the narrative of the woman caught in adultery

30 Pages·2017·0.22 MB·English

Acta Theologica
2017 37(1): 56‑85
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/actat.v37i1.5
ISSN 2309‑9089
© UV/UFS
<http://www.ufs.ac.za/ActaTheologica>
C.U. Manus & J.C. Ukaga
THE NARRATIVE OF THE
WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY
(JN 7:53-8:1-11) RE-READ IN THE
NIGERIAN CONTEXT
ABSTRACT
This article draws on the spirit and letters of the Vienna Declaration and its Program
of Action that emanated from the World Conference on Human Rights held in 1993.
It delineates the fact that Women’s rights are essential aspects of the fundamental
human rights of every individual. With the synchronic study of the receivers as our
methodology, we expose the narrative of the unnamed adulteress woman in John
7:53-8:1-11, in order to seek a theological grounding for women’s human rights in
the context of Nigeria, where Boko Haram’s dehumanization of the Chibok girls
and other women is rife, and explore the Nigerian history of women activists. We
exegetically expose the storyline of the text of John and contrast the ideas with the
horrific incidence of women’s degradation in Nigeria. The findings reveal abiding
lessons adjudged relevant for a sustainable pro-life Christology and theology of the
rescue and liberation of women from militant jihadists in north-eastern Nigeria. For
Jesus, women are divinely blessed with equal rights with men.
1. INTRODUCTION
Scholars agree that, since the Beijing Conference (1995), there is a more
serious focus on recent discourse on women’s rights,1 due mainly to the
domination, oppression, subordination and exploitation of women in overtly
1 Prior to this, the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights had attracted
much attention and support. As a global women’s movement, the Conference
produced the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action. If being borne by a
woman confers on every person fundamental human rights, women who are
Prof. C.U. Manus, Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies, National University of
Lesotho, Lesotho, & Dr. J.C. Ukaga, Dept. of Philosophy and Religions, University
of Benin, Nigeria.
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Manus & Ukaga Narrative of the woman caught in adultery
patriarchal societies (Uchem 2001:93, 114-119). In such societies, Nigeria
inclusive, human rights were regarded as “property” only for men (Manus
2010a: 1-2). On this subject matter, Lasebikan noted the following:
The issue of women’s rights [has] emerged much more forcefully in
the last half a century in Europe and now in the two-thirds world with
pressure groups asking for more of the empowerment of women
(Lasebikan 2001:11).
She further observed that
[i]n many parts of Nigeria, religious differences notwithstanding,
women do not enjoy equal rights with men as far as family land
inheritance is concerned. Only very few women are economically
strong enough to purchase a parcel of land on their own while many
land owners refuse sale of land to women for reasons best known to
them (Lasebikan 2001:13).
Along these lines of thinking, we must add the horrendous abductions of
women and girls by Boko Haram2 jihadists in north-eastern Nigeria as well
as reveal to the reader one of the most heated debates being entertained
on the vexed and contentious issue of child marriage in Nigeria. The latter
debate arose as a result of the marriage of a 13-year-old Egyptian girl-child
contracted by a Nigerian Muslim Senator, Yerima (50), which the Churches
and various women pressure groups3 have out-rightly condemned as a total
violation of the girl’s human rights. In spite of the Senate’s tacit support to
approve 13 as a marriageable age for girls in Nigeria, many considered this
an action against civil liberties and “basic morality” (Fani-Kayode 2013:16).
In the Bible, all human beings are created equal before God who has so
lavished his “image and likeness”, as is written in Genesis 1:26:
also born into this world and whose rights are violated time and time again by
battering, rape, sexual slavery, etc. are naturally entitled to fundamental human
rights in all its ramifications. Surely, human rights of women are no longer
restricted to education. Some female scholars attest that the Declaration
insists that civil, political and religious rights belong to women as much as to
men (Atere 2001:62).
2 Boko Haram briefly means ‘disapproval and hatred of western education as
evil’ by the Islamist militants in north-eastern Nigeria. Between May 5 and 7,
2017, it was reported that the militants have released 82 of the girls they have
held captive since 2014 in exchange of some of their violent men held by the
Nigerian Military Authorities. What happens to the rest of the girls: traumatized
and brow-beaten? This explains how the group are seen as people who have
neither conscience nor morality.
3 Some of the women activist groups include Women Arise for Change Initiative,
Women Empowerment, and Legal Aid. Recently, members held a summit on
child marriage in Lagos, Nigeria.
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Wnte_Wmd>Ki WnmeÞl.c;B. ~d'²a' hf,î[]n:) ~yhiêl{a/ rm,aYOæw:
wayyöº´mer ´élöhîm na|`áSè ´ädäm Bücalmëºnû Kidmûtëºnû
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness” (RSV).
This is God’s gratuitous gift to all humanity as the spiritus creator (Manus
2010a:8). Although some Biblical stories depict the creation of women after
men, several other biblical passages indicate that the rights of women are
in God’s mind (Okure 1988). Oduyoye, one of Africa’s foremost feminist
theologians, has amply asserted that such stories indicate that “human
rights are women’s rights as well” (Oduyoye 2001:2-4). It is this insistence
on the part of women in the face of continuing denials of women’s rights
that has caused activist women leaders in Nigeria to raise their voices
against the exploitation, marginalization and depersonalization of women
in both church and society (Manus 2002:65-68).
With regard to the woman in the text under discussion, we wish to
agree with Schussler Fiorenza that what the Scribes and the Pharisees
had done to the adulteress woman definitely reflects the demand of the
dominant patriarchal and religious ethos and praxis of the Jewish people
(Schussler Fiorenza 1983b:140-143). The central aim of our paper is to
involve us in the critical quest for women’s rights as persons of faith. For
us, there are abiding lessons from the text, which suppose that, in spite
of the maleness of Jesus, his ministry is women-friendly (Harris 1991:100-
111). Uchem (2001:148-150) observes that one manifests inclusiveness
in the family of God. In this study, we adopt the synchronic study of the
receiver. This involves
a focus on the social, religious, political and economic conditions
of the context within which the text of (Jn 7:53-8:1-11) is being
interpreted (Manus 2007:859 n. 1).
In addition, we use the feminist hermeneutical approach, in order to
process the discussion on our findings (Bateye 2010:226). The purpose
is to galvanize our audience (usually men) to critically begin to reflect
theologically on women’s rights in the context of the call for gender justice
and equity in the wake of terrorist kidnaps and abductions in Nigeria. If this
optimism is convincing and many other theologians share and supplement
the views being expressed, this article would have made an appreciable
impact on the community of theologians of the Nigerian Christianity.
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1.1 The historical background of the text
Dating from the fourth century, early Christian tradition has preserved
this illustrative and didactic story in some New Testament manuscripts.
Both internal and historical evidence abound to support the view that
the narrative did not belong to the Fourth evangelist’s composition. As
Shepherd notes, the reason for this is that the story “does not appear in
the oldest and best manuscripts and is apparently a later interpolation”
(Shepherd 1971:718). Along this line of thinking, commentators agree that
the earliest and best manuscripts of the Gospel of John glaringly do not
bear the story (Schnackenburg 1968; Brown 1970; Bultmann 1971). In
some of the later manuscripts of the Gospel of John, the story is located in
different places, sometimes after 7:36, 7:44, and 21:25. In some manuscript
traditions, the hallowed story has become so ubiquitous to the extent that
it is also found in the Third Gospel (Luke) after 21:38 and 24:53.
The text attests that, as early as 125 CE, the story had already been
received into Christian tradition. Textually speaking, the story of the
woman caught in adultery confirms that the connection between scripture,
that is, between what is written as tradition and what is handed down, is
not so clear-cut. This means that the story was transmitted in the early
church and, due to the great approbation it had received in many of the
nascent churches, it later became qualified to be inserted at various
points in some of the New Testament books. We wish to agree with many
critics that the story, “though not an original part of this gospel” (Boring-
Craddock 2009:314), “need not be taken as an unauthentic tradition about
Jesus” (Shepherd 1971:718). Schussler Fiorenza adds voice to this view
when she writes:
Although the story about the woman caught in adultery is a later
addition to the Gospel’s text, the interpolator nevertheless had a
fine sense for the dynamics of the narrative which places women
at crucial points of development and confrontation, namely the
pre-eminence of women in the Johannine community (Schussler
Fiorenza 1983b:326).
While the passage does not manifest the usual Johannine compositional
techniques, it is clothed in the garb of the Synoptic Gospels’ pronouncement
stories, where Jesus is depicted as
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one who came to seek and to save the lost, not to condemn men
(and women) but to offer them God’s forgiveness and acceptance
(Shepherd 1971:718).
The story parallels Mark 12:13-17 (Paying taxes to Caesar), where the
Pharisees and the Herodians put Jesus to the test. Jesus tactfully obviates
the machinations of those “thugs” with a memorable and sapiential
concluding pronouncement: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God
what is God’s” (Mk 12:17) (Stein 2001). Johannine scholars such as Boring
and Craddock agree that
[t]he story is lacking in Johannine features but resembles the
pronouncement stories of the Synoptic Gospels that narrate the
attempts of Jesus’ opponents to entrap him, which Jesus frustrates
by a memorable and wise concluding pronouncement (see, Mark
12:13-17) (Boring & Craddock 2009:315).
In this instance, we draw from the comments on Johannine scholarship
from Prof. Johannes Beutler, one of the foremost German Johannine
scholars, who, in his latest commentary on John, amplifies:
The pericope about Jesus and the woman taken in adultery appears
like a meteorite in the narrative flow of John’s gospel. The passage
interrupts the dialogues between Jesus and the “Jews” in the
temple area of Jerusalem. The theme appears unusual for John’s
gospel. Jesus’ behaviour is different from that which he displays in
the chapters before and after this incident. Jesus restrains himself
and begins to speak only at the end of the episode. The literary form
of the section is that of the so-called paradigm or apothegm, a genre
rarely attested in John. Within the narrative, characters appear
who are otherwise not encountered in John’s gospel, such as the
“scribes” (Jn 8,3). The style is not really Johannine. The gentleness
of Jesus causes one to think of that same quality which he shows
in Luke (one thinks of the story of Jesus and the woman who was
a sinner in Lk 7,36-50). In the early centuries, the attestation of the
text is poor and its place in the order of the text inconsistent. Thus,
we are confronted with the problem of the text’s authenticity. On
the other hand, the Council of Trent declared that the disputed
sections of the New Testament are fully part of it and confirmed their
canonicity and inspiration (DS 1504) (Beutler 2017:84).
Mainline Johannine commentators accept that, while John’s Gospel is not
literarily exactly like the earlier gospels, it had some interaction with the
Synoptic tradition and in itself reflects in its own way historical traditions that
are rooted in the circumstances of Jesus’ own life and times (Anderson et
al. 2016). In light of the opinio consensus on the foreign face of the narrative
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on the adulteress woman in John 8:1-11 and given the insight into the text’s
transmission history sketched earlier, we agree that the text is spuriously
interpolated into the present place it occupies in the Gospel. Thus the
story reflects a Lukan composition uncritically appended by a Christian
evangelist in the third half of the second century of the Christian Church
who knew well of the Johannine tradition of Jesus’ life-affirming stance.
To conclude this section, many modern textual critics have identified
six different places where the story is located in other New Testament
manuscripts. They have testified that, in such locations, the story had been
marked with obelisk, that is, – or + symbols used in ancient manuscripts,
to mark a text or passage of a reasonably doubtful authenticity, especially
one suspected of being a secondary addition (Beutler 2017:85). John
7:53-8:1-11 reflects an instance of the revision, editing and re-writing by
the custodians of orthodoxy in accordance with their tenets as they had
been commissioned by Constantine the Great in the fourth century of the
Common Era. Some scholars have, along this line of reasoning, noted that
the sole aim is to confer on Jesus the unique status he has continued to
enjoy ever since (Komoszewiski et al. 2006:103-104).
1.2 Context of interpretation
In this section, we wish to explore briefly both the historical and modern
roles some women have played and still fulfil in Nigerian society. Our
objective is to show how the impact they have made and still make can
provide us with the basis to re‑read John 7:53 and 8:1-11, in order to sketch
Jesus’ pro-life stance and its relevance for contemporary women. Having
said this, we consider the discussion of the “ancient and modern” activism
of women as “a crucial interpretative matrix” (LeMarquand 2004:84), from
which insight we process our exegesis of the text.
There is no doubt that, in the history of African humankind, women made
and still continue to make very significant contributions to the development
of family, church and the defence of women’s rights in society. In Nigeria,
names of such distinguished women figures abound. The heroic roles
played by Olori Moremi Ajasoro, Queen of the Ile-Ife Kingdom, cannot
be easily erased from the memory of the Yoruba people of Nigeria
(Akintunde 2001:89).
To add to this catalogue of valiant women, history records the activities
of Queen Amina of Zaria (1533) as the Hausa Muslim warrior of Zazzau.
There were other women of substance such as Margaret Ekpo (1914-2006)
of Calabar in the present Cross River State, Nigeria. She functioned as a
women’s rights activist, a social mobilizer and a pioneer female politician
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in the First Republic of Nigeria. We also mention in this category Madam
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, whose political activism and opposition to
indiscriminate taxation of women by the British colonial masters led her to
be rated as the doyen of women’s rights in Nigeria as well as “The Mother
of Africa”.
It is pertinent to inform readers that several other women have blessed
the Nigerian project with rare talents and special gifts as daughters and
mothers of the land. In recent times, the likes of late Dora Akunyili, former
Federal Minister of Information and author of Re‑branding the Nigeria
Agenda; Oby Ezekwesili, former Deputy President of the World Bank and
vanguard for “Bring Back Our Girls” from the Boko Haram kidnap; Grace
Alelli Williams, the first Nigerian woman Vice-Chancellor of a Federal
University (Uni-Ben), and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigerian Minister
of Finance and Economic Planning. It is well known that these women
draw attention to the calibre of African womenfolk who have displayed
rare talents in their services to humanity, as they have distinguished
themselves as top-class breeds in both politics and the civil service in the
Nigerian context.
Similarly, in the religious sphere, many women of the Nigeria Conference
of Women Religions (NCWR) have demonstrated proven charismata as
excellent “Mother Generals” and Novice Mistresses. Many of them have
led their congregations as successful human resources managers. They
have provided unstinted leadership qualities that have helped them lead
tens of thousands of women in various religious communities in Nigeria.
However, despite this increasing rise in the status of some women
in African society and church, the Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI noted
the following:
While it is undeniable that in certain African countries progress has
been made towards the advancement of women and their education,
it remains the case that, overall, women’s dignity and rights as well
as their essential contributions to the family and to society have not
been fully acknowledged or appreciated. Thus women and girls are
afforded fewer opportunities than men and boys. There are still too
many practices that debase and degrade women in the name of
ancestral tradition (Pope Benedict XVI 2011:31).
In light of this incompatible situation, our article attempts to explore the
story transmitted in John 7:53-8:1-11, in order to expose how Jesus, the
Lord of the Church, has acknowledged the sacrosanctity of the humanity of
the woman in the story and how he effects her liberation from the clutches
of the representatives of death.
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2. THE TEXT
GNT Jn 7:53 GNT Jn 7:53 kai . epv oreuq, hsan ek[ astoj eijv ton. oik= on autv ou(/
8:1 VIhsou/j de. evporeu,qh eivj to. :Oroj tw/n VElaiw/nÅ
2 :Orqrou de. pa,lin parege,neto eivj to. i`ero.n kai. pa/j o` lao.j h;rceto pro.j
auvto,n( kai. kaqi,saj evdi,dasken auvtou,jÅ 3 a;gousin de. oi` grammatei/j kai.
oi` Farisai/oi gunai/ka evpi. moicei,a| kateilhmme,nhn kai. sth,santej auvth.n
evn me,sw| 4 le,gousin auvtw/|( Dida,skale( au[th h` gunh. katei,lhptai evpV
auvtofw,rw| moiceuome,nh\ 5 evn de. tw/| no,mw| h`mi/n Mwu?sh/j evnetei,lato ta.j
toiau,taj liqa,zeinÅ su. ou=n ti, le,geijÈ 6 tou/to de. e;legon peira,zontej auvto,n(
i[na e;cwsin kathgorei/n auvtou/Å o` de. VIhsou/j ka,tw ku,yaj tw/| daktu,lw|
kate,grafen eivj th.n gh/nÅ 7 w`j de. evpe,menon evrwtw/ntej auvto,n( avne,kuyen kai.
ei=pen auvtoi/j( ~O avnama,rthtoj u`mw/n prw/toj evpV auvth.n bale,tw li,qonÅ 8 kai.
pa,lin kataku,yaj e;grafen eivj th.n gh/nÅ 9 oi` de. avkou,santej evxh,rconto ei-j
kaqV ei-j avrxa,menoi avpo. tw/n presbute,rwn kai. katelei,fqh mo,noj kai. h` gunh.
evn me,sw| ou=saÅ 10 avnaku,yaj de. o` VIhsou/j ei=pen auvth/|( Gu,nai( pou/ eivsinÈ
ouvdei,j se kate,krinenÈ 11 h` de. ei=pen( Ouvdei,j( ku,rieÅ ei=pen de. o` VIhsou/j(
Ouvde. evgw, se katakri,nw\ poreu,ou( Îkai.Ð avpo. tou/ nu/n mhke,ti a`ma,rtaneÅ
NAB John 7:53 Then each went to his own house, 8:1 while Jesus
went to the Mount of Olives. 2 But early in the morning he arrived
again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them. 3 Then the scribes and the
Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and
made her stand in the middle. 4 They said to him, “Teacher, this
woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in
the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do
you say?” 6 They said this to test him, so that they could have some
charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on
the ground with his finger. 7 But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who
is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he bent
down and wrote on the ground. 9 And in response, they went away
one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the
woman before him. 10 Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She
replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, (and) from now on do not sin anymore.”
2.1 The content analysis of the text
It is expedient to present a content analysis of the text in the exegetical
process. The reason for this is that the strength and viability of the content
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of a text is determined by the quality of its textual foundation; the flow of
the argument will help our interpretation so that it will not be derived from a
faulty or defective foundation. This is done so that the quality of our exegesis
will be determined by its foundation and the guiding principles such as
“the syntactical relationships of the various words and word groups” (Fee
2002:41) amenable for African contextual exegesis (Manus 2003; Mundele
2012). Where possible, the local vernacular may be employed, in order to
facilitate easy comprehension of some of the words and clauses in this
stunning story by “ordinary readers” of the passage in many of Nigeria’s
local churches.
Verses 7:53-8:1-2 – The exit scene.
• Every follower went home
• Jesus went to Mount Olives
• Early next morning, Jesus went to the Temple area.
• All the people went out to Jesus.
• He sat down and taught them. What? Perhaps about the Law?
Verse 8:3-6b – The question of the Scribes and the Pharisees – accusers
of a woman, a non-definite person is recounted, but in the form of a story.
In this instance, it is a case of the use of a representative figure usually
considered Johannine.
• Alleged that the woman was caught in the very act of adultery.
• Compelled her to stand in the middle “to face the gun”.
• The accusers addressed Jesus as Teacher.
• They reminded Jesus that the Law of Moses prescribed stoning such a
woman to death.
• They asked Jesus: what his “own take” on the issue was?
• Verse 6: the narrator’s comment: the Testmotif usually the evangelists’
literary art to test Jesus so as to put him into trouble as in Mark 12:13-17.
Verses 6c-8 – Jesus’ reaction. Jesus’ response seems to be a Yes/No
option. The stages are as follows:
• Jesus writes on the ground (v. 6b).
• The accusers depart one by one beginning with the elders.
• Jesus is left alone.
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• The woman stands before him, also alone.
Verses 9-11 – The conclusion of the narrative.
• Jesus strengthens up, yawned, perhaps sighed and groaned, that is,
kwee ude, nyaa ngu, and asked: Nwanyi: woman, where are they who
have accused you?
• Again, Jesus groaned and asked: where are your accusers? (v. 10)
• Have they not condemned you?
• No one, my Lord (sir).
• Jesus said to her: shee, na mi go condemn you? Tu fia kwa! (Habah, am
I the one to condemn you? God forbid!)
• Lawa! (go), site taa, emekwela njo ozo (from henceforth do not
sin again).4
2.2 Exegesis of the text (John 7:53-8:1-11)
We will attempt to interpret the text according to its present form in the
canon. Much as we agree that the insertion of the passage in its present
place is arbitrary, it also makes significant sense in terms of the importance
of women in John. Indeed, John’s Gospel has other stories of women who,
after their encounter with Jesus, became disciples, such as the Samaritan
woman (Jn 4:7-42) and Mary Magdalene (Jn 20:11-18), or those with whom
Jesus is connected through family friendship, such as Mary and Martha, the
sisters of Lazarus, his friend who lived in Bethany, four miles from Jerusalem
(Jn 11:1-44). Even if the story of the adulteress woman seems bizarre, it
fits the positive image of women in John’s Gospel (Beutler 2017:84). Our
exegesis bears us out. In light of its narrative criteria, the construction of
the passage is structured and exposed as follows: verses 7:53-8:1-2; verse
8:3-6b; verses 6c-8, and verses 9-11.
2.2.1 Verses 7:53-8:1-2
This short unit introduces the scene and the characters. It provides a going-
out and going-in scene. Jesus’ conversation partners return home, because
every “listener” to Jesus went home to his/her own house (v. 7:53). Like the
other people, Jesus himself left Mount Olives, located on the eastern side
4 The expressions in italics are mainly Pidgin English and Igbo, the languages
generally spoken by the people who live in south-eastern Nigeria and who may
constitute the majority of the readers of our article. The English translations
have been provided.
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