next verse...

These guys are concerned about the LAW - they HATE Jesus!

**I think we see this sort of thing a lot today - with social media.

(we see people all the time complaining about this or that on social media)

(BUT THEN - when you let them know that there are opportunities for them to help out - to get involved - to invest - they say - OH NO…i’m not gonna do that!)

Same thing here - these guys are not concerned with the LAW...

They HATE Jesus - and they want to BRING A CHARGE against Him...

But Jesus knows!

He knows these men HATE Him…and have REJECTED Him...

SIDE NOTE:

Now, if this story truly happened, which most NT scholars agree is the case...

...then - there's an interesting connection with what Jesus did here in this story...

...with an OT prophecy found in Jeremiah.

I think everyone who reads this story, always walks away from it - WONDERING WHAT in the world Jesus wrote in the dust of the earth (read end of verse)

What we need to remember is what the context of this passage is...

Last week we just walked out of Christ TEACHING in the temple......on the last day of the FEAST...

And if you remember, on the last day of the Feast, there was a GRAND ceremony where the priest would pour out WATER that had been gathered from the pool of Siloam...

And pour it out on the altar...Celebrating God for providing for their fathers in the wilderness...For providing RAIN for them throughout that year...And to PRAY for MORE!

And DURING this grand ceremony, Jesus stood up and said:

Jesus stands up and DECLARES to all the men of Israel...

...that He Himself is the fulfillment of the WATER ritual..

...they had just witnessed!

That He...the FOUNTAIN of LIVING WATER - would give them LIVING WATER...

Did they ACCEPT Him as the Fountain of Living Water?

NO - and here's where the connection comes in with this scene regarding the woman caught adultery...

Listen to what Jeremiah 17:13 says...

These men - who brought this woman out before Jesus......

seeking to TRAP Jesus...Those who had FORSAKEN Jesus Himself as the FOUNTAIN of Living Water...

See Jesus kneel down, and write in the dust of the earth...

Could He have been writing their names in the earth?

Certainly...And to think - no wonder they ran away...

But what did Jesus do in this story...How did He respond to the question of the Pharisees...?

What we see Christ do here is...

SLIDE:  Jesus Christ:  Reveals Himself as Judge

Jesus Christ

these men were trying to USE the law to carry out judgment...And the LAW afforded them that opportunity did it NOT??

It did...It said - if 2 people were caught in adultery, both were to be killed...See how VALUABLE God views marriage?

We hear this and might think - WOW that's harsh!