Does 1 John 5:7 teach the Trinity? After all, it lists three persons and says they are one. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Apart from the King James translation, all other main translations do not have the words ” the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”. Translators agree that this was added in later from a footnote in the Textus Receptus, the Greek text that the King James Bible was translated from. Known as the Johannine Comma, it is widely accepted today that the passage is a Latin corruption that entered the Greek manuscript Textus Receptus. Modern Bible translations such as the NIV translate the verse as: 1 John 5:7 For there are three that testify: How did the disputed words find there way into some late texts? Well there are many theories, but we know that the passage is quoted by none of the Greek Fathers, who, had they known it, would most certainly have used it in the Trinitarian controversies.  Its first appearance in Greek is in a Greek version of the Latin in 1215. One theory as to how this corruption took place is as follows: The first published Greek NT was edited in 1516 by Catholic priest, scholar, and humanist Erasmus in 1516. This edition did not include the disputed words. A revised edition in 1519 also did not include these words. Erasmus was severely criticized by other Catholic priests for not including in Greek these words which were well-known to them from the Latin. Erasmus said that the words were left out simply because he did not find them in any of the Greek manuscripts he had examined, and promised to insert them if they were found in even one Greek manuscript. An Irish monk deliberately fabricated such a manuscript to meet Erasmus’ requirement. This manuscript (no. 61) was copied from an early manuscript which did not contain the words. The page in this manuscript containing the disputed words is on a special paper and has a glossy finish, unlike any other page in the manuscript. On the basis of this one 16th century deliberately falsified manuscript, Erasmus inserted the disputed words in his 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions of the Greek NT, though he protested that he did not believe the words were genuine. Nearly all printed Greek NTs from Erasmus until the 19th century were simply reprints of Erasmus’ 4th or 5th edition, and so the words continued to be printed in Greek as part of I John even though there is no sufficient evidence for their inclusion. Recent editions of the Greek NT follow the manuscript evidence and therefore do not insert the words. The earliest English New Testament, the translation of Wycliffe in the 1380s, was made from medieval Latin manuscripts, and so it includes the disputed words, though it reads “son” instead of “word.” Tyndale’s translation of … Continue reading 1 John 5:7