Why is 1 John 5:7 absent in some early Greek manuscripts? Text of 1 John 5:7–8 “7 For there are three that testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit—and these three are One. 8 And there are three that testify on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three agree as one.” Scope of the Variant Everything from “in heaven” through “and these three are One” is called the Comma Johanneum. The shorter Greek reading simply moves from “three that testify” directly to “the Spirit, the water, and the blood.” Early Greek Manuscripts and the Apparent Absence • The two oldest complete Greek codices, Vaticanus (B, 4th c.) and Sinaiticus (א, 4th c.), lack the Comma. • Other uncials—Alexandrinus (A, 5th c.), Ephraemi Rescriptus (C, 5th c.), and the majority of minuscule manuscripts before the 14th century—follow the shorter form. • These facts explain why critical editions (Nestle–Aland 28, UBS 5) place the Comma in the apparatus, not the main text. Ancient Latin Witnesses That Contain the Comma • Old Latin mss. r (Codex Monacensis, 6th c.) and q produce the expanded reading. • Priscillian (c. 380 A.D.) cites it verbatim in Liber Apologeticus 1.4. • The 5th-century Council of Carthage (A.D. 484) appealed to it when bishops defended Trinitarian doctrine before the Vandal king Huneric. • Codex Fuldensis (A.D. 546)—a Vulgate ms. prepared under Victor of Capua—notes the Comma in the margin. • The vast majority of late-medieval Vulgate manuscripts incorporate it. Patristic Echoes Earlier Than Extant Greek Manuscripts • Cyprian of Carthage, De Unitate Ecclesiae 6 (A.D. 250): “The Lord says, ‘I and the Father are one,’ and again it is written, ‘And the three are one.’” • Treatise Against Varimadus the Arian (c. 380) employs the wording. • While no Greek patristic source before the 4th century quotes the clause verbatim, several bear witness to the three-fold heavenly testimony concept (e.g., Tertullian, Adv. Praxean 25). Why Many Scholars Regard the Comma as a Later Addition 1. Wide early-Greek absence. 2. Abrupt grammatical jump when inserted: “οἱ τρεῖς” in v. 8 becomes masculine, agreeing with the masculine nouns “Father/Word/Spirit” supplied by the Comma; in the shorter text “Spirit, water, blood” are neuter/masculine mix creating a known “constructio ad sensum.” 3. Surge of citations only after Trinitarian controversies intensify. Why Others Affirm Authenticity or at Least Ecclesiastical Authority 1. Internal homoeoteleuton: Greek of v. 7 and v. 8 shares the phrase “τρεις εισιν οι μαρτυρουντες” (“there are three that testify”). A scribe’s eye could easily skip from the first occurrence to the second, dropping the intervening words—an omission more likely than a carefully crafted doctrinal insertion that fits seamlessly. 2. Early Latin presence suggests the clause was circulating in the 2nd-century bilingual North-African church. Greek exemplars used there may have since perished, especially in light of Diocletian’s persecutions (A.D. 303–313) which targeted Scriptures. 3. Cyprian’s mid-3rd-century citation precedes later doctrinal disputes, undercutting the charge of fabrication for polemical reasons. 4. The passage’s Trinitarian force harmonizes with Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, and John 1:1–3; no theological novelty emerges. 5. Providential preservation: while not in the earliest Greek mss. we now possess, God safeguarded the wording through the Latin Church, then re-introduced it into the Greek textual stream. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus, and the King James Trajectory Erasmus’s first two editions (1516, 1519) excluded the Comma because he lacked Greek witnesses. When confronted by clergy citing Latin support, he included the clause in his 1522 third edition after receiving minuscule 61 (Codex Montfortianus, early 16th c.) containing it in Greek. Later printers (Stephanus 1550, Beza 1598) adopted Erasmus’s third edition; the KJV translators (1611) followed suit. The Textus Receptus thus fixed the Comma in many Protestant Bibles, influencing confessions such as the Westminster (1647). Modern English Versions and Footnoting Major translations that rely on the critical eclectic text (e.g., ESV, NIV, CSB) bracket or footnote the Comma; translations based on the TR or Majority Text (e.g., KJV, NKJV, MEV) place it in the main body. Summary The Comma Johanneum’s absence in early Greek manuscripts stems from a complicated transmission history marked by possible scribal omission, differing regional texts, and providential preservation through Latin witnesses. Whether viewed as original or as a very ancient gloss, its wording is consonant with the unified biblical testimony that “the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit… are One,” and thus it poses no threat to the consistency or authority of the Word of God. |
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