Johannine comma catholic
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Johannine Comma
Interpolated phrase in verses 5:7–8 of 1 John
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 Ghos
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Did Tertullian Quote the Comma Johanneum?
Did Tertullian Quote the Comma Johanneum? In his work Adversus Praxean, Tertullian states: “So the close series of the Father in the Son and the Son in the Paraclete makes three who cohere, the one attached to the other: And these three are one substance, not one person, in the sense in which it was said, ‘I and the Father are one’ in respect of unity of substance, not of singularity of number.” Tertullian, Adversus Praxean 25:1 Ita connexus Patris in Filio et Filii in Paracleto tres efficit cohaerentes, alterum ex altero. Qui tres unum sunt, non unus, quomodo dictum est: Ego et Pater unum sumus, ad substantiae unitatem, non ad numeri singularitatem. A number of pro-Comma works reference this quotation by Tertullian. Cf. Thomas Burgess, Tracts on the Divinity of Christ, (London: J. Hatchard and Son, 1820), 333-34; C. L. Pappas, In Defense of the Authenticity of 1 John 5:7 (Bloomington, IN: Cross, 2011), 122-23. Other claimants that Tertullian is citing the Comma include Timothy Dunkin (http://www.studytoanswer.net/bibleversions/1john5n7.h
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by Sean Finnegan
The most Trinitarian verse in the Bible is found in 1 John 5.7 where the text reads “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”[1] Recently in conversation with an acquaintance, I was challenged to accept the doctrine of the Trinity on the basis of this text. However, this scripture is fraught with difficulties and its history is long and dubious, involving both Greek and Latin manuscripts. Before turning to examine the Latin and Greek histories, I will begin by comparing two of the best known and most influential translations in English and German to more recent ones so as to demonstrate the exact difference between them. The words in italics are known as the Comma Johanneum (henceforth Comma).
| King James Version (1611) | English Standard Version (2008) |
| 7 For there are three that beare record in heauen, 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
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