John 8

Joh 8:3
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
taken in adultery.
Joh 8:4
Having set her in the midst, they told him,
"Teacher, we found this woman in adultery,
in the very act."

Regarding sins of the flesh, I want to remember this quote:

[QUOTE]
From Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis
If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity
(sexual sin) as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong.
The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least
bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely
spiritual. The pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hatred.
For there are two things inside me...
they are the animal self and the diabolical self;
and the diabolical self is the worst of the two.
That is why a cold self-righteous prig who goes
regularly to church may be far nearer to hell
than a prostitute. But of course it is better
to be neither!
[/QUOTE]

The fact that C.S.Lewis mentioned the word prostitute
led me to the Harmony
http://www.hjg.com.ar/ce/resumi.html
to search the other gospels for this verse
because I wanted to find out
whether they referred to this woman
as a prostitute
or as an adultress.
In my mind, those two labels are quite different.

I was trying to put myself in the shoes of another.
What if I found myself in an arranged marriage?
A marriage of covenience?
or status?
or wealth?
or to meld two families together for power?
And then...
What if I actually fell in love with someone else?
Someone that I WOULD have married
had the decision not been made for me?
And what if I gave in to that love,
and betrayed my legal spouse?
Are there sins of love?

The paragraph by Lewis implies
that some sins are worse than others.
I don't want to go down that road,
trying to judge sins, ordering them in ranks.
I don't think that is a good thing to attempt.

But I would think that a greed-based sin
(like prostitution)
would be worse than a love-based sin
(like adultery)
but the commandments specifically mention one
and not the other.
THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.

kinda makes me go hmmmm....

but you know what I found
when I searched the Harmony of the Gospels?
None of the others mention this event.
http://www.hjg.com.ar/ce/c08i.html#ss19
In fact,
I am astonished how different the gospel of John is
from the others.
This entire chapter is not mentioned in the other three,
nor was the LAST chapter.
nor are the next THREE chapters!
(except where he says Jesus traveled beyond the Jordan in John 10:40, which is documented in others)

I'm amazed to discover
how different John's gospel is
from the gospels I have already been studying.
I guess I just didn't realize it until now.

"Onward through the fog..."
(as Oat Willie used to say)

-=-=-=-

oops, my "fog" doesn't blend well with
what I consider to be
the highlight of this chapter:

Joh 8:12
Then Jesus spoke again to them, saying,
I am the Light of the world.
He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.

back to "following" mode...
.