The Pericope Adulterae in a Syriac-Arabic Lectionary—Chris Keith

The hmmlorientalia blog from Adam McCollum has a post up wherein he gives images and discussion of a 17th-century Syriac-Arabic lectionary that includes the Pericope Adulterae and a colophon in the margin saying that it does not appear in all the manuscripts known to the scribe but that he [the scribe] has translated it for readers.  This is interesting because the passage does not occur in the earliest Syriac tradition (Old Syriac or Peshitta) at all to our knowledge.  But, when it does occur in the Philoxeniana Syriac tradition (early sixth century CE) that Gwynn studied, it often includes little explanatory notes about the fact that some manuscripts have it, some don't, and who translated it from Greek into Syriac (Abbat Mar Paul).  Around the same time, the Syriac Chronicle of Zacharias Rhetor (569 CE) has a similar statement (attributing translation to Bishop Moro/Mara, presumably the same as Abbat Mar Paul??  Anyone know?).  For what it's worth, in the notes that specify the location of the passage in John's Gospel, John 7:53-8:11 is always the location, as they specify that the verse comes after John 7.52.  The eastern languages tradition-history of the Pericope Adulterae is woefully understudied, despite Birdsall's efforts to publish some matieral on some 9th/10th-century Georgian manuscripts, which interestingly place the story after John 7:44.

HT to Anthony Le Donne for sending me the link to McCollum's blog.