Some Bible translators of past centuries, zealous to find scriptural support for their belief in the Trinity literally added it. 1 John 5:7-8 is an example of this. The King James Version, also known as the Authorized Version reads: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.“ The words in italics are not part of the generally accepted New Testament manuscripts.
Most Bible commentaries agree this is a spurious addition: “Notice that AV [the Authorized Version] includes additional material at this point. But the words are clearly a gloss [an added note] and are rightly excluded by RSV [the Revised Standard Version] even from its margins” (The New Bible Commentary notes: Revised 1970, p. 1269). The New Revised Standard Version correctly reads, “There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.” Many other more recent Bible versions likewise recognize the spurious added text and omit it.
“The textual evidence is against 1 John 5:7,” explains Dr. Neil Lightfoot, a New Testament professor. “Of all the Greek manuscripts, only two contain it. These two manuscripts are of very late dates, one from the fourteenth or fifteenth century and the other from the sixteenth century. Two other manuscripts have this verse written in the margin. All four manuscripts show that this verse was apparently translated from a late form of the Latin Vulgate” (How We Got the Bible, 2003, pp. 100-101).
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary also dismisses the King James and New King James Versions’ additions in 1 John 5:7-8 as “obviously a late gloss with no merit” (Glenn Barker, Vol. 12, 1981, p. 353). Peake’s Commentary on the Bible also agrees (See page 1038) and the Big Book of Bible Difficulties tells us: “This verse has virtually no support among the early Greek manuscripts… Its appearance in late Greek manuscripts is based on the fact that Erasmus was placed under ecclesiastical pressure to include it in his Greek NT of 1522, having omitted it in his two earlier editions of 1516 and 1519 because he could not find any Greek manuscripts which contained it” (Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, 2008, pp. 540-541).
Theology professors Anthony and Richard Hanson, in their book Reasonable Belief: A Survey of the Christian Faith, comment: “ It is a waste of time to attempt to read Trinitarian doctrine directly off the pages of the New Testament” (1980, p. 171).
