John 8:1-11

Typically, it is a simple matter, the preacher or teacher says, “turn in your bibles to John 3:16,” and we turn right to the passage. John 7:53-8:11 is a rare exception to that rule. In most bible translations, our scripture for today is presented in brackets, or as a footnote with an explanation that “some manuscripts do not include 7:53-8:11,” or “some manuscripts add the passage here or after 7:36 or after 21:25, or after Luke 21:38.”
What are we to do with this story? How do we approach differences in manuscripts and our final copy of the Bible? This leads us to a quick conversation about “textual criticism.”