The copies

Witness

Matthew jumps a verse. The prayer stops. Two strokes decide God or He.

Walk the copies. KJV often keeps the longer reading. BSB follows the older books. When a post says theft, we show you the page. A missing verse is often still in Mark. This is not a decoder ring for villains.

The gaps

A line sits in the KJV and not in the oldest copy. It is often still in Mark or Luke.

01Fasting02Lost03Widows04Ears05Worm06Forgive07Numbered08Fire09Field10Barabbas11Angel12I believe13Goads14Silas15Grace

The joins

An Amen was added. A hard stop was kept. Sweat like blood is argued. A woman the church would not lose.

01Amen02Ending03Sweat04Woman

The words

The copies disagree on God or He, on blood, on three that testify, and on God or Son.

01Comma02Blood03God or He04Son of God05God or Son

The words · 01 of 05 · A Latin extra line

Three in heaven

Father, Word, and Spirit are not in any early Greek copy of this verse. Who God is does not live or die on a Latin extra line.

King James (1611)
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Berean Standard Bible
For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three are in agreement.

ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα

The word

μαρτυρέω

to testify, to bear witness, to stand and say it (martyreō)

Walk this word

King James, from late Latin

The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: these three are one.

Every early Greek copy

The Spirit, the water, and the blood: these three agree.

The two readings

  1. 01The Spirit, the water, and the blood

    1 John 5:8

    This is the testimony the oldest Greek already has. Three that agree. The heavenly line is not here until Latin.

  2. 02Baptize them in the name

    Matthew 28:19

    The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus already named the three. 1 John 5:7 in the KJV is not the first time.

  3. 03The Word was God

    John 1:1

    Who God is does not live or die on a Latin extra in 1 John. John already spent the word in the open.

  4. 04The grace of the Lord Jesus

    2 Corinthians 13:14

    The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Paul can say the three without the comma.

In these copies

  • late Latin Bibles
  • a handful of very late Greek copies (16th c.)
  • KJV (Erasmus, 3rd edition, under pressure)

Not in these copies

  • every early Greek copy of 1 John
  • Sinaiticus
  • Vaticanus
  • the Greek fathers quoting this verse
  • BSB, WEB, ASV, NIV

Read it this way

This is the line the posts always name, and the one the copies are clearest about. 1 John 5 is the Spirit, the water, and the blood — three that testify, and these three agree. That is the Greek. That is every early copy. That is what the Greek fathers quote when they stand in this verse.

The heavenly line grew in Latin: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Erasmus left it out of his first printed Greek. He put it in the third edition after a late Greek copy was produced that had the Latin line back-translated. The King James stands on that edition. No early Greek book of 1 John has the comma.

The Father, the Word, and the Spirit were God before that line, and after it. Matthew 28:19. John 1:1. 2 Corinthians 13:14. The whole shape of the Gospel. No council stole who God is by leaving a Latin extra in the Latin.

Some sayThey stripped the Trinity out of 1 John.

No council stole who God is. The Father, the Word, and the Spirit were God before that line, and after it.

  • KJV

    on the page

  • WEB

    shorter

  • BSB

    shorter

  • ASV

    shorter

Open 1 John 5

The line the text already walks — that is Foretold. Words you already say out loud sit in Words with weight. Witness is when the copies do not match.