Johannine Comma and Erasmus

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The Comma Johanneum is missing in Erasmus' first edition of 1516, the Novum Instrumentum omne (Pic from [1]) 1 John 5:6 begins on the first line with “οὗτός.” 1 John 5:7 begins on the fifth line and reads, “ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες” (“for there are three that testify”). If the Comma were included, the text would continue: “εν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα· καὶ οὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἕν εἰσιν καὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες ἕν τῇ γῇ.” But the words don't appear.

Erasmus said:

I never discuss this passage without testifying to the truth of what people gather from that passage: that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share the very same essence, lest anyone should suspect any trace of heresy. And if the slightest offence should arise from this, it comes from those who spin slander out of thin air, and drag into the open a question that ought to be discussed between scholars. — Erasmus, Defence against certain Spanish monks (1528)

The Comma Johanneum is missing in Erasmus' first edition of 1516, the Novum Instrumentum omne. He subsequently produced four more editions. The first two lacked the Comma, which was first included in the 1522 edition of his Greek New Testament. It subsequently appeared in every later edition of the Greek New Testament that came to be retroactively called Textus Receptus after 1633.

So while Erasmus affirmed the authenticity of the verse in the Latin, the scholastic standards of the day compelled him to withhold it from the first two editions in the Greek. So, the verse was not disputed among the scholarly editions in Latin. This explains Erasmus behavior concerning the omission of the Greek Comma Johanneum until more Greek evidence emerged for the reading.

Erasmus and Cyprian

Image:Erasmus 1520 Book with Cyrpian quote of 1 John 5.7.jpg

Erasmus' 1520 book with Cyrpian quote of 1 John 5.7. It has a dedication written in 1519

The first Cyprian edition of Erasmus was in 1520 Opera diui Caecilii Cypriani episcopi Carthaginensis, ab innumeris mendis repurgata, adiectis nonnullis libellis ex uetustissimis exemplaribus ... atque haec omnia nobis praestitit ingenti labore suo Erasmus Roterdamus ... by Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus in which he quotes the Johannine Comma reference of Cyprian.

Erasmus' Esteem for Cyprian: Parallels in Their Expositions of the Lord's Prayer

It is quite possible that Erasmus only saw the Cyprian reference after his 1516 first edition and it was an unspoken contributor to his including the heavenly witnesses in the third edition. The dedication for Erasmus' 1520 book by Cyrpian was written in 1519. In the margin there Cyprian quotes the latter part of the comma, i.e. "it is written of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, "And these three are one.", Erasmus marks in the margin the John 10:30 reference of Cyprian that proceeds it, "I and the Father are one;".

Erasmus and Montfortianus

The usual claim by modern version supporters is that Erasmus omitted the Comma in his first Editions of the Greek New Testament, so the "Textus Receptus" (TR) stream already had this omission and therefore TR advocates are admitting that the verse was inserted due to the Churches pressure upon Erasmus to follow the Latin Vulgate. Many erroneously assume that because Erasmus' 1516 edition was the first New Testament published by the printing press, that it was also the first printed, but this is untrue. The Complutensian Polyglot had been printed 2 years earlier, but was not published until the Old Testament was completed in 1522. The Complutensian edition contains the Comma. So the claim that the first edition of the TR did not have the Comma is untrue.

Many arguments about Erasmus and the Comma Johanneum are out of date. Bruce Metzger (the father of modern textual criticism) was largely responsible for the stories of Erasmus being forced to include the Comma in the Textus Receptus stream. Yet in the 3rd and for 4th editions of Metzger's book "The Text of the New Testament" he retracted those statements. Metzger based his retraction on the work of H.J. de Jonge, the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Rijksuniversiteit (Leiden, Netherlands) and a recognized world authority on Erasmus.

The conclusions in de Jonge’s writtings are as follows:

(1) The current view that Erasmus promised to insert the Comma Johanneum if it could be shown to him in a single Greek manuscript, has no foundation in Erasmus' works Consequently it is highly improbable that he included the disputed passage because he considered himself bound by any such promise.

(2) It cannot be shown from Erasmus' works that he suspected the Codex Britannicus (Minuscule 61) of being written with a view to force him to include the Comma Johanneum.

Metzger justifies his retraction on the basis of advances in research in the last quarter of a century. Along side this new research is further strengthening of the validity of the Majority Text manuscripts and Textus Receptus mainly because of less disruption in the “transmission history” of the Byzantine Texts.

The Comma Johanneum is missing in Erasmus' second edition of 1519, the Novum Testamentum omne (Pic from [2])

With the third edition of Erasmus' Greek text (1522) the Comma Johanneum was included. Many claim that this is because a single 16th-century Greek manuscript (Codex Montfortianus) had subsequently been found to contain it, though Erasmus had expressed doubt as to the authenticity of the passage in his Annotations. But this has been challenged by scholars such as William Sandell. [3] [4]

Codex Montfortianus
Putting to Rest an Old Canard about Erasmus by Peter Gurry July 31, 2019
More on Erasmus and Codex Montfortianus by Peter Gurry August 07, 2019

Erasmus and Jerome

Erasmus' inability to respond sensibly on Jerome’s Vulgate Prologue reveals he was flummoxed and a lapse of reason and almost in desperation he accused Jerome of forging the verse, even though he normally was very pro-Jerome. The arguments against Jerome’s authorship arose 150 years later.

The King James Version 2023 Edition New Testament is now complete and in print format here.

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