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1 John 5:7,8 in Different English Bibles
King James Version (1611/1769):
For there are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness
in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and
the blood: and these three agree in
one.
American Standard Version (1901):
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness,
because the Spirit is the truth. For
there are three who bear witness, the
Spirit, and the water, and the blood:
and the three agree in one.
manuscripts of the Vulgate testify in
heaven: the Father, the Word and the
Holy Spirit, and these three are one.
And there are three that testify on
earth: the (not found in any Greek
manuscript before the sixteenth century)]
New King James Version (1982):
For there are three that bear witness in
heaven: the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness
on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the
blood; and these three agree as one.
Page 88
Revised Standard Version (1952):
And the Spirit is the witness, because
the Spirit is the truth. There are three
witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the
blood; and these three agree.
New International Version
(1973,1978,1984):
For there are three that testify: the
Spirit, the water and the blood; and the
three are in agreement. [Footnote: Late
“has no foundation in Erasmus’ work. Consequently
it is highly improbable that he
included the difficult passage because he
considered himself bound by any such
promise”. Yale University professor
Roland Bainton, another Erasmian expert,
agrees with de Jonge, furnishing proof from
Erasmus’ own writing that Erasmus’ inclusion
of 1 John 5:7f was not due to a socalled
“promise” but the fact that he believed
“the verse was in the Vulgate and
must therefore have been in the Greek text
used by Jerome”. The Erasmian “promise”
is thus a myth!
It has been suggested that the
Johannine Comma did not come from the
apostle John himself but from an unknown
person who invented and inserted it into 1
John 5 so that Christianity would have a
clear Trinitarian proof text. Up until this
point in time, no one has been able to identify
this mysterious person who tried to
“help” the church. He is probably a fictional
character. In any case, it is highly
New Revised Standard Version
(1989):
There are three that testify: the Spirit
and the water and the blood, and these
three agree.
New American Standard Bible
(1995):
For there are three that testify: the Spirit
and the water and the blood; and the
three are in agreement.
unlikely that 1 John 5:7f is the work of a
well-meaning interpolator. When we look
at the text itself, the phrase, “the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Spirit,” naturally
reflects Johannine authorship (cf. John 1:1,
14). An interpolator would rather have used
the more familiar and perhaps stronger
Trinitarian formula - “the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit”. “The Word” or “The
Logos” of 1 John 5:7f points to the apostle
John as its source, for it is distinctively John
who used the term “the Word” to mean
“Christ” in all his writings.
There is nothing in the Johannine
Comma that goes against the fundamentals
of the Christian faith. It is thoroughly
Biblical and theologically accurate in its
Trinitarian statement. There is no good reason
why we should not regard it as authentic
and employ it as the clearest proof-text
in the Scripture for the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity.
Rev. Dr Jeffrey Khoo
(Article published in Foundation magazine,
May-June 2000)