Johannine Comma and Thomas Hartwell Horne

From Textus Receptus

Thomas Hartwell Horne

Thomas Hartwell Horne was a defender of the comma, but in his latter years he rejected the reading.

Critical Study 1846

In his An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, Volume 4 he has several pages about the comma.

VI. Before we conclude this section, it may be proper to notice the controversy respecting the clauses in 1 John v. 7, 8. concerning the Heavenly Witnesses, which has for nearly four centuries divided the opinions of learned men, and which the majority of biblical critics now abandon as spurious. As the limits assigned to this discussion are necessarily confined, we shall briefly state the evidence for and against its genuineness.

In the Textus Receptus, or received Greek Text of the New Testament, the seventh and eighth verses of the fifth chapter of this Epistle are as follows :-

Ὁτι τρεις εισιν οἱ μαρτυρουντες [εν τω ουρανω, ὁ Πατηρ, ὁ Λογος, και το ἁγιον Πνευμα· και οὑτοι οἱ τρεις ἑν εισι. Και τρεις εισιν οἱ μαρτυρουντες εν τη γη] το πνευμα, και το ὑδωρ, και το αἱμα· και οἱ τρεις εις το ἑν εισι.

In the Vulgate Latin, and our authorized English version, they run thus:-

Quoniam tres supt qui testimonium dant [in cælo, Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus Sanctus: et hi tres unum sunt Et tres sunt qui testi- monium dant in terra:] spiritus, et aqua, et sangus: et hi tres in unum sunt.	For there are three that hear record [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth] the spirit, and the water, and the blood; these three agree in one.

The disputed passage is included between the brackets.

The decision of the controversy depends partly upon the Greek manuscripts, partly upon the ancient versions, and partly upon the quotations which occur in the writings of the ancient fathers.

AGAINST THE GENULNENESS OF THE CONTROVERTED PASSAGE, IT IS URGED,

1. That this clause is not to be found in a single genuine and unaltered Greek manuscript written before the sixteenth century.

Of all the manuscripts hitherto discovered and collated which contain this Epistle, amounting to one hundred and fifty¹. if we deduct several that are either mutilated or imperfect in this place, it will be found that five only have the text, and two of these are of no authority; viz.

(1.) The Codex Guelpherbytanus, which is evidently a manuscript of the seventeenth century, for it contains the Latin translation of Beza, written by the same hand, and consequently is of no use whatever in sacred criticism.

(2.) The Codex Raviauns or Berolinensis, which is obviously a forgery; it is for the most part only a transcript of the Greek text in the Complutensian Polyglott, printed in 1514, with some various readings from Stephens’s third edition; and the remainder (from Mark v. 20. to the end of Saint John’s Gospel and Rom. i.-vi. and xiii.-xvi.) is a copy of the same edition, with some various readings taken partly from Stephen’s margin, and partly from the Complutensian Polyglott.¹

(3.) The manuscript of the Acts and Epistles in the Royal Bourbon Library at Naples, by Dr. Scholz numbered 173., has the disputed clause; but though he refers that manuscript to the eleventh century, yet, as (he states) this was foisted nto the text from the Latin Vulgate in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, it cannot be considered earlier than that date for this reading, and consequently is of no authority.

(4.) The Codex Britannicus as it was called by Erasmus, now better known by the appellation of the Codex Montfortii, Montfortianus, or Dublinensis, which is preserved in Trinity College Library, Dublin. A fac-simile of it is annexed.

The passage, divested of its contractions, runs thus:-

οτι τρεις εισιν οι μαρτυ

ρουντες εν τω ουρανω, πατηρ, λογος, Και πνευμα αγιον,

Και ουτοι οι τρεις, εν εισι· Και τρεις εισιν οι μαρτυ

ρουντες εν τη γη, το πνευμα, και υδωρ, και αιμα· ει την

μαρτυριαν των ανθρωπων λαμβανομεν, η μαρτυρια του

θεου μειζων εστιν, οτι αυτη εστιν η μαρτυρια του θεου, οτι

μεμαρτυρηκε περι του υιου αυτου.

References

External Links

Johannine Comma

1 John 5:7

1 John 5:8

Pure Bible Forum

KJV Today

1 John 5:7 and Modern Criticism by Taylor Desoto

Codex Montfortianus, Erasmus, and 1 John 5:7

Erasmian Myths: The Comma Wager

Erasmian Myths: Codex Vaticanus

1 Jn.5:7,8 Establishing the Authenticity

Defense D. A. Waite

And These Three Are One

Manuscript Differences

“And These Three Are One” Part 1

Riddle Review of McDonald book

Hixson, the CJ, and Roman Catholic Provenance

Riddle on Hixson Part 1

Riddle on Hixson Part 2

Riddle on Hixson Part 3

Riddle - Internal Argument

Riddle - Papyrus

KJV Asia Scams

KJV Asia

KJV Asia Manuscripts

Setting the Record Straight

Dedending 1 John 5:7 by David Cloud

KJV "Errors"

(1 John 5:7-8) Is It Inspired Scripture?

First John 5:6-8 by Floyd Jones

Scion of Zion Article

Trinitarian Bible Society on Johannine Comma

1 John 5:7-8 by Jeffrey Khoo

1 John 5:7 by Thomas Golda

David Cloud Articles

Email Debate Gregory S. Neal and Thomas Holland

“And These Three Are One” Part 2

Links to Books

Frederick Nolan - An Inquiry

SS(ancti) apostolorum septem epistolae catholicae 1782 [1]

Joseph Bryennios Comma Quotation

New criticisms Knittle

13 Sermons - Doctrine of the Trinity Edmund Calamy

Raising the Ghost of Arius by Grantley McDonald

Letters To Edward Gibbon George Travis 1785

A Vindication...of Porson Thomas Turton 1827

Memoir of the Controversy. William Orme

A Vindication of 1st John v. 7 Thomas Burgess Web

Ben David

William Craig Brownlee 1825 Part 1

William Craig Brownlee 1825 Part 2

Theopneustia - François Samuel R. Louis Gaussen, 1841

New plea for the authenticity - Charles Forster 1867 [2][3]

Deux dissertations (French) English Martin

The doctrine of the Greek article - Thomas Middleton

Richard Porson I John v 7, 1790

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

Internal Links

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2016 Urdu New Testament (TR Based)

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Marginal Notes in the 1611 Authorized Version

Ephesians 3:9

Why We Should Not Passover Easter 1, 2, & 3

Will Kinney

List of TR/KJV based foreign bibles

List of New Testament minuscules

List of New Testament lectionaries

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