106-726: Jesus and the woman taken in adultery (or the Pericope Adulterae ) is considered by some to be a pseudepigraphical passage ( pericope ) found in John 7:53 – 8:11 of the New Testament . In the passage, Jesus was teaching in the Temple after coming from the Mount of Olives . A group of scribes and Pharisees confronts Jesus, interrupting his teaching. They bring in a woman, accusing her of committing adultery , claiming she
212-488: A James, brother of Jesus . However, most modern scholars tend to reject this line of reasoning, since the author himself does not indicate any familial relationship with Jesus . A similar problem presents itself with the Epistle of Jude (Ἰούδας Ioudas ): the writer names himself a brother of James (ἀδελφὸς δὲ Ἰακώβου adelphos de Iakóbou ), but it is not clear which James is meant. According to some Christian traditions, this
318-680: A call to holy living have endured in Christian thought. Both "let him who is without sin cast the first stone" and "go, and sin no more" have found their way into common usage. The English idiomatic phrase to " cast the first stone " is derived from this passage. The passage has been taken as confirmation of Jesus's ability to write, otherwise only suggested by implication in the Gospels, but the word ἔγραφεν ( egraphen ) in John 8:8 could mean "draw" as well as "write". The first to systematically apply
424-537: A century" (written in 2009). However, its originality has been defended by a minority of scholars who believe in the Byzantine priority hypothesis . The passage appears to have been included in some texts by the 4th century and became generally accepted by the 5th century. John 7:53–8:11 in the New Revised Standard Version reads as follows: Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to
530-549: A detailed introduction presenting the supposed actual author, with Burroughs himself pretending to be no more than the literary editor. J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings presents that story and The Hobbit as translated from the fictional Red Book of Westmarch written by characters within the novels. The twelve books of The Flashman Papers series by George MacDonald Fraser similarly pretend to be transcriptions of
636-549: A drawing by Rembrandt . There was a medieval tradition, originating in a comment attributed to Ambrose , that the words written were terra terram accusat ("earth accuses earth"; a reference to the end of verse Genesis 3:19: " for dust you are and to dust you will return "), which is shown in some depictions in art, for example, the Codex Egberti . Both the Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28) and
742-588: A feature in the lection-system of the early church. Almost all modern critical translations that include the pericope adulterae do so at John 7:53–8:11. Exceptions include the New English Bible and Revised English Bible , which relocate the pericope after the end of the Gospel. Most others enclose the pericope in brackets, or add a footnote mentioning the absence of the passage in the oldest witnesses (e.g., NRSV , NJB , NIV , GNT , NASB , ESV ). Since
848-627: A later author's predictions of the coming fall of the Seleucid Empire . Christian scholars traditionally maintain that nothing known to be pseudepigraphical was admitted to the New Testament canon. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes, The first four historical books of the New Testament are supplied with titles, which however ancient, do not go back to the respective authors of those sacred texts. The Canon of Muratori , Clement of Alexandria , and St. Irenaeus bear distinct witness to
954-457: A line with one or two dots ⨪ ÷ . It represented an iron roasting spit, a dart, or the sharp end of a javelin , symbolizing the skewering or cutting out of dubious matter. Originally, one of these marks (or a plain line) was used in ancient manuscripts to mark passages that were suspected of being corrupted or spurious; the practice of adding such marginal notes became known as obelism . The dagger symbol † , also called an obelisk ,
1060-457: A literary historical judgment about its origin." The Catholic Church regards it as canonical, following the precepts of the Council of Trent . Many Protestants, however, reject it as non-canonical. From a Protestant point of view, Baum argues that its canonicity can be "determined according to the same historical and content-related criteria that the ancient church applied during the development of
1166-687: A noted German humanist scholar and poet of the German Renaissance , collected numerous Greek and Latin manuscripts in his function as librarian of the Imperial Library in Vienna. In a 1504 letter to the Venetian publisher Aldus Manutius Celtes claimed to have discovered the missing books of Ovid 's Fasti . However, it turned out that the purported Ovid verses had actually been composed by an 11th-century monk and were known to
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#17327659555621272-456: A second edition of the Gospel along with 5:3.4 and the 21st chapter. On the other hand, a number of scholars have strongly defended the Johannine authorship of these verses. This group of critics is typified by such scholars as Frederick Nolan (1865), and John Burgon (1886), and Herman C. Hoskier (1920). More recently it has been defended by David Otis Fuller (1975), and is included in
1378-465: A shortened version of the passage (8:3–11), those that include the passage in full, those that question the passage, those that question only the shorter passage, those that relocate it to a different place within the Gospel of John, and those that mark it as having been added by a later hand. The Pericope Adulterae was never read as a part of the lesson for the Pentecost cycle, but John 8:3–8:11
1484-487: A sinful woman circulated among Christians in the first two centuries of the church, so that the traditional form found in many New Testament manuscripts may well represent a conflation of two independent shorter, earlier versions of the incident." Kyle R. Hughes has argued that one of these earlier versions is in fact very similar in style, form, and content to the Lukan special material (the so-called "L" source), suggesting that
1590-703: A stone and smite her.' And no one dared," and so forth. It is also shortly mentioned by the 6th century author of the Greek treatise "Synopsis Scripturae Sacrae". Among the early Greek attestations of the pericope adulterae are the 6th century canon tables found in the Monastery of Epiphanus in Egypt. Although fragmentary, the manuscript likely contained the story of the adulteress and contained its own section number. Evidence of its existence within some Egyptian manuscripts additionally comes from two ivory pyxides dated to around
1696-479: A symbol resembling a ⊤ for an obelus; and finally by Aristophanes' student, in turn, Aristarchus , from whom they earned the name of " Aristarchian symbols ". In some commercial and financial documents, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, a variant ( U+2052 ⁒ COMMERCIAL MINUS SIGN ) is used in the margins of letters to indicate an enclosure, where the upper point is sometimes replaced with
1802-586: A woman, who was accused of many sins before the Lord, which is contained in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. These things we have thought it necessary to observe in addition to what has been already stated. Fragment 2 (Agapius of Hierapolis): And there was at that time in Menbij [Hierapolis] a distinguished master who had many treatises, and he wrote five treatises on the Gospel. And he mentions in his treatise on
1908-638: A work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past. The name of the author to whom the work is falsely attributed is often prefixed with the particle " pseudo- ", such as for example " pseudo-Aristotle " or " pseudo-Dionysius ": these terms refer to the anonymous authors of works falsely attributed to Aristotle and Dionysius the Areopagite , respectively. In biblical studies , the term pseudepigrapha can refer to an assorted collection of Jewish religious works thought to be written c. 300 BCE to 300 CE. They are distinguished by Protestants from
2014-534: Is a term in codicology and latterly in typography that refers to a historical annotation mark which has resolved to three modern meanings: The word "obelus" comes from ὀβελός (obelós), the Ancient Greek word for a sharpened stick, spit, or pointed pillar. This is the same root as that of the word ' obelisk '. In mathematics, the first symbol is mainly used in Anglophone countries to represent
2120-872: Is also a category of modern pseudepigrapha . Examples of books labeled Old Testament pseudepigrapha from the Protestant point of view are the Book of Enoch , the Book of Jubilees (both of which are canonical in Orthodox Tewahedo Christianity and the Beta Israel branch of Judaism); the Life of Adam and Eve and " Pseudo-Philo ". The term pseudepigrapha is also commonly used to describe numerous works of Jewish religious literature written from about 300 BCE to 300 CE. Not all of these works are actually pseudepigraphical. It also refers to books of
2226-465: Is derived from the obelus, and continues to be used for this purpose. The obelus is believed to have been invented by the Homeric scholar Zenodotus , as one of a system of editorial symbols. They marked questionable or corrupt words or passages in manuscripts of the Homeric epics . The system was further refined by his student Aristophanes of Byzantium , who first introduced the asterisk and used
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#17327659555622332-415: Is doubted. For example, the Book of Daniel is considered by some to have been written in the 2nd century BCE, 400 years after the prophet Daniel lived, and thus the work is pseudepigraphic. A New Testament example might be the book of 2 Peter , considered by some to be written approximately 80 years after Saint Peter 's death. Early Christians, such as Origen , harbored doubts as to the authenticity of
2438-454: Is neither universal nor recommended: the ISO 80000-2 standard for mathematical notation recommends only the solidus / or fraction bar for division, or the colon : for ratios ; it says that ÷ "should not be used" for division. The ambiguity of mathematical expressions that involve the obelus and implicit multiplication has become a subject of Internet memes. This form of the obelus
2544-635: Is not John the Apostle, but there is no scholarly consensus for any particular historical figure. (see: Authorship of the Johannine works ). Two of the letters claim to have been written or issued by Simon Peter , one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Therefore, they have traditionally been called the Petrine epistles . However, most modern scholars agree the second epistle was probably not written by Peter, because it appears to have been written in
2650-568: Is not certain if the author borrowed directly from the Gospel of John or from a now-unknown document such as the Gospel according to the Hebrews. In the Syriac Didascalia Apostolorum , composed in the mid-200s, the author, in the course of instructing bishops to exercise a measure of clemency, states that a bishop who does not receive a repentant person would be doing wrong – "for you do not obey our Savior and our God, to do as He also did with her that had sinned, whom
2756-439: Is responsible for the inclusion of the story in the Gospel of John. Later on, in the 12th century the passage was mentioned by Euthymius Zigabenus , who doubted the authenticity of the passage. However, his contemporary Eustathios of Thessaloniki commented on the passage as an authentic part of John's Gospel. The story of the adulteress was quoted by multiple Latin speaking early Christians, and appears within their quotations of
2862-618: Is the same James as the author of the Epistle of James, who was allegedly a brother of Jesus; and so, this Jude should also be a brother of Jesus, despite the fact he does not indicate any such thing in his text. The Gospel of Peter and the attribution to Paul of the Epistle to the Laodiceans are both examples of pseudepigrapha that were not included in the New Testament canon. They are often referred to as New Testament apocrypha . Further examples of New Testament pseudepigrapha include
2968-459: Is without sin either, leaving Jesus alone with the woman. Jesus asks the woman if anyone has condemned her and she answers no. Jesus says that he too does not condemn her and tells her to go and sin no more. There is now a broad academic consensus that the passage is a later interpolation added after the earliest known manuscripts of the Gospel of John . However, that does not necessarily mean that
3074-553: The Didascalia Apostolorum , alongside a utilization of Luke 7:47. Further, Didymus the Blind (c. 313–398) states that "We find in certain gospels" an episode in which a woman was accused of a sin, and was about to be stoned, but Jesus intervened "and said to those who were about to cast stones, 'He who has not sinned, let him take a stone and throw it. If anyone is conscious in himself not to have sinned, let him take
3180-503: The Pseudo-Apuleius (author of a fifth-century herbal ascribed to Apuleius), and the author traditionally referred to as the " Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite ", are classic examples of pseudepigraphy. In the fifth century the moralist Salvian published Contra avaritiam ("Against avarice") under the name of Timothy; the letter in which he explained to his former pupil, Bishop Salonius, his motives for so doing survives. There
3286-928: The Christian Bible and are foundational for the Christian Church. Therefore, those letters which some think to be pseudepigraphic are not considered any less valuable to Christians. Some of these epistles are termed as "disputed" or "pseudepigraphical" letters because they do not appear to have been written by Paul. They instead appear to have come from followers writing in Paul's name, often using material from his surviving letters. Some choose to believe that these followers may have had access to letters written by Paul that no longer survive, although this theory still depends on someone other than Paul writing these books. Some theologians prefer to simply distinguish between "undisputed" and "disputed" letters, thus avoiding
Jesus and the woman taken in adultery - Misplaced Pages Continue
3392-543: The Empire of Nicaea according to William of Rubruck . Even so, many contemporary scholars believed Celtes and continued to write about the existence of the missing books until well into the 17th century. Pseudepigraphy has been employed as a metafictional technique. Authors who have made notable use of this device include James Hogg ( The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner ), Thomas Carlyle ( Sartor Resartus ), Jorge Luis Borges (" An Examination of
3498-536: The Gospel of Barnabas and the Gospel of Judas , which begins by presenting itself as "the secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot". The Vision of Ezra is an ancient apocryphal text purportedly written by the biblical scribe Ezra . The earliest surviving manuscripts, composed in Latin , date to the 11th century CE, although textual peculiarities strongly suggest that
3604-477: The Latin Vulgate . Pacian of Barcelona (bishop from 365 to 391), in the course of making a rhetorical challenge, opposes cruelty as he sarcastically endorses it: "O Novatians, why do you delay to ask an eye for an eye? [...] Kill the thief. Stone the petulant. Choose not to read in the Gospel that the Lord spared even the adulteress who confessed, when none had condemned her." Pacian was a contemporary of
3710-614: The United Bible Societies (UBS4) provide critical text for the pericope, but mark this off with double square brackets, indicating that the Pericope Adulterae is regarded as a later addition to the text. Various manuscripts treat, or include, the passage in a variety of ways. These can be categorised into those that exclude it entirely, those that exclude only a shortened version of the passage (including 7:53-8:2 but excluding 8:3-11), those that include only
3816-665: The critical marks of the Alexandrian critics was Origen : In the Septuagint column [Origen] used the system of diacritical marks which was in use with the Alexandrian critics of Homer, especially Aristarchus, marking with an obelus under different forms, as "./.", called lemniscus, and "/.", called a hypolemniscus, those passages of the Septuagint which had nothing to correspond to in Hebrew, and inserting, chiefly from Theodotion under an asterisk (*), those which were missing in
3922-712: The deuterocanonical books (Catholic and Orthodox) or Apocrypha (Protestant), the books that appear in extant copies of the Septuagint in the fourth century or later and the Vulgate , but not in the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles . The Catholic Church distinguishes only between the deuterocanonical and all other books; the latter are called biblical apocrypha , which in Catholic usage includes
4028-542: The liturgy . An example of a text that is both apocryphal and pseudepigraphical is the Odes of Solomon . It is considered pseudepigraphical because it was not actually written by Solomon but instead is a collection of early Christian (first to second century) hymns and poems, originally written not in Hebrew, and apocryphal because they were not accepted in either the Tanakh or the New Testament . Protestants have also applied
4134-607: The western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope . Composed probably in the 8th century, it was used, especially in the 13th century, in support of claims of political authority by the papacy . Lorenzo Valla , an Italian Catholic priest and Renaissance humanist , is credited with first exposing the forgery with solid philological arguments in 1439–1440, although the document's authenticity had been repeatedly contested since 1001. The Privilegium maius ('greater privilege')
4240-462: The " Homeric Hymns " was recognized as pseudepigraphical, that is, not actually written by Homer. The only surviving Ancient Roman book on cooking is pseudepigraphically attributed to a famous gourmet, Apicius , even though it is not clear who actually assembled the recipes. In secular literary studies, when works of antiquity have been demonstrated not to have been written by the authors to whom they have traditionally been ascribed, some writers apply
4346-413: The 300s and 400s, including Ambrose of Milan , and Augustine of Hippo . The latter claimed that the passage may have been improperly excluded from some manuscripts in order to avoid the impression that Christ had sanctioned adultery: Certain persons of little faith, or rather enemies of the true faith, fearing, I suppose, lest their wives should be given impunity in sinning, removed from their manuscripts
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4452-606: The 5th or 6th century, which depict the story of the adulteress. Within the Syriac tradition, the anonymous author of the 6th century Syriac Chronicle, called Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor mentioned the translation of the pericope Adulterae into Aramaic from a Greek manuscript from Alexandria. The story of the adulteress is also found in manuscripts of the Palestinian Syriac Lectionary, including MS "A" (1030ad), MS "C" (1118ad) and MS "B" (1104ad). An author by
4558-461: The Apostle , and Jesus's brothers James and Jude . Three of the seven letters are anonymous. These three have traditionally been attributed to John the Apostle , the son of Zebedee and one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Consequently, these letters have been labelled the Johannine epistles , despite the fact that none of the epistles mentions any author. Most modern scholars believe the author
4664-631: The Gospel of John, that in the book of John the Evangelist, he speaks of a woman who was adulterous, so when they presented her to Christ our Lord, to whom be glory, He told the Jews who brought her to Him, “Whoever of you knows that he is innocent of what she has done, let him testify against her with what he has.” So when He told them that, none of them responded with anything and they left. Fragment 3 (Vardan Areveltsi): The story of that adulterous woman, which other Christians have written in their gospel,
4770-491: The Greek New Testaments compiled by Wilbur Pickering (1980/2014), Hodges & Farstad (1982/1985), and Robinson & Pierpont (2005). Rather than endorsing Augustine's theory that some men had removed the passage due to a concern that it would be used by their wives as a pretext to commit adultery, Burgon proposed (but did not develop in detail) a theory that the passage had been lost due to a misunderstanding of
4876-534: The Greek church, the Gospel-reading for Pentecost runs from John 7:37 to 8:12, but skips over the twelve verses of this pericope. Beginning with Karl Lachmann (in Germany, 1840), reservations about the Pericope Adulterae became more strongly argued in the modern period, and these opinions were carried into the English world by Samuel Davidson (1848–51), Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1862), and others;
4982-706: The Lectionary system, where due to the Pericope Adulterae being skipped during the Pentecost lesson, some scribes would relocate the story to not interviene with the flow of the Pentecost lesson. He also argued that mistakes arising from the Lectionary system are able to explain the omission of the story in some manuscripts. According to Armin Baum [ de ] , "the question of the [ Pericope Adulterae ]'s canonicity does not follow automatically from
5088-518: The Lord's act of forgiveness toward the adulteress, as if he who had said, Sin no more, had granted permission to sin. Codex Fuldensis , which was produced in AD 546, and which, in the Gospels, features an unusual arrangement of the text that was found in an earlier document, contains the adulterae pericope, in the form in which it was written in the Vulgate. More significantly, Codex Fuldensis also preserves
5194-665: The Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. 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 in 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
5300-462: The New Testament canon whose authorship is misrepresented. Such works include the following: Various canonical works accepted as scripture have since been reexamined and considered by modern scholars in the 19th century onward as likely cases of pseudepigraphica. The Book of Daniel directly claims to be written by the prophet Daniel , yet there are strong reasons to believe it was not written until centuries after Daniel's death, such as references to
5406-457: The New Testament often. It is quoted by church fathers such as Hilary of Poitiers, Gregory the Great, Leo the Great, Ambrose, Ambrosiaster and Augustine among many others. However, it is not quoted by either Tertullian or Cyprian , which might imply that it was missing from their manuscripts. The story is present in the vast majority of Vetus Latina manuscripts and in all except one manuscript of
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#17327659555625512-877: The Old and New Testaments or by persons involved in Jewish or Christian religious study or history. These works can also be written about biblical matters, often in such a way that they appear to be as authoritative as works which have been included in the many versions of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Eusebius indicates this usage dates back at least to Serapion of Antioch , whom Eusebius records as having said: "But those writings which are falsely inscribed with their name ( ta pseudepigrapha ), we as experienced persons reject...." Many such works were also referred to as Apocrypha , which originally connoted "private" or "non-public": those that were not endorsed for public reading in
5618-423: The Septuagint; in both cases a metobelus (Y) marked the end of the notation. Early textual critics familiar with the use and meaning of these marks in classical Greek works like Homer , interpreted the signs to mean that the section (John 7:53–8:11) was an interpolation and not an original part of the Gospel. During the 16th century, Western European scholars – both Catholic and Protestant – sought to recover
5724-638: The Works of Herbert Quain "; " Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote "), Vladimir Nabokov ( Pale Fire ), Stanislaw Lem ( A Perfect Vacuum ; Imaginary Magnitude ) Roberto Bolaño ( Nazi Literature in the Americas ) and Stefan Heym ( The Lenz Papers ). Edgar Rice Burroughs also presented many of his works – including the most well-known, the Tarzan books – as pseudepigrapha, prefacing each book with
5830-595: The Zohar. This accords with the traditional claim by adherents that Kabbalah is the concealed part of the Oral Torah . Modern academic analysis of the Zohar, such as that by the 20th century religious historian Gershom Scholem , has theorized that de León was the actual author, as textual analysis points to a Medieval Spanish Jewish writer rather than one living in Roman-ruled Palestine. Conrad Celtes ,
5936-407: The argument against the verses being given body and final expression in F. J. A. Hort (1886). Those opposing the authenticity of the verses as part of John are represented in the 20th century by men like Henry Cadbury (1917), Ernest Cadman Colwell (1935), and Bruce M. Metzger (1971). According to 19th-century text critics Henry Alford and F. H. A. Scrivener the passage was added by John in
6042-416: The authorship ascribed to them, but which stood outside both the biblical canons recognized by Protestants and Catholics. These works were also outside the particular set of books that Roman Catholics called deuterocanonical and to which Protestants had generally applied the term Apocryphal. Accordingly, the term pseudepigraphical , as now used often among both Protestants and Roman Catholics (allegedly for
6148-447: The book only appearing in the 2nd century BCE and onward. The book is an apocalypse wherein Daniel offers a series of predictions of the future, and is meant to reassure the Jews of the period that the tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes would soon be overthrown. By backdating the book to the 6th century BCE and providing a series of correct prophecies as to the history of the past 400 years, the authorship claim of Daniel would have strengthened
6254-474: The book's authorship. The term has also been used by some Muslims to describe hadiths ; who claim that most hadiths are fabrications created in the 8th and 9th century CE, and falsely attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad (see Quranism ). The word pseudepigrapha (from the Greek : ψευδής , pseudḗs , "false" and ἐπιγραφή , epigraphḗ , "name" or "inscription" or "ascription"; thus when taken together it means "false superscription or title"; see
6360-414: The books that Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants accept. The same is true of some Jewish religious movements . Many works that are "apocryphal" are otherwise considered genuine. There is a tendency not to use the word pseudepigrapha when describing works later than about 300 CE when referring to biblical matters. But the late-appearing Gospel of Barnabas , Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius ,
6466-442: The canon of Scriptures." He further argues, however, that it should be separated from the Gospel of John. The story is the subject of several paintings, including: Variations of the story are told in the 1986 science fiction novel Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card , as part of Letters to an Incipient Heretic by the character San Angelo. In September 2020, the Chinese textbook 《职业道德与法律》 ( Professional Ethics and Law )
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#17327659555626572-411: The chapter-headings of its earlier source-document (thought by some researchers to echo the Diatessaron produced by Tatian in the 170's), and the title of chapter 120 refers specifically to the woman taken in adultery. The subject of Jesus's writing on the ground was fairly common in art, especially from the Renaissance onwards, with examples by artists including those a painting by Pieter Bruegel and
6678-422: The clarity it brings to the discussion), may make it difficult to discuss questions of pseudepigraphical authorship of canonical books dispassionately with a lay audience. To confuse the matter even more, Eastern Orthodox Christians accept books as canonical that Roman Catholics and most Protestant denominations consider pseudepigraphical or at best of much less authority. There exist also churches that reject some of
6784-435: The collection of the four Gospels was actually made. Besides as well pointed out by Prof. Bacon, "the historical books of the New Testament differ from its apocalyptic and epistolary literature, as those of the Old Testament differ from its prophecy, in being invariably anonymous, and for the same reason. Prophecies, whether in the earlier or in the later sense, and letters, to have authority, must be referable to some individual;
6890-421: The core of this tradition is in fact rooted in very early Christian (though not Johannine) memory. The story of the adulteress has been defended by those who teach the Byzantine priority theory and also by those who defend the superiority of the Textus Receptus . Among these, Zane C. Hodges and Arthur L. Farstad argue for Johannine authorship of the pericope. They suggest there are points of similarity between
6996-469: The corpus of Paul's writings. They internally claim to have been written by Paul, but some biblical scholars present strong evidence that they could not have been written by Paul. Those known as the "Pastoral Epistles" (Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus) are all so similar that they are thought to be written by the same unknown author in Paul's name. There are seven letters in the New Testament which are attributed to several apostles, such as Saint Peter , John
7102-443: The corresponding number. In Finland, the obelus (or a slight variant, ⋅ / ⋅ {\displaystyle \cdot \!/\!\cdot } ) is used as a symbol for a correct response (alongside the check mark , ✓ , which is used for an incorrect response). In the 7.0 release of Unicode, U+2E13 ⸓ DOTTED OBELOS was one of a group of "Ancient Greek textual symbols" that were added to
7208-432: The early 2nd century, long after Peter had died. Yet, opinions on the first epistle are more divided; many scholars do think this letter is authentic. (see: Authorship of the Petrine epistles ) In one epistle, the author only calls himself James (Ἰάκωβος Iákobos ). It is not known which James this is supposed to be. There are several different traditional Christian interpretations of other New Testament texts which mention
7314-441: The elders set before Him, and leaving the judgment in His hands, departed. But He, the searcher of hearts, asked her and said to her, 'Have the elders condemned thee, my daughter?' She said to Him, 'No, Lord.' And He said unto her, 'Go your way; neither do I condemn thee.' In Him therefore, our Savior and King and God, be your pattern, O bishops." The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book II.24, composed c. 380 , echoes
7420-465: The episode is not historical, as the Early Church Fathers mention similar versions of it. It was likely saved through oral tradition . Although it is included in most modern translations (one notable exception being the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures ) it is typically noted as a later interpolation, as it is by Novum Testamentum Graece NA28. This has been the view of "most NT scholars, including most evangelical NT scholars, for well over
7526-402: The existence of those headings in the latter part of the second century of our era. Indeed, the manner in which Clement (Strom. I, xxi), and St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. III, xi, 7) employ them implies that, at that early date, our present titles to the gospels had been in current use for some considerable time. Hence, it may be inferred that they were prefixed to the evangelical narratives as early as
7632-433: The first part of that same century. That however, they do not go back to the first century of the Christian era, or at least that they are not original, is a position generally held at the present day. It is felt that since they are similar for the four Gospels, although the same Gospels were composed at some interval from each other, those titles were not framed and consequently not prefixed to each individual narrative, before
7738-406: The greater his name, the better. But history was regarded as common possession. Its facts spoke for themselves. Only as the springs of common recollection began to dwindle, and marked differences to appear between the well-informed and accurate Gospels and the untrustworthy ... become worth while for the Christian teacher or apologist to specify whether the given representation of the current tradition
7844-632: 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." This episode and its message of mercy and forgiveness balanced with
7950-576: The late 100s or early 200s, nor in two important manuscripts produced in the early or mid 300s, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus . The first surviving Greek manuscript to contain the pericope is the Latin-Greek diglot Codex Bezae , produced in the 400s or 500s (but displaying a form of text which has affinities with "Western" readings used in the 100s and 200s). Codex Bezae is also the earliest surviving Latin manuscript to contain it. Out of 23 Old Latin manuscripts of John 7–8, seventeen contain at least part of
8056-408: The later writer Agapius of Hierapolis , Papias wrote a treatise on the Gospel of John, where he included the story within the Gospel itself. Possibly the earliest evidence for the existence of the pericope adulterae within the Gospel of John is from the 2nd century Protoevangelium of James , which contains the words "οὐδὲ ἐγὼ [κατα]κρίνω ὑμᾶς" (neither do I condemn you) in Greek, which are identical to
8162-647: The literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah , first appeared in Spain in the 13th century, and was published by a Jewish writer named Moses de León . De León ascribed the work to Shimon bar Yochai ("Rashbi"), a rabbi of the 2nd century during the Roman persecution who, according to Jewish legend, hid in a cave for thirteen years studying the Torah and was inspired by the Prophet Elijah to write
8268-411: The mathematical operation of division and is called an obelus. In editing texts, the second symbol, also called a dagger mark † is used to indicate erroneous or dubious content; or as a reference mark or footnote indicator. It also has other uses in a variety of specialist contexts. The modern dagger symbol originated from a variant of the obelus, originally depicted by a plain line − , or
8374-464: The most correct Greek text of the New Testament , rather than relying on the Vulgate Latin translation. At this time, it was noticed that a number of early manuscripts containing the Gospel of John lacked John 7:53–8:11 inclusive; and also that some manuscripts containing the verses marked them with critical signs, usually a lemniscus or asterisk . It was also noted that, in the lectionary of
8480-647: The name of "Nicon" wrote a treatise called "On the Impious Religion of the Vile Armenians", in which he argued that the Armenian Christians tried to remove the passage from their manuscripts. This has been often attributed to the 10th century author Nicon , however Wescott and Hort argued that it is a later 13th century Nicon. They argued that this writing was made in response to the claims of Vardan Areveltsi , who stated that Papias
8586-480: The papers left by an "illustrious Victorian soldier", each volume prefaced by a long semi-scholarly Explanatory Note stating that "additional packets of Flashman's papers have been found and are here presented to the public". A similar device was used by Ian Fleming in The Spy Who Loved Me and by various other writers of popular fiction. Obelus An obelus (plural: obeluses or obeli )
8692-571: The passage is accepted as canonical by Catholics, however, some Catholic editions of these critical translations will remove the brackets while retaining the footnote explanation of their uncertainty (e.g. RSV-CE/2CE and ESV-CE ); others, like the NRSV-CE , nevertheless retain the brackets. The pericope does not occur in the Greek Gospel manuscripts from Egypt. The Pericope Adulterae is not in 𝔓 or in 𝔓 , both of which have been assigned to
8798-637: The passage. The Latin Vulgate Gospel of John, produced by Jerome in 383, was based on the Greek manuscripts which Jerome considered ancient exemplars at that time and which contained the passage. Jerome, writing around 417, reports that the Pericope Adulterae was found in its usual place in "many Greek and Latin manuscripts" in Rome and the Latin West. This is confirmed by some Latin Fathers of
8904-409: The pericope's style and the style of the rest of the gospel. They claim that the details of the encounter fit very well into the context of the surrounding verses. They argue that the pericope's appearance in the majority of manuscripts, if not in the oldest ones, is evidence of its authenticity. Maurice Robinson argued that the anomalies in the transmission of the Pericope Adulterae may be explained by
9010-409: The pericope, and represent at least three transmission-streams in which it was included. According to Eusebius of Caesarea (in his Ecclesiastical History , composed in the early 300s), Papias ( c. AD 110 ) refers to a story of Jesus and a woman "accused of many sins" as being found in the Gospel of the Hebrews , which might refer to this passage or to one like it. However, according to
9116-708: The prefix pseudo- to their names. Thus the encyclopedic compilation of Greek myth called the Bibliotheca is often now attributed, not to Apollodorus of Athens , but to "pseudo-Apollodorus" and the Catasterismi , recounting the translations of mythic figure into asterisms and constellations, not to the serious astronomer Eratosthenes , but to a "pseudo-Eratosthenes". The prefix may be abbreviated, as in "ps-Apollodorus" or "ps-Eratosthenes". In biblical studies , pseudepigrapha refers particularly to works which purport to be written by noted authorities in either
9222-487: The pseudepigrapha. In addition, two books considered canonical in the Orthodox Tewahedo churches, the Book of Enoch and Book of Jubilees , are categorized as pseudepigrapha from the point of view of Chalcedonian Christianity . In addition to the sets of generally agreed to be non-canonical works, scholars will also apply the term to canonical works who make a direct claim of authorship, yet this authorship
9328-471: The related epigraphy ) is the plural of "pseudepigraphon" (sometimes Latinized as "pseudepigraphum"). There have probably been pseudepigrapha almost from the invention of full writing . For example, ancient Greek authors often refer to texts which claimed to be by Orpheus or his pupil Musaeus of Athens but which attributions were generally disregarded. Already in Antiquity the collection known as
9434-474: The same composition he referred to this episode as a "lection" in the Gospels, indicating that it was part of the annual cycle of readings used in the church-services. Peter Chrysologus, writing in Ravenna c. 450 , clearly cited the Pericope Adulterae in his Sermon 115. Sedulius and Gelasius also clearly used the passage. Prosper of Aquitaine, and Quodvultdeus of Carthage, in the mid-400s, utilized
9540-470: The scribes who made Codex Sinaiticus. The writer known as Ambrosiaster , c. 370/380 , mentioned the occasion when Jesus "spared her who had been apprehended in adultery." The unknown author of the composition "Apologia David" (thought by some analysts to be Ambrose, but more probably not) mentioned that people could be initially taken aback by the passage in which "we see an adulteress presented to Christ and sent away without condemnation." Later in
9646-543: The specification (in the block Supplemental Punctuation ). The form of the obelus as a horizontal line with a dot above and a dot below, ÷ , was first used as a symbol for division by the Swiss mathematician Johann Rahn in his book Teutsche Algebra in 1659. This gave rise to the modern mathematical symbol ÷ , used in anglophone countries as a division sign . This usage, though widespread in Anglophone countries,
9752-640: The supposed approval by the Patriarch added weight. The Anaphorae of Mar Nestorius , employed in the Eastern Churches , is attributed to Nestorius but its earliest manuscripts are in Syriac which question its Greek-authorship. Scholars have identified seven levels of authenticity which they have organized in a hierarchy ranging from literal authorship, meaning written in the author's own hand, to outright forgery: The Zohar ( Hebrew : זֹהַר , lit. Splendor or Radiance), foundational work in
9858-687: The term "pseudepigraphical". Authorship of 6 out of the 13 canonical epistles of Paul has been questioned by both Christian and non-Christian biblical scholars. These include the Epistle to the Ephesians , Epistle to the Colossians , Second Epistle to the Thessalonians , First Epistle to Timothy , Second Epistle to Timothy , and Epistle to Titus . These six books are referred to as "deutero-Pauline letters", meaning "secondary" standing in
9964-473: The text of John 8:11. Other parallels between this story within Protoevangelium and the Johannine pericope adulterae include: (1) a is woman accused of adultery, (2) the accusation is made by the Jews, (3) the woman is brought by a crowd to stand before a religious figure, (4) the accused woman is presented to the judge for a ruling and (5) both accounts are a part of a "confrontation story". However, it
10070-575: The text was originally written in Greek . Like the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra , the work is clearly Christian, and features several apostles being seen in heaven . However, the text is significantly shorter than the Apocalypse. The Donation of Constantine is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and
10176-584: The title of Tsar . This, too, turned out to be false. While earlier Russian Monarchs had on some occasions used the title "Tsar", Ivan the Terrible previously known as "Grand Prince of all the Russias" was the first to be formally crowned as Tsar of All Rus ( Russian : Царь Всея Руси ). This was related to Russia's growing ambitions to become an Orthodox " Third Rome ", after the Fall of Constantinople – for which
10282-473: The well-known biblical figures to whom the early Christian leaders originally attributed authorship. The earliest and best manuscripts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were all written anonymously. Furthermore, the books of Acts, Hebrews, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John were also written anonymously. There are thirteen letters in the New Testament which are attributed to Paul and are still considered by Christians to carry Paul's authority. These letters are part of
10388-501: The word Apocrypha to texts found in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox scriptures which were found in the Septuagint but not found in the Masoretic Text Hebrew manuscripts. Catholics call those " deuterocanonical books ". Furthermore, there arose in some Protestant biblical scholarship an extended use of the term pseudepigrapha for works that appeared as though they ought to be part of the biblical canon, because of
10494-746: The writings of Papias contained a story "about a woman falsely accused before the Lord of many sins" (H.E. 3.39), he argued that this section originally was part of Papias' Interpretations of the Sayings of the Lord , and included it in his collection of Papias' fragments. Bart D. Ehrman concurs in Misquoting Jesus , adding that the passage contains many words and phrases otherwise alien to John's writing. The evangelical Bible scholar Daniel B. Wallace agrees with Ehrman. There are several excerpts from other authors that are consistent with this: Fragment 1 (Eusebius): And he relates another story of
10600-476: Was 'according to' this or that special compiler, and to state his qualifications". It thus appears that the present titles of the Gospels are not traceable to the Evangelists themselves. However, agnostic biblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman holds that only seven of Paul's epistles are convincingly genuine, and that all of the other 20 books in the New Testament appear to be written by unknown people who were not
10706-572: Was a document composed in 1358 or 1359 – but purporting to be much older. Its text elevated the Duchy of Austria into an Archduchy of Austria , thus greatly increasing the prestige of Rudolf IV of Austria (1358–65) of the House of Habsburg . In Russian history, in 1561 Muscovites supposedly received a letter from the Patriarch of Constantinople which asserted the right of Ivan the Terrible to claim
10812-418: Was alleged to inaccurately recount the story with a changed narrative in which Jesus stones the woman, while claiming to be a sinner. The publisher claims that this was an inauthentic, unauthorized publication of its textbook. Pseudepigrapha Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or
10918-477: Was also occasionally used as a mathematical symbol for subtraction in Northern Europe; such usage continued in some parts of Europe (including Norway and, until fairly recently, Denmark ). In Italy , Poland and Russia , this notation is sometimes used in engineering to denote a range of values . In some commercial and financial documents, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, another form of
11024-406: Was caught in the very act. They tell Jesus that the punishment for someone like her should be stoning, as prescribed by Mosaic Law . Jesus begins to write something on the ground using his finger; when the woman's accusers continue their challenge, he states that the one who is without sin is the one who should cast the first stone at her. The accusers and congregants depart, realizing not one of them
11130-431: Was reserved for the festivals of such saints as Theodora, 18 September, or Pelagia, 8 October. Bishop J. B. Lightfoot wrote that absence of the passage from the earliest manuscripts, combined with the occurrence of stylistic characteristics atypical of John, together implied that the passage was an interpolation . Nevertheless, he considered the story to be authentic history. As a result, based on Eusebius ' mention that
11236-517: Was written about by a certain Papias, a student of John, who was declared a heretic and condemned. Eusebius wrote about this. There are laws and that matter which Pilate, the king of the Jews, wrote of. And it is said that he wrote in Hebrew with Latin and Greek above it. However, Michael W. Holmes says that it is not certain "that Papias knew the story in precisely this form, inasmuch as it now appears that at least two independent stories about Jesus and
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