Onyekachi Ugwu, "The Woman Caught in Adultery and the Gospel of John" (Mohr Siebeck, 2026)
August 2, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readOnyekachi Ugwu, a Catholic priest and lecturer in New Testament Studies at the Catholic University of Paris, spent his doctoral research working out why the story of the woman caught in adultery has had such a chaotic textual history—and whether it actually belongs in John’s Gospel. His monograph, The Woman Caught in Adultery and the Gospel of John (Mohr Siebeck, 2026), argues that the passage is not a late, awkward insertion but a deeply integrated part of John’s narrative, deliberately suppressed on moral grounds by early Christian scribes.
Why the passage disappeared from early manuscripts
The standard critical objection to the pericope is straightforward: it is absent from the earliest and most reliable Greek manuscripts of John’s Gospel. Most scholars therefore treat it as a later addition. Ugwu does not dispute the manuscript data, but he offers a different explanation for it. He traces a pattern of deliberate suppression that began in the third and fourth centuries, when ascetic movements were gaining influence and Christian communities were still debating which texts should be read in worship.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:31) **Introduction to the Episode** - Host sets up the controversy around the woman caught in adultery passage and introduces guest Onyekachi Ugwu and his monograph.
- 2 (02:39) **Guest’s Background and Initial Puzzle** - Ugwu explains his path to studying this passage and the question that first hooked him.
- 3 (05:21) **Why the Story Is Controversial: Moral Grounds** - Ugwu begins unpacking the factors that made the pericope puzzling, starting with early Christian moral objections.
- 4 (08:01) **The Passage’s Survival and Reinsertion** - Despite suppression, the story never fully disappeared and was later recovered.
- 5 (09:52) **The Modern Critical Case and Ugwu’s Counterargument** - Ugwu addresses the textual evidence and argues for intentional suppression, not accidental absence.
- 6 (12:12) **Canonical Context and Theological Value** - Ugwu places the passage among other contested texts and argues for its spiritual worth.
- 7 (14:52) **Reading the Passage Within John’s Narrative Strategy** - Ugwu begins his literary-theological interpretation, focusing on the woman’s position and its symbolic weight.
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Show Notes
The story of the woman caught in adultery in John’s Gospel has long stirred controversy. Given its checkered manuscript witness, many scholars don’t believe it belongs in John’s Gospel or even in the Scriptures at all, while others think it is Scripture but belongs in a different canonical setting, and still others, like our guest today, believe it is indeed authentically Johannine, foreshadowing Jesus’ own trial and his final victory over darkness.
Tune in as we speak with Onyekachi Ugwu about his recent monograph The Woman Caught in Adultery and the Gospel of John (Mohr Siebeck, 2026).
Onyekachi Ugwu earned his PhD at the Catholic University of Paris in 2024, and is a lecturer in New Testament studies.
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