RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF FIRST JOHN 5:7-8

In First John 5:7-8, the King James Version says: "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." In most other translations, the entire phrase in bold letters is not present. In the vast majority of Greek manuscripts
of First John, the entire phrase, which has come to be called the "Comma Johanneum," is not present. The materials provided here
explain how it originated - not in the original Greek text of First John, but in Latin, as a reader's symbolic interpretation of verse eight. Also
provided are some details about how this non-original reading has been vigorously defended by some advocates of the King James
Version, and about how some researchers in past generations perpetuated an inaccurate story about what led to its inclusion in the third
edition (1522) of Erasmus' compilation of the Greek New Testament.