II. _Opinions._ These are three: (1) That the narrative belongs here; was written by John, and was expunged from the Gospel at an early date because it was feared that an immoral use would be made of it. This was Augustine’s opinion. But this hypothesis does not account for the variety of readings, nor for peculiarities in character and diction which make it unlike John’s Gospel. (2) That it is an interpolation of a later age, for a purpose, by some early copyist. But the copyist who could have conceived this incident must have possessed the moral genius of Christ himself. “It is eminently Christlike, and full of comfort to penitent outcasts. It breathes the Saviour’s spirit of holy mercy, which condemns the sin and saves the sinner. It is parallel to the parable of the prodigal, the story of Mary Magdalene, and that of the Samaritan woman, and agrees with many express declarations of Christ that he came not to condemn, but to save the lost (John 3:17; 12:47; Luke 9:56; 19:10; comp. John 5:14; Luke 7:37, etc.). His refusal to act as judge in this case has a parallel in a similar case related in Luke 12:13-15.”--(_Schaff._) (3) That it is a tradition of the apostolic age, and was incorporated in the present evangelical narratives, probably in the second or third century, but in different forms and in different places. It may have been originally part of one of the lost Gospels. Eusebius relates that the work of Papias contained “the history of a woman accused before the Lord of numerous sins, a history contained also in the Gospel of the Hebrews.” This opinion, which is substantially that of Godet, Meyer, Luthardt, and Alford, accounts for the existence of the narrative, the apparent truthfulness of it, the variations of form, and the non-Johannean characteristics of style. It seems to me inherently the most probable. On internal grounds it seems to me clear that the narrative is historical; on critical grounds that it is not John’s; who was its author and how it became incorporated in John’s Gospel is a matter only of conjecture. 1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. 2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.