One respected New Testament scholar writes, “Despite their best efforts to prove that this narrative was originally part of John’s Gospel, the evidence is against them, and modern English versions are right to rule it off from the rest of the text or to relegate it to a footnote.” Another writes, “The evidence for the non-Johannine origin of this story is overwhelming.” Still another, “The textual evidence makes it impossible to hold that this section is an authentic part of the Gospel.” So, although there is not perfect consensus on the matter among Biblical scholars, most feel that this account was not originally part of the Gospel of John. What do we do with that?

Everything that matters rests on the trustworthiness and authority of the scriptures. And if this story about Jesus and the adulteress slipped into the Gospel of John centuries after it was originally written, does that then call the entire Bible into question? Is the whole thing suspect and up for grabs?