The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 473

8, The testimony of ancient writers cnn is implied, however, that he was seated be set over ngninet the eilenoe of Tertullie.n, during the discourse of eh. xiii., xiv. The Origen, Oyprian, eto. Thus,• Apost. Const.,' use of such words e.s Ka'Ta')'p&<J,e<v, a.vaµdp-r11- ii. 24, refers to the nnrrntive, in vindic11tion -ror, l,,.µ/v«v, 1<11-ral\,(,,.0-8111, cannot prove of tho truo reception of penitents. After anything whatever, as we mBy find in every referring to Luke vii., the writers eo.y, chapter of John, e.nd still more of the Apo- "Another womo.n who ho.d sinned, the calypse, /i,ra~ 11.,-,&µoa. Much is made of elders plo.ced before him, nnd left tho ju<lg- the absence of o~v, John's favourite particle, ment in hie hands, and went out; but tho and the freqnent use of Bt But John uses Lord, who knowcth the hearts, having in- oirv two hundred e.nd eix times in his Goepel, quired of her whether the elders he.d con- nnd BI! two hundred and four times. More- demned her, and ehe ho.ving said' No,' ea.id, over, oirv does not occur in eh. i. 1-20; 'Go, then; neither do I condemn thee.' " iiL 1-24; iv. 12-27; xi. 22-30; nor Thie testimony co.nnot be positively made in eh. xiv., xv., xvii. (M'Clellan). Very to show that the passage was in any Greek little argument ought to rest on this pecu- text earlier thnn the third century, and no liarity. (2) It is stated that the paragraph reference occurs in it to the Gospel of John. breo.ks the contlnuity of the narrative, The reference ie valuable for the antiquity which properly follows on ver. 45 or 52. of the Gospel, if other reasons establish This ie not so clear. The Sanhedrin and this passage as an integral portion of that the people disperse at the conclusion of Gospel. Christ's discourse; that last da.y of the 4. The passage was undoubtedly admitted feast ie ended. Ch. viii. 1 introduces e. new as part of the Gospel by both Jerome, Au- day, the dawn of the morning when the gustine, and Ambrose, and many later event occurred providing Cbrist with his Fe.there of the Western Church. Jerome illustration," I am the Light of the world ; " did not discard it from the Vulgate Version, and the recent occurrence, with the potent and distinctly says that it was fonnd "in illustration of the declaration, "Ye judge mnltie et Grmcis et Le.tinie codicibus," and after the flesh ; I judge no one." (3) The that it we.s read on the Feast of St. Pelagie. judgment of stoning ie said to be the punish- (October 8). Ambrose quoted from it (' De ment adjudged to the man and woman, if Bpir. Sancto,' iii. 2. 15), and reproached the woman be the betrothed spouse of those who me.de e. bnd use of it. Augustine another man. In Deut. xxi.i. 22 and Lev. (' Adv. Pelag.,' ii. 17) admits that some u. 10 den.th, without specifying the man- were nfraid of the passage, lest it should ner of it, is the punishment of adultery; leo.d to laxity of morals, and eo he.d erased in Deut. xxii. 24 the case of fornication it (av,ferrent) from their codices. Augustine with a betrothed virgin is punished with oomment.s on it verse by verse, and preached stoning. It has been argued by some from several texts found in it. that the specification of stoning in this one 5. The internal evidence in fCL vour ie the case excludes it in the other case, and by weakness of the objections which are said others that the one crime resembles the to arise : (I) From the use of words and other so much that it is sufficiently near to phrases foreign to John, and of proper justify the legal question put to Christ, names without explanations. Thus," Mount In ' Sanhedrin,' § vii. 4, adultery is not of Olives" ie referred to for the only time. mentioned as e. crime punishable with But it must be admitted that " Kedron " stoning, and in § x. 4 it is made punish- thus ooours (eh. xviii. 1). niis 6 11.d.os is able with impalement. The.t scribes and said to be discrepant from the Johnnnine Pharisees should ma.kt1 use, without per- phrase lx71.os, used so frequently in eh. vii. fect accuracy, of Moses to tempt Christ doe.i and elsewhere, and ie scarcely answered by not appear to be e. reason sufficient in itself M'Olellan when he says it is antithetio to doubt the authenticity of the pe.sse.ge. to " the doctors of the Ln w," itself an Our conclusion ie that the pe.ssage,whether un-Johannine phrase. The statement that written as it stands by John or not, wns Jesus "se.t down to tee.oh" may not else- introduced, in very early times, into the where be fonnd in the Fourth Gospel, It Weatem text (e.ocordiq to Ewald, • Die 348 THE GORPEL ACCOl:iDING TO ST. JOIIN. [err. vnt. 1-59.