Steven Avery on John 8:6

The following is taken from the Textual Criticism Group run by W. Willker:

"Hi Folks,

This variant is not discussed too much because it is embedded within the Pericope Adultera. However it is fascinating for those who accept the Pericope and also in Received Text history. Generally this phrase is in the Greek manuscripts that have the Pericope, not the Latin. (And I have not seen any church writer attestation for the phrase.) A major factor in consideration will be your general perspective on inclusion/omission, however my point here is more historical, which manuscripts and which editions support the phrase, especially in TR editions .. than conceptual.

John 8:6
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.
But Jesus stooped down,
and with his finger wrote on the ground,
as though he heard them not.

"as though he heard them not."
mh prospoioumenos - mh prospoioumenos

The Laparola apparatus
http://www.laparola.net/greco/index.php?rif1=50&rif2=8:6

This is incomplete, since Scrivener gives the earlier Stephanus editions of 1546 and 1549 as having the phrase. In textual studies, 1550 is the central Stephanus edition, so he changed to omit in 1550, thus the entry. Based on Scrivener the Complutensian has the phrase (following Greek manuscripts against the Vulgate !) and Erasmus does not.

Hodges-Farsted says no, Robinson-Pierpont yes.

One question is the numerical count of Byzantine manuscripts. Interestingly this apparatus does not split the Byz (e.g. Byz-part.) beyond the specified families and mss in the omission section.

Also, my main interest, there is the question of Beza. While Scrivener is indicating that this is not in Beza editions (and Beza's Latin edition online omits the phrase from the Pericope, and that is to be expected) there are notes of interest.

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John Gill
"though this clause is not in many copies, nor in the Vulgate Latin, nor in any of the Oriental versions,
but is in five of Beza's copies, and in the Complutensian edition."

Is this based on a Beza annotation ?

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Memoirs of the life and works of ... Lancelot Andrewes (1860)
Arthur T. Russell
http://books.google.com/books?id=uyYBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA342
John viii.6, mh prospoioumenos, not in Stephens, but in Beza's later editions, as previously in the Complutensian.

This looks to be a direct contradiction to Scrivener.

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Dr. William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (1888)
http://books.google.com/books?id=e9UMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA2132
note about "the enumeration given by Scrivener" includes John 7:8

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So it would seem that direct referencing to Beza on the verse needs modern checking.
Is it possible for anyone to assist on this research ?

Thanks.

Shalom,
Steven Avery
Queens, NY