of 1 John 5:7-8 |
One of the few disputed passages of Scripture is found in 1 John 5:7-8. The phrase "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth," is regarded by many as not being original to the text. This issue probably would not get so much attention except that it becomes involved in the question of inerrancy of the King James Bible translation and its major role of supporting the Trinity concept. The process of textual criticism involves studying many manuscripts from different sources to try and determine what is orignal and what is not original to a text. [For the record, this author believes that the King James Version is still one of the best English translations on the market. However, it is recognized as both a translation and a copy rather than the original text].
The original authored manuscript for the book of 1 John has been lost to antiquity. This is probably due, at least in part, to the common use of papyrus for making scrolls in the early centuries AD. Papyrus is not as strong and durable as parchment and so most texts have only a few fragments reamining from that time period. The codex, or book form, started coming into common use in the second century AD. By the fourth century, it was common to have things written in a codex form on parchment which history has shown to be more durable and where we have the oldest known copies of the text of 1 John.
The Alexandrian Text Type, also known as the Greek Minority Text, does not include the Comma Johanneum in any copies prior to the fifteenth century. This includes some of the oldest texts known such as the Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus. The Byzantine Text Type, also known as the Greek Majority Text, also does not contain the Comma Johanneum in any copies prior to the fifteenth century. After the fifteenth century, it primarily exists in Greek texts translated from the Latin Vulgate or as marginal glosses added as variant readings.
The comma johannem is not known in any old Latin, or Vetus Latina, before the 7th century. The Latin Vulgate, written by Jerome in the fourth century, did not contain the comma Johannem. Furthermore, it was not included in any known copies of the vulgate until about the ninth century AD when it appears to have been back-written into the text.
The comma johanneum is not known in any other early language translations. This includes the Peshitta in the Syriac language. It also includes the Coptic translations of both the Sahidic and Bohairic types.
Although the book of 1 John was quoted by both the Greek and Latin church fathers, the comma Johanneum was never used before the fifth century AD. If it had existed, this becomes especially surprising during the discussion perioed of the Trinity concept during the third and fourth centuries as this would have been some of the best evidence available for use. Some speculate that Cyprian alluded to the comma Johenneum, but reading the text does not show a quotation of 1 John 5:7-8, but rather only gives a slightly trinitarian interpretation of the text at best.
When Erasmus produced his translation from the original Greek and Hebrew languages in the 1500's, he did not find the comma Johanneum in any of the originals. The first two editions of the text did not include it. By the third edition of the text, he was under heavy pressure by the church to include the comma Johanneum. He finally did so, reluctantly because he suspected it was a fake, when the church provided a Greek text that did include the comma johanneum. This text is known as Codex 61 and recent studies have found the page containing the comma to be a forgery recent to his times. However, it is this third edition that was chosen by the church to become the Textus Receptus and which has been used for many translations since that time.
The Comma Johanneum appears to have been worked into the Latin Vulgate around 800 AD. It was later back translated into the Greek. However, only eight of the thousands of New Testament manuscripts contain this passage. The oldest of these comes from the Bodleian Library collection in which the comma is a variant reading added as an alternative to the main text. The other seven manuscripts date from the sixteenth century or later with four of these being hand written in the margin.
The Comma Johanneum does not appear in the early Greek, Latin, or other language manuscripts. It was not quoted by the church fathers and its appearance in the Textus Receptus was due to a forgery. It first appeared in the ninth century Latin Vulgate and continued in manuscripts copied or translated from that text. Therefore, it is not original to the text of Scripture.