I was reading this Reddit thread where the comments were casting doubt on whether this picture from this tweet was legitimate:
This image says:
From an account of John 8:3-11 in a law-and-ethics textbook published by the Chinese Communist Party. In the Gospel, a group of Pharisees have gatehred to stone a woman accused of adultery. Translated from the Chinese by Annie Geng.
Once upon a time, Jesus spoke to an angry crowd that wanted to kill a guilty woman. "Of all of you, he who can say he has never done anything wrong can come forward and kill her."
After they heard this, the crowd stopped.
When the crowd retreated, Jesus raised a stone and killed the woman, and said, "I am also a sinner, but if the law can only be executed by a spotless person, then the law will die."
Is it true that there is a Chinese textbook that writes this?
Of course, the actual text goes like this (NIV):
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Looking more into the issue:
I was able to find this story reported by Union of Catholic Asian News on September 22, 2020, and several other Christian news sources:
A parishioner who uploaded the textbook on social media said the distortion was an insult to the Catholic Church. "I want everyone to know that the Chinese Communist Party has always tried to distort the history of the Church, to slander our Church, and to make people hate our Church," his post said. Mathew Wang, a Christian teacher at a vocational school, confirmed the content but said the textbook content varies from place to place within China. Wang added that the controversial textbook was reviewed by the Textbook Review Committee for Moral Education in Secondary Vocational Education.
The textbook in question is apparently titled 职业道德与法律:
光传媒 has this picture:
This reads:
耶稣曾对群情激愤要打死一个犯了罪的妇女的众人说:“你们谁要是自己没有犯罪过错,就上前来打死她。”听了这话,大家都不再向前了。当众人都退去时,耶稣拿起石头打死了这个妇女,并说道:“我也同样是个罪人。但如果法律只能由毫无瑕疵的人执行的话,法律就只会死亡。”通过这个小故事,你是怎样看待法律的?
Jesus once said to an angry crowd that wanted to kill a woman who had sinned, "If any of you has not sinned, come forward and kill her." Hearing this, the crowd no longer came forward. When the crowd had withdrawn, Jesus took stones to stone the woman to death, saying, "I, too, am a sinner. But if the law could only be executed by people without the least blemish, the law would die." How do you see the law through this little story?
which matches the translation above.
Apple Daily writes:
不過,有中國自媒體表示,自中國教徒作出強烈反應後,涉事出版社網站已將該書撤下,在淘寶、孔夫子二手書網站、當當網等平台亦已下架,絕大部份學校圖書館已沒有收藏該書,但仍有部份學校使用該書作教科書。
However, some Chinese media said that since the strong reaction from Chinese Christians, the publishing house in question has withdrawn the book from its website, and it has also been removed from Taobao, Confucius' second-hand book website, and Dangdang, etc. Most school libraries no longer have the book, but some schools still use it as a textbook.
It would still be good to have other images of the relevant page of the textbook, however, and corroboration from more reliable sources besides Christian news sources and democracy advocacy news sources like Radio Free Asia.