Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. (John 8:7)

This story of the woman caught in adultery might be described as a "second-class story" - because it seems to have been added to John's Gospel as an afterthought. It does not appear in any of the older and more original versions of John, and some experts on the New Testament even think it may belong in Luke. The second-class status of this story is, unfortunately, also mildly appropriatein light of the fact that throughout history, women have been accorded second-class recognition in most societies. In recent years we have all been more or less in the throes of revising - of "revisioning" - our male-dominated, patriarchal society. Women have probably always had more strength and influence than men would li…