The Woman Taken in Adultery
They bring her into the temple court as a test, with the law on their side and a stone in every hand. He stoops and writes, says one sentence, and stoops again, and when he stands up the accusers are gone and only the woman is left.
Note. The Joseph Smith Translation keeps this passage and adds five changes, and the Covenant Christian Edition prints it.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
53And every man went unto his own house. 1And Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives.
2Early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught them. 3And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the middle of the people, 4they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what do you say? 6This they said testing him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground. 7So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9And they who heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the middle of the temple.
10When Jesus had raised up himself, and saw none but the woman none of her accusers and the woman standing, he said unto her, Woman, where are those your accusers? Has no man condemned you? 11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. And the woman glorified God from that hour, and believed on his name.
Have Mercy on One Another
The Principle of Mercy
Twice in 1842 Joseph Smith stood before the Female Relief Society and argued the case this passage argues: whether a body of religious people may receive someone it knows to have sinned. Richard C. Galbraith’s Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith keys this discourse to John 8:11, the verse it ends on: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” The occasion was a real one; the Society was deciding whether to admit Mahala Overton. The reading is the History’s; switch to Scribal accounts for Eliza R. Snow’s minutes, from which it was compiled.
Discourse to the Female Relief Society, 9 June 1842, the Grove, Nauvoo · History, 1838–1856, vol. C-1, addenda, pp. 73–75 (reported by Eliza R. Snow; History of the Church 5:23–25; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 240–241) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗… said he was going to preach mercy. Suppose that Jesus Christ and Holy Angels should object to us on frivolous things, what would become of us? We must be merciful to one another and overlook small things.
Respecting the reception of Sister Overton, President Joseph Smith said. It grieves me that there is no fuller fellowship; if one member suffer, all feel it— by union of feeling we obtain power with God. Christ said he came to call sinners to repentance, and save them.— Christ was condemned by the self righteous Jews because he took sinners into his Society— he took them upon the principle that they repented of their sins. It is the object of this Society to reform persons, not to take those that are corrupt and foster them in their wickedness; but if they repent, we are bound to take them, and by kindness sanctify and cleanse them from all unrighteousness, by our influence in watching over them. Nothing will have such influence over people, as the fear of being disfellowshipped by so goodly a society as this. Then take Sister Overton, as Jesus received sinners into his bosom. Sister Overton, in the name of the Lord I now make you free.
Nothing is so much calculated to lead people to forsake sin, as to take them by the hand, and watch over them with tenderness. When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what power it has over my mind, while the opposite course has a tendency to harrow up all the harsh feelings and depress the human mind. It is one evidence that men are unacquainted with the principle of godliness, to behold the contraction of affectionate feelings and lack of charity in the world. The power and glory of godliness is spread out on a broad principle to throw out the mantle of charity God does not look on sin with allowance, but when men have sinned, there must be allowance made for them.
All the religious world is boasting of righteousness— ’tis the doctrine of the devil to retard the human mind, and hinder our progress, by filling us with self righteousness. The nearer we get to our Heavenly Father, the more are we disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls— we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs. My talk is intended for all this society;— if you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another. …
… The way to keep all the saints together, and keep the work rolling, is to wait with all longsuffering, ’till God shall bring such characters to justice There should be no license for sin, but mercy should go hand in hand with reproof.
No Man Without Fault
Eleven weeks later, to the same Society, he turned to what the accusers were doing rather than to what the woman had done, and the apparatus keys the sentence to John 8:7, the stone and the man without sin. Snow’s minutes have “They said all manner of evil against him”; the History makes it “His enemies.”
Discourse to the Female Relief Society, 31 August 1842, the Grove, Nauvoo · History, 1838–1856, vol. D-1, addenda, p. 2 (reported by Eliza R. Snow; History of the Church 5:139–141; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 258) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Although I do wrong, I do not the wrongs that I am charged with doing; the wrong that I do is through the frailty of human nature like other men. No man lives without fault. Do you think that even Jesus, if he were here would be without fault in your eyes? His enemies said all manner of evil against him— they all watched for iniquity in him. How easy it was for Jesus to call out all the iniquity of the hearts of those whom he was among!