1 John 5:7: Difference between revisions

The textual tradition contains an addition to 1 John 5:7–8*, called the Comma Johanneum or “Johannine Comma” (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):

:8 Et tres sunt, qui testimonium dant in terra:

:Spiritus et aqua et sanguis, et hi tres unum sunt.

The Comma Johanneum 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 Comma Johanneum is also absent from the manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate before 750AD.  The Comma Johanneum 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 Comma Johanneum: 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 Comma Johanneum. From that time it has been generally recognized in Roman Catholic scholarship also that the Comma Johanneum is neither original nor authentic.<ref>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.</ref>