Johannine Comma and Scrivener

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Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener was a 19th century textual critic who believed that the comma was not a genuine reading of scripture.

Some quotes from Scrivener

Schaff on Scrivener 1 John 5.7-8

Scrivener aligned himself with Richard Porson's position:

“I would fain call it a success if I could with truth. To rebut much of Porson's insolent sophistry was easy, to maintain the genuineness of this passage is simply impossible.”

“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 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.”

Philip Schaff said of Scrivener:

...He gives up the spurious interpolation of the three witnesses as hopelessly untenable, and on the disputed reading in 1 Tim. iii.16, where his friend, Dean Burgon, so strenuously insists on θεός, Scrivener, in his Lectures, p. 192 sq., makes the following admission:

“On the whole, if Codd. A, C, be kept out of sight (and we know not how more light can be thrown on their testimony), this is one of the controversies which the discovery of Cod. א ought to have closed, since it adds a first-rate uncial witness to a case already very strong through the support of versions. Slowly and deliberately, yet in full confidence that God in other passages of his written word has sufficiently assured us of the Proper Divinity of his Incarnate Son, we have yielded up this clause as no longer tenable against the accumulated force of external evidence which has been brought against it.” ^[1]

A companion to the Greek Testament and the English version by Philip Schaff

A Plain Introduction 1861

(24). 1 John v. 7, 8. Ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες [ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ Πατήρ, ὁ Λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι· καὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῇ γῇ], τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα· καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν.

The authenticity of the words within brackets will, perhaps, no longer be maintained by any one whose judgement ought to have weight ; but this result has been arrived at after a long and memorable controversy, which helped to keep alive, especially in England, some interest in Biblical studies, and led to investigations into collateral points of the highest importance, such as the sources of the Received text, the manuscripts employed by R. Stephens (see pp. 299-301), the origin and value of the Velesian readings (see p. 156), &c. A critical résumé of the whole discussion might be profitably undertaken by some competent scholar; we can at present touch only upon the chief heads of this great debate¹.

The two verses appear in the early editions, (adopting again the notation employed above, p. 301), with the following notable variations from the common text: v.7 - ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ usque ad τῇ γῇ v. 8, Er. 1, 2. - ὁ prim. et secund. Er. 3 [non C Er. 4, 5]. + καὶ (post πατήρ) C.- τὸ Er. 3 τὸ καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα St. 1. πνεῦμα ἅγιον Er. 3, 4, 5. - οὗτοι C. + εις το (ante εν) C. v. 8. επί της γης C.- τὸ ter Er. 3, 4, 5 [habent C. Er 1, 2]. - καὶ οἱ τρεῖς ad fin. vers. C. They are found, including the clause from ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ to ἐν τῇ γῇ, in no more than three Greek manuscripts of very late date, one of the, (Cod. Ravianus, Evan. 110), being a mere worthless copy from printed books: and in the margin of a fourth, in a hand as late as the sixteenth century. The real witnesses are the Codex Montfortianus, Evan. 61 Act. 34, whose history was described above, p. 149; Cod. Vat.-Ottob. 298 (Act. 162 see p.196 and note), and for the margin, a Naples manuscript (Act. 173, p. 197). On comparing these slight and scanty authorities with the Received text we find that they present the following variations:-v. 7. (to be continued...[1])

Cyprian

Scrivener allowed for the authenticity of the Cyprian citation as a reference to the verse being in Cyprian's Bible. To allow for this, Scrivener's theory of the source and timing of an interpolation can not be late, and his scenario did not give estimated dates or any names responsible.

"the disputed words...were originally brought into Latin copies in Africa from the margin, where they had been placed as a pious and orthodox gloss on v. 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."

Latin Manuscripts

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).

"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.]

The Cambridge Paragraph Bible

The 1873 Cambridge Paragraph Bible puts the Comma in italics

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 which verifies that this was a deliberate change that Scrivener made on his own authority:

“The portion of i John v. 7, 8 which is now for the first time set in italics in the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, is probably no longer regarded as genuine by any one who is capable of forming an independent judgment on the state of the evidence.” (Cambridge, 1884, p. 69)

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.

1881 Greek Textus Receptus

Scrivener was commissioned by the Revised Version committee to make an accurate edition of the Greek text underlying the King James Version. This was made to show people exactly where the new Greek text departed from the historic Textus Receptus that underlay that KJV. To date, this is the he most accurate of modern editions of the Textus Receptus (although some minor modified editions do exist). Some misinformed people think that because Scrivener worked on the TR edition, as was at times against some of the changes in the revised Greek text, that he was a TR advocate, but this is false.

7 ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες εν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι.

8 καὶ τρεῖς εἰσὶν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῇ γῇ, τὸ Πνεῦμα, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ τὸ αἷμα· καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν.

References

1. Schaff, Philip A companion to the Greek Testament and the English version by , pp. 284-285 footnote, quoting Scrivener from the “Sunday-School Times” and his Six Lectures.

A companion to the Greek Testament and the English version by Philip Schaff

External links

Johannine Comma

1 John 5:7

1 John 5:8

Pure Bible Forum

KJV Today

1 John 5:7 and Modern Criticism by Taylor Desoto

Codex Montfortianus, Erasmus, and 1 John 5:7

Erasmian Myths: The Comma Wager

Erasmian Myths: Codex Vaticanus

1 Jn.5:7,8 Establishing the Authenticity

Defense D. A. Waite

And These Three Are One

Manuscript Differences

“And These Three Are One” Part 1

Riddle Review of McDonald book

Hixson, the CJ, and Roman Catholic Provenance

Riddle on Hixson Part 1

Riddle on Hixson Part 2

Riddle on Hixson Part 3

Riddle - Internal Argument

Riddle - Papyrus

KJV Asia Scams

KJV Asia

KJV Asia Manuscripts

Setting the Record Straight

Dedending 1 John 5:7 by David Cloud

KJV "Errors"

(1 John 5:7-8) Is It Inspired Scripture?

First John 5:6-8 by Floyd Jones

Scion of Zion Article

Trinitarian Bible Society on Johannine Comma

1 John 5:7-8 by Jeffrey Khoo

1 John 5:7 by Thomas Golda

David Cloud Articles

Email Debate Gregory S. Neal and Thomas Holland

“And These Three Are One” Part 2

Links to Books

Frederick Nolan - An Inquiry

SS(ancti) apostolorum septem epistolae catholicae 1782 [2]

Joseph Bryennios Comma Quotation

New criticisms Knittle

13 Sermons - Doctrine of the Trinity Edmund Calamy

Raising the Ghost of Arius by Grantley McDonald

Letters To Edward Gibbon George Travis 1785

A Vindication...of Porson Thomas Turton 1827

Memoir of the Controversy. William Orme

A Vindication of 1st John v. 7 Thomas Burgess Web

Ben David

William Craig Brownlee 1825 Part 1

William Craig Brownlee 1825 Part 2

Theopneustia - François Samuel R. Louis Gaussen, 1841

New plea for the authenticity - Charles Forster 1867 [3][4]

Deux dissertations (French) English Martin

The doctrine of the Greek article - Thomas Middleton

Richard Porson I John v 7, 1790

The King James Version 2023 Edition New Testament is now complete and in print format here.

Internal Links

Old Testament - New Testament KJV 1900

New Testament KJV 2016

Scrivener's 1894 Textus Receptus

2016 Urdu New Testament (TR Based)

Russian Synodal Version (TR Based)

Reina Valera Gómez Spanish (TR Based)

Marginal Notes in the 1611 Authorized Version

Ephesians 3:9

Why We Should Not Passover Easter 1, 2, & 3

Will Kinney

List of TR/KJV based foreign bibles

List of New Testament minuscules

List of New Testament lectionaries

List of New Testament Papyri

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