To Cast the First Stone: The Transmission of a Gospel Story

Description

The story of the woman taken in adultery features a dramatic confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees over whether the adulteress should be stoned as the law commands. In response, Jesus famously states, "Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." To Cast the First Stone traces the history of this provocative story from

Jennifer Knust is associate professor of New Testament and Christian origins at Boston University. Her books include Unprotected Texts: The Bible's Surprising Contradictions about Sex and Desire. Tommy Wasserman is professor of Biblical studies at Ansgar Teologiske Hogskole in Norway. His books include The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission.

"[A] splendid and exhaustive examination... [w]ith scrupulous attention to every scrap of extant evidence." * Commonweal Magazine * "This is a careful and rich study. More than that, it illustrates the impressive results that can be gained by adopting a longitudinal approach to the manuscript data and other evidence surrounded an individual pericope. All who read this volume will not only gain insight into the pericope adulterae, more significantly they will learn much about the best practices in the study of the gospels themselves."---Paul Foster, Journal for the Study of the New Testament "The work will clearly be the definitive treatment of the history of what came to be an influential part of the Fourth Gospel, showing that what has counted as 'Scripture' is not necessarily 'original.'"---Harold Attridge, Journal of Religious History