Jesus and the woman taken in adultery

Jesus and the woman taken in adultery – a passage known as the Pericope Adulterae (/pəˈrɪkəpiː əˈdʌltəriː/) or Pericope de Adultera – is a famous passage (pericope) found in the Gospel of John 7:53-8:11. In this episode, after Jesus has sat down in the temple to teach some of the people, after he spent the previous night at the Mount of Olives, a group of scribes and Pharisees confront Jesus, interrupting his teaching session. They bring in an adulteress, and invite Jesus to pass judgment upon her: should she be stoned, as Moses taught, or not? Jesus first ignores the interruption, and writes on the ground as though he does not hear them. But after the religious leaders continue their challenge, he states that the one who is without sin is the one who should cast the first stone. The religious leaders depart, leaving Jesus and the woman in the midst of the crowd. Jesus then asks the woman if anyone has condemned her. When she answers that no one has condemned her, Jesus says that he, too, does not condemn her, and tells her to go and sin no more.

Although nothing in this story contradicts anything else in the Gospels, many analysts of the Greek text and manuscripts of the Gospel of John have argued that it was "certainly not part of the original text of St John's Gospel." The Jerusalem Bible claims "the author of this passage is not John". On the other hand, Leo the Great (bishop of Rome, or Pope, from 440–61), cited the passage in his 62nd Sermon, mentioning that Jesus said "to the adulteress who was brought to him, ‘Neither will I condemn you; go and sin no more.'" In the early 400s, Saint Augustine used the passage extensively, and from his writings it is also clear that his heretical contemporary Faustus also used it, as well as a group of unbelievers.

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