1 John 5:7
From Textus Receptus
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====Ben David==== | ====Ben David==== | ||
| - | Ben David wrote on the Comma in 1826 in ''[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=GX4UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature, Volume 21]'' | + | Ben David wrote on the Comma in 1826 in ''[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=GX4UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature, Volume 21]'' “Ben David” was actually a unitarian minister named John Jones. in his ''Three Letters Addressed to the Editor of The Quarterly Review, in which is Demonstrated the Genuineness of the Three Heavenly Witnesses – I John v. 7'' says: |
| + | :Theodorus, the master of Chrysostom and a contemporary of the emperor Julian, as we learn from Suidas, wrote “A Treatise on one God in the Trinity, from the Epistle of John the Evangelist” Eis ten Epistolen Ioannou tou Euaggelistou peri tou eis Theos en Triadi. This is a remarkable testimony, as it implies the existence and notoriety of the verse about the middle of the fourth century. At that period, a writer of celebrity erects upon it the doctrine of a trinity in unity; which surely he would hardly have done, if any suspicion of its authenticity had been entertained by him, or by any other person of that age. Besides, the turn of the expression, as it supposes what was grounded on the verse to be grounded also on the whole Epistle, supposes the Epistle and the verse, in respect to their purport and authenticity, to stand exactly on the same foundation. (See Suidas on the word Diodoros.) | ||
====[[F. H. A. Scrivener]]==== | ====[[F. H. A. Scrivener]]==== | ||
Revision as of 19:16, 29 April 2020
- ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ Α΄ 5:7 Ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι·
(Textus Receptus, Novum Testamentum, Theodore Beza, 5th major edition. Geneva. 1598)
- 1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
(King James Version, Pure Cambridge Edition 1900)
- 1 John 5:7 Because, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one.
(King James Version 2016 Edition, 2016) - buy the revised and updated printed 2023 Edition New Testament here
Interlinear
Commentary
1 John 5:7 is the seventh verse of the fifth chapter of the first Epistle of John in the New Testament.
The omission of the Johannine Comma
The Comma Johanneum “John’s phrase” (also called Johannine Comma or the Heavenly Witnesses) is the technical name for a comma (a short clause) appearing in some translations’ rendering of 1 John 5:7-8. The text of the Comma appears below in bold:
- 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
- 5:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one” (KJV).
Although technically the Comma refers to text that overlaps verses 7 and 8, it is common to refer to the text as verse seven, or 1 John 5:7. Besides TR / KJV update versions such as the King James Version 2016 Edition, Revised Webster Update 1995, or the New King James Version of 1982 etc, no other modern English Bibles includes this passage. Those who support the King James Version or Textus Receptus only position frequently cite this omission as conclusive proof that modern Bibles are removing verses which teach the Trinity from the Bible and should be rejected on the grounds of Revelation 22:18-19. This Comma is omitted from most modern translations of the Bible because most Greek manuscripts do not have them. But while the Comma in the KJV is based on a few late Greek manuscripts, it is based upon hundreds (perhaps thousands) of copies of the Latin Vulgate, and several early church quotations. 95% of Latin manuscripts of 1 John have the Comma. There are also internal inconsistencies of Greek grammar that occur when the verse is omitted.
The Comma Johanneum is one of the finest scriptures to use to support the doctrine of the Trinity. It is one of those few passages included in the Textus Receptus which has a weak attestation from Greek manuscripts. It must be remembered that we do not have all the manuscripts that ever have been in existence, and there have been concerted efforts to destroy manuscripts and bibles from many groups including Catholics and Muslims. Constantine's successor was a zealous Arian.
Because the Textus Receptus was basically unrivaled until the late 1900's, the Comma is found in the most widely used translations of the New Testament before 1881, when the Westcott and Hort Greek text along with the English Revised Version was published without the Comma; but, from the early 18th century onwards, several individual translators omitted it. Versions from this period which contain it include the Geneva Bible, the King James Version (KJV), Young's and both the Rheims New Testament and the Ronald Knox translations which are Roman Catholic.
Newer critical editions of the Greek text omit the Comma as not part of the original, and modern Bible translations based on them such as the New International Version (NIV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the English Standard Version (ESV), the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) either omit the Comma entirely, or place it in a footnote. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Latin Nova Vulgata (New Vulgate), published in 1979 following the Second Vatican Council, primarily based upon the same Critical Text and approved for liturgical use, omits the Comma. Nor does the Catholic approved New American Bible include it.
The Comma Johanneum has been a major subject of debate from the 1500s to today. The debate on 1 John 5:7 has also been a primary focus of discussions on the integrity of the New Testament documents and scribal fealty to the Bible text. The varying doctrinal and Christological interpetations of the verse have been a major part of these debates. The Comma and the question of its authenticity have particular bearing on the development of the theological doctrine of the Trinity, which is central to most mainstream Christian denominations.
It stood basically unchallenged in English Bibles for four hundred years. It is the English ecclesiastical line for the past 500 years with first English Bible of John Wycliffe in 1380, William Tyndale’s New Testament of 1525, Coverdale’s Bible of 1535, in Matthew’s Bible of 1537, the Taverner’s Bible of 1539, the Great Bible of 1539, the Geneva New Testament of 1557, the Bishop’s Bible of 1568, and the King James Version of 1611. Trinitarianism is an orthodox position, and those who attack trinitarianism have rejected this verse. The fact that the very best of English translators, as well as many preachers, theologians, church leaders, editors, and the highest levels of scholarship have accepted the verse as well as many learned men who today still accept the Trinitarian statement in 1 John 5:7 needs to be acknowledged. Five centuries of English Christians acceptation of a verse that does not cause one to err or be deceived but rather enhances the doctrine of the trinity, should not quickly be rejected, let alone the many other language groups that have the verse, the huge amount of Old Latin and Vulgate manuscripts containing it, and its mention by early church witnesses. In the seventeenth century the framers of the Westminster Confession of Faith accepted the inclusion of 1 John 5.7–8 and used it to defend the doctrine of the Trinity.
Those who believe the Johannine Comma is authentic attribute authorship to the apostle John. They have diverse theories as to why the Comma dropped out of the Greek manuscript line and why most of the evidence is in Latin manuscripts and church writings. Often these proposed textual histories include homeoteleuton as the initial cause of the early variant. In 1699 Louis Ellies Dupin discussed the possibility:
- "…that those two verses beginning with the same words, it was easy for the copiers to omit one by negligence, nothing being more usual than when the same word is in two periods that follow one another, for the copier to pass from the word of the first period to that which follows in the second."A compleat history of the canon and writers of the books of the Old and New Testament: Luis Ellis Du Pin p.79
Greek Manuscript Evidence
1 John 5:7 is found in: Greek manuscript 61, codex Ravianus and Britannicus, it's also in the margins of 88 and 629, manuscript E (735 AD; has Acts 8:37).
Only 11 "late" Greek manuscripts contain the Comma, with 6 of them having it in the margin by an even later hand:
- Minuscule 629 (14th century)
- Minuscule 61 Codex Montfortianus (14th century)
- Minuscule 918 (16th century)
- Minuscule 2473 (17th century)
- Minuscule 2318 (18th century)
- Minuscule 221 margin (10th century, Comma added later)
- Minuscule 88 margin (12th century, Comma added in 16th century)
- Minuscule 429 margin (14th century, Comma added later)
- Minuscule 635 margin (15th century, Comma added later)
- Minuscule 177 margin (11th century, Comma added later)
| Greek manuscripts | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Manuscript No. | Name | Place | Other information |
| 10th century | 221 | Oxford | Marginal gloss: 15th or 16th century | |
| 11th century | 88 | Codex Regis | Naples | Marginal gloss: 16th century |
| 11th century | 177 | BSB Cod. graec. 211 | Munich | Marginal gloss: late 16th century |
| 14th century | 429 | Codex Wolfenbüttel | Wolfenbüttel (Germany) | Marginal gloss: 16th century |
| 14th century | 629 | Codex Ottobonianus | Vatican | Original. Latin text along the Greek text. |
| 14th century | 61 | Codex Montfortianus | Dublin | Original. Reads "Holy Spirit" instead of simply "Spirit". Articles are missing before the "three witnesses" (spirit, water, blood). |
| 16th century | 636 | Naples | Marginal gloss: 16th century | |
| 16th century | 918 | Escorial (Spain) | Original. | |
| 18th century | 2318 | Bucharest | Original. Thought to be influenced by the Vulgata Clementina. | |
| 18th century | 2473 | Athens | Original. | |
Latin Manuscripts
The appearance of the Comma in the Latin manuscript evidence is represented in the following table:
| Latin manuscripts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Name | Place | Other information |
| 6th century | Codex Fuldensis | Hessian State Library | Is in the Prologue |
| 7th century | León palimpsest | Leon Cathedral | Spanish |
| 7th century | Frisingensia Fragmenta | Spanish | |
| 9th century | Codex Cavensis | Spanish | |
| 9th century | Codex Ulmensis | Spanish | |
| 927 AD | Codex Complutensis I | Spanish | |
| 10th century | Codex Toletanus | Spanish | |
| 8th–9th century | Codex Theodulphianus | Paris (BnF) | Franco-Spanish |
| 8th–9th century | Codex Sangallensis 907 | St. Gallen | Franco-Spanish |
| 9th–10th century | Codex Sangallensis 63 | St. Gallen | marginal gloss |
Over 90% Vulgate mss have the Comma. The earliest Vulgate manuscript is about 545 AD, Codex Fuldensis (first published in the 1800s). 19th century textual critic F.H.A. Scrivener estimated that "49 out of 50 [Vulgate] manuscripts testify to this disputed Comma" (F. H. A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the New Testament Textual Criticism, 4th Ed., Vol. 2, (New York: George Bell & Sons, 1894), p. 403).
It is also found in the old Latin manuscripts Codex Freisingensis (Latin "r", "Beuron 64"; AD *500*), leon 1 (various readings of 1 John 5:7-8; AD 913-923), leon 2 (margin, 930 AD; has Acts 8:37) harl 2 (AD 752), Codex Toletanus (988 AD; has Acts 8:37, 9:5, 9:6), Codex Demidovianus (1150 AD; has Acts 8:37), Codex Colbertinus (AD 1150), Codex Perpinianus (AD 1250; has Acts 8:37), and Speculum (Latin "m" AD *450*, within a century of Sinaiticus and Vaticanus)
It is found in 68mg(mg=margin), 636mg and 918. It is also found in omega 110, 429mg, 221, and 2318. It's in the Montfort MS and Codex Wizanburgens (8th century).
It is also found in the Ulmensis manuscript (AD 850), and Codex pal Legionensis (AD *650*). It is found in the German manuscript The Augsburger Bibelhandschrift (2 Cod 3)(AD 1350).
- The Comma appears in most Latin manuscripts, which are broadly classified into two groups: The Latin Vulgate & The Old Latin. The Latin Vulgate, translate by Jerome, is the more common Latin translation as it was commissioned by the Catholic church in the late 4th century. The Old Latin is a term used to describe the various Latin translations that existed before the Latin Vulgate. Old Latin translations were made since about the latter half of the 2nd century (F. H. A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the New Testament Textual Criticism, 4th Ed., Vol. 2, (New York: George Bell & Sons, 1894), p. 43).
Clement of Alexandria
Johannine Comma and Clement of Alexandria
- See Main Article: Johannine Comma and Clement of Alexandria
Tertullian
Tertullian (155 - 245) makes a truncated reference to the Comma possibly around 200 AD:
- "Ita connexus Patris in Filio et Filii in Paracleto, tres efficit coharentes, alterum ex altere, qui tres unum sunt, non unus, quomodo dictum est, Ego et Pater unum sumus." (Against Praxeas XXV).
- "Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent persons, one from the other, which three are one, not one [person], as it is said, "I and my Father are One.""
Tertullian's use of tres unum sunt has been seen by many commentators as supporting authenticity, a textual connection to 1 John 5:7. "It appears to me very clear that Tertullian is quoting I. John v. 7. in the passage now under consideration." Proponents of authenticity emphasize the corroborative nature of examining the evidences of the time as one unit, including the Cyprian quotes and the Old Latin mss. "… the testimony of these early fathers must stand and fall together; as St. Cyprian obviously follows his master Tertullian." Daniel McCarthy, also referencing the views of Wetstein and Nicholas Wiseman, offers an exegesis that the three heavenly witnesses are implied by context. Georg Strecker comments cautiously "An initial echo of the Comma Johanneum occurs as early as Tertullian Adv. Pax. 25.1 (CChr 2.1195; written ca. 215). In his commentary on John 16:14 he writes that the Father, Son, and Paraclete are one (unum), but not one person (unus). However, this passage cannot be regarded as a certain attestation of the Comma Johanneum."
In the book The Text and Canon of the New Testament by Alexander Souter, he states:
- Tertullian's regular practice was to use the Greek original and to translate for himself.' But, in addition to his actual mention of existing Latin translations, it is clear that he sometimes used them himself.
The Text and Canon of the New Testament by Alexander Souter
Origen
Origen ( c. 184 – c. 253) in his reference on Psalm 122 (123 in the KJV Bible) has:
- "Ἰδοὺ ὡς ὀφθαλμοὶ δούλων εἰς χεῖρας τῶν κυρίων αὐτῶν, ὡς ὀφθαλμοὶ παιδίσκης εἰς χεῖρας τῆς κυρίας αὐτῆς, οὕτως οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἡμῶν πρὸς Κύριον Θεὸν ἡμῶν, ἕως οὗ οἰκτειρήσαι ἡμᾶς, κ. τ. ἑ. ∆οῦλοι κυρίων Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ πνεῦμα καὶ σῶμα· παιδίσκη δὲ κυρίας τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἡ ψυχή. Τὰ δὲ τρία Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν ἐστιν· οἱ γὰρ τρεῖς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν."
""Behold, the eyes of bondservants in the hands of their lord, as the eyes of a bondwoman in the hands of their lady, so are our eyes towards the Lord our God, until he may pity us; spirit and body are the bondservants of the Lord Father and Son; but the soul is the bondwoman of the lady Holy Spirit. And the Lord our God is three, for the three are one." (Translation by KJV Today)
| Origin | Beza 1598 |
|---|---|
| Πατρὸς | πατήρ |
| καὶ | |
| Υἱοῦ | ὁ (λόγος) |
| ἁγίου | ἅγιον |
| Πνεύματος | Πνεῦμα· |
| καὶ | |
| οὗτοι | |
| οἱ | οἱ |
| γὰρ | |
| τρεῖς | τρεῖς |
| τὸ | |
| ἕν | ἕν |
| εἰσιν | εἰσι· |
It clearly references the Comma, but in the anti Comma book, The Ghost of Arius by Grantley McDonald, it says:
- "We also find Origen applying 1 Jn 5:8 to the Trinity, significantly in the context of an allegorical reading of Ps 122:2 (LXX):
- “The servants to their lords, the Father and the Son, are the spirit and the body; and the maidservant to the mistress, the Holy Spirit, is the soul. Our Lord God is these three things, for the ‘three are one.’”
Notice that this is a straightforward use of Father, Son (Word) and spirit, and there is no mention of water and blood. The basic fact remains that the heavenly witnesses was used for the text. Without any evidence, enemies of the Comma have to fabricate about a supposed "allegory". The footnote for this section quotes a diversion comment from the heavy-drinking skeptic Richard Porson, where, instead of simply discussing the verse and text, he makes a leap into Trinity doctrine issues. It seems that Grantley is happy to join Porson's anti Comma thinking rather than see the clear Comma reference. (See http://www.purebibleforum.com/showthread.php?75-Origen-Psalm-Scholium)
It is printed in the 1645 edition by Balthasar Cordier (1592-1650) of the publication that Fabricius used in 1703 as one of many heavenly witnesses evidences. Expositio patrum graecorum in Psalmos, à Balthasare Corderio Soc. Iesu ex vetustissimis Sac. Caes. Maiestatis & sereniss. Bauariae ducis mss. codicibus anekdotois concinnata; in parapharasin, commentarium & catenam digesta; latinitate donata, & annotationibus illustrata. Tomus primus tertius Tomus tertius; qui tertiam quinquage (1645) (https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_zmPldoYD8bwC#page/n573/ )
Cyprian of Carthage
See Main Article: Johannine Comma and Cyprian of Carthage
Theodorus
In the 4th century, Theodorus writes in “A treatise on one God in the Trinity, from the Epistle of John the Evangelist’ the following,
- ‘…that John in his Epistle, presents God as a Trinity…’
(Ben David, “Three Letters Addressed to the Editor of The Quarterly Review, in which is Demonstrated the Genuineness of The Three Heavenly Witnesses--I John v. 7”, London, 1825). Ben David observes: “This is a remarkable testimony, as it implies the existence and notoriety of the verse about the middle of the fourth century”.
Ephrem the Syrian
Ephrem the Syrian (306 – 373 AD) makes an allusion to Heavenly Witnesses in Latin:
- Rhythm the Twenty Eighth
- 7. If then the Most High avenged the servant of his sister, a prophetess, who intermeddled with him, who shall meddle with the birth of that Majesty, Who is the Son of a Bosom which is consuming Fire, whence there flame forth lightnings and Tongues [of fire]? The prying of daring men is as stubble with Him; and the questioner and the contentious like as chaff, and like as thorns, are devoured. Gehazi also who mocked and was mocked, tried to escape his master's notice and was disgraced. The daring men try to escape men's notice [when pretending] that they baptize in the Three Names. Now at the mouth of Three the judges decide. See here be Three Witnesses Who put an end to all strife! And who would doubt about the holy Witnesses of His Baptism? [3]
Notice he mentions Three and Witnesses which is unique to 1 John 5:7:
- baptize in the Three Names
- Three
- Three Witnesses
- the holy Witnesses
The original in Latin:
- PAGE 51 D-E
- Factum est hoc, hem quid ais? si Altissimus poenam illatae famulo injuriae a sorore Prophetide repoposcit, eo quod minus aeque de ipso sensisset, quis iniquam de Filio Majestatis congitationem cum impunitatis spe suscipiat? quisve non vereatur illum, a quo genitus est, ignem consumentem, unde emicant fulgura, et linguae flammantes, cui si protervi isti Scrutatores componantur, festuca minima res et levissima sunt; cuique in promptu est disceptatores et contensiosos quasi stipulas et vepres concremare. Poenam tulit similem Giezius, qui Prophetam illudere conatus, ipse egregie illusus fuit, cum magistrum vellet capere, captus est. Subdoli Scrutatores vulgo imponere volunt, quo et ipse trinis nominibus baptizare volunt : trium testium consona testificatione judicia constant, tres hic audis testes, quorum testimonio omnis dirimitur quaestio. Jam eritne aliquis, qui sanctissimos sui baptismi testes habeat suspectos? Table of Contents read: Eighty Rythms upon the Faith, against the Disputers. [adv. Scrut.] (t. iii. p. 1) Eighty Rhythms upon the Faith, against the Disputers, 28:7, translated into English by Rev. J. B. Morris, Select Works of S. Ephrem the Syrian (Oxford:, 1847)[4]
Basil
The Comma and Matthew 28:19 mentioned concerning Basil in 350 AD in Adversus Eunomium Book V : Paris 1839 p.446-447
- 446. Ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς ἐναντιούμενοι· τί δὲ
- ἐναντιοῦσαι τῇ κάλῃ ταύτῃ πίστει, καὶ σωζούσῃ ὁμολογίᾳ,
- Θεὸς, Λόγος, Πνεῦμα·
- Πατὴρ, Υἱὸς, καὶ Πνεῦμα;
- [...]
- 447. Τριὰς ἐν Τριάδι ὡσαύτως, ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ Ἀποστόλῳ
- σαφῶς μαρτυρήσει - ὅτι μὴ τὴν δυάδα ἀναιροῦσι,
- μᾶλλον δὲ Τριάδα τὴν Μονάδα κηρύσσοντες, ἀλλ',
- ἑνότητα θεότητος εἰδότες, ἐν ἑνὶ προσόπῳ τὰ τρία
- κηρύσσουσι.
(A new plea for the authenticity of the text of the three heavenly witnesses by Charles Forster 1867. [5] [6])
Idacius Clarus
Idacius Clarus (350-385 AD) referred to it in [Patrilogiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina by Migne, vol. 62, col. 359.] He also has it in Contra Marivadum Arianum.
- Et tres sunt qui testimonium perhibent in coelo, Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus, et ii tres unum sunt. Contra Marivadum Arianum. PL 62, col 0359B
Athanasius
350 AD Athanasius referred to it in his De Incarnatione Section from KJV Today
By "Athanasius", it is meant Athanasius (c. 296 – 373 AD) or Pseudo-Athanasius (c. 350 - c. 600 AD). Athanasius quoted the Comma in Disputatio Contra Arium:
- "Τί δὲ καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀφέσεως τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν παρεκτικὸν, καὶ ζωοποιὸν, καὶ ἁγιαστικὸν λουτρὸν, οὗ χωρὶς οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν, οὐκ ἐν τῇ τρισμακαρίᾳ ὀνομασίᾳ δίδοται τοῖς πιστοῖς; Πρὸς δὲ τούτοις πᾶσιν 'Ἰωάννης φάσκει· Καὶ οἱ τρεῖς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν."
- "But also, is not that sin-remitting, life-giving and sanctifying washing [baptism], without which, no one shall see the kingdom of heaven, given to the faithful in the Thrice-Blessed Name? In addition to all these, 'John affirms, and these three are one.'" (Translation by KJV Today) ONLINE LINK to Disputatio Contra Arium
The quote, "Καὶ οἱ τρεῖς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν", is likely from the Comma rather than verse 8 because it lacks "εις (in)". This somewhat hesitant tagging of the Comma at the end of the statement is consistent with the Comma being a minority reading in the early Greek church. The Comma, though worth quoting, was not the crux of Athanasius' argument.
Athanasius quoted another portion of the Comma in Quaestiones Aliae:
- "Ὥσπερ ἡ ψυχή µου µία ἐστὶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τρισυπόστατος, ψυχὴ, λόγος, καὶ πνοή· οὕτω καὶ ὁ Θεὸς εἷς ἐστιν, ἀλλ' ἔστι καὶ τρισ υπόστατος, 'Πατὴρ, Λόγος, καὶ Πνεῦµα ἅγιον.... Ὡς γὰρ ψυχὴ, λόγος καὶ πνοὴ τρία πρόσωπα, καὶ μία φύσις ψυχῆς, καὶ οὐ τρεῖς ψυχαί· οὕτω 'Πατὴρ, Λόγος καὶ Πνεῦμα ἅγιον, τρία πρόσωπα, καὶ εἷς τῇ φύσει Θεὸς, καὶ οὐ τρεῖς θεοί."
- "Even as my soul is one, but a triune soul, reason, and breath; so also God is one, but is also triune, 'Father, Word, and Holy Ghost.... For as soul, reason and breath are three features, and in substance one soul, and not three souls; so 'Father, Word and Holy Ghost, [are] three persons, and one God in substance, and not three gods." (Translation by KJV Today) ONLINE LINK to Quaestiones Aliae
Those who claim that Athanasius did not quote the Comma elsewhere need to consider that Athanasius also did not quote Matthew 28:19 in some of his most pro-Trinitarian writings such as The Deposition of Arius, Apologia Contra Arianos and the Four Discourses Against the Arians. Matthew 28:19 provides the second most clearest declaration of the Trinity after the Comma, yet Athanasius used other scriptures to support his views on the Trinity. Athanasius was not necessarily interested in establishing the Trinity per se, but rather the consubstantial unity of the Father and the Son. Other texts were more appropriate for this goal. The later Latin Fathers are the ones who were influenced by Neo-Platonic thought and sought to formulate the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in a neatly arranged Trinity.
Phoebadius
Jerome wrote of Phoebadius of Agen in his Lives of Illustrious Men. "Phoebadius, bishop of Agen, in Gaul, published a book Against the Arians. There are said to be other works by him, which I have not yet read. He is still living, infirm with age.Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men In the translation by Ernest Cushing Richardson, footnote: "Bishop 353, died about 392". William Hales looks at Phoebadius:
- Phoebadius, A. D. 359, in his controversy with the Arians, Cap, xiv. writes, "The Lord says, I will ask of my Father, and He will give you another advocate." (John xiv. 16) Thus, the Spirit is another from the Son as the Son is another from the Father; so, the third person is in the Spirit, as the second, is in the Son. All, however, are one God, because the three are one, (tres unum sunt.) … Here, 1 John v. 7, is evidently connected, as a scriptural argument, with John xiv. 16.William Hales, Inspector, Antijacobin Review, Sabellian Controversy, Letter XII 1816, p. 590. "Denique Dominus: Petam, inquit, a Patre meo et alium advocatum dabit vobis … Sic alius a Filio Spiritus, sicut a Patre Filius. Sic tertia in Spiritu, ut in Filio secunda persona: unus tamen Deus omnia, tres unum sunt. Phoebadius, Liber Contra Arianos
Griesbach argued that Phoebadius was only making an allusion to Tertullian,Griesbach, Diatribe, p. 700 and his unusual explanation was commented on by Reithmayer.Introduction historique et critique aux libres de Nouveau Testament 1861, p.564.In dismissing Phoebadius in this fashion, Griesbach was following Porson, whose explanation began, "Phoebadius plainly imitates Tertullian…and therefore, is not a distinct evidence", Letters to Archdeacon Travis, 1790, p. 247.
Eusebius of Vercelli
Eusebius of Vercelli (283-371 AD) mentions the Comma three times:
- Tres sunt qui testimonium dicunt in coelo, Pater, Verbum et Spiritus: et in Christo Iesu unum sunt. De Trinitate. PL 62, col 0243C
- Tres sunt qui testimonium dicunt in coelo, Pater, et Verbum, et Spiritus, et in Christo Iesu unum sunt. De Trinitate. PL 62, col 0246B
- Tres sunt qui testimonium dicunt in coelo, Pater, et Verbum, et Spiritus, et in Christo Iesu unum sunt. De Trinitate. PL 62, col 0297B
Eusebius 11 (fourth century) has an interesting passage which may be a reference to the Comma. In his Ecclesiastical Theology where he refutes some Sabellian opinions of Marcellus he says:
- "[To say] that the Father is the same as the Word inside him, and that his Son is the Word inside him is the mark of the heresy of Sabellius. So again also the saying that the Three are One (Grk), the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; for this is also of Sabellius (Grk)."
Although I am not claiming that Eusebius quotes the Comma here, his phraseology is remarkable. He could have said 'saying that the Three are One is also of Sabellius', but now he adds his last clause in a way that puts special emphasis on the saying 'that the Three are One' - 'for this is also of Sabellius'. Whether Eusebius had the Comma in mind or not, it is clear that the language of the Comma could be regarded as Sabellian. 11 Eusebius of Caesarea, De Ecclesiastica Theologia 3.3-3.4 (PG 24:1001-1004c).
Augustine of Hippo
See Main Article: Johannine Comma and Augustine of Hippo
Priscillian
In 380 AD in Spain Priscillian (or one of his associates) referred to the Comma:
- “There are three that bear witness on earth: the water, in the flesh, and the blood: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are one in Christ Jesus.”
- “Tria sunt quae testimonium dicunt in terra: aqua caro et sanguis et haec tria in unum sunt. Et tria sunt quae testimonium dicent in caelo: Pater Verbum et Spiritus et haec tria unum sunt in Christo Iesu.” [Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Academia Litterarum Vindobonensis, vol. xviii, p. 6.]
The earthly witnesses mentioned here have the “flesh” in place of the usual reading of “spirit” (Spirit) in the Textus Receptus.
Jerome's Vulgate
Jerome (382 A.D.) in his book, ‘Prologue to the Canonical Epistles’, quotes the following when discussing the Johannine Comma that,
- ‘…irresponsible translators left out this testimony in the Greek codices.’
He further adds the following,
- ‘…these Epistles I have restored to their proper order; which, if arranged agreeably to the original text, and faithfully interpreted in Latin diction, would neither cause perplexity to the readers, nor would the various readings contradict themselves, especially in that place where we read the unity of the Trinity laid down in the Epistle of John. In this I found translators (or copyists) widely deviating from the truth; who set down in their own edition the names only of the three witnesses, that is, the Water, blood, and Spirit; but omit the testimony of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; by which , above all places, the Divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is proved to be one’.
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (c. 349 – 407 AD) wrote Adversus Judaeos (Homily 1:3) in which he used the following curious phrase:
- "Κάτω τρεῖς μάρτυρες, ἄνω τρεῖς μάρτυρες, τὸ ἀπρόσιτον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δόξης δηλοῦντες."
Translated as (Translation by KJV Today):
- "Three witnesses below, three witnesses above, showing the inaccessibility of God's glory." Adversus Judaeos PDF
Chrysostom is not speaking about the Trinity in the context. He is merely saying that a good number of witnesses testify concerning the ineffable nature of God. Still, it is interesting that Chrysostom would give weight to his argument by using the formula of having three witnesses below and three witnesses above ("above" is to be understood as "heaven", as he previously stated, "ἀλλ' ἀνέβην εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ("But I went up to heaven [figuratively]"). Since the Comma was already cited in the Latin Church during Chrysostom's time, it is far more candid to suppose that a learned teacher such as Chrysostom knew of the Comma and was alluding to its formula than to suppose that he formulated it by his own imagination.
Pseudo-Chrysostom quotes the Comma in the vocative case in De Cognitione Dei et in Sancta Theophania as follows:
- "Ἀλλ', ὦ Πάτερ, καὶ Λόγε, καὶ Πνεῦμα, ἡ τρισυπόστατος οὐσία, καὶ δύναμις, καὶ θέλησις, καὶ ἐνέργεια, ἡμᾶς τοὺς ὁμολογοῦντάς σου τὰς ἀσυγχύτους καὶ ἀδιαιρέτους ὑποστάσεις, ἀξίωσον καὶ τῆς ἐκ δεξιῶν σου στάσεως, ἡνίκα ἔρχῃ ἐξ οὐρανῶν κρῖναι τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ· ὅτι πρέπει σοι δόξα, τιμὴ καὶ προσκύνησις, τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ Υἱῷ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων."
- "But, O Father, and Word, and Spirit, the triune being and might and will and power, deem us, who confess you as the unconfused and indivisible substance, also worthy to be the ones standing at your right hand when you come from heaven to judge the world in righteousness, for rightly yours is the glory, honor, and worship, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for always, and for eternity." (Translation by KJV Today)
De Cognitione Dei et in Sancta Theophania
Pseudo-Chrysostom first refers to the Trinity as Father, Word, and Spirit and then switches to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the same sentence. This switch has no contextual reason. Given the abundance of scriptural allusions in this passage, it is most likely that the two forms of the Trinity are both scriptural allusions (Matthew 28:19 & 1 John 5:7).
Info from KJV Today.
Marcus Celedensis
Coming down to us with the writings of Jerome we have the statement of faith attributed to Marcus Celedensis, friend and correspondent to Jerome, presented to Cyril:
- To us there is one Father, and his only Son [who is] very [or true] God, and one Holy Spirit, [who is] very God, and these three are one ; – one divinity, and power, and kingdom. And they are three persons, not two nor one.
Horne, critical study 1933, p. 451 ~ Travis references Jerome as writing approvingly of the confession. George Travis, Letters to Edward Gibbon, 1785 p. 108. The Latin is "Nobis unus Pater, et unus Filius ejus, verus Deus, et unus Spiritus Sanctus, verus Deus; et hi tres unum sunt; una divimtas, et potentia, et regnum. Sunt autem tres Personae, non-duae, non-una" Marc Celed. Exposit. Fid. ad Cyril apud Hieronymi Opera, tom. ix. p. 73g. Frederick Nolan, An inquiry into the integrity of the Greek Vulgate, 1815, p. 291.
Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria in his Five Tomes Against Nestorius. LFC 47 (1881) Book 5. pp.155-184 has:
- Therefore the faith profits them who will hold it unshaken; how it profits, the all-wise John will assure us saying, Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He that came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not in water only, but in water and blood, and the Spirit is Truth; for three testify, the Spirit, the water and the Blood, and the Three are One.
Eucherius of Lyons
Eucherius of Lyons (434 A.D.) in a tract that is titled ‘Formulae Spiritualis Intelligentiae’, verses 7 & 8 are quoted.
Contra Varimadum Arianum
Contra Varimadum Arianum (some claim was written by Idacius Clarus in Spain in the late 300’s, but others by Vigilius Tapsensis in North Africa in the late 400’s) has the following statement:
- “John the Evangelist, in his Epistle to the Parthians (i.e. 1 John), says there are three who afford testimony on earth: the water, the blood, and the flesh, and these three are in us; and there are three who afford testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are one.”
The three earthly witnesses have “flesh” in this comment rather than the usual spirit (Spirit) of the Textus Receptus.
Leo the Great
In the Tome of Leo, written to Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople, read at the Council of Chalcedon on 10 October 451 AD,The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, Vol 3, The Second Session, pp. 22–23, 2005, Richard Price, editor and published in Greek, Leo the Great's usage of 1 John 5 has him moving in discourse from verse 6 to verse 8:
- This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith"; and: "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood; and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness, the spirit, the water, and the blood; and the three are one." That is, the Spirit of sanctification, and the blood of redemption, and the water of baptism; which three things are one, and remain undivided …Edward Rochie Hardy Christology of the Later Fathers 1954, p. 368
This epistle from Leo was considered by Richard Porson to be the "strongest proof" of verse inauthenticity ("the strongest proof that this verse is spurious may be drawn from the Epistle of Leo the Great to Flavianus upon the Incarnation"Richard Porson, Letters to Archdeacon Travis 1790 p.378) and went along with Porson's assertion that the verse was slow to enter into the Latin lines. Porson asserted that the verse "remained a rude, unformed mass, and was not completely licked into shape till the end of the tenth century".Letters to Archdeacon Travis 1790 p. 401 In response, Thomas Burgess points out that the context of Leo's argument would not call for the 7th verse. And that the verse was referenced in a fully formed manner centuries earlier than Porson's claim, at the time of Fulgentius and the Council of Carthage.Thomas Burgess, An introduction to the controversy on the disputed verse of st. John, 1835, p. xxvi Burgess pointed out that there were multiple confirmations that the verse was in the Latin Bibles of Leo's day. Burgess argued, ironically, that the fact that Leo could move from verse 6 to 8 for argument context is, in the bigger picture, favourable to authenticity. "Leo's omission of the Verse is not only counterbalanced by its actual existence in contemporary copies, but the passage of his Letter is, in some material respects, favourable to the authenticity of the Verse, by its contradiction to some assertions confidently urged against the Verse by its opponents, and essential to their theory against it."Thomas Burgess, An introduction to the controversy on the disputed verse of st. John, 1835, p. xxxi
Vigilius Tapensi
Vigilius Tapensis (484 A.D.) in his writings on the Trinity, quotes 1 John 5:7 in its entirety. This is found in his ‘Works of Athanasius’ and also in his tract against Varimadus the Arian under the name of Idacius Clarus.
Council of Carthage
Church Council of Carthage (485 A.D.) Eugenius was the spokesman for the bishops of Africa, Mauritania, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearick Isles, these bishops numbered 461 who stood in defense of the Trinity and used 1 John 5:7-8. Arians didn't believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. The bishops used 1 John 5:7-8 against the Arians proving Jesus is God and God is a Trinity. ‘Victor of Vitensis, Historia persecutionis Africanae’
His words are recorded, :
- ‘…and in order that we may teach until now, more clearly than light, that the Holy Spirit is now one divinity with the Father and the Son. It is proved by the evangelist John, for he says, ‘there are three which bear testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one’.
Victor Vitensis
The North African Victor Vitensis attended the Council of Carthage in 484, after the Arian Vandal king Huneric had instructed the Trinitarian bishops of North Africa to meet there with Arian bishops to discuss the subject of the Trinity.
461 Trinitarian African bishops attended, led by Eugene of Carthage who intended to present a statement of faith at the council, and this manifesto was incorporated into Victor Vitensis’ account. It speaks of the Comma:
- “Et ut luce clarius unius divinitatis esse cum Patre et Filio Spiritum Sanctum doceamus, Joannis Evangelistae testimonio comprobatur. Ait namque: Tres sunt qui testimonium perhibent in coelo: Pater, Verbum et Spiritus Sanctus et hi tres unum sunt.”
- “And as a shining light teaching the unity of the divinity of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, the testimony of John the Evangelist demonstratively testifies: ‘There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.’”
It is rather amazing to watch modern bible critics such as James White, Bart Ehrman, Dan Wallace and others, claim that the Comma simply originated from Erasmus. Victor Vitensis reveals that a prominent bishop was willing to use the Comma at a theological conference defending the Trinity. James White said in 2006: “...anyone who defends the insertion of the Comma is, to me, outside the realm of meaningful scholarship... This brand of TR Onlyism/KJV Onlyism is defenseless apologetically...” I suppose White also rejects these 461 Trinitarian African bishops as KJV kooks also.
Codex Fuldensis
See Also Johannine Comma and Codex Fuldensis
Codex Frisingensis
Codex Frisingensis, or manuscript r, 64, or Frisingensia Fragmenta (6th-7th century), contains the full text of the Comma.
León palimpsest
León palimpsest, aka Codex Legionensis, or manuscript l or 67 (7th century) contains the Comma with slight variation in wording (Nestle-Aland: Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th revised edition (2006)).
Church Fathers
The Council of Carthage in 481 AD included 461 of Bishops who specifically give the verse, with special emphasis, in the doctrinal battles contra the Arians under Huneric. In their situation they where they faced with persecution and would have been extra careful to stick with accepted scripture. In his Letters to Edward Gibbon (1785) George Travis points says:
- "That it may appear more clear than the light, that the divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is one, see it proved by the Evangelist St. John, who writes thus: " There are three who bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one." [7]
There are a number of other references (Fulgentius .. book on Trinity to Felix Notarius contra Arians .. and the Greek writing on the disputation between Athanasius and Arius attributed to Maximus the Confessor are two. Plus the 400s-Carthage period actually has more than one source.)
550 AD Old Latin ms r has it
African writers
450-530 AD Several orthodox African writers quoted the verse when defending the doctrine of the Trinity against the gainsaying of the Vandals. These writers are:
- A) Vigilius Tapensis in "Three Witnesses in Heaven"
- B) Victor Vitensis in his Historia persecutionis [Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Academia Litterarum Vindobonensis, vol. vii, p. 60.]
- C) Fulgentius in "The Three Heavenly Witnesses" [Patrilogiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina by Migne, vol. 65, col. 500.]
Cassiodorus
500 AD Cassiodorus cited it [Patrilogiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina by Migne, vol. 70, col. 1373.]
In his composition Complexiones in Epistolis Apostolorum, as follows:
- “Cui rei testificantur in terra tria mysteria: aqua sanguis et spiritus, quae in passione Domini leguntur impleta: in coelo autem Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus sanctus, et hi tres unus est Deus.”
- “And the three mysteries testify – on earth: water, blood and spirit. The fulfillment of which we read about in the passion of the Lord. And in heaven: Father and Son and Holy Spirit. And these three are one God.”
Speculum
550 AD The "Speculum" has it [The Speculum is a treatise that contains some good Old Latin scriptures.]
Codex Guelferbytanus 99 Weissenburgensis
![1 John 5.7 Cod. Guelf. 99 Weiss. Et spiritus est veritas quia tres sunt qui testimonium dant spiritus et aqua et sanguis. et tres unum sunt. Sicut etiam in caelum tres sunt pater. verbum. et spiritus. et tres unum sunt [1]](/wiki/Image:1_John_5.7_Cod._Guelf._99_Weiss..jpg)
750 AD Codex Guelferbytanus 99 Weissenburgensis referred to the coma in Latin:
- Et spiritus est veritas quia tres sunt qui testimonium dant
- spiritus et aqua et sanguis. et tres unum sunt. Sicut etiam in
- caelum tres sunt pater. verbum. et spiritus. et tres unum sunt
F. H. A. Scrivener said:
- In one of the most ancient which contain it, cav., ver. 8 precedes ver. 7 (as appears also in m. tol. demid. and a codex at Wolfenbüttel, Wizanburg. 99 [viii] cited by Lachmann), while in the margin is written ‘audiat hoc Arius et ceteri,’ as if its authenticity was unquestioned. [Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, ed. Edward Miller, Fourth Edition., vol. 2 (London; New York; Cambridge: George Bell & Sons; Deighton Bell & Co., 1894), p. 403.]
Jan Krans said:
- "nr. 99 of the Weissenburg collection in the Herzog August library in Wolfenbüttel (’Codex Guelferbytanus 99 Weissenburgensis’). It is the so-called ‘Weissenburg Augustine’, containing homilies by Augustine, in which also the Catholic Epistles, the Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, and some other works are found (see Hans Butzmann, Die Weissenburger Handschriften ..., 1964, pp. 283-287). Wizanburgensis Revisited by Jan Krans
Wizanburgensis
See Codex Guelferbytanus 99 Weissenburgensis
Church Council of Charlemagne
During the Church Council of Charlemagne in the late 8th century, the Emperor Charlemagne assembled all the learned men to revise the manuscripts of the Bible by cleaning up the mistakes that had creep in. The end result, which was delivered by Alciunus, shows 1 John 5:7-8 as it appears in our King James Bible.
Waldensians
157-1400 AD Waldensian (that is, Vaudois) Bibles have the verse.
Commentary on Revelation
Ambrose Ansbert refers to the scripture verse in his Revelation commentary:
- Although the expression of faithful witness found therein, refers directly to Jesus Christ alone, --- yet it equally characterises the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; according to these words of St. John. There are three which bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
Robert Jack, Remarks on the Authenticity of 1 John v. 7 c. 1834 ...sicut scriptum est :
- Tres sunt qui testimonium dicunt de caelo, Pater et Verbum, et Spiritus sanctus, et hi tres unum sunt, in primo huius opens libro aperte docuimus. Ambrose Ansbert, Ambrosij Ansberti ... Apocalypsim libri decem
"Ambrose Ansbert, in the middle of the eighth century, wrote a comment upon the Apocalypse, in which this verse is applied, in explaining the 5th verse of the first chapter of the Revelation". David Harrower, A Defence of the Trinitarian System, 1822 pp.43–44
Minuscule 221
A marginal note in Minuscule 221 has a marginal note:
- οτι τρεις εισιν οι μαρτυρουντες εν ουρανω: πατηρ, λογος, και πνευμα αγιον, και οι τρεις εις το εν εισιν
- (‘There are three who testify in heaven: The Father, Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one’).
Codex Theodulphianus
The 10th-century Latin manuscript Codex Theodulphianus contains the Comma Johanneum in its usual location (unlike the Codex Cavensis and Codex Toletanus).
Lombard, Second Distinction
Lombard, Second Distinction (Libri Quattuor Sententiarum, 1150 A.D.) says:
- "That the Father and the Son, says he, not by confusion of persons, but by Unity of Nature, St. John hath taught us in his Canonical Epistle, saying, 'There are three which bare record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.'" (http://rarebooks.dts.edu/viewbook.aspx?bookid=1341) [p. 14]
Fourth Lateran Council in 1215
The medieval Latin church was apparently cognizant of the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the Comma, as is demonstrated by the following excerpt from Canon 2 of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215:
- "For the faithful of Christ, he says, are not one in the sense that they are some one thing that is common to all, but in the sense that they constitute one Church by reason of the unity of the Catholic faith and one kingdom by reason of the union of indissoluble charity, as we read in the canonical Epistle of St. John: "There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one" (1 John 5: 7). And immediately it is added: "And there are three who give testimony on earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three are one" (1 John 5: 8), as it is found in some codices." (The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215)
Codex Vaticanus
There are 2 distigmai at the location of 1 John 5:7-8 in codex Vaticanus. The distigmai of Vaticanus are perhaps the work of the original scribe of Vaticanus and that these distigmai were used by that scribeto mark off variant readings. If that be the case, then it is quite clear that the scribe of Vaticanus was aware of the Heavenly Witnesses passage found in the TR and he marked that variant with a distigme.
A facsimilie of the text of B has:
- τυρουνοτιτοπνευμα ..
- εστινηαληθειαοτι
- ... τρειςεισινοιμαρτυρουν
- τεςτοπνευμακαι
- τουδωρκαιτοαιμα
- καιοιτρειςειςτοενεισιν
Now with words separated:
- 6 τυρουν οτι το πνευμα
- εστιν η αληθεια 7 οτι
- 8 τρεις εισιν οι μαρτυρουν
- τες το πνευμα και
- το υδωρ και το αιμα
- και οι τρεις εις το εν εισιν
The scribe of Vaticanus betrayed himself and started to write the Heavenly witness passage with the first word οτι, but by Homioteuleton τρεις....τρεις either committed a copyist error and accidently omitted the Heavenly witness or purposely omitted it and forgot to take the οτι out and replace it with the και conjunction of verse 8. So it is clear that the scribe of B knew of verse 7 and even wrote one word of it [οτι].
Critics try to say that these distigmai of B did not originate with the original scribe but a later scribe[s] even up to the 16th century. It is true that a later scribe traced over the letters of the original Apricot-colored ink of codex B with a darker colored ink. However, when you enlarge those distigmai, especially, hereat verse 7 you can actually see the original Apricot-colored ink under the darker ink of the tracing. So, definitely the distigme here in B is original and marks off the Heavenly witnesses variant.
Suddenly, for those who adhere to the dating of B as 4th century document, this brings back the Heavenly witnesses passage back to the 3rd-4th century. If this early date is true, instead of being a witness against the authenticity of the Heavenly witnesses passage, Vaticanus actually becomes a very strong witness in favor of the existence and authenticity of the passage. (Info from http://www.purebibleforum.com/showthread.php?417-Vaticanus-distigme-marks-1jn-5-7-8-heavenly-witnesses-passage&p=834&styleid=3)
Codex Ottobonianus
See Also Johannine Comma and Codex Ottobonianus
Pre Wycliffe
Adam Clarke claimed to posses an Earlier English version of the bible than Wycliff that said:
- For three ben that geven witnessing in heven the Fadir, the Word or Sone and the Hooly Goost, and these three ben oon. And three ben that geven witnessing in erthe, the Spirit, Water, and Blood, and these three ben oon.
He said:
- ...both these readings are united in an ancient English manuscript of my own, which contains the Bible from the beginning of Proverbs to the end of the New Testament, written on thick strong vellum, and evidently prior to most of those copies attributed to Wiclif. See Also Adam Clarke on the Johannine Comma
Wycliffe
Wycliffe here reads “son” instead of “word”:
- For thre ben, that yyuen witnessing in heuene, the Fadir, the Sone, and the Hooli Goost; and these thre ben oon.
Donation of Constantine
The Donation of Constantine was believed to be Genuine for hundreds of years (approximately 600 years from the 8th to the 15th Century.) It was admitted as a forgery in the 15th Century by Rome after Lorenzo Valla, a Mentor of Erasmus, wrote De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione declamatio which analyzed the document known as the Constitutum Constantini (or "donatio Constantini" as he refers to it in his writings), or the Donation of Constantine. The Donation of Constantine basically reiterates 1 John 5:7:
- "...has taught us, in God the Father, the almighty maker of Heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord God, through whom all things are created; and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and vivifier of the whole creature. We confess these, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in such way that, in the perfect Trinity, there shall also be a fulness of divinity and a unity of power. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and these three are one in Jesus Christ." [8]
The Greeks used the Donation of Constantine also [9], and never doubted the genuineness of the Donation of Constantine which basically states 1 John 5:7. This begs the question: if a false document was made to be presented as real, using a verse known to be false would have been an obvious clue that the document was a fraud. Rather the opposite is true here it is accepted by all as fact. The Greeks knew of 1 John 5:7 and never registered a complaint regarding the verse and had no objections to it being authentic until completely proven otherwise. If 1 John 5:7 was apocryphal, Greeks not have so readily accepted this document. Greeks never objected to 1 John 5:7; all such objections to came from Westerners studying the Greek.
Codex Montfortianus (Minuscule 61)
- See Main Article: Johannine Comma and Codex Montfortianus
Joseph Bryennios
See Also Johannine Comma and Joseph Bryennios
Complutensian Polyglot
Stunica, one of the Complutensian editors, published in 1520 Annotationes Iacobi Lopidis Stunicae contra Erasmum Roterodamum in defensionem tralationis Noui Testamenti, which included half of a page on the heavenly witnesses.
- “ ‘Sanctus Thomas in expositione secunde Decretalis de suma Trinitate et fide catholica tractans istum passum contra Abbatem Joachim ut tres sunt qui testimonium dant in celo. Pater: Verbum: et Spiritus Sanctus: dicit ad litteram verba sequentia. Et ad insinuandam unitatem trium personarum subditur, Et hii tres unum sunt. Quodquidem dicitur propter essentie unitatem. Sed hoc Joachim perverse trahere volens ad unitatem charitatis et consensus inducebat consequentem auctoritatem. Nam subditur ibidem: Et tres sunt qui testimonium dant in terra, s. Spiritus: Aqua: et Sanguis. Et in quibusdam libris additur: Et hii tres unum sunt. Sed hoc in veris exemplaribus non habetur: sed dicitur esse appositum ab hereticis Arrianis ad pervertendum intellectum sanum auctoritatis premisse de unitate essentie trium personarum. Hec beatus Thomas ubi supra.’*
Translation:
- “Saint Thomas, in his exposition of the second Decretal concerning the Most High Trinity and the Catholic faith, treating of this passage, ‘There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit,’ in opposition to the Abbot Jochim, uses precisely the following language: — And to teach the unity of the three persons it is subjoined, And these three are one; which is said on account of their unity of essence. But Joachim, wishing perversely to refer this to a unity of affection and agreement, alleged the text that follows it. For it is immediately subjoined, And there are three that bear witness on earth, namely, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. And in some books it is added, And these three are one. But this is not contained in the true copies, but is said to have been added by the Arian heretics to prevent the text that precedes from being correctly understood as relating to the unity of essence of the three persons.’ — Thus the blessed Thomas, as above referred to.”
(Translation source: MEMOIR OF THE CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE I JOHN V. 7. INCLUDING CRITICAL NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL WRITERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DISCUSSION. by Rev. William Orme (1787-1830) (see pages 80/81-81/82): https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/AJF5099.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext )
Greek:
- 7 ότι τρεις εισίν οι μαρτυρούντες [ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατὴρ καὶ ὁ λόγος καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσι. 8 καὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν οι μαρτυρούντες ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς] το πνεύμα και το ύδωρ και το αίμα ('omits' καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσι)
Latin:
- 7 Quonium tres sunt oooo ooo qui testimonium dant [in celo: pater: verbum: et spiritus sanctus: & hi ooo oo tres unum sunt. 8 Et tres sunt qui oooo testimoniuʒ dant in terra:] Spiritus agua & sanguis.
Erasmus
See Main Article: Johannine Comma and Erasmus
Ratio Seu Methodus and Paraphrase
Erasmus included the Comma, with commentary, in his paraphrase edition, first published in 1520:
- "For the Spirit too is truth just as the Father and the Son are. The truth of all three is one, just as the nature of all three is one, just as the nature of all three is one. For there are three in heaven who furnish testimony to Christ: the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. The Father, who not once but twice sent forth his voice from the sky and publicly testified that this was his uniquely beloved Son in whom he found no offence; the Word, who, by performing so many miracles and by dying and rising again, showed that he was the true Christ, both God and human alike, the reconciler of God and humankind; the holy Spirit, who descended on his head at baptism and after the resurrection glided down upon the disciples. The agreement of these three is absolute. The Father is the author, the Son the messenger, the Spirit the inspirer. There are likewise three things on earth which attest Christ: the human spirit which he laid down on the cross, the water, and the blood which flowed from his side in death. And these three witnesses are in agreement. They testify that he was a man. The first three declare him to be God." (p. 174) Collected Works of Erasmus – Paraphrase on the First Epistle of John Translator John J Bateman
And in "Ratio seu Methodus compendio perveniendi ad veram theologiam", first published in 1518, Erasmus included the Comma in the interpretation of John 12 and 13. Erasmian scholar John Jack Bateman, discussing the Paraphrase and the Ratio verae theologiae, says of these uses of the Comma that "Erasmus attributes some authority to it despite any doubts he had about its transmission in the Greek text."John Jack Bateman (1931–2011), editor. Opera omnia : recognita ed adnotatione critica instructa notisque illustrata, 1997, p. 252.
Diego López de Zúñiga (Stunica)
In 1520, Complutensian Polyglot editor Diego López de Zúñiga (Stunica) wrote a half page response to Erasmus concerning the Comma.
Annotationes Iacobi Lopidis Stunicae contra Erasmum Roterodamum in defensionem tralationis Noui Testamenti - Volume 1 of Diapositivas (Biblioteca Histórica UCM) 1520 by Diego López de Zúñiga y Sotomayor - Publisher per Arnaldum Guilielmum de Brocario. 116 pages
Pre Lutheren German Bibles
- 1466 A.D. Strassburg: Johann Mentel
- 1470 A.D. Strassburg: H. Eggestein
- 1475 A.D. Augsburg: Gunther Zainer
- 1476 A.D. Augsburg: Gunther Zainer
- 1476 A.D. Nuremberg: Johammes Sensenschmidt & Andreas Frisner
- 1477 A.D. Augsburg: Gunther Zainer
- 1478 A.D. Kolner Bible, Die Neiderdeutschen Bibelfruhdrucke
- 1483 A.D. Nurember: Anton Koberger
- 1485 A.D. Strassburg: Johann Reinhard de Gruningen
- 1490 A.D. Augsburg: Johann Schonsperger
Luther Bible
The Comma was omitted from the German bible during Luther's lifetime, and inserted into the German text for the first time in 1574 by a Frankfurt publisher.
Thomas Naogeorgus
Grantley McDonald says in his article Raising the Ghost of Arius: Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Religious Difference in Early Modern Europe:
- In his detailed commentary on the first Epistle of John (1544), the marginal Lutheran Thomas Naogeorgus (Kirchmeyer) left the comma out of the text. In the commentary he explained that the comma was absent from the codices he had inspected, and therefore seems to be an addition. Moreover, he adds, John is not talking of the Trinity at this point, which he does at length elsewhere; he is speaking here of those things that witness to the divinity of Christ. Moreover, Naogeorgus adds that he cannot see the point of having witnesses in heaven, since by the time we get there we will have no need of such testimonies. This rather unusual argument apparently derives from Luther, and suggests that Naogeorgus may have been in possession of notes taken during Luther’s 1527 lectures on the first Epistle of John. Indeed, Naogeorgus points out that Luther, a “sincere exponent of the holy Scriptures,” left the comma out of his translation. He ends his reflections on the comma by wondering why John should have applied masculine participles to things that are grammatically neuter. But for Naogeorgus, unlike for nineteenth century critics like Nolan and Dabney, this apparent grammatical dissonance hints at the textual difficulty of the passage rather than demonstrating its authenticity.[164]
- Naogeorgos, 1544, 128r-v: “In omnibus ferè Latinis, & nonnullis quoque Græcis, quæ ipse uiderim, exemplaribus, ante textum, Quoniam tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in terra &c.legitur: Quoniam tres sunt qui testimonum dant in cœlo. pater, uerbum & spiritus sanctus, & hi tres unum sunt. Quo ego propter alterius sententiæ similitudinem ab aliquo adiectum existimo, non à Ioanne scriptum. Neque uideo quid ad hunc locum faciat. Non enim Ioannes hîc agit de personarum trinitate (quam uocant) nec de diuinitatis [128v] trinitate, quæ aliàs sufficienter & clare tradidit, sed ostendere uult, quibus testimonijs ostensus & declaratus sit Iesus quòd sit filius Dei, & hactenus probetur & ostendatur. Neque hoc intelligere possum, cui rei faciat testimonium in cœlo, quum in cœlum nobis uenientibus nullo sit opus testimonio. Videbimus enim facie ad faciem. Enimvero sane in terris tam indigemus testimonijs, ut sine illis fides nostra consistere nequeat. D. M. Lutherus syncerus sacrarum literarum assertor, etiam illam particulam in suo nouo testamento omisit, intelligens nimirum esse adulterinam, & nihi facere ad hunc locum. Miror etiam, quamobrem Ioannes tribus neutris masculina & postposuerit, & præposuerit, irata Grammatica, nisi fortaßis scriptura est deprauata.”
- Naogeorgus finishes his commentary (150v) with a rare modesty and flexibility, though he also does not fail to take the opportunity to criticise the Roman Catholic church’s attitude to authority: “Hæc in epistolam Ioannis primam pro mediocritate ingenij & intellectus nostri in uerbo Dei annotauimus, permittentes liberum pijs omnibus & Apostolicæ ecclesiæ de his iudicium, nec pro oraculis hæc nostra habere cupimus, ut Papistæ solent. Sit unicuique liberum dissentire, neque dissentiens minus mihi amicus erit, & ego quoque ubi è scripturis admonitus me errasse comperero, aliud sentire, & hæc corrigere non grauabor.” There is an anonymous German translation of Naogeorgus’ commentary (Stuttgart [?], 1554), in Heidelberg cod. Pal. Germ. 522, with the relevant passage on 234r-235r.
William Tyndale
Tyndale's 1534 bible has: (For ther are thre that beare recorde in heuen, the father, the word and the holy ghost. And these thre are one).
Tesfa Seyon
![[2].](/wiki/Image:Modus_baptizandi_1_John_5.7.jpg)
Tesfa Seyon (1508) was an Ethiopian monk and intellectual also known as Pietro Malbazó, Mlheso, Indiano. In 1550 he wrote Modus baptizandi Preces et Benedictiones, quibus Ecclesia Aethiopum utitur.
Geneva Bible
The Geneva Bible footnotes say of 1 John 5:7:
- Hee prooueth the excellencie of Christ, in whom onely all things are giuen vs[,] by sixe witnesses, three heauenly, and three earthly, which wholly and fully agree together. The heauenly witnesses are: the Father who sent the Sonne, the worde it selfe which became flesh, and the holy Ghost. The earthly witnesses are, water, (that is our sanctification) blood, (that is our iustification) the Spirit, (that is, acknowled[ging] of God the Father in Christ by faith through the testimonie of the holy Ghost.)
The Belgic Confession
The Belgic Confession of 1561 states,
- “The testimonies of the Holy Scriptures, which teach us to believe in this Holy Trinity, are written in many places of the Old Testament, which need not be enumerated but only chosen with discretion…
- “There are three who bear witness in heaven– the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit– and these three are one.”
- In all these passages we are fully taught that there are three persons in the one and only divine essence. And although this doctrine surpasses human understanding, we nevertheless believe it now, through the Word, waiting to know and enjoy it fully in heaven.” (The Belgic Confession, (CRTA), article 9.)
The Heidelberg Catechism
The Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 says,
- “Since there is but one only divine essence, why speakest thou of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?
- Answer: Because God has so revealed himself in his word, [b] that these three distinct persons are the one only true and eternal God.”
Footnote b says,
- “…1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one…” (The Heidelberg Catechism, (CRTA), section 8.)
Jean Crespin
Jean Crespin in his 1553 and his 1564 Tês Kainês Diathêkês contains the Comma.
John Calvin
John Calvin on the Comma said:
- "However, the passage flows better when this clause is added, and as I see that it is found in the best and most approved copies, I am inclined to receive it as the true reading."
- "There are three that bear record in heaven"
- ...And the meaning would be, that God, in order to confirm most abundantly our faith in Christ, testifies in three ways that we ought to acquiesce in him. For as our faith acknowledges three persons in the one divine essence, so it is called in so really ways to Christ that it may rest on him.
- When he says, These three are one, he refers not to essence, but on the contrary to consent; as though he had said that the Father and his eternal Word and Spirit harmoniously testify the same thing respecting Christ. Hence some copies have εἰς ἓν, "for one." But though you read ἓν εἰσιν, as in other copies, yet there is no doubt but that the Father, the Word and the Spirit are said to be one, in the same sense in which afterwards the blood and the water and the Spirit are said to agree in one.John Calvin, Commentaries on the catholic epistles, tr. and ed. by John Owen, 1855, p. 258.
- 7. There are three that bear record in heaven. The whole of this verse has been by some omitted. Jerome thinks that this has happened through design rather than through mistake, and that indeed only on the part of the Latins. But as even the Greek copies do not agree, I dare not assert any thing on the subject. Since, however, the passage flows better when this clause is added, and as I see that it is found in the best and most approved copies, I am inclined to receive it as the true reading.1 And the meaning would be, that God, in order to confirm most abundantly our faith in Christ, testifies in three ways that we ought to acquiesce in him. For as our faith acknowledges three persons in the one divine essence, so it is called in so many ways to Christ that it may rest on him. (Calvin, J., & Owen, J. (2010). Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (pp. 257–258). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.)
Christopher Plantinus
In Christopher Plantinus' Tes kaines diathekes hapanta. Novum Jesu Christi testamentum, December 22, 1574, in Antwerp he has 1 John 5:7 on page 620. [10] This New Testament was created by the Louvaine University
Clementine Vulgate
The Clementine Vulgate of 1592 has the Comma:
- Quoniam tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in cælo: Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus Sanctus: et hi tres unum sunt. 8Et tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in terra: spiritus, et aqua, et sanguis: et hi tres unum sunt.
- Indeed there are three who give testimony in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one. And there are three who give testimony on earth: the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one.
- — Sixto-Clementine Vulgate
Elias Hutter
See Main Article: Johannine Comma and Hutter's Polyglot
Greek commentaries
Emanual Calecas in the 14th and Joseph Bryennius (c. 1350–1430) in the 15th century reference the Comma in their Greek writings.
The Orthodox accepted the Comma as Johannine scripture notwithstanding its absence in the Greek manuscripts line. The Orthodox Confession of Faith, published in Greek in 1643 by the multilingual scholar Peter Mogila specifically references the Comma. "Accordingly the Evangelist teacheth (1 John v. 7.) There are three that bear Record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost and these three are one ..." The orthodox confession of the catholic and apostolic Eastern-Church, p.16, 1762. Greek and Latin in Schaff The Creeds of Christendom p. 275, 1877
London Polyglott
The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Confession of Faith 1646 in Chapter II, Of God, and the Holy Trinity gives 1 John 5:7 as their first reference:
- III. In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding: the Son is eternally begotten of the Father: the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.
- 1 John v. 7; Matt. iii. 16, 17; Matt. xxviii. 19; 2 Cor. xiii. 14; John i. 14, 18; John xv. 26; Gal. iv. 6.
The London Baptist Confession of 1689 also specifically mentions 1 John 5:7 as being the first verse used to teach and support the doctrine of the Trinity. They certainly believed it was inspired Scripture. [11]
Also:
- "In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided: the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations; which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on him. (1 John 5:7; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Exodus 3:14; John 14:11; 1 Corinthians 8:6; John 1:14,18; John 15:26; Galatians 4:6) [12]
Edward Stillingfleet
Edward Stillingfleet 1635-1699, said in his reply to Roman Catholic John Sergeant (1622-1707) in 1688 concerning scripture and the Comma:
- I. We do utterly deny that it is in any Churches' Power to correct Original Texts, because they contradict the Sense of the present Church; or any Translations any farther, than they differ form the Originals. And I do not know any assertion that shakes more our Faith, as to the Scripture, than this of J.S. (John Sergeant) doth.
- II. The early Appeals made to Scripture in Matters of Faith, by the Writers of the Christian Church, make us Certain that there could be no such Alterations or Corrections of the Texts, according to the sense of the Correctors. As the Instance, we find the Places produced against the Arians used before against the Samosatenians and Artemonites.
- If it be said, They might correct the Fathers to I answer, that there is no imaginable Ground for any such suspicion; because the Fathers lived in distant Places and Countries, and therefore when their Testimonies agree about some places of Scripture alleged by them, there can be no Reason to suspect any Corruption or Alteration of the Text. As for Instance, no one Text of the whole New Testament, hath been more suspected than that of I S. John 5.7. There are three that bear Record in Heaven, &c. And it cannot be denied that there hath been great variety, both in the Greek and Latin Manuscripts about it; yea, there was so in S. Jeroms' time, as it appears as by his Preface to the Canonical Epistles; who charges the leaving it out to the unfaithfulness of the Translators. S. Jerom is cried out upon as a Party in this Controversie, and therefore it is said on the other side, that he put it in as favouring his own Opinion. But his Integrity is vindicated herein, because S. Cyprian so long before the Arian Controversie produced this Place. (S. Cyrpian. Ad Jubaianum. Epistle 73) So that our Certainty as to Scripture doth not depend upon the mere Letter, but upon comparing the best and most ancient Copies, with the Writings of the Fathers, who still made use of the Scriptures in all Discourses and Debates about Matters of Faith.
Edward Stillingflee 1635-1699 in A discourse concerning the nature and grounds of the certainty of faith in answer to J. S. [Sergeant, John, -- 1622-1707], his Catholick letters / by Edw. Stillingfleet London: Printed for Henry Mortlock, 1688 (p.89, 90)
Jean Hardouin
See Main Article: Johannine Comma and Jean Hardouin
Prudentius Maran
Prudentius Maran wrote Divinitas Domini Nostri Jesu Christi manifesta in scripturis et traditione: Opus in quatuor partes distributum, in quibus Christi divinitas, ... Opera et studio in 1750. It contains a section on the comma, speaking about internal issues such as style and harmony etc. When he discusses Gregory of Nazianzus he seems to emphasize the grammatical issues concering the Johannine Comma.
Sir Isaac Newton
An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture is a dissertation by the English mathematician and scholar Sir Isaac Newton. This was sent in a letter to John Locke on 14 November 1690 and built upon the textual work of Richard Simon and his own research. The text was first published in English in 1754, 27 years after his death. The account claimed to review all the textual evidence available from ancient sources on two disputed Bible passages: 1 John 5:7 and 3:16.
Newton describes this letter as "an account of what the reading has been in all ages, and what steps it has been changed, as far as I can hitherto determine by records", and "a criticism concerning a text of Scripture". He blames "the Roman church" for many abuses in the world and accuses it of "pious frauds". He adds that "the more learned and quick-sighted men. as Luther, Erasmus, Bullinger, Grotius, and some others, would not dissemble their knowledge".
Michael Joalland wrote an article entitled Isaac Newton Reads the King James Version: The Marginal Notes and Reading Marks of a Natural Philosopher.
John Gill
John Gill - commenting on 1 John 5:7:
- "As to the old Latin interpreter, it is certain it is to be seen in many Latin manuscripts of an early date, and stands in the Vulgate Latin edition of the London Polyglot Bible: and the Latin translation, which bears the name of Jerom[e], has it, and who, in an epistle of his to Eustochium, prefixed to his translation of these canonical epistles, complains of the omission of it by unfaithful interpreters."
- "And as to its being wanting in some Greek manuscripts, as the Alexandrian, and others, it need only be said, that it is to be found in many others; it is in an old British copy, and in the Complutensian edition, the compilers of which made use of various copies; and out of sixteen ancient copies of Robert Stephen's, nine of them had it."
- "And yet, after all, certain it is, that it is cited by many of them; by Fulgentius, in the beginning of the "sixth" century, against the Arians, without any scruple or hesitation; and Jerome, as before observed, has it in his translation made in the latter end of the "fourth" century; and it is cited by Athanasius about the year 350; and before him by Cyprian, in the middle, of the "third" century, about the year 250; and is referred to by Tertullian about, the year 200; and which was within a "hundred" years, or little more, of the writing of the epistle; which may be enough to satisfy anyone of the genuineness of this passage; and besides, there never was any dispute about it till Erasmus left it out in the first edition of his translation of the New Testament; and yet he himself, upon the credit of the old British copy before mentioned, put it into another edition of his translation."
Matthew Henry
- "We are stopped in our course by the contest there is about the genuineness of v. 7. It is alleged that many old Greek manuscripts have it not. It should seem that the critics are not agreed what manuscripts have it and what not; nor do they sufficiently inform us of the integrity and value of the manuscripts they peruse...There are some rational surmises that seem to support the present text and reading."
- "The seventh verse is very agreeable to the style and the theology of our apostle...Facundus acknowledges that Cyprian says that of his three it is written, Et hi tres unum sunt—and these three are one. NOW THESE ARE THE WORDS, NOT OF V. 8, BUT OF V. 7. They are not used concerning the three on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; but the three in heaven, the Father, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost...If all the Greek manuscripts and ancient versions say concerning the Spirit, the water, and the blood, that in unum sunt—they agree in one, then it was not of them that Cyprian spoke, whatever variety there might be in the copies in his time, when he said it is written, unum sunt—they are one. And therefore Cyprian's words seem still to be a firm testimony to V. 7."
- "It was far more easy for a transcriber, by turning away his eye, or by the obscurity of the copy, it being obliterated or defaced on the top or bottom of a page, or worn away in such materials as the ancients had to write upon, to lose and omit the passage, than for an interpolator to devise and insert it. He must be very bold and impudent who could hope to escape detection and shame; and profane too, who durst venture to make an addition to a supposed sacred book."
- "I think, in the book of God,... the text is worthy of all acceptation."
Francis Turretin
Francis Turretin noted that Erasmus had located the passage in a "most ancient British codex" and that "most praiseworthy editions, the Complutensian, the Antwerp, Arias Montanus, R. Stephanus, and Walton, which have all utilized the best codices, have the phrase.
In his disputation on the three heavenly witnesses (first published 1661), François Turrettini (1623-1687) reviewed the manuscript evidence for the passage:
- “Erasmus, declares that [the Comma] is found in the very ancient British Codex, which he considered so authoritative that he restored this verse, omitted from his previous editions, in the later editions, which he revised with utmost care, as he himself says.”
- “Erasmus fatetur [hunc versum] extare in Codice Britannico vetustissimo, qui tantæ fuit apud ipsum authoritatis, ut versiculum istum in prioribus Editionibus omissum, in posterioribus accuratissima cura, ut ipse scribit, recognitis, restitueret. Laudatissimæ Editiones, Complutensis, Regia Antuerpiensis, Ariæ Montani, Rob. Stephani, Eliæ Hutteri, Valtoni, quæ probatissimis et vetustissimis Codicibus usæ sunt, retinent. Unde si in quibusdam desideratur, hoc fraudi et dolo malo Arianorum adscribendum est, qui textum hunc eraserunt, quia punctim transfigebat eorum hæresim; ut Hieronymus testatur.” (175 Turrettini, 1847-1848, IV:290)
1662 Book of Common Prayer
- WHATSOEVER is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
- [The First Sunday after Easter. The Epistle. 1 St. John 5. 4]
John Wesley
- " I would insist only on the direct words, unexplained, just as they lie in the text: "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: And these three are one."
- "As they lie in the text :" -- but here arises a question: Is that text genuine? Was it originally written by the Apostle, or inserted in later ages? Many have doubted of this; and, in particular, the great light of the Christian church, lately removed to the Church above, Bengelius, -- the most pious, the most judicious, and the most laborious, of all the modern Commentators on the New Testament. For some time he stood in doubt of its authenticity, because it is wanting in many of the ancient copies. But his doubts were removed by three considerations: (1.) That though it is wanting in many copies, yet it is found in more; and those copies of the greatest authority: -- ( 2.) That it is cited by a whole gain of ancient writers, from the time of St. John to that of Constantine. This argument is conclusive: For they could not have cited it, had it not been in the sacred canon: -- (3.) That we can easily account for its being, after that time, wanting in many copies, when we remember that Constantine's successor was a zealous Arian, who used every means to promote his bad cause, to spread Arianism throughout the empire; in particular the erasing this text out of as many copies as fell into his hands. And he so far prevailed, that the age in which he lived is commonly styled, Seculum Aranium, -- "the Arian age;" there being then only one eminent man who opposed him at the peril of his life. So that it was a proverb, Athanasius contra mundum: "Athanasius against the world."
Franz Anton Knittel
- See main article: Johannine Comma and Franz Anton Knittel
Eugenios Voulgaris
- See main article: Johannine Comma and Eugenios Voulgaris
John Jortin
In 1760 John Jortin wrote The Life of Erasmus, volume 2 in which he mentions the history of the comma.
Christian Frederick Matthaei
- See main article: Johannine Comma and Christian Frederick Matthaei
Christian Frederick Matthaei published SS(ancti) apostolorum septem epistolae catholicae in 1782 in which he discussed the grammatical problems caused by he omission of the Comma.
Richard Porson
In 1790 Richard Porson wrote Letters to Mr. Archdeacon Travis, in answer to his defence of the three heavenly witnesses, I John v 7..
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta, (1769-1822) wrote The doctrine of the Greek article applied to the criticism and illustration of the New Testament in which he focused upon internal evidence. Middleton was considered the authority on the Greek article by Dean John William Burgon. Middleton basically concluded that after searching the New Testament, the Septuagint and the Greek classics) for the Greek reading of verse 8 without the presence of verse 7.(much of the below information is sourced from here
Middleton speaks the Greek article in reference to 1 John 5:7 & 8. where he favorably cites some of the most hostile critics of the text such as Richard Porson and J. J. Griesbach. He begins by saying,
- "Everyone knows of how much controversy this passage has been the subject and that the words which I have enclosed in brackets [the Comma.] are now pretty generally abandoned as spurious."T. F. Middleton, The Doctrine of the Greek Article, Applied to the Criticism and Illustration of the New Testament, (Cambridge, J & J. J. Deighton, 1833), p. 441.
After recommending certain works for study regarding the Comma, he said:
- "The probable result will be, that he will close the examination with a firm belief that the passage is spurious;.."
He then goes on to show a grammatical problem with the end of verse 8 if verse 7 is rejected, concerning the last four Greek words of verse 8 include the neuter definite article 'το':
- "...if the seventh verse had not been spurious, nothing could have been plainer than that the ΤΟ εν 7 of verse 8, referred to εν of verse 7: as the case now stands, I do not perceive the force or meaning of the Article."p. 451.
After a long and learned consideration of why this anomaly should occur when verse 7 is omitted, Middleton concludes,
"On the whole I am led to suspect, that though so much labour and critical acuteness has been bestowed on these celebrated verses, more is yet to be done, before the mystery in which they are involved can be wholly developed."p. 453.
While he stated that the reader:
- "will close the examination with a firm belief that the passage is spurious."
But he does not affirm that he has come to that conclusion himself. At the begining of the section he stated:
- "I do not perceive the force or meaning of the Article,"
At the end he admits that the Greek construction, with the Greek article at the end of verse 8, remains to him a mystery if verse 7 is omitted.
Charles Forster
Charles Forster (1787-1871) wrote A new plea for the authenticity of the text of the three heavenly witness; or, Porson's letters to Travis eclectically examined and the external and internal evidences for 1 John V, 7 eclectically re-surveyed /(1867) Charles Forster [14] [15] [16]
Frederick von Nolan
- "'instead of "the Father, Word, and Spirit,' the remaining passage would have been direct concessions to the Gnostics and Sabellians, who, in denying the personal difference of the Father and the Son, were equally obnoxious to those avowed adversaries, the Catholics and the Arians. Nor did the orthodox require these verses for the support of their cause; they had other passages which would accomplish all that they could effect; and without their aid, they maintained and established their tenents."3
Nolan gives two reasons why 1 John 5:7 is seemingly scanty in reference to quotations from the church fathers: One - The passage in I John 5:7 is among those like 1 Timothy 3:16 and Acts 20:28 that have all been tampered with in the manuscript tradition, all three having to do with the deity of Christ as "God." Two - That the major reason for not quoting 1 John 5:7 was based on its wording, chiefly, purporting Jesus Christ as the "Word" instead of the "Son." Hence, with the Sabellian heresy being debated that Jesus Christ is the Father with no distinction, 1 John 5:7 would further propagate that notion. Therefore it wasn't quoted.
Dr. Nolan wrote of Eusebius:
- “If we now compare the authority thus committed to Eusebius, which seems to have vested him at least with a discretionary power of selecting chiefly those sacred scriptures which he knew to be useful and necessary to the doctrine of the church, with the state of the sacred text as it is now marked in the corrected edition lately put forth by M. Griesbach; we shall perhaps discover how far it is probable he acted to the full extent of his powers, and removed those parts of scripture from the circulated edition, which he judged to be neither conducive to use for doctrine and which are now marked as probable interpolations in the Received Text. They amount principally to the following: the account of the woman taken in adultery, John 8:53–9:11, and three texts which assert in the strongest manner the mystery of the Trinity, of the Incarnation, and Redemption, 1 John v. 7-8, 1 Timothy iii. 16, and Acts xx. 28.”
“If two points can be established against Eusebius, that he lacked neither the power, nor the will, to suppress these passages, particularly the latter; there will be fewer objections lying against the charge with which I am adventurous enough to accuse him; in asserting that the probabilities are decidedly in favor of his having expunged,rather than the Catholics having inserted, those passages in the sacred text.” (Dr. Nolan, p. 6)
On the next page of his 116 page summary book, Dr. Nolan continued to comment on the Gnostic Eusebius and the Arians who employed him: "“There will be less reason to dispute his [referring to Eusebius] power over the copies of the original Greek, when we know that his high reputation for learning, aided by the powerful authority of the emperor, tended to recommend his edition to the exclusion of every other; and when it is remembered that the number of the copies of scripture was in this reign above all others considerably reduced on account of the destruction made of them in the preceding. Let us add to these considerations, these further circumstances, that the pious emperor who had employed him to revise the text had been at considerable pains and expense to multiply copies of the scripture, and that the edition thus dispersed, as altered by Eusebius, was peculiarly accommodated to the opinions of the Arians, who from the reign of Constantine that of Theodosius held an unlimited sway over the church; and there will arise something more than presumptive proof in favor of the opinion which I have advanced; that at this period an alteration was made in the sacred text, of which it still retains a melancholy evidence, particularly in the translations made from the edition of Eusebius.” (Dr. Nolan, p. 7)
Adam Clarke
The reader will observe that in Nos. 2, 4, and 5, the eighth verse is put before the seventh, and that 3 and 4 have filius instead of verbum. But both these readings are united in an ancient English manuscript of my own, which contains the Bible from the beginning of Proverbs to the end of the New Testament, written on thick strong vellum, and evidently prior to most of those copies attributed to Wiclif.
For three ben that geven witnessing in heven the Fadir, the Word or Sone and the Hooly Goost, and these three ben oon. And three ben that geven witnessing in erthe, the Spirit, Water, and Blood, and these three ben oon.
See Also Adam Clarke on the Johannine Comma
Arguments against authenticity from 1808 "improved version"
In the 1808 New Testament in an improved version, upon the basis of Archbishop Newcome's new translation, which did not contain the Comma Johanneum, the editors explained their reasons for rejecting the Textus Receptus for the verse as follows:
- 1. This text concerning the heavenly witnesses is not contained in any Greek manuscript which was written earlier than the fifteenth century.
- 2. Nor in any Latin manuscript earlier than the ninth century.*[1]
- 3. It is not found in any of the ancient versions.
- 4. It is not cited by any of the Greek ecclesiastical writers, though to prove the doctrine of the Trinity they have cited the words both before and after this text
- 5. It is not cited by any of the early Latin fathers, even when the subjects upon which they treat would naturally have led them to appeal to its authority.
- 6. It is first cited by Virgilius Tapsensis, a Latin writer of no credit, in the latter end of the fifth century, and by him it is suspected to have been forged.*[2]
- 7. It has been omitted as spurious in many editions of the New Testament since the Reformation:—in the two first of Erasmus, in those of Aldus, Colinaus, Zwinglius, and lately of Griesbach.
- 8. It was omitted by Luther in his German version.*[3] In the old English Bibles of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth, it was printed in small types, or included in brackets: but between the years 1566 and 1580 it began to be printed as it now stands; by whose authority, is not known."*[4]
- 1. The Freisinger Fragments, dated from the 5th to 7th centuries, were published in 1876 by Zeigler and were not known at the time of this list of negative evidences in 1808. Similarly, the 7th-century dating of Codex Legionensis was not assigned until the 20th century.
- 2. The Priscillian citation was discovered and published in the latter 1800s, fully refuting this unusual conjecture of Virgilius Tapsensis forgery. And leading to new, albeit short-lived, theories of Priscillian as the verse author, as described in the article.
- 3. In a commentary on the Epistle in later years, Luther relates to the heavenly witnesses as scripture: "This is the testimony in heaven, which is afforded by three witnesses—is in heaven, and remaineth in heaven. This order is to be carefully noted; namely, that the witness who is last among the witnesses in heaven, is first among the witnesses on earth, and very properly... (John) appeals to a twofold testimony :the one is in heaven, the other on earth... this divine testimony is twofold. It is given partly in heaven, partly on earth: that given in heaven has three witnesses, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: the other, given on earth, has also three witnesses; namely, the spirit, the water, and the blood." Knittel pp. 93–95
- 4. New Testament in an improved version, upon the basis of Archbishop Newcome's new translation, 1808, London, p. 563.
Anthony Kohlmann
Anthony Kohlmann asked and answered the question, "what reason can you assign for so notable an omission in some old manuscripts?" Kohlmann pointed to homoeoteleuton and doctrinal motivations and included an analogy to another verse which some attempted to excise. Anthony Kohlmann answered as follows: :"There are several ways of accounting for that omission and among others, it may be said, 1st, that this omission happened by the neglect of some ignorant copyists, who, after having written the first words of the 7th verse 'there are three, that give testimony,' by a mistake of the eyes, skipped over the remaining part of the text, and passed on to the immediately following text, where the same words recur; for such mistakes often take place in transcribing, especially when the two verses and the two periods begin and end with the same words. Another reason of this omission is given by the author of the prologue to the seven Catholic epistles … (Vulgate Prologue section translation) … By these words he not obscurely alludes to the Marcionites or Arians, who designedly erased this verse from all the copies they could get into their hands; for they well understood that by that one testimony their cause was undone. With a like perfidy, St. Ambrose, (lib. iii de spiritu sancto cap. 10.) reproaches the Arians, who had expunged these words from the Scriptures: Because God is a Spirit, 'Which passage, says the holy doctor addressing the Arians, you so well know to be understood of the Holy Ghost, that you have erased it from the copies of your scriptures, and would to God! you had only expunged it from yours and not also from those of the church." Anthony Kohlmann, Unitarianism philosophically and theologically examined, 1821, p.173
Albert Barnes
Darby
Darby made several notes about the Comma in Darby's annotations on Diatribe In Locum 1 Joann v. 7, 8.
Robert Lewis Dabney
Dabney says:
- 'The oft-contested text in 1John 5:7 also furnishes us a good instance of the value of that internal evidence which the recent critics profess to discard.........The internal evidence against this excision, then, is in the following strong points:
- First, if it be made, the masculine article, numeral, and particle......are made to agree directly with three neuters- an insuperable and very bald grammatical difficulty. But if the disputed words are allowed to stand, they agree directly with two masculines and one neuter noun......where, according to a well-known rule of syntax, the masculines among the group control the gender connected with them......
- Second, if the excision is made, the eighth verse coming next to the sixth, gives us a very bald and awkward, and apparently meaningless, repitition of the Spirit's witness twice in immediate succession.
- Third, if the excision is made, then the proposition at the end of the eighth verse [and these three agree in one], contains an unintelligible reference......"And these three agree to that (aforesaid) one,".......What is the aforesaid unity to which these three agree? If the seventh verse is excinded, there is none.....Let the seventh verse stand, and all is clear: the three earthly witnesses testify to that aforementioned unity which the Father, Word, and Spirit constitute...........
- There is a coherency in the whole which presents a very strong internal evidence for the genuineness of the Received Text.'
10 years later Dabney reviews the revisors work to date on the revison (which complete revision--OT/NT the Americans subsequently rejected in favor of their own labors, resulting in the ASV of 1901). Here is what he writes re. the Comma, p. 395:
- So slight were the modifications [of earlier revisors] in its [TRs] readings clearly determined by the vast collations made by the critics of the immediately preceding generation (collations embracing every one of the boasted unicals, except the Sinai MS.), that of all the important various readings only one (1 John v.7,) has been given up to excision by a unanimous consent of competent critics. (Dabney, vol. 1, beginning p. 377) is from an article dated April 1871 (S.P.R.) "The Doctrinal Various Readings of the N.T. Greek".
Dabney was prepared to allow that "unanimous consent of competent critics" had let the Comma go, whilst retaining the TR's readings in virtually every other significant place. Dabney was quite unsatisfied with the latest revision, thinking it loaded with changes for the sake of change, with little else to commend them. The spirit of innovation in the revisors was stronger than the spirit of cautious progress.
François Samuel R. Louis Gaussen
François Samuel R. Louis Gaussen wrote Theopneustia: the plenary inspiration of the holy Scriptures in 1841.
William Craig Brownlee
![Gleanings and Hints Towards and Argument for the Authenticity of 1 John, v7.] by William Craig Brownlee 1825.](/wiki/Image:William_Craig_Brownlee_1_Johnn_5.7.jpg)
Part 1 ~ The Christian Advocate, Volume 3. Gleanings and Hints Towards and Argument for the Authenticity of 1 John, v7. by William Craig Brownlee 1825.
Part 2 ~ The Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church (Pages 138-151)
Thomas Burgess
Thomas Burgess wrote A Vindication of 1st John v. 7 from the Objections of M. Griesbach
Ben David
Ben David wrote on the Comma in 1826 in The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature, Volume 21 “Ben David” was actually a unitarian minister named John Jones. in his Three Letters Addressed to the Editor of The Quarterly Review, in which is Demonstrated the Genuineness of the Three Heavenly Witnesses – I John v. 7 says:
- Theodorus, the master of Chrysostom and a contemporary of the emperor Julian, as we learn from Suidas, wrote “A Treatise on one God in the Trinity, from the Epistle of John the Evangelist” Eis ten Epistolen Ioannou tou Euaggelistou peri tou eis Theos en Triadi. This is a remarkable testimony, as it implies the existence and notoriety of the verse about the middle of the fourth century. At that period, a writer of celebrity erects upon it the doctrine of a trinity in unity; which surely he would hardly have done, if any suspicion of its authenticity had been entertained by him, or by any other person of that age. Besides, the turn of the expression, as it supposes what was grounded on the verse to be grounded also on the whole Epistle, supposes the Epistle and the verse, in respect to their purport and authenticity, to stand exactly on the same foundation. (See Suidas on the word Diodoros.)
F. H. A. Scrivener
19th century textual critic F. H. A. Scrivener said:
- “We need not hesitate to declare our conviction that the disputed words were not written by St. John: that they were originally brought into Latin copies in Africa from the margin, where they had been placed as a pious and orthodox gloss on ver. 8: that from the Latin they crept into two or three late Greek codices, and thence into the printed Greek text, a place to which they had no rightful claim.”
Scrivener estimated that:
- “49 out of 50 [Vulgate] manuscripts testify to this disputed Comma”. (F. H. A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the New Testament Textual Criticism, 4th Ed., Vol. 2, (New York: George Bell & Sons, 1894), p.403).
Scrivener was no friend of the Comma, and said:
- “On the whole, therefore, we need not hesitate to declare our conviction that the disputed words were not written by St. John: that they were originally brought into Latin copies in Africa from the margin, where they had been placed as a pious and orthodox gloss on ver. 8: that from the Latin they crept into two or three late Greek codices, and thence into the printed Greek text, a place to which they had no rightful claim.”
Scrivener concluded:
- “to maintain the genuineness of this passage is simply impossible.”
William Orme
In 1865, Nichols and Noyes published the 1830s document by William Orme: Memoir of the Controversy Respecting the Three Heavenly Witnesses, I John V. It was reprinted and by Ezra Abbott with additional notes and an appendix.
1873 Cambridge Paragraph Bible
The 1873 Cambridge Paragraph Bible, which is found in the New Testament Octapla, and which is the base text of the Zondervan KJV Study Bible and many of their other recent KJVs, throws the words in question into italics. This is reflected in the detail below from the original edition of CPB, 1873; by the New Testament Octapla's reproduction of Scrivener's CPB text, and by Scrivener’s book The Authorized Edition of the English Bible (1611), Its Subsequent Reprints and Modern Representatives [Cambridge, 1884, p. 69] which verifies that this was a deliberate change that Scrivener made on his own authority. The Zondervan reprints, however, silently reverse Scrivener's decision and put the words back into regular type. The prefaces to these reprints give no indication regarding this change, although other changes regarding spelling are acknowledged.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
- 7. three—Two or three witnesses were required by law to constitute adequate testimony. The only Greek manuscripts in any form which support the words, "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness in earth," are the Montfortianus of Dublin, copied evidently from the modern Latin Vulgate; the Ravianus, copied from the Complutensian Polyglot; a manuscript at Naples, with the words added in the Margin by a recent hand; Ottobonianus, 298, of the fifteenth century, the Greek of which is a mere translation of the accompanying Latin. All the old versions omit the words. The oldest manuscripts of the Vulgate omit them: the earliest Vulgate manuscript which has them being Wizanburgensis, 99, of the eighth century. A scholium quoted in Matthæi, shows that the words did not arise from fraud; for in the words, in all Greek manuscripts "there are three that bear record," as the Scholiast notices, the word "three" is masculine, because the three things (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) are SYMBOLS OF THE Trinity. To this Cyprian, 196, also refers, "Of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is written, 'And these three are one' (a unity)." There must be some mystical truth implied in using "three" (Greek) in the masculine, though the antecedents, "Spirit, water, and blood," are neuter. That THE Trinity was the truth meant is a natural inference: the triad specified pointing to a still Higher Trinity; as is plain also from 1Jo 5:9, "the witness of God," referring to the Trinity alluded to in the Spirit, water, and blood. It was therefore first written as a marginal comment to complete the sense of the text, and then, as early at least as the eighth century, was introduced into the text of the Latin Vulgate. The testimony, however, could only be borne on earth to men, not in heaven. The marginal comment, therefore, that inserted "in heaven," was inappropriate. It is on earth that the context evidently requires the witness of the three, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, to be borne: mystically setting forth the divine triune witnesses, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. Luecke notices as internal evidence against the words, John never uses "the Father" and "the Word" as correlates, but, like other New Testament writers, associates "the Son" with "the Father," and always refers "the Word" to "God" as its correlate, not "the Father." Vigilius, at the end of the fifth century, is the first who quotes the disputed words as in the text; but no Greek manuscript earlier than the fifteenth is extant with them. The term "Trinity" occurs first in the third century in Tertullian [Against Praxeas, 3].
Charles Taze Russell
Charles Taze Russell, a neo-Arian and Adventist founder of the infamous cult the Jehovah's witnesses, in 1899 made his accusation specific and the forgery late:
- "the spurious words were no doubt interpolated by some over-zealous monk, who felt sure of the (Trinity) doctrine himself, and thought that the holy spirit had blundered in not stating the matter in the Scriptures: his intention, no doubt, was to help God and the truth out of a difficulty by perpetrating a fraud."Charles Taze Russell The Fact and Philophy of the Atonement, 1899, p. 61.
Antoniades 1904/1912 Patriarchal Edition
The Greek Orthodox of Antoniades (1904/1912) in its original printing contined the Comma Johannium in small and italicized type. This would indicate its absence from modern collections of Greek manuscripts of 1 John. Antoniades clearly explains the issue in his Greek preface:
- "...the passage on the 'three witnesses' in 1 John 5:7,8. It did not appear possible to include this, either by the principles of this present [official Orthodox] edition or by way of exception, since it is entirely unattested in church texts, in the fathers and teachers of the Eastern Church, in the ancient versions, in the older MSS of the Slavic version, or even in the Latin, or in any known Greek MS written independently of this addition, which was introduced gradually into the Vulgate. It is retained [solely] upon the opinion of the Holy Synod." (p.7. of the Greek New Testament of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople English translation by J. M. Rife in Colwell's Prolegomena to the Study of the Lectionary Text, p.61; emphasis added)
In the Greek Orthodox tradition, earlier translations into Modern Greek by Maximus Callipolites, printed in 1638 for Cyrillus Lucaris, and by Neophytus Vamvas completed in 1850, include the Comma in the text.
Monsignor Knox
English Roman Catholic Bible scholar Monsignor Knox wrote in a footnote in his 1944 translation:
- "This verse does not occur in any good Greek manuscript. But the Latin versions may have preserved the true text".
Franz Pieper
Also those asserting authenticity of the Comma, followed by omission, often assert that the early church writers and internal evidences are undervalued by today's textual theories. Franz Pieper is an example from 20th-century scholarship. For Pieper the Cyprian citation is a key element leading to his acceptance of authenticity. Pieper disagrees with the Karl Ströbel claim, (Zeitschrift, 1854, p.135-137) that the old codices must be the judge in textual criticism (given in Ströbel's review of the Sander book). Pieper says "a quotation from the Fathers is often of decisive importance".Christian Dogmatics, 1950, p. 241, trans. from German ed. c.1920.
UBS Greek Editions
Many critical text proponants erroneously assert that this text originated close to the time of Erasmus. However, even the UBS Greek NT (4th ed.) notes that the Comma Johanneum is attested by the Latin church fathers (Cyprian) (d. 258), (Pseudo-Cyprian) (4th century), (Priscillian) (d. 385), the Speculum (5th century), Varimadum (UBS date "445/480"), Pseudo-Vigilius (4th or 5th century), and Fulgentius (d. 533), as well as a few manuscripts.
Edward F. Hills
Edward F. Hills said:
- "The first undisputed citations of the Johannine Comma occur in the writing of two 4th-century Spanish bishops… In the 5th century the Johannine Comma was quoted by several orthodox African writers to defend the doctrine of the Trinity against the gainsaying of the Vandals, who…were fanatically attached to the Arian heresy." "Evidence for the early existence of the Johannine Comma is found in the Latin versions and in the writings of the Latin Church Fathers." [1]
- In the first place, how did the Johannine Comma originate if it be not genuine, and how did it come to be interpolated into the Latin New Testament text?… Why does it not contain the usual trinitarian formula, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Why does it exhibit the singular combination, never met with elsewhere, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit?
- In the second place, the omission of the Johannine Comma seems to leave the passage incomplete. For it is a common scriptural usage to present solemn truths or warnings in groups of three or four, for example, the repeated Three things, yea four of Proverbs 30, and the constantly recurring refrain, for three transgressions and for four, of the prophet Amos… It is in accord with biblical usage, therefore, to expect that in 1 John 5.7–8 the formula, there are three that bear witness, will be repeated at least twice. When the Johannine Comma is included, the formula is repeated twice. When the Comma is omitted, the formula is repeated only once, which seems strange.
- In the third place, the omission of the Johannine Comma involves a grammatical difficulty. The words spirit, water, and blood are neuter in gender, but in 1 John 5:8 they are treated as masculine. If the Johannine Comma is rejected, it is hard to explain this irregularity. It is usually said that in 1 John 5.8 the spirit, the water, and the blood are personalized and that this is the reason for the adoption of the masculine gender. But it is hard to see how such personalization would involve the change from the neuter to the masculine. For in verse 6 the word Spirit plainly refers to the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. Surely in this verse the word Spirit is "personalized," and yet the neuter gender is used. Therefore, since personalization did not bring about a change of gender in verse 6, it cannot fairly be pleaded as the reason for such a change in verse 8. If, however, the Johannine Comma is retained, a reason for placing the neuter nouns spirit, water, and blood in the masculine gender becomes readily apparent. It was due to the influence of the nouns Father and Word, which are masculine. Thus the hypothesis that the Johannine Comma is an interpolation is full of difficulties.[2]
Dr. Floyd Nolen Jones
- "As of 1997, the following cursive manuscripts are known to include the passage: 34, 88 (margin) 99, 105, 110, 162, 173, 181, 190, 193, 219, 220, 221, 298, 429, 629 (margin) 635*, 636, and 918. Thus the list of Greek mss known to contain the "Comma" is not long, but it is longer (and growing) than many of us would have believed. It was part of the text of a 2nd century Old Latin Bible. It is found in "r", a 5th century Old Latin manuscript, and in a confession of faith drawn up by Eusebius, Bishop of Carthage, in 484."[3]
- 635 is a Metzger error and should be removed from this list.
Scofield
Nova Vulgata
In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Latin Nova Vulgata (New Vulgate), published in 1979 following the Second Vatican Council, based on the Critical Text and approved for liturgical use, does not include the Comma.Nova Vulgata, Epistula I Ioannis. The Nova Vulgata has not been translated into English. Nor does the English-language New American Bible. Today there are Bible translations with a Roman Catholic church imprimatur both with and without the verse, as the traditional Rheims New Testament and the Ronald Knox translation of the Vulgate include the verse.
New King James Version
Unlike many modern versions the New King James Version does contain the verse, but contains the marginal footnote:
- NU-Text and M-Text omit the words from in heaven (verse 7) through on earth (verse 8). Only four or five very late manuscripts contain these words in Greek.
The NKJV casts doubt over the verse.
Arthur Farstad
Dr. Arthur Farstad, who served as General Editor of the New King James Version (1982) and co-editor of The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text believed the Comma was not part of the original text:
- Dr. Arthur Farstad: The Trinitarian controversy with the Arian heretics, they would have adored this verse if it had been in their text. It would be a clear verse for the Trinity and they never once mentioned it. So if they had had it, you can see…
- Ankerberg: So the first councils back there in the 300s or 400s would have loved this verse.
- Farstad: They would have adored it. And, you know, we believe in the Trinity.
- Ankerberg: But they didn’t quote it.
- Farstad: They didn’t quote it because they didn’t have it. It showed up first in the Latin and then years later it was put in the margin.
(Excerpted from The John Ankerberg Show series entitled: “Which English Translation of the Bible is Best for Christians to Use Today?”)
Farstad was ignorant of the early church witnesses.
Bruce Metzger
- See Main Article: Jonannine Comma and Bruce Metzger
H.J. de Jonge
In A History of the Debate over 1 John 5:7,8, Michael Maynard records that H.J. de Jonge, the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Rijksuniversiteit (Leiden, Netherlands), a recognized specialist in Erasmian studies, refuted the myth of a promise in 1980, stating that Metzger's view on Erasmus' promise "has no foundation in Erasmus' work. Consequently it is highly improbable that he included the difficult passage because he considered himself bound by any such promise."
In a letter of June 13, 1995, to Maynard, de Jonge wrote:
- "I have checked again Erasmus' words quoted by Erika Rummel and her comments on them in her book Erasmus' Annotations. This is what Erasmus writes [on] in his Liber tertius quo respondet ... Ed. Lei: Erasmus first records that Lee had reproached him with neglect of the MSS. of 1 John because Erasmus (according to Lee) had consulted only one MS. Erasmus replies that he had certainly not used only one ms., but many copies, first in England, then in Brabant, and finally at Basle. He cannot accept, therefore, Lee's reproach of negligence and impiety. 'Is it negligence and impiety, if I did not consult manuscripts which were simply not within my reach? I have at least assembled whatever I could assemble. Let Lee produce a Greek MS. which contains what my edition does not contain and let him show that that manuscript was within my reach. Only then can he reproach me with negligence in sacred matters.'
- "From this passage you can see that Erasmus does not challenge Lee to produce a manuscript etc. What Erasmus argues is that Lee may only reproach Erasmus with negligence of MSS if he demonstrates that Erasmus could have consulted any MS. in which the Comma Johanneum figured. Erasmus does not at all ask for a MS. containing the Comma Johanneum. He denies Lee the right to call him negligent and impious if the latter does not prove that Erasmus neglected a manuscript to which he had access.
- "In short, Rummel's interpretation is simply wrong. The passage she quotes has nothing to do with a challenge. Also, she cuts the quotation short, so that the real sense of the passage becomes unrecognizable. She is absolutely not justified in speaking of a challenge in this case or in the case of any other passage on the subject" (emphasis in original) (de Jonge, cited from A History of the Debate over 1 John 5:7,8, Michael Maynard, p. 383).
David Cloud
David Cloud said:
- The first myth is that Erasmus promised to insert the verse if a Greek manuscript were produced. This is stated as follows by Bruce Metzger: “Erasmus promised that he would insert the Comma Johanneum, as it is called, in future editions if a single Greek manuscript could be found that contained the passage. At length such a copy was found--or made to order” (Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, 1st and 2nd editions).
- The second myth is that Erasmus challenged Edward Lee to find a Greek manuscript that included 1 John 5:7. This originated with Erika Rummel in 1986 in her book Erasmus’ Annotations and was repeated by James White in 1995 (The Truth about the KJV-Only Controversy).
- In A History of the Debate over 1 John 5:7,8, Michael Maynard records that H.J. de Jonge, the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Rijksuniversiteit (Leiden, Netherlands), has refuted both myths. de Jonge, a recognized specialist in Erasmian studies, refuted the myth of a promise in 1980, stating that Metzger’s view on Erasmus’ promise “has no foundation in Erasmus’ work. Consequently it is highly improbable that he included the difficult passage because he considered himself bound by any such promise.” He has also refuted the new myth of a challenge (which Rummel devised in reaction to the burial of the promise myth). In a letter of June 13, 1995, to Maynard, de Jonge wrote:
- I have checked again Erasmus’ words quoted by Erika Rummel and her comments on them in her book Erasmus’ Annotations. This is what Erasmus writes [on] in his Liber tertius quo respondet ... Ed. Lei: Erasmus first records that Lee had reproached him with neglect of the MSS. of 1 John because Er. (according to Lee) had consulted only one MS. Erasmus replies that he had certainly not used only one ms., but many copies, first in England, then in Brabant, and finally at Basle. He cannot accept, therefore, Lee’s reproach of negligence and impiety.
- ‘Is it negligence and impiety, if I did not consult manuscripts which were simply not within my reach? I have at least assembled whatever I could assemble. Let Lee produce a Greek MS. which contains what my edition does not contain and let him show that that manuscript was within my reach. Only then can he reproach me with negligence in sacred matters.’
- From this passage you can see that Erasmus does not challenge Lee to produce a manuscript etc. What Erasmus argues is that Lee may only reproach Erasmus with negligence of MSS if he demonstrates that Erasmus could have consulted any MS. in which the Comma Johanneum figured. Erasmus does not at all ask for a MS. containing the Comma Johanneum. He denies Lee the right to call him negligent and impious if the latter does not prove that Erasmus neglected a manuscript to which he had access.
- In short, Rummel’s interpretation is simply wrong. The passage she quotes has nothing to do with a challenge. Also, she cuts the quotation short, so that the real sense of the passage becomes unrecognizable. She is absolutely not justified in speaking of a challenge in this case or in the case of any other passage on the subject (emphasis in original) (de Jonge, cited from Maynard, p. 383).
- Jeffrey Khoo observes further: “Yale professor Roland Bainton, another Erasmian expert, agrees with de Jonge, furnishing proof from Erasmus’ own writing that Erasmus’ inclusion of 1 John 5:7f was not due to a so-called ‘promise’ but the fact that he believed ‘the verse was in the Vulgate and must therefore have been in the Greek text used by Jerome’” (Jeffrey Khoo, Kept Pure in All Ages, 2001, p. 88).
- Edward F. Hills, who had a doctorate in textual criticism from Harvard, testifies: “...it was not trickery that was responsible for the inclusion of the Johannine Comma in the Textus Receptus, but the usage of the Latin speaking Church” (Hills, The King James Version Defended).
- In the 3rd edition of The Text of the New Testament Bruce Metzger corrected his false assertion about Erasmus as follows: “What is said on p. 101 above about Erasmus’ promise to include the Comma Johanneum if one Greek manuscript were found that contained it, and his subsequent suspicion that MS 61 was written expressly to force him to do so, needs to be corrected in the light of the research of H. J. DeJonge, a specialist in Erasmian studies who finds no explicit evidence that supports this frequently made assertion” (Metzger, The Text of The New Testament, 3rd edition, p. 291, footnote 2). The problem is that this myth continues to be paraded as truth by modern version defenders.
Daniel Wallace
Daniel Wallace said on the John Ankerberg Show:
- "..this is a verse that was added to the bible in 1522.."
Yet, 1514 the Complutensian Polyglot, which was printed in Spain and written from many unknown Greek manuscripts, contains the verse. Wallace mentions a conspiracy theory about Erasmus and how he inserted the verse into the text due to "church pressure." His conspiracy fails when one breifly looks at the Complutensian manuscripts. In 450 AD, Jerome cites it in his epistle to Eustochium and wants to know why it was excluded.
Amazingly, Wallace in an article at bible.org, denies that Cyprian is actually quoting the Comma. To support this, Wallace must assume that for Cyprian, "the three witnesses [in KJV's v. 8] refer to the Trinity." How "the Spirit, and the water, and the blood" can be matched convincingly with Cyprian's "the Father...the Son, and...the Holy Spirit" does not immediately appear; Wallace is reduced to asserting that "Apparently, he was prompted to read such into the text here because of the heresies he was fighting (a common indulgence of the early patristic writers)." However, while Wallace makes allowances for this "common indulgence" of the church fathers, he afterwards asserts that "One would expect [Cyprian] to quote the exact wording of the text, if its meaning were plain"--not allowing the similarly common indulgences of paraphrase and loose citation to Cyprian where they are inconvenient to his argument.
Wallace avoids the point that Cyprian said, “it is written of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, ‘And these three are one.’” He also ignores the fact that Fulgentius Ruspensis, who lived in the 6th century and who directly quoted from the Comma word for word, quoted Cyprian’s quotation of it! Also, the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament, openly states that Cyprian quoted from the Comma. In the footnotes of 1 John 5:7, the UBS Greek Text lists Cyprian as the first on its list of church fathers who quoted the Comma ("The Greek New Testament", (Stuttgart: Bibelgesellschaft, 2010), p. 819.). The conclusion is that despite Wallace's anti Textus Receptus bias, Cyprian really did quote from the Comma, as many other scholars can honestly admit.
Wallace says that Bart D. Ehrman, upon examination, states that Christian views of inerrancy and our theological convictions should be shaken due to the inauthenticity of texts such as the Comma.Daniel B. Wallace, “The Gospel According To Bart: A Review Article Of Misquoting Jesus By Bart Ehrman, JETS 49, no. 2 (2006): 335. From M.T.S. Thesis 1 John 5:6-12 and the Comma Johanneum by Rev. David Haitel
James White
- See Main Article: Johannine Comma and James White
Bart Ehrman
Bart Ehrman calls the Comma:
- “the most obvious instance of a theologically motivated corruption in the entire manuscript tradition of the New Testament. Nonetheless, in my judgment, the comma's appearance in the tradition can scarcely be dated prior to the Trinitarian controversies that arose after the period under examination.” Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 52.
Ehrman states that the Trinity is affected without this verse:
- “the doctrine of the Trinity must be inferred from a range of passages combined to show that Christ is God, as is the Spirit and the Father, and that there is, nonetheless, only one God. This passage, in contrast states the doctrine directly and succinctly.” Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind who Changed the Bible and Why, SanFrancisco, Harper Collins, 2005, 81.
J. K. Elliott
J. K. Elliott a modern textual critic says:
- "By using criteria such as the above the critic may reach a conclusion in discussing textual variants and be able to say which variant is the original reading. However, it is legitimate to ask: can a reading be accepted as genuine if it is supported by only one ms.? There is no reason why an original reading should not have been preserved in only one ms. but obviously a reading can be accepted with greater confidence, when it has stronger support" Even Kurt Aland says: "Theoretically, the original readings can be hidden in a single ms. thus standing alone against the rest of tradition," and Tasker has a similar comment: "The possibility must be left open that in some cases the true reading may have been preserved in only a few witnesses or even in a single relatively late witness." The Effect of Recent Textual Criticism upon New Testament Studies," The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, ed. W. D. Davies and D. Daube (Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press, 1956)
NIV Study Bible
The NIV Study Bible states:
- 1 John 5:7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
Marginal notes:
- You will notice that the following phrase (Johannine Comma) is removed from their translation, ‘in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. 8 And there are three that testify on earth:’.
This phrase appears in the marginal notes with this comment,
- ‘not found in any Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century’.
Footnotes:
In the footnote section of their Bible they have the following comment,
- ‘…some older English versions add the words found in the NIV text note. But the addition is not found in any Greek manuscript or New Testament translation prior to the fourteenth century.’
Richard Muller
Richard Muller who holds the P. J. Zondervan Chair for Doctoral Studies as professor of historical theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, and has a Ph.D. from Duke University, talks about the Johannine Comma, the text of 1 John 5:5-8. Here are sentences in favor of this trinitarian text:
- Of the early sixteenth-century editions of the Greek text of the New Testament, the Complutensian Polyglott (1504-1514) includes the phrase. . . . Later editions [of Erasmus] (1527 and 1536) also include the "comma." Erasmus' third edition was followed on this point by both Stephanus (1546, 1549, 1550) and Beza (1565; with annotations, 1582). . . . Reformed theologians, following out the line of Erasmus, Stephanus, and Beza, tended to accept the text as genuine and, indeed, to use it as an integral part of their trinitarian theology. . . . In the theological works of the seventeenth-century orthodox---on the model provided by Calvin and Beza---the Johannine "comma" appears frequently, without question or comment, as one Johannine text among others cited in a catena of texts from the Gospel, the Apocalypse, and the epistles as grounds of the doctrine of the Trinity. Often the phrase is simply cited without comment as a supporting text, while some of the high orthodox writers note that it was cited by Cyprian---thus, by implication, refuting the arguments concerning its extremely late date. . . . Turretin noted that Erasmus had located the passage in a "most ancient British codex" and that "most praiseworthy editions, the Complutensian, the Antwerp, Arias Montanus, R. Stephanus, and Walton, which have all utilized the best codices, have the phrase. Post Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 2, Holy Scripture: The Cognitive Foundation of Theology.
KJV Today
An article on the KJV_Today website looks at the Johannine first epistle text and asserts out that corruption in 1 John occurs in a number of doctrinally charged Christological verses, including full phrases. KJV Today notes that 1 John 2:23b is lacking in the majority Byzantine Greek ms line, yet supported in the Vulgate. (And 1 John 2:23b also has a very similar proposed method of accidental original text dropping in homoeoteleuton.) 1 John 4:3 and 1 John 5:13 have phrase omissions mostly in minority, early Alexandrian mss. They also discuss a corruption in 1 John 5:6, and there are omission/addition questions in 1 John 2:7 with from the beginning and 1 John 1:7 Christ. (The word corruption can apply symmetrically from both positions, whether an omission or addition.) Thus, they say that textual accident and even potential manipulation were relatively frequent in 1 John.."1 John has its fair share of early textual corruptions to demonstrate that passages were indeed altered for reasons of carelessness or infidelity … One thing is certain: the text of 1 John underwent corruption long before the alleged 'fabrication' of the Comma. With there being these other demonstrable examples of early textual corruptions, it is reasonable to suppose that the omission of the Comma was also an early textual corruption."
Grantley McDonald
Grantley McDonald's book Raising the Ghost of Arius - Erasmus, the Johannine Comma and Religious Difference in Early Modern Europe.
Chris Thomas
Chris Pappas
In 2016 C. H. Pappas wrote the book In Defense of the Authenticity of 1 John 5:7.
Elijah Hixson
See Main article: Johannine Comma and Elijah Hixson
Modern Versions that omit the Comma
- “Because those who testify are three:” (A Conservative Version)
- “Because three are the Ones testifying:” (Analytical-Literal Translation)
- “For there are three who give their testimony [about Jesus]:” (An Understandable Version-The New Testament)
- “And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth.” (American Standard Version)
- “And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is true.” (Bible Basic English)
- “In fact, there are three who tell about it.” (Contemporary English Version)
- “There are three witnesses -” (The Complete Jewish Bible)
- “And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth.” (Common Edition, New Testament)
- “For they that bear witness are three:” (Darby)
- “For there are three that bear witness:” (English Majority Text Version)
- “For there are three that testify:” (English Standard Version)
- “There are three witnesses:” (Good News Bible)
- “There are three witnesses:” (God's Word)
- “For there are three that testify:” (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
- “For there are three who testify:” (The Hebrew Names Version)
- “For there are three witnesses-” (International Standard Version)
- “And it is the Spirit who testified; because the Spirit is the truth.” (Living Oracles New Testament)
- “A triple testimony:” (The Message)
- “For there are three that testify:” (New American Standard Bible)
- “So there are three witnesses that tell us about Jesus:” (New Century Version)
- “For there are three that testify,” (NET Bible)
- “There are three that give witness about Jesus.” (New International Reader's Version)
- “For there are three that testify:” (New International Version)
- “So we have these three witnesses -” (New Living Translation)
- “There are three that testify:” (New Revised Standard Version Bible)
- “And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth.” (Revised Standard Version)
- “And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth.” (Revised Version)
- “Because there are three who bear witness:” (The Scriptures 1998)
- “It is a three-fold testimony--” (Twentieth Century New Testament)
- “For there are three who bear witness,” (Updated Bible Version)
- “For there are three who testify:” (World English Bible)
Internal Evidence
1 John 5:4-9
- For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:
- and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world,
- but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
- This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ;
- not by water only, but by water and blood.
- And it is the Spirit that beareth witness,
- because the Spirit is truth.
- For there are three that bear record in heaven,
- the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost:
- and these three are one.
- And there are three that bear witness in earth,
- the spirit, and the water, and the blood:
- and these three agree in one.
- If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater:
- for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
The Johannine style and wording clearly fit with the inclusion of the Comma, and elements like the flat repetition when verse 7 is omitted, the "witness of God" in verse 9 pointing right back to the heavenly witnesses and more.
Greek
Textus Receptus
Complutensian Polyglot
- 1514 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν/οἱ μαρτυροῦντες εν/τῷ οὐρανῷ,/ὁ πατήρ, καὶ/ὁ λόγος, καὶ/τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, καὶ/οἱ τρεῖς εῖς/τὸ ἕν εἰσι· (Complutensian Polyglot)
Desiderius Erasmus
- 1516 (omitted) (Erasmus 1st Novum Instrumentum omne)
- 1519 (omitted) (Erasmus 2nd)
- 1522 (Erasmus 3rd Novum Testamentum omne)
- 1527 (Erasmus 4th)
- 1535 (Erasmus 5th)
Colinæus
- 1534 (Colinæus)
Stephanus
- 1546 (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 1st)
- 1549 (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 2nd)
- 1550 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες εν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσιν (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 3rd)
- 1551 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες εν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσιν (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 4th)
Beza
- 1565 (Beza 1st)
- 1565 (Beza Octavo 1st)
- 1567 (Beza Octavo 2nd)
- 1580 (Beza Octavo 3rd)
- 1582 (Beza 2nd)
- 1588 Ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες εν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι· (Beza 3rd)
- 1590 (Beza Octavo 4th)
- 1598 Ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ |μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι· (Beza)
- 1604 (Beza Octavo 5th)
Elzevir
Scholz
Scrivener
- 1894 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες εν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσιν (F. H. A. Scrivener , The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text followed in the Authorised Version - Cambridge University Press).
Other Greek
- 1859 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰμί ὁ μαρτυρέω (Constantin von Tischendorf Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior Vol. I, 1869; Vol. II 1872, Leipzig:Giesecke and Devrient. Vol 3, Prolegomena, ed. by Caspar Rene' Gregory, Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1894.) based on Codex Sinaiticus.
- 1881 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες, (Westcott & Hort)
- 1904 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ Πατὴρ, ὁ Λόγος καὶ τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι. (Greek Orthodox (Greek New Testament of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople by B. Antoniades)
- 1904 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες, (Nestle)
English Versions
- 1380 For thre ben, that yyuen witnessing in heuene, the Fadir, the Sone, and the Hooli Goost; and these thre ben oon. (Wyclif's Bible by John Wycliffe)
- 1395 For thre ben, that yyuen witnessing in heuene, the Fadir, the Sone, and the Hooli Goost; and these thre ben oon. (Wyclif's Bible by John Wycliffe)
- 1534 (For ther are thre which beare recorde in heuen the father the worde and the wholy goost. And these thre are one) (Tyndale Bible)
- 1535 (For there are thre which beare recorde in heauen: the father, the worde, and the holy goost, & these thre are one.) (Coverdale)
- 1540 - (The Great Bible - also called Cranmer Bible, Miles Coverdale editor)
- 1549 (For there are thre which beare recorde in heauen, the father, the worde, and the holye Ghoste. And these thre are one.) Matthew's Bible by John Rogers
- 1557 For there are three, which bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are one. (Geneva 1557) by William Whittingham
- 1560 For there are three, which bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are one.
- 1568 For there are three which beare recorde in heauen, the father, the worde, and the holy ghost, and these three are one. (The Bishops' Bible)
- 1587 For there are three, which beare recorde in heauen, the Father, the Worde, and the holy Ghost: and these three are one. Geneva Bible by William Whittingham
- 1599 For there are three, which bear record in heaven, the Father, the [a]Word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are [b]one. Footnotes: [a] John 8:13, 14. [b] Agree in one.
- 1611 For there are three that beare record in heauen, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are one. (Authorized Version)
- 1769 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (Authorized Version)
- For there are three that bear testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. (Websters)
- 1855 He who testifies, inasmuch as the Spirit is truth. For there are three who testify in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. (Calvin Bible)
- 1890 For they that bear witness are three: (Darby Version)
- 1898 because three are who are testifying in the heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these -- the three -- are one; (YLT)
- 1901 And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. (American Standard Version)
- 1982 (New King James Version) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
- 1984 (New International Version)(NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
- 1995 (New American Standard Bible) NASB (©1995)
- 1999 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (American King James Version)AKJV
- 2000 (King James 2000 Bible©)
- 2005 (Today’s New International Version)
- (BBE)
- 2009 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)(HCSB) Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.
- (21st Century King James Version) Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.
- (Common English Bible) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible
- (GOD’S WORD Translation)(GW) Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations.
- (Contemporary English Version)(CEV) Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society
- (New Living Translation)(NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation.
- (Amplified Bible) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
- (The Message) (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
- (New International Reader's Version) (NIRV) Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®.
- (Wycliffe New Testament)
Foreign Language Translations
Albanian
- Në qoftë se ne pranojmë dëshminë e njerëzve, dëshmia e Perëndisë është më e madhe, sepse kjo është dëshmia e Perëndisë që ai dha për Birin e tij. 1 Gjonit 5:7
Armenian
- Արդարեւ երե՛ք են՝ որ կը վկայեն երկինքի մէջ.- Հայրը, Խօսքը եւ Սուրբ Հոգին, ու այս երեքը մէկ են:
Arabic
فان الذين يشهدون في السماء هم ثلاثة الآب والكلمة والروح القدس وهؤلاء الثلاثة هم واحد. ﻳﻮﺣﻨﺎ ﺍﻻﻭﻝ 5:7 Smith & Van Dyke
Basque
Ecen hirur dirade testificatzen dutenac ceruän, Aita, Hitza, eta Spiritu saindua: eta hauc hirurac bat dirade. 1 S. Ioannec. 5:7 Basque (Navarro-Labourdin)
Bulgarian
и Духът е, който свидетелствува, понеже Духът е истината.
Creole
Gen yo twa k'ap di Jezi se moun ki te vini an. (1_Jan 5:7 Haitian Creole Bible)
Croatian
- Jer troje je što svjedoči:
Czech
- 1613 Nebo tři jsou, kteříž svědectví vydávají na nebi: Otec, Slovo, a Duch Svatý, a ti tři jedno jsou. bible of Kralice
Danish
- Thi tre ere de, som vidne:
Dutch
- Want Drie zijn er, Die getuigen in den hemel, de Vader, het Woord en de Heilige Geest; en deze Drie zijn Een. (Johannes 5:7 Dutch Staten Vertaling)
Esperanto
Kaj la Spirito estas la atestanto, cxar la Spirito estas la vero. (De Johano 1 5:7)
Finnish
- 1776 Sillä kolme ovat, jotka todistavat taivaassa: Isä, Sana ja Pyhä Henki, ja ne kolme yksi ovat: (Toinen Johanneksen kirje 5:7)
Faroese
- Tí at tað eru tríggir, sum geva frágreiðing í himni, Faðirin, Orðið, og Halgi Andin: og hesir tríggir eru eitt. (HVÍ FØROYSKA KING JAMES BÍBLIU)
French
- 1535 Car il y en a trois qui rendent témoignage dans le ciel, le Père, la Parole, et le Saint-Esprit: et ces trois sont un. (Olivetan Bible)
- 1569 Car il y en a trois qui rendent témoignage au ciel, le Pére, la Parole, et le Saint Esprit: et ces trois-là sont un.
- 1707 Car il y en a trois dans le Ciel qui rendent témoignage, le Père, la Parole, et le Saint Esprit: et ces trois-là ne sont qu'un. (Martin)
- 1744 Car il y en a trois qui rendent témoignage dans le ciel, le Père, la Parole, et le Saint-Esprit, et ces trois-là sont un. (Ostervald)
- 1744 Car il y en a trois dans le Ciel qui rendent témoignage, le Père, la Parole, et le Saint-Esprit; et ces trois-là ne sont qu'un. (Martin)
- car il y en a trois qui rendent témoignage: (Darby)
- 1864 (Augustin Crampon)
- 1910 Car il y en a trois qui rendent témoignage: (Louis Segond)
German
- 1545 Denn drei sind, die da zeugen im Himmel: der Vater, das Wort und der Heilige Geist; und diese drei sind eins. (Luther)
- 1871 Denn drei sind, die da zeugen: (Elberfelder)
- 1912 Denn drei sind, die da zeugen: der Geist und das Wasser und das Blut; (Luther)
Hungarian
Mert hárman vannak, a kik bizonyságot tesznek a mennyben, az Atya, az Íge és a Szent Lélek: és ez a három egy. (1 János 5:7 Hungarian: Karoli)
Indonesian
- Karena tiga yang menjadi saksi di surga, yaitu Bapa dan Firman dan Rohulkudus, maka ketiga-Nya itu menjadi Satu; 1 YOH 5:7 Indonesian - Terjemahan Lama (TL)
Italian
- 1613 Perciocchè tre son quelli che testimoniano nel cielo: il Padre, e la Parola, e lo Spirito Santo; e questi tre sono una stessa cosa. (1 Giovanni 5:7 Giovanni Diodati Bible)
- 1927 Poiché tre son quelli che rendon testimonianza: (Riveduta Bible)
Kabyle
- Ṛṛuḥ iqedsen, aman d idammen, di tlata yid-sen beggnen-d tideț-agi.
Latin
Latvian
- Jo trīs ir, kas dod liecību debesīs: Tēvs, Vārds un Svētais Gars; un šie trīs ir viens. Jāņa 1 vēstule 5:7
Lithuanian
- Mat yra trys liudytojai danguje: Tėvas, Žodis ir Šventoji Dvasia; ir šitie trys yra viena. (Pirmasis Jono laiðkas 5:7)
Maori
- Tokotoru hoki nga kaiwhakaatu i te rangi, ko te Matua, ko te Kupu, ko te Wairua Tapu: kotahi ano enei tokotoru.
Norwegian
- 1930 For de er tre som vidner: (1 Johannes 5:7 Det Norsk Bibelselskap)
Polish
- Albowiem trzej są, którzy świadczą na niebie: Ojciec, Słowo i Duch Święty, a ci trzej jedno są. (Biblia Gdanska)
Portugese
E o Espírito é o que dá testemunho, porque o Espírito é a verdade. (1 João 5:7)
Romanian
(Căci trei sînt cari mărturisesc în cer: Tatăl, Cuvîntul şi Duhul Sfînt, şi aceşti trei una sînt.) (1 Ioan 5:7 Cornilescu)
Russian
- Russian Transliteration of the Greek
- (Church Slavonic)
Spanish
- 1569 Porque tres son los que dan testimonio del cielo: el Padre, la Palabra y el Espíritu Santo; y estos tres son uno. (1 Juan Sagradas Escrituras)
- 1909 Porque tres son los que dan testimonio en el cielo, el Padre, el Verbo, y el Espíritu Santo: y estos tres son uno. (1 Juan Reina Valera)
Swedish
- 1917 Ty tre äro de som vittna: (1 Johannesbrevet 5:7)
Swahili
- Basi, wako mashahidi watatu: (1 Yohana 5:7)
Tagalog
- 1905 At ang Espiritu ang nagpapatotoo, sapagka't ang Espiritu ay katotohanan. (1 Juan 5:7 Ang Dating Biblia)
Turkish
- Şöyle ki, tanıklık edenler üçtür: Ruh, su ve kan. Bunların üçü de uyum içindedir. (1 Yuhanna 5:7)
Ukrainian
- Бо три їх, що сьвідкують на небі: Отець, Слово і сьвятий Дух, і сї три - одно. (1 Йоаново 5:7)
Urdu
- -کہ تِین ہے، جو آسمان پر گواہی دیتے ہیں، باپ اور کلام، اور رُوحُ القُدس اور یہ تینوں ایک ہیں
Vietnamese
ấy là Ðức Thánh Linh đã làm chứng, vì Ðức Thánh Linh tức là lẽ thật. (1 Giaêng 5:7)
See Also
- 1 John 5:8
- Comma Johanneum
- Codex Montfortianus
- Codex Toletanus
- Frisingensia Fragmenta
- Codex Sangallensis 63
- Minuscule 88
- Minuscule 629
- Textual criticism
- Job 16:19
- David Martin (French divine) – the French Bible translator who also defended the authenticity of the Comma Johanneum.
- And These Three Are One Article by Will Kinney
- And These Three Are One Article by Jesse Boyd
Verses with similar words
- Three Witnesses
- Matthew 18:16
- Deuteronomy 17:6
- Deuteronomy 19:15
- 2 Corinthians 13:1
- 1 Timothy 5:19
- 1 John 5:6
- 1 John 5:8
- Word
References
- 1. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian 1903, p.631 English on p. 621, left column, bottom.
- 2. Nolan, Inquiry, p. 297 Although Nolan does study the Praxeas citation in some depth independently.
- 3. Daniel McCarthy, Epistles and Gospels of the Sunday, 1866, p.514.
- 4. ref name="Strecker"/
- 5. Edward F. Hills, The King James Version Defended (Des Moines, Iowa, USA: The Christian Research Press, 1984), pp.209–10.
- 6. Edward F. Hills, The King James Version Defended (Des Moines, Iowa, USA: The Christian Research Press, 1984),pp. 210–12.
- 7. Which Version is the Bible? by Dr. Floyd Nolen Jones
- 8. An Inquiry Into The Integrity of the Greek Vulgate or Received Text of the New Testament, Rev. Frederick Nolan, 1815, pg. 278-279
External Links
Supportive
- KJV Today: 1 John 5:7 A fuller picture of 1 John 5:6-7. (Includes photographs of manuscripts and other visual aids)
- And These Three Are One by Will Kinney
- James White Dishonors the Lord Jesus Christ by Will Kinney YouTube Video
- A complete list of New Testament manuscripts that verify 1 John 5:7
- Response to Daniel Wallace Regarding 1 John 5:7 by Martin A. Shue
- The Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7) by Martin A. Shue
- Anonymous Author on 1 John 5:7
- Wikipedia Article on Comma Johanneum
- Confessional Bibliology Follow Up: Codex Montfortianus, Erasmus, and 1 John 5:7
- Erasmian Myths: Revelation Back Translated from the Vulgate? by Chris Thomas
- Erasmian Myths: The Comma Wager by William Sandell
- Erasmian Myths: Codex Vaticanus by Chris Thomas
- 1 John 5:7 (Johannine Comma) - "These Three Are One" An excerpt from Dr. Thomas Holland's Crowned With Glory.
- The Johannine Comma by Colin Tyler
- An Email Debate between Dr. Gregory S. Neal and Dr. Thomas Holland
- Defence of the Johannine Comma - Setting the Record Straight on I John 5:7-8
- Dedending 1 John 5:7 by David Cloud Way of Life Literature 1995
- 1 John 5:7 - KJV "Errors"
- http://kjv.landmarkbiblebaptist.net/1John5-7Henry.html "The Johannine Comma" (1 John 5:7-8) Is It Inspired Scripture? by John Henry September 5, 1999 Updated October 8, 2013
- The Johannine Comma First John 5:6-8 by Floyd Jones
- Johannine Comma - 1 John 5:7-8 by Jeffrey Khoo
- Scion of Zion Article on 1 John 5:7-8
- 1 John 5:7 by Thomas Golda
- “And These Three Are One” Part 1 by Jesse M. Boyd
- “And These Three Are One” Part 2 by Jesse M. Boyd
- Manuscript Differences 05-1John 5:7-8 by Scott G MacLeod
- http://www.bibleprotector.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=383
- http://www.sovereignword.org/index.php/will-kinneys-king-james-bible-defense-articles/17-1-john-57-and-these-three-are-one
- http://www.kjv-asia.com/authorized_version_defence_1_john_5_7_scams.htm
- http://www.kjv-asia.com/authorized_version_defense_the_johannine_comma__1_john_5_7___av1611_code.htm
- http://www.kjv-asia.com/authorized_version_defence_manuscripts_of_the_johannine_comma__1_john_5_7_.htm
- http://www.scionofzion.com/why_1_john_5_7_8.htm (Source: Trinitarian Bible Society)
- http://av1611.com/kjbp/ridiculous-kjv-bible-corrections/1-John-5-7-Scams.html
- http://solascriptura-tt.org/Bibliologia-PreservacaoTT/Defending1John5-7-Cloud.htm
- http://www.tbsbibles.org/pdf_information/40-1.pdf
- http://www.studytoanswer.net/bibleversions/1john5n7.html
- http://fpgm.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/IJohn5.7.pdf (PDF)
- Does 1 John 5:7 belong in the Bible? by Peter Ruckman
- Richard Muller and the History of the Preservation of Scripture pt. 1
- 1 Jn.5:7,8 Establishing the Authenticity of the Johannine Comma by KJV Textual Technology
- Letters to Edward Gibbon, Esq., author of the history of the decline, and fall, of the Roman Empire A old book answering several questions concerning the Comma Johnaneum.
- WM 149: Hixson, the CJ, and Roman Catholic Provenance Word Magazine by Jeff Riddle
- 1 John 5:7 and Modern Criticism Article on the The Young, Textless, and Reformed blog by Taylor Desoto
Critical
- YouTube Video of Daniel Wallace making false claims that Erasmus added 1 John 5:7 to the bible in 1522
- Wallace on the Comma
- Wallace actually denies that Cyprian quoted the Comma
- The Comma Johanneum in an Overlooked Manuscript by Daniel B. Wallace 7/2/2010
- The Greek Manuscripts of the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7–8) by Elijah Hixson (This article is answered by Jeff Riddle here)
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List of New Testament minuscules
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28 · 29 · 30 · 31 · 32 · 33 · 34 · 35 · 36 · 37 · 38 · 39 · 40 · 41 · 42 · 43 · 44 · 45 · 46 · 47 · 48 · 49 · 50 · 51 · 52 · 53 · 54 · 55 · 56 · 57 · 58 · 59 · 60 · 61 · 62 · 63 · 64 · 65 · 66 · 67 · 68 · 69 · 70 · 71 · 72 · 73 · 74 · 75 · 76 · 77 · 78 · 79 · 80 · 81 · 82 · 83 · 84 · 85 · 86 · 87 · 88 · 89 · 90 · 91 · 92 · 93 · 94 · 95 · 96 · 97 · 98 · 99 · 100 · 101 · 102 · 103 · 104 · 105 · 106 · 107 · 108 · 109 · 110 · 111 · 112 · 113 · 114 · 115 · 116 · 117 · 118 · 119 · 120 · 121 · 122 · 123 · 124 · 125 · 126 · 127 · 128 · 129 · 130 · 131 · 132 · 133 · 134 · 135 · 136 · 137 · 138 · 139 · 140 · 141 · 142 · 143 · 144 · 145 · 146 · 147 · 148 · 149 · 150 · 151 · 152 · 153 · 154 · 155 · 156 · 157 · 158 · 159 · 160 · 161 · 162 · 163 · 164 · 165 · 166 · 167 · 168 · 169 · 170 · 171 · 172 · 173 · 174 · 175 · 176 · 177 · 178 · 179 · 180 · 181 · 182 · 183 · 184 · 185 · 186 · 187 · 188 · 189 · 190 · 191 · 192 · 193 · 194 · 195 · 196 · 197 · 198 · 199 · 200 · 201 · 202 · 203 · 204 · 205 · 206 · 207 · 208 · 209 · 210 · 211 · 212 · 213 · 214 · 215 · 216 · 217 · 218 · 219 · 220 · 221 · 222 · 223 · 224 · 225 · 226 · 227 · 228 · 229 · 230 · 231 · 232 · 233 · 234 · 235 · 236 · 237 · 238 · 239 · 240 · 241 · 242 · 243 · 244 · 245 · 246 · 247 · 248 · 249 · 250 · 251 · 252 · 253 · 254 · 255 · 256 · 257 · 258 · 259 · 260 · 261 · 262 · 263 · 264 · 265 · 266 · 267 · 268 · 269 · 270 · 271 · 272 · 273 · 274 · 275 · 276 · 277 · 278 · 279 · 280 · 281 · 282 · 283 · 284 · 285 · 286 · 287 · 288 · 289 · 290 · 291 · 292 · 293 · 294 · 295 · 296 · 297 · 298 · 299 · 300 · 301 · 302 · 303 · 304 · 305 · 306 · 307 · 308 · 309 · 310 · 311 · 312 · 313 · 314 · 315 · 316 · 317 · 318 · 319 · 320 · 321 · 322 · 323 · 324 · 325 · 326 · 327 · 328 · 329 · 330 · 331 · 332 · 333 · 334 · 335 · 336 · 337 · 338 · 339 · 340 · 341 · 342 · 343 · 344 · 345 · 346 · 347 · 348 · 349 · 350 · 351 · 352 · 353 · 354 · 355 · 356 · 357 · 358 · 359 · 360 · 361 · 362 · 363 · 364 · 365 · 366 · 367 · 368 · 369 · 370 · 371 · 372 · 373 · 374 · 375 · 376 · 377 · 378 · 379 · 380 · 381 · 382 · 383 · 384 · 385 · 386 · 387 · 388 · 389 · 390 · 391 · 392 · 393 · 394 · 395 · 396 · 397 · 398 · 399 · 400 · 401 · 402 · 403 · 404 · 405 · 406 · 407 · 408 · 409 · 410 · 411 · 412 · 413 · 414 · 415 · 416 · 417 · 418 · 419 · 420 · 421 · 422 · 423 · 424 · 425 · 426 · 427 · 428 · 429 · 430 · 431 · 432 · 433 · 434 · 435 · 436 · 437 · 438 · 439 · 440 · 441 · 442 · 443 · 444 · 445 · 446 · 447 · 448 · 449 · 450 · 451 · 452 · 453 · 454 · 455 · 456 · 457 · 458 · 459 · 460 · 461 · 462 · 463 · 464 · 465 · 466 · 467 · 468 · 469 · 470 · 471 · 472 · 473 · 474 · 475 · 476 · 477 · 478 · 479 · 480 · 481 · 482 · 483 · 484 · 485 · 486 · 487 · 488 · 489 · 490 · 491 · 492 · 493 · 494 · 495 · 496 · 497 · 498 · 499 · 500 · 501 · 502 · 503 · 504 · 505 · 506 · 507 · 543 · 544 · 565 · 566 · 579 · 585 · 614 · 639 · 653 · 654 · 655 · 656 · 657 · 658 · 659 · 660 · 661 · 669 · 676 · 685 · 700 · 798 · 823 · 824 · 825 · 826 · 827 · 828 · 829 · 830 · 831 · 876 · 891 · 892 · 893 · 1071 · 1143 · 1152 · 1241 · 1253 · 1423 · 1424 · 1432 · 1582 · 1739 · 1780 · 1813 · 1834 · 2050 · 2053 · 2059 · 2060 · 2061 · 2062 · 2174 · 2268 · 2344 · 2423 · 2427 · 2437 · 2444 · 2445 · 2446 · 2460 · 2464 · 2491 · 2495 · 2612 · 2613 · 2614 · 2615 · 2616 · 2641 · 2754 · 2755 · 2756 · 2757 · 2766 · 2767 · 2768 · 2793 · 2802 · 2803 · 2804 · 2805 · 2806 · 2807 · 2808 · 2809 · 2810 · 2811 · 2812 · 2813 · 2814 · 2815 · 2816 · 2817 · 2818 · 2819 · 2820 · 2821 · 2855 · 2856 · 2857 · 2858 · 2859 · 2860 · 2861 · 2862 · 2863 · 2881 · 2882 · 2907 · 2965 ·
01 · 02 · 03 · 04 · 05 · 06 · 07 · 08 · 09 · 010 · 011 · 012 · 013 · 014 · 015 · 016 · 017 · 018 · 019 · 020 · 021 · 022 · 023 · 024 · 025 · 026 · 027 · 028 · 029 · 030 · 031 · 032 · 033 · 034 · 035 · 036 · 037 · 038 · 039 · 040 · 041 · 042 · 043 · 044 · 045 · 046 · 047 · 048 · 049 · 050 · 051 · 052 · 053 · 054 · 055 · 056 · 057 · 058 · 059 · 060 · 061 · 062 · 063 · 064 · 065 · 066 · 067 · 068 · 069 · 070 · 071 · 072 · 073 · 074 · 075 · 076 · 077 · 078 · 079 · 080 · 081 · 082 · 083 · 084 · 085 · 086 · 087 · 088 · 089 · 090 · 091 · 092 · 093 · 094 · 095 · 096 · 097 · 098 · 099 · 0100 · 0101 · 0102 · 0103 · 0104 · 0105 · 0106 · 0107 · 0108 · 0109 · 0110 · 0111 · 0112 · 0113 · 0114 · 0115 · 0116 · 0117 · 0118 · 0119 · 0120 · 0121 · 0122 · 0123 · 0124 · 0125 · 0126 · 0127 · 0128 · 0129 · 0130 · 0131 · 0132 · 0134 · 0135 · 0136 · 0137 · 0138 · 0139 · 0140 · 0141 · 0142 · 0143 · 0144 · 0145 · 0146 · 0147 · 0148 · 0149 · 0150 · 0151 · 0152 · 0153 · 0154 · 0155 · 0156 · 0157 · 0158 · 0159 · 0160 · 0161 · 0162 · 0163 · 0164 · 0165 · 0166 · 0167 · 0168 · 0169 · 0170 · 0171 · 0172 · 0173 · 0174 · 0175 · 0176 · 0177 · 0178 · 0179 · 0180 · 0181 · 0182 · 0183 · 0184 · 0185 · 0186 · 0187 · 0188 · 0189 · 0190 · 0191 · 0192 · 0193 · 0194 · 0195 · 0196 · 0197 · 0198 · 0199 · 0200 · 0201 · 0202 · 0203 · 0204 · 0205 · 0206 · 0207 · 0208 · 0209 · 0210 · 0211 · 0212 · 0213 · 0214 · 0215 · 0216 · 0217 · 0218 · 0219 · 0220 · 0221 · 0222 · 0223 · 0224 · 0225 · 0226 · 0227 · 0228 · 0229 · 0230 · 0231 · 0232 · 0234 · 0235 · 0236 · 0237 · 0238 · 0239 · 0240 · 0241 · 0242 · 0243 · 0244 · 0245 · 0246 · 0247 · 0248 · 0249 · 0250 · 0251 · 0252 · 0253 · 0254 · 0255 · 0256 · 0257 · 0258 · 0259 · 0260 · 0261 · 0262 · 0263 · 0264 · 0265 · 0266 · 0267 · 0268 · 0269 · 0270 · 0271 · 0272 · 0273 · 0274 · 0275 · 0276 · 0277 · 0278 · 0279 · 0280 · 0281 · 0282 · 0283 · 0284 · 0285 · 0286 · 0287 · 0288 · 0289 · 0290 · 0291 · 0292 · 0293 · 0294 · 0295 · 0296 · 0297 · 0298 · 0299 · 0300 · 0301 · 0302 · 0303 · 0304 · 0305 · 0306 · 0307 · 0308 · 0309 · 0310 · 0311 · 0312 · 0313 · 0314 · 0315 · 0316 · 0317 · 0318 · 0319 · 0320 · 0321 · 0322 · 0323 ·
List of New Testament lectionaries
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 25b · 26 · 27 · 28 · 29 · 30 · 31 · 32 · 33 · 34 · 35 · 36 · 37 · 38 · 39 · 40 · 41 · 42 · 43 · 44 · 45 · 46 · 47 · 48 · 49 · 50 · 51 · 52 · 53 · 54 · 55 · 56 · 57 · 58 · 59 · 60 · 61 · 62 · 63 · 64 · 65 · 66 · 67 · 68 · 69 · 70 · 71 · 72 · 73 · 74 · 75 · 76 · 77 · 78 · 79 · 80 · 81 · 82 · 83 · 84 · 85 · 86 · 87 · 88 · 89 · 90 · 91 · 92 · 93 · 94 · 95 · 96 · 97 · 98 · 99 · 100 · 101 · 102 · 103 · 104 · 105 · 106 · 107 · 108 · 109 · 110 · 111 · 112 · 113 · 114 · 115 · 116 · 117 · 118 · 119 · 120 · 121 · 122 · 123 · 124 · 125 · 126 · 127 · 128 · 129 · 130 · 131 · 132 · 133 · 134 · 135 · 136 · 137 · 138 · 139 · 140 · 141 · 142 · 143 · 144 · 145 · 146 · 147 · 148 · 149 · 150 · 151 · 152 · 153 · 154 · 155 · 156 · 157 · 158 · 159 · 160 · 161 · 162 · 163 · 164 · 165 · 166 · 167 · 168 · 169 · 170 · 171 · 172 · 173 · 174 · 175 · 176 · 177 · 178 · 179 · 180 · 181 · 182 · 183 · 184 · 185 · 186 · 187 · 188 · 189 · 190 · 191 · 192 · 193 · 194 · 195 · 196 · 197 · 198 · 199 · 200 · 201 · 202 · 203 · 204 · 205 · 206a · 206b · 207 · 208 · 209 · 210 · 211 · 212 · 213 · 214 · 215 · 216 · 217 · 218 · 219 · 220 · 221 · 222 · 223 · 224 · 225 · 226 · 227 · 228 · 229 · 230 · 231 · 232 · 233 · 234 · 235 · 236 · 237 · 238 · 239 · 240 · 241 · 242 · 243 · 244 · 245 · 246 · 247 · 248 · 249 · 250 · 251 · 252 · 253 · 254 · 255 · 256 · 257 · 258 · 259 · 260 · 261 · 262 · 263 · 264 · 265 · 266 · 267 · 268 · 269 · 270 · 271 · 272 · 273 · 274 · 275 · 276 · 277 · 278 · 279 · 280 · 281 · 282 · 283 · 284 · 285 · 286 · 287 · 288 · 289 · 290 · 291 · 292 · 293 · 294 · 295 · 296 · 297 · 298 · 299 · 300 · 301 · 302 · 303 · 304 · 305 · 306 · 307 · 308 · 309 · 310 · 311 · 312 · 313 · 314 · 315 · 316 · 317 · 318 · 319 · 320 · 321 · 322 · 323 · 324 · 325 · 326 · 327 · 328 · 329 · 330 · 331 · 332 · 368 · 449 · 451 · 501 · 502 · 542 · 560 · 561 · 562 · 563 · 564 · 648 · 649 · 809 · 965 · 1033 · 1358 · 1386 · 1491 · 1423 · 1561 · 1575 · 1598 · 1599 · 1602 · 1604 · 1614 · 1619 · 1623 · 1637 · 1681 · 1682 · 1683 · 1684 · 1685 · 1686 · 1691 · 1813 · 1839 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 2005 · 2137 · 2138 · 2139 · 2140 · 2141 · 2142 · 2143 · 2144 · 2145 · 2164 · 2208 · 2210 · 2211 · 2260 · 2261 · 2263 · 2264 · 2265 · 2266 · 2267 · 2276 · 2307 · 2321 · 2352 · 2404 · 2405 · 2406 · 2411 · 2412 ·
