The story of the Adulteress chased by a crowd is one that has captivated imaginations and stimulated ethical ruminations for centuries. It is, however, found only in a Johannine pericope (John 7:53-8:11). Called the Pericope Adulterae. And most scholars now agree, based on its literary and contextual peculiarities as welll as comparisons of early manuscripts, that it is a late interpolation into the fourth gospel-that is, the Gospel of John, when originally written, did not have this story. The oldest surviving Johannine manuscripts do not seem to have it. Nevertheless, it still continues to be printed in all versions of the bible. Somebody in the third century was still busy reading Buddhist sources! And he saw it necessary to force fit yet another Indian story into a Jewish context. The result is highly dramatic! The interpolator of this passage has made full use of the space yielded by the stage shift.
O “The
scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery,
and placing her in the midst they said
to him, "Teacher, this woman has
been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to
stone such women. So what do you say?" This they said to test him, that
they might have some charge to bring against him. 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." And once more he bent down and wrote on the
ground.But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and
Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and
said to her, "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."
John 8.3-11
The pseudo-Johannine passage does not explain why
she was being chased. Leaving it to the imagination of the reader. In the
Patimokkha of the Pali Vinaya(I.14.1-3) we find the original, along with the
complete plot. No doubt, the MSV will throw up a more resonating match-
à ‘’At that time there was a party
of thirty friends, rich young men, who were sporting in that same grove
together with their wives. One of them had no wife for him they had procured a
harlot. Now while they did not pay attention, and were indulging in their
sports, that harlot took up the articles belonging to them, and ran away. Then
those companions…went in search of that woman and, roaming about that grove,
they saw the Blessed One sitting at the foot of a tree…. ‘Pray, Lord, has the
Blessed One seen a woman passing by?'
'What have you to do, young men, with the woman?
'…..‘Now what think you, young men? Which would be the better for you; that
you should go in search of a woman, or that you should go in search of
yourselves?'
‘That, Lord, would be the better for us, that we
should go in search of ourselves.'
‘If so, young men, sit down, I will preach to you the Truth (Dhamma).’ ‘’
Mahavagga
I.14.1-3
If the reader thinks
that the punchy retort given by Jesus- ‘Let him without sin throw the stone…’-
against the Pharisees is not found in the Buddhist source- well, it is
found in the Vinaya in an alternate but ethically equivalent form. Except that it was creatively taken and remodelled by the interpolator of
John’s gospel from another chapter of the same source-
à'A Bhikkhu who
warns another should, Upâli, when he is about to do so, consider thus: "Am
I pure in the conduct of my body; pure therein without a flaw, without a fleck?
Is this quality found in me, or is it not?" If, Upâli, the Bhikkhu is not
so, there will be some who will say to him: "Come, now, let your reverence
continue still to train yourself in matters relating to the body!"--thus
will they say.
'And further, a Bhikkhu who warns another
should, Upâli, when he is about to do so, consider thus: "Am I pure in the
conduct of my speech; pure therein without a flaw, without a fleck? Is this
quality found in me, or is it not?" If, Upâli, the Bhikkhu is not so,
there will be some who will say to him: "Come, now, let your reverence
continue still to train yourself in matters relating to speech!"--thus
will they say.
Kullavagga IX.5.1
On the whole, it seems the Christian
and Buddhist versions complete each other. The Greek does not tell us why
she was being chased. She had stolen her customer’s goods! The Pali writer does
not tell us what happened to her after the Lord stopped the chase- if she was
hiding behind the Buddha’s tree, if the Buddha gave her some discourse too, and so on. A Mahayana version of this story
certainly exists in the huge corpus, but has not been located for this book [Will
of the Tathagata]. It would be no surprise if the Mahayanist actually
introduced some interaction between the Buddha and the whore which would then
have influenced the Greek writer. Otherwise, the soul touching interaction and
injunction of ‘Don’t sin again’ is a Greek innovation.
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