Jesus and the adulterous woman: the movies

- Cristo e l'adultera, Tintoretto

The gospel reading for today is John 8:1-11, or Jesus and the woman taken in adultery ...

a passage known as the Pericope Adulterae (/pəˈrɪkəpiː əˈdʌltəriː/)[1] or Pericope de Adultera — is a famous passage (pericope) found in the Gospel of John 7:53-8:11. In this episode, after Jesus has sat down in the temple to teach some of the people, after he spent the previous night at the Mount of Olives, a group of scribes and Pharisees confront Jesus, interrupting his teaching session. They bring in an adulteress, and invite Jesus to pass judgment upon her: should she be stoned, as Moses taught, or not? Jesus first ignores the interruption, and writes on the ground as though he does not hear them. But after the religious leaders continue their challenge, he states that the one who is without sin is the one who should cast the first stone. The religious leaders depart, leaving Jesus and the woman in the midst of the crowd. Jesus then asks the woman if anyone has condemned her. When she answers that no one has condemned her, Jesus says that he, too, does not condemn her, and tells her to go and sin no more.

Although nothing in this story contradicts anything else in the Gospels, many analysts of the Greek text and manuscripts of the Gospel of John have argued that it was "certainly not part of the original text of St John's Gospel." ...

Though it's probably an add-on, I like this story ... Jesus the friend to women, Jesus who doesn't condemn. There's lots of art on the subject, but I especially like the way it's portrayed in the movies. Four examples ...

- Here's the scene from Zeffirelli's miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth ...



- Here's the scene from The Gospel of John, with Henry Ian Cusick of Lost as Jesus ...



- Here's the scene from The Passion of the Christ. Though the movies is mostly known for its Good Friday violence, it also has a lot of flashback scenes of moments in Jesus' ministry, like this one ...



- This one is my favorite example, the one from the miniseries Jesus, with Jeremy Sisto in the title role ...