The Clearest Trinity Verse in the Bible Isn't in the Earliest Manuscripts

Question

Berean.ai · Accepted Answer

Did you know the single most explicit Trinity verse in the King James Bible — 1 John 5:7's "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" — appears in NO Greek manuscript before the 14th century? It's called the Comma Johanneum, and its history is one of the strangest chapters in the transmission of the biblical text. The Verse in Question: KJV (1611), 1 John 5:7-8: "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." ESV (2001), 1 John 5:7-8: "For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree." The bolded portion of the KJV — "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 called the Comma Johanneum ("the Johannine Comma") and is absent from modern critical translations. The Manuscript Evidence: The Comma is absent from all Greek papyri, all Greek uncial codices before the 14th century (Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, Ephraemi Rescriptus), all Greek minuscule manuscripts before the 14th c. (with two dubious late exceptions), and all Greek patristic quotations of 1 John 5 — even from writers deeply involved in the Trinitarian controversies who would have cited it as ammunition if it existed. The Comma appears in some Old Latin manuscripts (4th-5th c. onward) and the Latin Vulgate. It originated in the Latin tradition, likely as a marginal gloss reflecting the Trinitarian controversies, and was later incorporated into some Latin manuscripts. The Erasmus Story: 1516 — Desiderius Erasmus published the first printed Greek New Testament (Novum Instrumentum). He did NOT include the Comma because it was absent from every Greek manuscript he had consulted.