How Many Licks Does It Take to Get to the Tootsie Roll Center of a Tootsie Pop?

Just as the world may never know the answer to this most profound question, so the world may also never know how many footnotes and nonessential arguments need to be taken out of a 23 page paper to make it a 15 page paper...but I'm going to try and find out...hopefully before 2 a.m. Somehow, 23 must = 15 by class tomorrow.

Now, if you would like to read my most invigerating paper, Pericope Adulterae or an Adulterated Pericope? Exegesis and Textual Criticism Of JOHN 7:53-8:11, send me an email and I will send you the uncut, unadulterated version. Sure you may not think it sounds exciting, but Uche was rolling on the ground after reading a portion of it. And just for your amusement, here's a little 'teaser.'

Have you ever heard a sermon given about God’s grace toward sinners? If you have heard a few, chances are that one of them was based upon the story of Jesus and the Adulteress, from John 7:53-8:11. It is one of the favorite texts amongst both clergy and laity in Western churches for exhibiting Jesus’ abundant mercy toward sinners. Being sinners and recognizing the Day of Judgment awaits us, we can all identify with the woman being brought before the Holy Judge by cold, bloodthirsty accusers. We all have heard the overused, under-contextualized phrase, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone….” Who cannot, furthermore, feel warmth and compassion in Jesus’ words, gladly applying them to ourselves, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more?”

Current scholarship, however, questions the authenticity of this text. Though it is a popular passage, textual critics seem to almost heartlessly disregard it. What are their grounds for taking such action? What is their motivation? Is their justification for removing the passage from John 7-8 and even the entire Gospel of John? If this passage is not genuinely Johannine, should it even be preached? In light of such considerations, how should we interpret this passage? Has the traditional, individualistic, anthropocentric exposition of the pericope adulterae given us the proper understanding of what this text is truly teaching? In this paper I hope to answer these questions and help the reader to better understand the issues at hand, and I hope to give a fair and clear exegesis of the text, expounding the best interpretation of this text in a Biblical, salvation-historical perspective.