Some biblical passages appear suspicious even before we find that they were missing in the earliest copies. These passages “stand out” because they seem to possess a different character (like the paramedic paraphernalia at our murder scene). Textual critics examined the story of the adulterous woman, for example, and recognized that the Greek words used in the narrative are far more similar to Luke’s use of language than they are to John’s. The passage seemed foreign to the gospel of John, even before the discovery that it was absent prior to the fifth century.
