What Made Jesus Mad? by Harlow Dr. Tim

Author:Harlow, Dr. Tim [Harlow, Dr. Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2019-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

WHEN GRACELESS RELIGION GETS IN THE WAY

Caught in the Act Redux

IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE reading the passage about the woman caught in the act of adultery (whom I’ve named Janice) in a Bible or an app that has footnotes, you may have seen this statement: “The earliest and most reliable manuscripts do not have John 7:53–8:11.” And some of you may have heard the popular statement about the Bible, “There are so many versions and discrepancies.”

Yes, there are versions, or more accurately, translations of the Bible. It was written a long time ago in several languages that the average modern person can’t understand. So, we need these translations. If you understand that up front, it shouldn’t be a problem. And yes, there are some discrepancies. These documents were hand copied, and we don’t have the original texts with perfect copies.

There is a story told of a new young monk who arrives at the monastery and, as with all new monks, is assigned to help copy the old texts of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So he goes to the old abbot and points out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never get corrected. In fact, that error would be transferred onto all the subsequent copies.

To this the abbot says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.”

So the abbot goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are archived in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the abbot. So the young monk gets worried and goes downstairs to look for him. He sees the abbot banging his head against the wall and wailing, “We missed the r , we missed the r .” His forehead is all bloody and bruised, and he is crying uncontrollably.

The young monk asks the abbot, “What’s wrong, Father?”

With a choking voice, the abbot replies, “The word is celebrate . Not celibate !”

I can assure you that none of the minor variations in the Scripture makes any theological difference. It’s not like one copy says, “Jesus died on a cross,” and another says, “Jesus went surfing.” But what about Janice’s story? Was it made up later by a bunch of adulterers? Or is this footnote a testament to the improbability of grace?

According to William Barclay, Scottish author and minister, only one early manuscript records this encounter. Six of the earliest manuscripts of John’s gospel do not include this story; two of them actually have a blank space where it should have been. In biblical interpretation, the next step would be to look at historical evidence about the text. There is an account from an early church historian who lived just after John’s time, where he mentions this story very early in church history.

The really fascinating piece of this puzzle comes from the words of one of the most respected early church fathers, Augustine.

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