In the 1964 edition of Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? the Tanners engage in what can only be major “self ownage”:
CASTING THE FIRST STONE. In John
8:7 Jesus is recorded as saying, "He that is without sin among you, let
him first cast a stone . . ." Now certainly after we have seen the charges
made against the Bible by the Mormon Apostles, we would expect the Mormon
writings to be completely free of changes or alternations of any kind. (Jerald
Tanner and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? [2d ed.; Salt
Lake City: Modern Microfilm Co., 1964], 63)
Why is this a fail on their behalf (and maybe why this line
is excised in later printings of their magnum opus)? John 8:7 is part of
a longer passage, the pericope adulterae (John 7:53-8:11), a text which
even James R. White concedes is a later interpolation to the text. In effect,
by charging Latter-day Saints like Orson Pratt of making errant charges of
interpolation to the biblical manuscripts by quoting a later interpolation? All
you need to know about the Tanners’ lack of knowledge of the Bible.