1 John 5:7
In the King James Version of the bible, 1 John 5:7-8 states:
- 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.[1]
The bracketed words constitute the so-called “Johannine Comma,” a reading which has been the object of considerable controversy in New Testament textual criticism.[2]
The original Greek text
The textual tradition contains an addition to 1 John 5:7–8*, called the “Johannine Comma” or "Comma Johanneum" (comma = sentence or clause), which made its way almost exclusively into the Latin texts of the Bible. In 1592 the Comma Johanneum was incorporated into the official Catholic edition of the Vulgate where it reads as follows (italicized):
- 7 Quoniam tres sunt, qui testimonium dant
- in caelo: Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus Sanctus, et hi tres unum sunt.
- 8 Et tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in terra: Spiritus et aqua et sanguis, et hi tres unum sunt.
The Johannine Comma is absent from almost the whole of the Greek textual tradition, including the quotations in the church fathers. It is transmitted by only eight Greek minuscules, where it probably entered via the Latin textual witnesses. None of these examples can be dated before 1400, and only four of them appear in the text; the others are marginal additions.
The Johannine Comma is also absent from the manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate before 750AD and is absent from all Coptic, Ethiopian, Arabic, and Slavic translations up to 1500AD.
The Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition issued a decretal on 13 January 1897, forbidding anyone to question the authenticity of the Johannine Comma: its genuineness could neither be denied nor doubted. Pope Leo XIII confirmed this judgment two days later. On 2 June 1927, however, a new official declaration by the Holy Office, as the successor institution to the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition, made Roman Catholic exegetes again free to discuss the question of the Johannine Comma. From that time it has been generally recognized in Roman Catholic scholarship also that the Johannine Comma is neither original nor authentic.[3]
How it got into the King James Version
Erasmus, a Dutch Catholic scholar, created a reliable Greek New Testament based on six incomplete Greek manuscripts. Because the words do not appear in the early Greek texts, he refused to include them in his 1516 and 1519 editions of the Greek New Testament. However, he faced pressure to include them from the Catholic.
Erasmus still refused to include the Johanine Comma unless the Catholic authorities showed him a Greek text containing the Comma. He was shown a manuscript that was probably made in 1520, and Erasmus then included the words in his 1522 third edition, protesting all the while. Subsequently, however, he refused to include the words in future editions. But Erasmus’s third edition became the Textus Receptus which was used by the translators for the King James Version (KJV), dominant for the next four centuries.[4]
There are few critical issues on which there is greater agreement among scholars of all persuasions: the Greek text underlying the Johannine comma did not come from the Apostle John’s hand. They are not original.[5]
Here is how the passage reads in several modern translations:
NIV
- 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.[6]
ESV
- 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.[7]
NASB
- 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.[8]
Quotes of William Branham
First John 5:7, said, “There are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and…Father, Word, and Holy Ghost,” which was the Son, “and these three are one. And there’s three that bear record in earth, the water, Blood, and Spirit, and they agree in one.” Not one, but agree in one. You can’t have the Father without having the Son; you can’t have the Son without having the Holy Ghost, for they are inseparable, one. The trinity is in a one.[9]
Footnotes
- ↑ The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 1 Jn 5:7–8.
- ↑ Carroll D. Osburn, “Johannine Comma,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 882.
- ↑ Georg Strecker and Harold W. Attridge, The Johannine Letters: A Commentary on 1, 2, and 3 John, Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996), 188–189.
- ↑ J. E. McDermond, 1, 2, 3 John, Believers Church Bible Commentary (Harrisonburg, VA; Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 2011), 309.
- ↑ Robert W. Yarbrough, 1–3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 293.
- ↑ The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 1 Jn 5:7–8.
- ↑ The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Jn 5:7–8.
- ↑ New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Jn 5:7–8.
- ↑ William Branham, 53-0608A - Demonology, Physical Realm, para. 57