APPENDIX B - The Johannine Comma

FIRST JOHN 5:6-8

 6. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (KJB) The embolded portion of the passage is omitted from the NIV and RSV and is footnoted or missing in nearly all modern versions, reading instead, "There are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the water and the blood" or something closely akin. Comment: This Scripture has been entitled the "Johannine Comma" by textual critics. The verse as found in the King James is the strongest single Scripture on the Holy Trinity. As such, it is not surprising that it should be the subject of vehement debate and an object of Satan's attack. It is a shameful, sad comment upon our time as to how readily modern Christians will surrender this and other passages on "textual grounds" without bothering to delve more closely into the evidence.

Dr. J.A. Moorman - a dedicated Godly minister, capsuling the posture of modern textual criticism which insists upon the omission of the passage, has set forth the following particulars:1

1. The passage is missing from every known Greek manuscript except four, and these contain the passage in what appears to be a translation from a late recension (revision) of the Latin Vulgate. These four are all late manuscripts. They are a 16th century ms (#61), a 12th century ms (#88) which had the passage written in the margin by a modern hand, a 15th century ms (#629), and an 11th century ms which has the passage written in the margin by a 17th century hand.

2. The passage is not quoted by any of the Greek Fathers who would have employed it as proof in the Trinitarian controversies (Arian and Sabellian) had they known of the section. Its first appearance in Greek is in a Greek version of the (Latin) Acts of the Latern Council in 1215.

3. The section is not present in the mss of all the ancient versions except the Latin. Even then, it is not found in the Old Latin in its early form and it is not in Jerome's Vulgate (c.405). The earliest instance of the passage being quoted as part of the actual text of First John is a fourth century Latin treatise. Supposedly the "gloss" arose when the original passage was understood to symbolize the Trinity (through the mention of three witnesses; the Spirit, and the water and the blood). This interpretation, they tell us, may have been written as a marginal note at first and, as time went on, found its way into the text. The "gloss" was quoted by Latin Fathers in North Africa and Italy in the 5th century as part of the text of the Epistle. From the 6th century on, it is found more and more frequently in mss of the Old Latin and Vulgate.

4. If the passage were original, a compelling reason or reasons should have been found to account for its omission, either accidently or deliberately, by all of the copyists of hundreds of Greek mss and by translators of ancient versions (called "transcriptional probability" - p. 1). Lastly, they inform us that the passage makes an awkward break in the sense (called "intrinsic probability" - p. 1).

 There it is! These are the standard arguments that have been repeated ad nauseam. It certainly sounds convincing, but is the entire story being told?

1 Moorman, When The KJV Departs From The "Majority" Text, op. cit., pp. 115-123. Appendix B is largely dependent upon Moorman; this work of his is full of pertinent data and is a most excellent manuscript.

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