An Analysis of The Story of the Adulterous Woman Look which of you that never sin wrought, But is of life cleaner than she, Cast at her stones and spare her not, Clean out of sin if that ye be. (N-Town: Woman Taken In Adultery: Medieval Drama; Bevington, David; Houghton Mifflin, 1975) Who among us has never sinned? And, in our place as fellow victims of our own all too human nature, have we any right to pass judgement on those who do thesame as we do, if with less discretion? If so, this begs the question of whether morality lies in following the social mores or if it is all in hiding from the public eye howoften you dont follow them. It seems that Jesus, or at least Johns version1 of Jesus and, later, the playwright of the N-Town Cycle, following in his footsteps,believed that the appearance of a moral life is worthless without the genuine article to buttress it. It sounds like a solid principle, and one that could be applied, eventoday, but despite the similarities in the texts, did the mediaeval context provide less charitable messages along with the storys original intended moral? And, for thatmatter, is there more than first appears to that original moral? Among the gospels, only John makes mention of the Adulterous Woman, which brings to question the probability of the actual occurrence. However, thedifferences between John and the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) have led many scholars to believe that John may have been written to supplementthe material found in the other three gospels. It is believed that the Gospel of John was written later than the Synoptic gospels, but the debate still stands as to howmuch later; estimates range from 75 A.D. to 145 A.D. However, scrolls containing versions of Johns gospel dated to 135 A.D. have been found as far as Syria,which improves the likelihood of Johns claim that he is a disciple of Jesus. This would place the original writing of ...
