Dr. Frederick Nolan has forcefully propounded. Nolan argues that with the Arians in control of the Greek Church for the forty or so year span, Eusebius was able to suppress this passage in the edition that he revised which had the effect of removing the verse from the Greek texts.1 Thus the disputed verse was originally suppressed, not gradually introduced into the Latin translation.2
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
There remains one more valid and compelling reason for the acceptance of the section under discussion as being genuine. As stated on page 1, the Textus Receptus always has been the New Testament used by the true Church! We have cited Parvis' admission of this conclusively decisive point and Aland's concession that it undoubtly has been the N.T. of the Church from the Reformation until the mid twentieth century. This is the most important justification why not only this passage, but all of the passages that would be deleted or altered by the destructive critics should be retained in the confines of Scripture.
Finally, it cannot be overly stressed that the successive editors of the TR could have omitted the passage from their editions. The fact that Stephens, Beza, and the Elzevirs retained the Pericope, despite the reluctance of Erasmus to include it, is not without significance. The learned Lutheran text critic J.A. Bengel ("Gnomon", published in 1742) also convincingly defended its inclusion3 as did Hills in this century. The hard fact is that, by the providence of God, the Johannie comma obtained and retained a place in the Textus Receptus. We emphatically declare that the most extreme caution should be exercised in questioning its right to that place.
Moorman reminds us that the fate of this passage in the written Word indeed parallels the many times Satan sought to destroy the line through which Messiah - the Living Word would come.4 We are reminded, for example, of wicked Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, slaying all of the seed royal of the lineage of David - save for Joash!
Moreover, this author concurs with Moorman - the passage has the ring of truth.5 Like him, we proclaim that it is the Holy Spirit who "guides into all truth" (John 16:13) who has given it that "ring".
1 Nolan, An Inquiry into the Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, op. cit., p. 305. Dr. Nolan is quick to point out that the verse as preserved in the Latin manuscripts is consistent and full whereas the Greek is internally defective grammatically (pp. 259-261, 294) - as we have already seen. Thus Nolan notes that here where the testimony of the two Churches has been found to vary, the evidence is not so much to be seen as contradictory, but rather that one is merely defective. Having confronted the two witnesses, the best way to account for all that has been stated heretofore is to suppose that there was a time when the two agreed in the more full and explicit reading (p. 306).
2 Ibid., p. 561.
3 John Albert Bengel, Gnomon, 5 Vols., 6th ed., trans by The Rev. William Fletcher, D.D., (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Pub., 1866), Vol 5, pp. 140-150 (orig. pub. 1742).
4 Moorman, When The KJV Departs From The "Majority" Text, op. cit., p. 123.
5 Ibid.
148
continued...