Directory | Site Map | Explanation | N.T. Studies 1 John 5:7 & the Book of Mormon 1 John 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.” [King James/Authorized Version, 1611] The authenticity of this passage has been in question at least since the 16th century, when the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus did not include it in his first edition of the Greek New Testament (1516). Though Catholic authorities hotly criticized him for the omission, Erasmus defended himself by saying he found it in none of the Greek manuscripts available to him at the time. For starters, Catholics feared the publication of a Greek New Testament. They knew Greek was the original language of the NT, so such a work would give informed scholars "a tool with which to criticize and correct the official Latin Bible of the Church" (Metzger, 96). Worse would be Erasmus's "omission." It would undermine the doctrine of the Trinity, since 1 John 5:7 was the single most explicit verse in the NT that supports the trinitarian dogma. The baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19 is the second supportive verse, though its originality is questioned by many commentators because of the internal witness of the NT showing that immersion was done in the name of Jesus, not the Triune name. Naively, Erasmus promised that he would restore the omitted passage in 1 John if even one Greek text were brought to him. Shortly, such a text was specially composed and given to him (Codex Montfortianus, Greg. 61), and he made good on his promise, even though he disbelieved the verse was authentic. He included it in his 3rd edition in 1522. The editors of the King James Version (1611) used a later rescension of Erasmus' 3rd edition with the Trinitarian text included. Only in the late 1800s did English Bible translators and editors abandon the famous text, based on the increased evidence of hundreds more Greek manuscripts. (For more details on the Erasmus Story see comments by the editors of NetBible after the Translations Table below.) Since the time of Erasmus, New Testament scholars have accumulated additional evidence that strongly suggests the passage is not original to the Letter of 1 John. The late Bruce Metzger, a leading authority on NT manuscripts, briefly outlined the evidence: The passage is absent from every known Greek manuscript dating before the 16th century [the era of controversy over Erasmus' Greek edition]. The passage is quoted by none of the Greek Fathers, who, had they known it, would certainly have employed it in the Trinitarian controversies of the 3rd and 4th centuries (Sabellian and Arian). The passage is absent from the manuscripts of all ancient versions (Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic, Slavonic) — except the Latin. It is also not found in Jerome's original Latin Vulgate (Codex Fuldensis, Codex Amiatinus) or in the Old Latin version in its early form (as used by Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine). The earliest instance of the passage is in a 4th century Latin treatise entitled Liber Apologeticus (chap. 4), attributed either to Priscillian (d. ca. 385) or his follower Bishop Instantius in Spanish. The passage was apparently written in the margin as an allegorical gloss. In the 6th century scribes began to include it within the text of 1 John 5, where it shows up in later copies of the Old Latin. It is not dfound in Jerome's original Vulgate translation (ca. AD 400). From: B.M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (2nd ed., Stuttgart: German & United Bible Societies, 1994), 647-648. Others have noted the controversy about 1 John 5:7: (1) Martin Luther omitted verse 7 from his German Bible (1545). But beginning in 1574 the printer Sigmund Feyerabend [1528–1590] added it to later editions of Luther's translation. (2) The English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton [1643–1727] was an avid Bible student. In a letter to a friend (14 Nov. 1690), he wrote at length on 1 John 5:7, which he regarded as spurious. [The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H. W. Turnbull (Cambridge, 1961), 3:83-109]. For extensive discussions of the Greek text of 1 John 5:7 see: B. F. Westcott, The Epistles of St. John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966; orig. 1883), 202-209 Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John (Anchor Bible Vol. 30) (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982), Appendix IV, 775-787 Other Sources: B. & K. Aland, M. Black, C. M. Martini, B. M. Metzger, A. Wikgren, The Greek New Testament (4th rev. ed., Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 1993), 819 Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1968), 62, 101-102, 136n.1 E. Nestle, B. & K. Aland, J. Karavidopoulos, C. Martini, B. M. Metzger, Novum Testamentum Graece (27th ed., Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 1993), 623 The Greek-English New Testament [Novum Testamentum Graece & English Standard Version] (28th ed.; Stuttgart: German Bible Society, and Wheaton, IL, 2012), 1450 For an excellent introduction to the field of Textual Criticism by a scholar with a high view of Scripture, see: Paul D. Wegner, A Student's Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible (Its History, Methods & Results) (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006) See also the technical primer by Jack Finegan, Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eeerdmans, 1974) The following table shows how English, Modern Hebrew, European and Latin American Bible translations handle 1 John 5:7. Roman Catholic versions are noted (if known); most others are assumed to be Protestant, Messianic Jewish, or independent. Several of the readings were gleaned from BibleGateway and Unbound Bible. Interactive photocopies of the first Greek N.T. editions and older English Bibles are seen at: Bibles-Online.