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NASB | 1 John 5:7 For there are three that testify: |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 John 5:7 For there are three witnesses: |
Subject: Evidence against authenticity 1 John 5:7 |
Bible Note: It may first be noted that the words "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" (KJ) found in older translations at 1 John 5:7 are actually spurious additions to the original text. A footnote in The 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 Vulg[ate] itself." A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, by Bruce Metzger (1975, pp. 716-718), traces in detail the history of the spurious passage. It states that the passage is first found in a treatise entitled Liber Apologeticus, of the fourth century, and that it appears in Old Latin and Vulgate manuscripts of the Scriptures, beginning in the sixth century. Modern translations as a whole, both Catholic and Protestant, do not include them in the main body of the text, because of recognizing their spurious nature.-RS, NE, NAB. For example, when the 16th-century scholar Erasmus translated his Greek "New Testament," he appealed to the authority of the Vatican Codex (called CODEX Vaticanus 1209) to omit the spurious words from 1 John chapter 5, verses 7 and 8. Erasmus was right, yet as late as 1897 Pope Leo XIII upheld the corrupted Latin text of the Vulgate. For the Roman Catholic Church, the Latin Vulgate version of the Holy Scriptures remains its "pre-eminent authority." According to the encyclical letter Divino Afflante Spiritu of Pius XII, published in the year 1943, this fourth-century Latin translation by Jerome is also viewed as being "entirely immune from any error in matters of faith and morals." This addition,"the Father, the Word and the holy spirit; and these three are one." known technically as the "Johannine Comma," was protected by the Vatican until 1927, in spite of the fact that even some Catholic scholars had raised doubts about its authenticity as early as the sixth century. Only with the publication of modern Roman Catholic translations has this textual error been acknowledged. |