The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1880-09-30
"a MUTILATED BIBLE.u


members generally, and of women particularly, to
the fact that the revised edition of the Bible, as
prepared by theologians of all branches of the
Protestant Church, and which is to be accepted as
the authorized version of the divine original,
omits from the book of ST. John the entire passage
from the ifty-third verse Of chapter seven to the
eleventh verse of chapter eight, as follows:
CHATTER VIII
l. Jesus went unto the Mount o Olives
And early in the morning he again into the
pie, and all the people came unto hp and he down.
and taught them.
B. And the scribes and pharisees brought unto him
woman taken in adultery and when they had in
the midst,
They said unto him. Master this woman was taken in
adultery in the very
Now Moses in the law commanded that such should
be stoned but what sayest thou?
This they said tempting him. that they might have to
accuse him. But Jesus stopped down. and with finger
wrote on the ground, though he heard them
= SO when they continued asking him, he lifted up him
SELF and said unto them He that is without among
you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stopped down, and wrote the ground
g. And they which heard it, being convicted by their
ocn conscience, went by one, beginning the
est unto the last and Jesus left alone and the
woman standing in the midst.
TO- When Jesus had lifted up himself, and but
the woman, he said unto her, Woman where those
thine accusers hath condemned thee?
H. She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her.
To comprehend the full significance of the omis-
sion, it must be borne in mind 'that Christianity
is the only religion which has affirmed one and
the same ethical standard for both sexes that the
cearest, most emphatic and unmistakable affirm
alton of this equal standard Of morals for men
and women is contained in the passage now ex-
cluded that laws now exist in many parts of
Europe, and even of England, licensing prostitu-
ton; that similar legislation is demanded in this
country; that, in England, adultery on the part
of husband if not accompanied by gross
cruelty does not entitle wife to divorce while
it does entitle husband TO one and that, every
where in the world, public opinion holds women
to higher standard of confluence than is re-
quired of men, and Furnishes them far more Sc
verely for its infringement" Remembering these
facts it will be seen that the Christian religion,
which has heretofore commanded the respect and
reverence of women, because of its theoretical if
not practical imposition Of equal moral obligations
on the members Of both sexes, is to be altered,
profaned and degraded to correspond with the
reasoning of 'sophistical philosophers like Lecky
and shallow mOralists like Parkman." 1t may be
true, as "A member of the committee of revision
asserts, that the new Bible will not be printed
until next year, and that the Americans oppose
the change and it will not be made, yet women
may be prepared to see in the canon of Protest
ant Christendom a tacit sanction Of immotality
by men, if they do not rise i'm their numbers and
loudly decry against the shame; if they do not de-
mand that men, as well a themselves, be held to
moral accountability; if they do not make known
their determination to resist the adoption of the
altered version by the church or denomination to
which they belong. This exclusion of one of the
finest passages in the Scriptures points out the
#
logians. If women were properly represented i'm
the committee of revision, the shameful omission
could not have been made.