[pinkpanther]

Does the inclusion of the woman caught in adultery story mean the Bible isn’t true? Hardly. Honestly, why would it? The presence of extra-canonical sayings and teachings of Jesus does nothing to raise doubts of whether or not the Bible is true. We believe that the Bible is true because its writers were inspired by the Holy Spirit to communicate all that humanity needs to understand salvation and the character of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The original autographs of the Bible were completely errorless because the Holy Spirit superintended over the writing of the documents.

 God communicated what He so desired for people to know. The Bible is from God. It has authority. Just how is any of that affected if some sayings and stories of Jesus were not written down in the four Gospels? It does need to be said though that the story does not carry the same authority as the Bible. Yet, what the story teaches, other passages teach even more explicitly. Jesus is forgiving. Jesus is compassionate. The Jewish leadership is a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites. Jesus is the final and truest interpreter of the Law. Jesus has the sole right to judge people for their sin. We ought to avoid sin. 

These truths are taught by Jesus all throughout the Gospels. For these reasons and more, I have no problem with this episode being included within our Bibles, despite it being absent from the earliest manuscripts. I don’t think it poses a huge challenge for those who believe and teach (for good reason) that the Bible is true.