| AAT | All the older manuscripts lack verses 7b-8c. Early in the 16th century atranslator apparently took these words from Latin manuscripts and inserted them in hisGreek New Testament. Erasmus took them from this Greek New Testament and inserted them inthe third edition (1522) of his Greek New Testament. Luther used the text prepared by Erasmus.But even though the inserted words taught the Trinity, Luther ruled them out and neverincluded them in his translation. In 1550 Bugenhagen objected to these words "on accountof the truth." In 1574 Feyerabend, a printer, added them to Luther's text, and in 1596they appeared in the Wittenberg copies. |
| CCDT | Confraternity of Christian Doctrine Translation:According to the evidence of many manuscripts, and the majority of commentators, these versesshould read: "For there are three that bear witness: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood,and these three are one." The Holy See reserves to itself the right to pass finally on theorigin of the present reading. |
| EDW | The Received Text reads: "For there are three who bear witness in heaven, theFather, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And there are three that bearwitness on earth." This text concerning the heavenly witness is not contained in any Greekmanuscript which was written earlier than the fifth century. It is not cited by any of theGreek ecclesiastical writers; nor by any of the early Latin fathers, even when the subjectsupon which they treat would naturally have led them to appeal to its authority. It istherefore evidently spurious, and was first cited (though not as it now reads) by VirgiliusTapsensis, a Latin writer of no credit, in the latter end of the fifth century; but by whomforged, is of no great moment, as its design must be obvious to all. |
| IB | In the Preface "The Hebrew and Greek Texts," it is stated that this version took thisverse from the Complutensian Bible. The IB translators did not accept it as true scripture,but allowed it to remain. [The Complutensian Bible is a scholarly Polyglot Bible, edited byStunics under the sponsorship of Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros and printed at Alcalá,Spain (1514-17).] |
| TJB | Vulgate verses 7-8 read as follows: "There are three witnesses in heaven: the Father,the Word and the Spirit, and these three are one: there are three witnesses on earth:the Spirit the water and the blood." The words in italics (not in any of the early Greek MSS,or any of the early translations, or in the best MSS of the Vulgate itself) are probablya gloss that has crept into the text. |
| KTC | V.7. This verse does not occur in any good Greek manuscript. But the Latin versions mayhave preserved the true text; scribes often omitted by error, the former of two sentenceswhich had deceptively similar endings. In this very chapter, two important manuscriptsomitted the first six words of verse 15, for the same reason. |
| NET | This version contains the same footnote as An American Translation(Beck). |
| NIV | Late manuscripts of the Vulgate "testify in heaven: the Father, the Word and the HolySpirit, and these three are one. And there are three that testify on earth: the" (not foundin any Greek manuscript before the sixteenth century). |
| NKJ | NU-Text and M-Text omit the words from in heaven (verse 7) through on earth(verse 8). Only four or five very late manuscripts contain these words in Greek. |
| PNC | The People's New Covenant: Verse 7: The so-calledAuthorized Version is followed in rendering this verse. The verse however does not appearin any Greek manuscript written earlier than the fifth century. |
| SCM | Spencer New Testament: The words in brackets are notfound in the oldest manuscripts now extant, and the majority of Catholic critics today holdthat they were not part of the original text. On the other hand, the arguments for theauthenticity of the passage have such weight that it would not be safe to regardnon-authenticity as established. As the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit bear witnessto Christ's divinity, so the spirit which he yielded up on the cross, and the water and theblood that issued from his side, bear witness to his human nature. |
| GW | Four very late manuscripts add verses 7b-8a: ... . |
| WVSS | Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures: In theopinion of nearly all the critics and of most Catholic writers of the present day the words"in heaven -- the Father, ... on the earth" were not contained in the original text; at thesame time, until further action be taken by the Holy See it is not open for Catholic editorsto eliminate the words from a version made for the use of the faithful. |
| WNT | Verse 7 in the Authorized Version not in the best manuscripts. |
| --- | Interpreter's Bible, Volume 12. Abingdon Press, 1931, pages 293 and 294:
This verse in the KJV is to be rejected (with RSV). It appears in no ancient Greek manuscriptnor is cited by any Greek father; of all the versions only the Latin contained it and even thisin none of its ancient sources. The earliest manuscripts of the Vulgate do not have it. It isfirst quoted as a part of 1 John by Priscillian, the Spanish heretic, who died in 385, andit gradually made its way into manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate until it was accepted as partof the authorized Latin text. |
| --- | Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary. Abingdon Press, 1971, page 939:
The Spirit, the water, and the blood may be an allusion to the church's sacramental rites ofinitiation, viz., confirmation, baptism, and Eucharist, in a form and order observed in thechurches in Asia Minor at the time of writing of 1 John. During the controversies of thefourth century over the doctrine of the Trinity the text was expanded -- first in Spain circa380, and then taken up in the Vulgate -- by the insertion: "There are three that bear recordin heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one." A few lateGreek manuscripts contain the addition. Hence it passed into the KJV. But all modern criticaleditions and translations of the New Testament, including the RSV, omit the interpolation,as it has no warrant in the best and most ancient manuscripts or in the early church fathers. |