Jesus and the adulteress

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christ and the Adulteress , by Guercino , 1621 (Dulwich Picture Gallery).
Christ and the adulteress , Michael Pacher , 1471–1479 ( Pacher altar in the parish church of St. Wolfgang in the Salzkammergut)

The pericope about Jesus and the adulteress is found in verses 7, 53–8, 11 of the Gospel of John and describes a confrontation between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees on the question of whether a woman who has just been caught in adultery should be stoned .

Although the story agrees with many Gospel events and is relatively simple (the Didaskalia Apostolorum refers to it, Papias probably as well), most scholars agree that it was not included in the original Gospel of John. The standard Greek texts of John, like almost all modern translations, mark the passage with double brackets - [[...]] - to indicate this view. So even if it is probable that the text was not to be found in the original Gospel of John, the following applies: "The story as such is very old and was already known at the beginning of the 2nd century." This finding is undisputed, regardless of the question which way the section got to its current biblical place.

The phrase “throw the first stone” from verse 7 of this passage has entered many languages as a winged word to describe self-righteous behavior.

The passage in the Bible

John 8: 1–11  ELB in the Elberfeld Bible :

8: 1 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 But early in the morning he came back into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down and taught them. 3 But the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman who was caught in adultery, and place her in the middle, 4 and say to him, `` Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in adultery. 5 But in the law Moses commanded us to stone them with stones. You now what do you say 6 They said this, to try him, that they might have something to accuse him. But Jesus bent down and wrote on the earth with his finger. 7 But when they continued to ask him, he straightened up and said to them, `` Whoever of you is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at them. 8 And again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they went out one by one, beginning with the older ones; and he was left alone with the woman standing in the middle. 10 Jesus sat up and said to her, Woman, where are you? Has nobody judged you? 11 But she said, No one, Lord. But Jesus said to her, I do not judge you either. Go and sin no more from now on!

Text history

John 7: 52-8: 12 in Codex Vaticanus (350 AD): Lines 2 & 3 - John 7:52; Lines 4 & 5 - John 8:12.

The pericope is not found in its canonical place in any of the oldest Greek Gospel manuscripts, neither on the two testimonies for John from the 3rd century - P 66 and P 75 , nor in the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus from the 4th century. The first available Greek manuscript certificate for the pericope is the Latin / Greek diaglotte Codex Bezae of the fifth century.

Papias (c. 125 AD) refers to a story of Jesus and a woman "accused of many sins" found in the Gospel of Hebrews . This may refer to this passage. Agapios of Hierapolis quotes (around 942) from Papias' now largely lost book (around 95–120) on John's Gospel, an abbreviated version of the Pericope. Papias' version differs from the standard version in some respects; The difference is most evident in Jesus' challenge to the pack, which Papias reads: “That of you who is certain that you are innocent of the sin of which you are accused, let him testify against you with the Proof that he is [innocent] himself. "

There is a certain reference to the pericope adulterae in the Syrian Didaskalia Apostolorum from the 3rd century. However, it is not specified in which gospel, if any, this incident is reported.

Until recently it was not thought that any of the Greek Fathers before the 12th century had noticed this passage. But in 1941 a large collection of writings by Didymus the Blind (approx. 313–398) was discovered in Egypt , including a reference to the Pericope adulterae , which can be found in "some Gospels". It is now believed that this passage was known in its canonical place in a few Greek manuscripts in Alexandria from the 4th century onwards. To support this assumption, it should be noted that the 4th century Codex Vaticanus , which was written in Egypt, marks the end of John chapter 7 with an "umlaut", indicating that a different reading was known at that time was.

Jerome reports that the Pericope adulterae could be found in its canonical place in "many Greek and Latin manuscripts" in Rome and the Latin West in the late 4th century. This is confirmed by the consensus of the Latin Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries AD, including Ambrose and Augustine . The latter complained that this passage was incorrectly removed from some manuscripts in order to avoid the impression that Christ had sanctioned adultery:

Some people of little faith, or rather enemies of the true faith, fear, I believe, that their wives have been given impunity from sinning, and so they removed from the Lord's manuscripts deeds of forgiveness toward the adulteress, as if whoever said it was “Sin no more” so that permission to sin would have been given.

History of the textual criticism of John 7.53–8.11

During the sixteenth century, Western European scholars - both Catholics and Protestants - tried to restore the Greek text of the New Testament . Instead of relying on the Latin translation of the Vulgate, they looked for the "most correct" or least altered version of the text . At the time, it was noted that a number of early manuscripts of the Gospel of John did not contain the verses of John 7: 53–8: 11. Even the manuscripts they contained were marked with critical characters, usually a lemniscate or an asterisk . The scholars also noted that in the Lectionaries of the Greek Church, the readings of the Gospels at Pentecost go from John 7:37 to 8:12, but the twelve verses of these pericopes are omitted.

Origen was among the first to systematically add critical comments to the Alexandrian text :

“In the column of the Septuaginte [Origen] used the system of diacritical marks, which was already used by the Alexandrian critics of Homer (especially Aristarchus). He marked the passages of the Septuagint to which no reference could be found in the Hebrew texts with various forms of the obelus such as “./.” (Lemniscus) and “/.” (Hypolemniscus). He added areas that were missing in the Septuagint marked with an asterisk (*). In both cases a mentobelus (Y) marked the end of the marking. "

Early text critics , familiar with the use and meaning of these markings in classical Greek works such as Homer , therefore interpreted the characters in John 7: 53-8, 11 as an interpolation of the text and not their original content.

Notes in the manuscripts

John 7: 52–8: 12 in the Codex Sinaiticus

Both the Novum Testamentum Graece (NA27) and the United Bible Societies (UBS4) provide the critical text of the pericope, but mark it with [[double brackets]] to indicate that this passage is to be considered a later addition to the text. Nevertheless, UBS4 classifies the reconstruction of the word choice of the pericope as {A}. This means that you are “very sure” that you are reproducing the original text of the insertion .

  1. Omission of the pericope . Papyrus 66 ( approx . 200) and 75 (early 3rd century); Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus (4th century), also likely Alexandrinus and Ephraemi (5th century), Codices Washingtonianus and Borgianus (also 5th century), Regius from the 8th century, Athous Lavrensis ( approx . 800), Petropolitanus Purpureus , Macedoniensis , Codex Sangallensis and Koridethi from the 9th century and Monacensis from the 10th century; Uncial 0141 and 0211 ; Minuscule 12 , 22 , 32 , 33 , 39 , 63 , 96 , 124 , 134 , 151 , 157 , 169 , 209 , 228 , 565 , 788, 828, 1230, 1241, 1242, 1253, 1333, 2193 and 2768; the majority of the lessonaries ; some Vetus Latina , most of the Syrian , Coptic (Sahidic dialect), Gothic , some Armenian, and Georgian translations; Diatessaron (2nd century); obviously Clemens of Alexandria (died 215), other church fathers such as Tertullian (died 220), Origen (died 254), Cyprian (died 258), Johannes Chrysostomos (died 407), Nonnus (died 431), Cyril of Alexandria (died 444) and Cosmas (died 550).
  2. Use of the pericope . Codex Bezae (5th century), Codices of the 9th century: Boreelianus , Seidelianus I , Seidelianus II , Cyprius , Campianus and Nanianus , also Tischendorfianus IV from the 10th century; Minuscule 28 , 700 , 892 , 1009, 1010, 1071, 1079, 1195, 1216, 1344, 1365, 1546, 1646, 2148, 2174; most of the Byzantine text ; the majority of the Vetus Latina , the Vulgate , some Syrian, Bohairian dialects of Coptic, some Armenian and Ethiopian translations; Didascalia (3rd century), Didymus the Blind (4th century), Ambrosiaster (4th century), Ambrosius (died 397), Hieronymus (died 420), Augustine (died 430).
  3. Mark the pericope as questionable with an asterisk (*) or obelus (÷): Codex Vaticanus 354 (S) and the minuscules 4 , 83 , 161 , 164 , 166 , 200 , 202 , 1077, 1443 and 1445 contain the complete pericope of 7:53; the menologion of Lectionary 185 includes 8: 1ff; Codex Basilensis (E) contains 8: 2ff; Codex Tischendorfianus III (Λ) and Petropolitanus (П) as well as the menologies of the lectionaries ℓ 4 , ℓ 69 , ℓ 70 , ℓ 211 , ℓ 1579 and ℓ 1761 contain 8: 3ff.
  4. Shifting the pericope . Family 1 , 135 , 207 and almost all Armenian translations place the pericope according to John 21:25. In Family 13 , it is ordered according to Luke 24:53. A corrector of minuscule 1333 added 8: 3–11 after Luke 24:53. Lowercase 225 arranges the pericope according to John 7:36. Minuscule 129 inserts John 8: 3–11 after John 21:25.

Historical value

Whether the story goes back to a real event in the life of Jesus is not undisputed. If it does not have a historical core, it "probably originated at the beginning of the 2nd century in protest against increasingly strict penitential practices in the old church."

Against the historicity of the event, for example, that the Roman occupying power in Palestine at the time of Jesus had deprived the Jewish courts of the authority to pass death sentences. The exegete Walter Klaiber, editor of the commentary series “The Message of the New Testament” sees good reasons that speak in favor of an essentially historical event: “The content-related proximity to the story of the» great sinner «in Lk 7.36-50 speaks for this. It would also be difficult to find a theological tendency in the early Church that took such a liberal stance. On the other hand, there are reports from Jerusalem about lynching through stoning [...] Above all, however, the statement in v. 7: Whoever is without sin among you should throw the first stone on them [...] all the characteristics of a genuine Jesus word . "

reception

Christ and the adulteress by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Franconian Gallery in Kronach

The scene was taken up by many painters, including Giovanni Francesco Barbieri , Pieter Bruegel the Elder , Antoine Caron , Lucas Cranach the Elder . Ä. , Hans Kemmer , Nicolas Poussin and Jacopo Tintoretto . One of the paintings on the subject, which only Tintoretto, but now Rottenhammer was attributed, was the inspiration for the story L'Adultera of Theodor Fontane .

Individual representations:

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FL Cross (Ed.): Pericope adulterae. In: The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press, New York 2005.
  2. ↑ Walter Klaiber: The Gospel of John. Volume 1: Joh 1,1-10,42. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, p. 294.
  3. ↑ William L. Petersen in: Sayings of Jesus: Canonical and non-Canonical , ed. William L. Petersen, Johan S. Vos, Henk J. de Jonge, Brill Verlag, Leiden, New York, Cologne, 2006, ISBN 9004103805 , P. 201 [1]
  4. ↑ Hieronymus - Dialogue against the Pelagians (Dialogi contra Pelagianos libri III)
  5. ^ "Sed hoc videlicet infidelium sensus exhorret, ita ut nonnulli modicae fidei vel potius inimici verae fidei, credo, metuentes peccandi impunitatem dari mulieribus suis, illud, quod de adulterae indulgentia Dominus fecitix tribitem peccandi quandicibus, permission, auferrent quandic. Iam deinceps noli peccare, aut ideo non debuerit mulier a medico Deo illius peccati remissione sanari, ne offenderentur insani. ”Augustine: De Adulterinis Conjugiis 2: 6–7. Quoted in Wieland Willker, A Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 723 kB), Volume 4b, p. 10. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www-user.uni-bremen.de
  6. ↑ Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Volume II: Basilica - Chambers, I. Greek Version 1. LXX, ~ 4, Hexapla of Origen
  7. ↑ Describing its use of double brackets UBS4 states that they "enclose passages which are regarded as later additions to the text, but which are of evident antiquity and importance."
  8. ↑ Walter Klaiber: The Gospel of John. Volume 1: Joh 1,1-10,42. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, p. 298.
  9. ↑ Walter Klaiber: The Gospel of John. Volume 1: Joh 1,1-10,42. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, p. 298.
  10. ↑ https://www.freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de/de/projekte/ankaeufe/1999/emil-nolde.html

literature

Web links

Commons : Jesus Christ and the woman taken in adultery  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files