1 John 5:7-8
The “witness of God” is far greater than the “witness of men”. The text is simply ignored by many critical scholars and the same time objected by various anti-trinitarian movements and cults for the reason that accordingly it was a Latin additive during 11[SUP]th[/SUP] or 12[SUP]th[/SUP] Ce. or that it was only supported by a few late Greek manuscripts and was inserted in the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] Ce. The battle seems endless whether it must be retained or outright ignored. But for the bible believers and until now faithfully believe it belongs to the text carrying evidences not only to the external evidences, internal evidences, grammatical style of evidence, and the acceptance of the text during the third and fourth century where corruption of the scriptures abounds during that period. The text is fairly supported and demonstrated in the Bible over Creation (Genesis 1), thus when God the Father said, the Word comes out of His mouth and the world’s were created and where the Holy Spirit moves upon the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2) harmonizing the doctrine of the Trinity. The witness of God is also true in Salvation of mankind (2 Corinthians 13:14) and including in the Baptism (Matthew 3: 16-17; Matthew 28:19). I would quite fairly dismissed the message on the alleged proclamation that the text has been inserted, or added by the later hand or it was altered since it will also be very an easy way for me that it was priory omitted why? Because this the strongest proof of the doctrine of the trinity and is said that someone wanted to corrupt the theology of it! It was said that the Arians expunged the Comma or the one who loves the pre-eminence which Apostle John has written the Epistle warning the Christians or even the Gnostics who evidently substitute, the three in one, the Father, Word and the Holy Ghost into the “Father, Mother and Son.” But then it was returned because it is fitted in the text by from both grammatically and the evidences of Greek mss. including the Church Fathers.
Now I would like to venture you in a gist historical in the “Universal acceptance” of the text in favor of its retention.
1. After the “conversion” of Constantine changed his attitudes towards Christianity resulting to the Edict of Toleration. In 313 AD, Constantine issued the famous Edict of Milan that not only granted freedom to all Christians, but adopted “Christianity” (Cathlocism) as the official(state) Religion of the Roman Empire.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Edict-of-Milan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Milan
2. We know that it was a very doubtful if Constantine was ever saved. The marriage of the church and the state then gives way to harlotry, mixing paganism and teaching of Christianity.
3. During the early centuries, several cities became the Great Center of Christendom:
A. Western – Rome, the center of Latin Christianity
B. Eastern- Caesarea, Latin speaking which is in contention with several teachings of the Western church.
C. Asia – Antioch, home of the Byzantine Christianity. This is the “central missionary agency” of Apostle Paul where the disciples were first called Christian (Acts 12:26). It is also a known fact that Constantine moved the seat of Roman Empire in Constantinople.
D. African- Also Latin speaking Christian’s independent with the Western and Eastern Latin Churches. Biblical example of black race conversions is found in Acts 13:1 named Simeon who is called Niger. So it is possible that the African churches were a product of Apostle Paul or that Simeon originally a member of the Antiochan Church reached his native country and preached the Gospel and thus the African churches.
4. The corruptions of many biblical texts including the Johannine Comma were the products of the School of Alexandria (Egypt) where it was influence by the Gnostics teachings and Neo Platonism. The biggest results where the Eastern Churches and Biblical text influenced by the so called corruption of the scriptures.
5. The Western Latin text by St. Jerome has it but according to digitized copy has been corrupted earlier including v 6 and verse 8 where the umlaut carried into the Vaticanus(B) being the scribes careless yet retained the Johaninne Comma. While Codex Sinaiticus does not have it being an alteration for the fact that it was translated in English started with the word “For” and the truth is that “And” is the correct reading. So the EVEN THE GREEK MSS that does or does not contain said Comma were also corrupted.
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]And there are Three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one.
[/TD]
[TD]quia tres sunt qui testimonium dant in caelo, Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus Sanctus. Et hi tres unum sunt.
[/TD]
[/TR]
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Latin Vulgate Bible with Douay-Rheims and King James Version Side-by-Side+Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ
Codex Sinaticus translation in English
6 This is he that came through water and blood, Jesus Christ: not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood;
and it is the Spirit that testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
7 For they that testify are three,
8 the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and the three are one.
ουτοϲ εϲτιν ο ελθων δια υδατοϲ και αιματοϲ και πνϲ ιϲ χϲ ουκ εν τωυδατι μονον αλλ εν τω ϋδατι και τω αιματι και το πνα εϲτιν το μαρτυρουνοτι το πνα εϲτιν η αληθεια
7 οτι οι τρειϲ ειϲιν οι μαρτυρουτεϲ
8 το πνα και το ϋδωρ και το αιμα και οι τρειϲ ειϲ το εν ειϲιν
Codex Sinaiticus - See The Manuscript | 1 John |
6. While it has been deferred on its transmission in many ages past by the Eastern Church, the Greek Orthodox founds its way of coming back the original Greek text based on the readings of sixty Greek Lectionaries dating from 9[SUP]th[/SUP] to 16[SUP]th[/SUP] Ce.
http://onlinechapel.goarch.org/bibl...04.1John/Bible.grc.GBS.NT.1904.1John.5_v1.pdf
7. The testimonies of the African Churches which are unscratched in early centuries by Arianism are unified in support of the text. “
The Comma exists in places where Arianism was not established early, such as Spain and North Africa. Whereas Constantinople and Alexandria were infected with Arianism by the 4th century, Spain and North Africa were relatively less infected until the 5th century. Geographically, Spain and North Africa were the farthest places from the major centers of Arianism. Moreover, whereas primarily Greek and Latin speakers spread Arianism in the rest of Christendom, Spain was introduced to Arianism through Visigoths and North Africa was introduced to Arianism through Vandals. These were both Germanic tribes who used the Gothic Bible of Ulfilas. Thus Arians in Spain and North Africa had less influence on the Latin scriptures. This allowed the Comma to remain in Latin manuscripts of Spain and North Africa.” Cyprian, Priscillian, Phoebadius, Vigilius, Victor, Fulgentius bearing the Comma.
So, we have the many occurrence of witnesses the 1 John 5:7-8 has been unanimously and universally accepted. It was indeed omitted in the many Greek mss. but was preserved to us in the Latin text and in Greek text including the recent coming back through the Orthodox Text in 1904.
