The WTBTS is quick to point out that there is a textual variant that exists in the KJV (and other translations that are based on the Textus Receptus, Latin for "Received Text") which is not found in older Greek manuscripts. This textual variant supports the doctrine of the Trinity. They note, correctly, that translators should translate only what the oldest and best manuscripts contain and not what is found only in later manuscripts. What follows provides the reasons why all modern translations and the NWT do NOT include the later addition to the verses in 1 John 5:7-8.
Question: When did the earliest manuscript include the phrase in 1 John 5:7 “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”? This is known as the Comma Johanneum.
The earliest Greek manuscripts of 1 John do not contain these words.
They appear only in much later manuscripts, and even then, only in a few.
| Source / Type | Date | Language | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Codex Montfortianus (Minuscule 61) | Early 1500s CE | Greek | The earliest known Greek manuscript that contains the Comma. Likely translated from the Latin Vulgate. |
| Latin Vulgate manuscripts | 8th–9th century CE (some marginal earlier glosses possibly 4th–5th century) | Latin | The passage appeared gradually in the Latin textual tradition, starting as a marginal note that later entered the text. |
| Old Latin versions | Possibly 4th–5th century CE (in some marginal notes) | Latin | A few Old Latin copies contain a form of the Comma, but none of the earliest or most reliable ones. |
| Earliest Greek manuscripts (e.g., Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus) | 4th–5th century CE | Greek | Do not contain the Comma Johanneum. |
Not found in any Greek manuscript before the 1500s.
Likely originated as a Latin gloss (a marginal note) commenting on the Trinity, which later entered the text of the Latin Vulgate.
First printed in the 1522 edition of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament (3rd ed.), after pressure to include it based on the late Codex Montfortianus.
The earliest manuscript containing those words in Greek is Codex Montfortianus (c. 1520 CE) — more than
1400 years after the original writing of 1 John.
All earlier Greek manuscripts and early Church quotations of 1 John 5:7–8 omit
that phrase entirely.
The Latin textual tradition is where the Comma Johanneum (“in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”) first appeared and spread.
The Comma seems to have originated in Latin marginal notes, probably as a theological gloss
explaining the unity of the Father, Word, and Spirit.
Some early traces:
| Manuscript | Century | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Codex Speculum (m) | 5th century | Contains the Comma (Old Latin text). A key witness—it’s one of the earliest to include the phrase. |
| Liber Apologeticus (by Priscillian or Instantius, Spain) | c. 380 CE | Earliest known quotation of the Comma, showing it already existed in some Old Latin circles in Spain. |
| Codex Freisingensis (r) | 6th century | Old Latin; contains the Comma. |
| Codex Legionensis (l) | 7th century | Old Latin; contains the Comma. |
So: the Comma appears sporadically in Old Latin manuscripts from the 5th century onward, especially in Spain and North Africa.
| Item | Date | Contains Comma? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerome’s Original Vulgate | 382–405 CE | ❌ No | Based on Greek sources that did not have the Comma. |
| Codex Fuldensis | 546 CE | ❌ No | Early copy of Jerome’s text. |
| Codex Amiatinus | 700 CE | ❌ No | Oldest complete Vulgate; no Comma. |
| Codex Cavensis, Toletanus | 9th–10th cent. | ✅ Yes | Spanish Vulgate manuscripts that added the Comma. |
| Clementine Vulgate (official) | 1592 CE | ✅ Yes | Standardized the Comma in the Latin Bible after the Council of Trent. |
When Jerome’s Vulgate became the standard Latin Bible, some later copies began to include the Comma in
the text itself (not just in the margin).
Key examples:
| Manuscript | Century | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Codex Cavensis (Cavensis I) | 9th century | One of the earliest Vulgate manuscripts with the Comma integrated in the text. |
| Codex Toletanus (Tol) | 10th century | Contains the Comma. Important witness from Spain. |
| Codex Complutensis (Complutensian Polyglot) | Printed 1514 CE | Contains the Comma in the Latin column (but not in the Greek). |
By this stage, the Spanish and later the Irish/English Vulgate traditions widely included the Comma.
By the 12th–15th centuries, the Comma had become common in the Latin Vulgate tradition, especially in Western Europe, though it was still absent from early and authoritative Vulgate texts.
Examples:
Codex Amiatinus (early 8th century) — no Comma
Codex Fuldensis (546 CE) — no Comma
Codex Cavensis (9th century) — yes, Comma present
Codex Toletanus (10th century) — yes
Codex Sangermanensis (9th–10th century) — yes
| Period | Latin Tradition | Examples with the Comma | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4th century | Old Latin (Spanish) | Liber Apologeticus of Priscillian | Earliest citation |
| 5th century | Old Latin | Codex Speculum (m) | Old Latin text; includes Comma |
| 6th–7th century | Old Latin | Codex Freisingensis (r), Codex Legionensis (l) | Present in some, absent in others |
| 8th century | Vulgate (Jerome’s) | Codex Amiatinus – No | Absent in oldest Vulgate |
| 9th–10th century | Vulgate (Spanish) | Codex Cavensis, Codex Toletanus | Comma now in text |
| 15th–16th century | Late Vulgate & printed editions | Complutensian Polyglot (1514), Clementine Vulgate (1592) | Comma standardized |
The Comma Johanneum first appeared in Latin manuscripts, likely in Spain around the late 4th
century (first quoted by Priscillian).
It entered a few Old Latin manuscripts by the 5th century, became common in Spanish
Vulgate copies by the 9th century, and eventually standardized in printed Latin
Bibles by the 16th century.
This is the reason why scholars consider the Comma Johanneum a late addition rather than part of the original Greek New Testament.
The phrase
“in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”
appears in very few Greek manuscripts, and all of them are very late — long after the Latin tradition had already introduced it.
| Manuscript | Date | Greek Text Type | Form Present |
|---|---|---|---|
| Codex Sinaiticus (ℵ) | 4th c. | Alexandrian | ✗ Short (no Comma) |
| Codex Vaticanus (B) | 4th c. | Alexandrian | ✗ Short |
| Codex Alexandrinus (A) | 5th c. | Byzantine/Alexandrian | ✗ Short |
| Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) | 5th c. | Alexandrian | ✗ Short |
| Minuscule 635 (margin) | 11th c. (note added later) | Greek minuscule | ✅ The Comma was added in a later hand. |
| Minuscule 88 (margin) | 12th c. (note added 16th c.) | Greek minuscule | ✅ The Comma appears only in a later marginal note, not the original text. |
| Minuscule 629 (Codex Ottobonianus) | 14th c. | Greek minuscule | ✅ Contains the Comma in the text, clearly dependent on the Latin Vulgate. |
| Minuscule 61 (Codex Montfortianus) | early 16th (~1520 CE) | Greek minuscule | ✅ Long (with Comma) Earliest Greek manuscript known to include the Comma; likely translated from the Latin Vulgate. Origin: England. Used by Erasmus for his 3rd edition (1522). |
| Minuscule 918 | 16th c. | Greek minuscule | ✅ Contains the Comma; text shows Latin influence. |
| Lectionary 60 | 16th c. | Greek lectionary | Includes the Comma in a reading for the feast of the Trinity. |
| Others (marginal notes) | 15th–17th centuries | Greek minuscule | A few other very late copies have the Comma in the margin, often clearly copied from the Latin or from printed editions. |
All the early and authoritative Greek manuscripts — including:
Codex Sinaiticus (ℵ) — 4th century
Codex Vaticanus (B) — 4th century
Codex Alexandrinus (A) — 5th century
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) — 5th century
Codex Claromontanus, Codex Augiensis, etc.
→ None of these contain the Comma Johanneum.
Even in later Byzantine copies (9th–14th centuries), it is missing from almost all manuscripts.
Erasmus’s first and second editions of the Greek New Testament (1516, 1519) did not include the Comma because no Greek manuscript contained it.
Under pressure (especially from Spanish Catholic scholars who used the Complutensian Polyglot, where the Latin column had the Comma), Erasmus promised to include it if a Greek manuscript could be found.
Shortly after, Codex Montfortianus (Minuscule 61) appeared — conveniently containing the Comma in Greek — and Erasmus inserted it in his third edition (1522).
That edition then became the basis for the Textus Receptus, and later the King James Version inherited it from there.
| Category | Count | Time Period | Authenticity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early Greek MSS (2nd–8th centuries) | 0 | 2nd–8th centuries | None contain the Comma |
| Byzantine MSS (9th–14th centuries) | ~1 (marginal) | 9th–14th centuries | Added in margin later |
| Late Greek MSS (15th–16th centuries) | ~5–6 | 15th–16th centuries | Added under Latin influence |
| Printed editions (Erasmus 1522 → KJV 1611) | yes | 16th century onward | Based on Codex Montfortianus |
The Comma Johanneum appears in only about 8 very late Greek manuscripts, all dating
from the 14th to 16th centuries, and often only in the margin.
Every piece of evidence points to its origin in the Latin tradition, not in the original Greek text.
An appropriate quote at this point would be from Zion’s Watch Tower Aug 1, 1896, by Charles Russell:
“But the originals are what we desire, or translations as near to them and their purity as we can obtain.”
— Charles Russell, Zion’s Watch Tower Aug 1, 1896
What is interesting is that the very motivation that is cited by the WTBTS for excluding the Comma Johaneum is ignored by the translators of the NWT when it comes to inserting the name “Jehovah” 237 times into the NT. No NT manuscript, be it Greek, Latin, or any other language, has ever been found that contains the tetragrammaton. The WTBTS admits that the word “Jehovah” itself was coined by a Catholic monk, Raymundus Martini ca. 1270. Yet when it comes to providing support for their preferred doctrine they convienently forget the most important of all principles when translating the Bible. They do exactly what they criticise the Catholic Church of doing when they convienently found a Greek manuscript that contained the Comma Johaneum for Erasmus to include into his Greek NT.