Editing Johannine Comma (section)

{{Short description|Interpolated phrase in verses 5:7–8 of 1 John}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
The '''Johannine Comma''' ({{langx|la|Comma Johanneum}}) is an [[Interpolation (manuscripts)|interpolated]] phrase ([[comma (rhetoric)|comma]]) in verses {{Bibleverse-nb|1 John|5:7-8|KJV}} of the [[First Epistle of John]].<ref name="Metzger1994">{{Cite book| edition = 2| publisher = Deutsche Biblegesellschaft| isbn = 978-3-438-06010-5| last = Metzger| first = Bruce M.| title = A textual commentary on the Greek New Testament: a companion volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (fourth revised edition)| location = Stuttgart| date = 1994| pages = 647–649}}</ref>
The text (with the comma in italics and enclosed by brackets) in the [[King James Version]] of the Bible reads:
{{Blockquote
|text={{ssup|7}}For there are three that beare record [{{em|in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.}}] {{ssup|8}}[{{em|And there are three that beare witnesse in earth}}], the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one.
|source=King James Version (1611)
}}

In the Greek [[Textus Receptus]] (TR), the verse reads thus:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bible Gateway passage: 1 John 5:7 - New English Translation |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%205%3A7&version=NET |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=Bible Gateway |language=en}}</ref><blockquote>ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες εν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι.</blockquote>It became a touchpoint for the [[Christian theology|Christian theological debate]] over the doctrine of the [[Trinity]] from the [[First seven ecumenical councils|early church councils]] to the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and [[Protestantism|Protestant]] disputes in the [[early modern period]].<ref name="EECO 2018">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Gurry |author-first=Peter |year=2018 |title=Comma Johanneum |editor1-last=Hunter |editor1-first=David G. |editor2-last=van Geest |editor2-first=Paul J. J. |editor3-last=Lietaert Peerbolte |editor3-first=Bert Jan |encyclopedia=Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |doi=10.1163/2589-7993_EECO_SIM_00000724 |issn=2589-7993}}</ref>

It may first be noted that the words "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" (KJV) found in older translations at 1&nbsp;John 5:7 are thought by some to be spurious additions to the original text. A footnote in the [[The Jerusalem Bible|Jerusalem Bible]], a Catholic translation, says that these words are "not in any of the early Greek MSS [manuscripts], or any of the early translations, or in the best MSS of the [[Vulgate|Vulg[ate]]] itself." In ''A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament'', Bruce Metzger (1975, pp.&nbsp;716–718) traces in detail the history of the passage, asserting its first mention in the 4th-century treatise  ''Liber Apologeticus'', and that it appears in [[Vetus Latina]] and Vulgate manuscripts beginning in the 6th century. Modern translations as a whole (both Catholic and Protestant, such as the [[Revised Standard Version]], [[New English Bible]], and [[New American Bible]]) do not include them in the main body of the text due to their ostensibly spurious nature.
<ref>"Spirit." Insight on the Scriptures- Volume 2. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. p. 1019</ref><ref>Metzger, Bruce. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. pp. 716-718. 1975.</ref>

The comma is mainly only attested in the [[Latin manuscript of the New Testament|Latin manuscripts]] of the New Testament, being absent from the vast majority of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, the earliest Greek manuscript being 14th century.<ref name=":2">{{Cite thesis |last=McDonald |first=G. R |date=2011 |title=Raising the ghost of Arius : Erasmus, the Johannine comma and religious difference in early modern Europe |publisher=Leiden University |type=Doctoral dissertation |hdl=1887/16486}}</ref> It is also totally absent in the [[Geʽez]], [[Bible translations into Coptic|Coptic]],<ref>Raymond Brown, ''The Epistles of John'' (Doubleday, 1982), p. 777.</ref> [[Syriac language|Syriac]], [[Old Georgian language|Georgian]], [[Arabic]] and from the early pre-12th century [[Armenian language|Armenian]]<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Epistles of Saint John |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08435a.htm |access-date=2024-05-24 |website=www.newadvent.org |quote=The Armenian manuscripts, which favour the reading of the Vulgate, are admitted to represent a Latin influence which dates from the twelfth century}}</ref> witnesses to the New Testament. Despite its absence from these manuscripts, it was contained in many printed editions of the New Testament in the past, including the [[Complutensian Polyglot Bible|Complutensian Polyglot]] (1517ad), the different editions of the Textus Receptus (1516-1894ad), the London Polyglot (1655)<ref name=":2" /> and the [[Patriarchal text]] (1904ad).<ref>{{Cite book |title=Η Καινή Διαθήκη |publisher=Ελληνική Βιβλική Εταιρία |year=2020 |isbn=978-618-5078-45-4}}</ref> And it is contained in many [[Reformation]]-era vernacular translations of the Bible due to the inclusion of the verse within the Textus Receptus. In spite of its late date, members of the [[King James Only movement]] and those who advocate for the superiority for the Textus Receptus have argued for its authenticity.

The Comma Johanneum is among the most noteworthy variants found within the Textus Receptus in addition to the [[Confession of the Ethiopian Eunuch|confession of the Ethiopian eunuch]], [[Mark 16|the long ending of Mark]], the [[Jesus and the woman taken in adultery|''Pericope Adulterae'']], the reading "God" in [[First Epistle to Timothy|1 Timothy]] 3:16 and the "[[Book of Life]]" in [[Book of Revelation]] 22:19.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andrews |first=Edward D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2LFEAAAQBAJ&dq=Acts+8:37+variant&pg=PA210 |title=THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS: The "Received Text" of the New Testament |date=2023-06-15 |publisher=Christian Publishing House |isbn=979-8-3984-5852-7 |language=en}}</ref>