When an exegetical, textual critical paper is worthy to be turned in

I recently wrote and turned in a paper on the story of the woman caught in adultery. Today I received back the paper, uncertain of what my grade would be. In light of this paper I now have a couple new critera for determining when a paper is worthy to be handed in. Read these two paragraphs and I think you'll understand.

“When [the religious leaders] heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court” (John 8:9). The Scribes and Pharisees gambled, believing they had a sure bet and a sure case—this time they most certainly had Jesus cornered with no way out—they believed they had the upper-hand. Jesus played them at their own game, and He beat them. The words of Kenny Rogers’ song, The Gambler never rang more true: “If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right. You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away and know when to run.”[1] The Pharisees knew that all they could do is “fold ‘em” and “walk away.”

Baylis’s comments here are insightful:

Apparently each of the Pharisees was weighing in his mind the risk of pursuing his hypocrisy further. For a Pharisee to defend himself as a guileless witness, when it was obvious to all involved that he was not, would be to subject himself to the possibility of receiving her punishment. To abandon his own claim as a valid witness would be tantamount to a confession that he was malevolent. The Pharisees had attempted to trap Jesus, but now they were trapped by the same Law. So each Pharisee, in his desire to avoid the very stones he had suggested for another, overcame his pride and walked out of the temple area…. The older ones, who would have been especially familiar with the Scriptures, recognized more quickly their guilt under the very Mosaic Law by which they had proposed to convict another.[2]

Unlike passages such as Mark 16:9-20 and 1 John 5:8a, which are most certainly not Scripture, the pericope adulterae is in a unique class. Though this popular story is not Johannine, there does not appear to be sufficient evidence for excluding it from Scripture and refusing to preach it for the edification of the Body. If exposited in its traditional context, this passage yields fruit as it reveals Jesus as the Prophet like Moses but far greater than he (Deuteronomy 18:15), rather than being ripped from its author’s intended meaning and suited to merely be another teaching concerning Jesus’ mercy toward individuals (though it is this, it is so much more). If we are faithful to this text’s true meaning, then perhaps the next generation will hear Christocentric sermons preached upon this text, and perhaps its name will be changed to Pericope Christi Prophetae.

[2] Baylis, “The Woman Caught in Adultery: A Test of Jesus as the Greater Prophet,” 182-183.

[1] Kenny Rogers, Sing365, October 2005 [on-line], Accessed on 25 October 2005, Available from http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Gambler-lyrics-Kenny-Rogers /97FD2791E39C726448256951000BE2A7, sing365.com; Internet.