Hey Pastor John,
While watching some Christian videos last night, I heard someone recite the KJV of 1 John 5:7-8. It didn’t sit well with me. Right or wrong, I felt like it supported the Trinity doctrine. This morning, it was still on my mind, so I decided to look at our translation, and it read differently. I looked up the Greek, and it matched our translation:
KJV 7. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
KJV 8. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
PJV 7. For there are three that bear witness,
PJV 8. the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree.
- Ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσὶν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες,
- τὸ πνεῦμα, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ τὸ αἷμα· καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν.
So, my questions are:
- In your research, have you been clued in on who or when this “comma”was added?
- Is the comma truly “added” and if so, was it to support the trinity and/or any other Christian doctrine?
- Were any other apostles “given” a comma that was added to the NT?
- And what exactly does John mean by the water and blood?
Thank you,
Johnny
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Hi Johnny,
The parts of those verses which we did not translate were added by Trinitarian Christians long after John wrote this letter. There is no question about that. To my knowledge, there is no place quite like it in the New Testament. There are a few intentional mistranslations in the KJV designed to promote the religion of the translators, but I know of no other such blatant corruption of the text.
As for verse 8, the best I can figure is this: We know that the Spirit is the Father’s witness of His Son’s resurrection and glorification (1Jn. 5:6b). But the Spirit does not testify alone. That testimony is made through human vessels, which come through a birth by water (our first birth) and a second birth by the blood of Christ (the Spirit). John said that Jesus himself “came through water and blood – not by water only, but by water and blood”. Jesus was born naturally, and he was born again when the Spirit came upon him after his baptism by John the Baptist.
If John is not saying that, I do not know what he is talking about with such phrases.
Pastor John
P.S. By the way, it’s been a long time since I was involved with the textual variants of the New Testament, and I did not remember the added parts of 1John 5:7–8 referred to as “The Johannine Comma”. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.