China Rewrites Jesus With The Woman Caught In Adultery
Among the best-known passages in the New Testament are those in the Gospel of John describing Jesus’ encounter in the temple in Jerusalem with a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) doesn’t like that version of the incident, according to Christian Headlines, so the order went out to rewrite it in a university textbook used to teach ethics in vocational schools.
In the Gospel of John, the penalty for women caught in adultery under Jewish law at the time was death by stoning, and that’s the horrifying end the poor woman in this particular incident was about to experience when she was dragged before Him by the Scribes and Pharisees.
The Scribes and Pharisees who did so hated Jesus because in His conduct and teaching He was repeatedly demonstrating the emptiness of their religion of works under the Mosaic law of the Old Testament.
By forcing Him to deal with this woman, they expected He would either have to repudiate His own teachings, which would discredit Him with His followers, or repudiate the law, which would provide them a basis for legal charges against Him.
But Jesus was way ahead of them. The Gospel of John tells us that “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’”
Soon, the woman’s accusers, all men, began dropping their stones and walking away. We don’t know what Jesus wrote in the dirt but odds are it was the names of the men accusing the woman, along with details of the sins in their lives.
Then Jesus turned to the woman and said “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Thus was illustrated the fundamental difference between a religion of works and a faith based on the grace and forgiveness of God. So why would the CCP have a problem with that?
According to Christian Headlines, the CCP changed the ending so that in the textbook it reads like this: “When the crowd disappeared, Jesus stoned the sinner to death saying, ‘I, too, am a sinner. But if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.’”
The exact opposite of the Gospel, with a result there is no such thing as forgiveness or grace or mercy, there is only the law and suffering a horrendous penalty for breaking it. And who writes the law in China? The CCP.
The Bible revisionists knew the Gospels, so they must be familiar with the rest of Scripture as well, including the ending of Revelation (22:18-19) in which John declares:
“I testify to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.
“And if anyone takes away from the words of this prophetic book, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, written in this book.”
Wouldn’t want to be those guys!
Collectivists must control even what people think, so that the State is worshipped, not God. Hitler got clergy to rewrite parts of Scripture. Now the CCP does the same. But it is Trump who is literally Hitler in the minds of some people, who apparently want to impose collectivism on us, too.
What you wrote here…nothing can be taken from it or added to it. I read that somewhere, hmm, where was that again…
Sorry about that. Link to Revelation 22:18-19 is now in the text. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
The great story of “the woman caught in adultery” has two meanings. One is the imperative of forgiveness (especially in recognition of the weakness of the flesh). The other is the important separation of sin from crime: sin being something outside the proper jurisdiction of the penal authorities. Jesus thus was first to declare a cleavage between what is properly adjudicated and punished by the State and that which must be left to the justice of God.
And thus His “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.”
Orson Scott Card wrote this version in one of the Endor books.
And still Pope Francis lets the China Commies select candidates for the prelature.
The real irony regarding this is that the whole story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery is already an apocryphal addition that was added in the fifth or sixth century AD, centuries after the apostles had all died. And it was first added to Latin versions and then later was added into Greek versions. The Chi-Coms are correct that the apocryphal story promotes lawlessness, but it just needs to be thrown out of the Bible, as other apocryphal additions were also thrown out in the past. You can read a bit about the textual history here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_and_the_woman_taken_in_adultery
Keith, you state as fact what is, according to your own source, a matter of academic dispute in which the bulk of the evidence from the manuscripts argues counter to your view that the passage is a later addition. But even if we stipulate that your assertion is accurate, removing the passage about the woman caught in adultery changes nothing about the two most basic truths of Christianity – We are all born with Original Sin and in need of the saving grace of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. So the fundamental issue here for you and everybody reading our exchange is the same – What will you do with Jesus? And finally, I must ask, do you really want to lend your support to the Chinese Communist Party’s ridiculous claim, which is part and parcel of that totalitarian regime’s brutal suppression and censorship of Christianity in China?