Back الفاصلة اليوحناوية Arabic Comma Johanneum German Ιωάννειο κόμμα Greek Alineo Johana EO Coma joánica Spanish کاما یوهانین FA Comma Johanneum French הפסוקית היוחננית HE Comma Johanneum ID Comma Johanneum Italian
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The Johannine Comma (Latin: Comma Johanneum) is an interpolated phrase (comma) in verses 5:7–8 of the First Epistle of John.[1] The text (with the comma in italics and enclosed by brackets) in the King James Version of the Bible reads:
7For there are three that beare record [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.] 8[And there are three that beare witnesse in earth], the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one.
— King James Version (1611)
In the Greek Textus Receptus (TR), the verse reads thus:[2]
ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες εν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσι.
It became a touchpoint for the Christian theological debate over the doctrine of the Trinity from the early church councils to the Catholic and Protestant disputes in the early modern period.[3]
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 John 5:7 are thought by some to be 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." In A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Bruce Metzger (1975, pp. 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 Old Latin 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. [4][5]
The comma is mainly only attested in the 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.[6] It is also totally absent in the Geʽez, Aramaic, Syriac, Georgian, Arabic and from the early pre-12th century Armenian[7] 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 (1517ad), the different editions of the Textus Receptus (1516-1894ad), the London Polyglot (1655)[6] and the Patriarchal text (1904ad).[8] 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, the long ending of Mark, the Pericope Adulterae, the reading "God" in 1 Timothy 3:16 and the "Book of Life" in Revelation 22:19.[9]
- ^ Metzger, Bruce M. (1994). A textual commentary on the Greek New Testament: a companion volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (fourth revised edition) (2 ed.). Stuttgart: Deutsche Biblegesellschaft. pp. 647–649. ISBN 978-3-438-06010-5.
- ^ "Bible Gateway passage: 1 John 5:7 - New English Translation". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
- ^ Gurry, Peter (2018). "Comma Johanneum". In Hunter, David G.; van Geest, Paul J. J.; Lietaert Peerbolte, Bert Jan (eds.). Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/2589-7993_EECO_SIM_00000724. ISSN 2589-7993.
- ^ "Spirit." Insight on the Scriptures- Volume 2. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. p. 1019
- ^ Metzger, Bruce. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. pp. 716-718. 1975.
- ^ a b McDonald, G. R (2011). Raising the ghost of Arius : Erasmus, the Johannine comma and religious difference in early modern Europe (Doctoral dissertation). Leiden University. hdl:1887/16486.
- ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Epistles of Saint John". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
The Armenian manuscripts, which favour the reading of the Vulgate, are admitted to represent a Latin influence which dates from the twelfth century
- ^ Η Καινή Διαθήκη. Ελληνική Βιβλική Εταιρία. 2020. ISBN 978-618-5078-45-4.
- ^ Andrews, Edward D. (15 June 2023). THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS: The "Received Text" of the New Testament. Christian Publishing House. ISBN 979-8-3984-5852-7.