Hi TC,

Thank you Curtis, Ann, Tommy and Andrew.

Bruce Metzger
"No Greek Church Father prior to Euthymius Zigabenus (twelfth century) comments
on the passage, and Euthymius declares that the accurate copies of the Gospel do
not contain it."

I think it is important to point out that Metzger was repeating an assertion of
Hort.
And I will conjecture that Metzger was familiar with Hort's argumentation.

Dr. Leslie McFall in the UK has given us background information when he gave
us..
"PASSAGES RELATING TO THE PERICOPE ADULTERY IN HORT¹S UNPUBLISHED LETTERS."

(81/3.11.64) to BFW.
"Have you realised that the Pericope [de adultera] was apparently absolutely
unknown to every Greek
Father whose writings have been preserved, till Euthymius Zigabenus in the 11th
century?"

My sense is that a lot of textual assertions are passed down in this manner,
from Westcott or Hort, through Bruce Metzger who puts it in a more accessible
place, and then down to Daniel Wallace, Bart Ehrman, James White and many
others. And I wonder whether many such constructions are original to Bruce
Metzger, perhaps some of our textual experts have insight on this.

So the careful constructions may not be in fact checked for current accuracy,
even if they were accurate to the extent of knowledge at the original stating.
And another issue is ignored, whether the assertion contains careful 'parsing
language' designed to make a case rather than give a full and accurate picture.

And then on top of that the assertions can grow in the retelling, dropping the
subtle language of the original, and becoming simply incorrect in fact. I saw a
recent case on that with Bart Ehrman and the Johannine Comma, albeit second
hand, so it could use more checking.

The artificial delineation of "Greek Fathers", even including a time period when
many writers were fluent with both the Greek and Latin literature, would be an
example of a parsing language that is used time and again to give the impression
that a verse was unknown when it fact it may have been copiously referenced and
quoted.

To my way of thinking, this misuse of language, with an intention to obscure
information for textual political ends, is a fundamental scholastic integrity
concern.

Shalom,
Steven Avery
Queens, NY
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic