Hmm... I wonder how many of you bible thumpers know that you holy ghost Trinity is a fallacy and isnt even in the original text! 1 John 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.” [King James/Authorized Version, 1611] The authenticity of this passage has been in question at least since the 16th century, when the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus did not include it in his first edition of the Greek New Testament (1516). Though Catholic authorities hotly criticized him for the omission, Erasmus defended himself by saying he found it in none of the Greek manuscripts available to him at the time. For starters, Catholics feared the publication of a Greek New Testament. Because they knew Greek was the original language of the NT, such a work would give informed scholars a tool with which to criticize and correct the official Latin Bible of the Church (Metzger, 96). Worse would be Erasmuss omission. It would undermine the doctrine of the Trinity, since 1 John 5:7 was the only verse in the NT that came close to supporting the trinitarian dogma. Naively, Erasmus promised that he would restore the omitted passage if even one Greek text were brought to him. Shortly, such a text was specially composed and given to him (Codex Montfortianus, Greg. 61), and he made good on his promise, even though he disbelieved the verse was authentic. He included it in his 3rd edition in 1522. The editors of the King James Version (1611) used a later rescension of Erasmus 3rd edition with the Trinitarian text included. Only in the late 1800s did English Bible translators and editors abandon the famous text, based on the increased evidence of hundreds more Greek manuscripts. Since the time of Erasmus, New Testament scholars have accumulated additional evidence that strongly suggests the passage is not original to the Letter of 1 John. The late Bruce Metzger, leading authority on NT manuscripts, briefly outlined the evidence: The passage is absent from every known Greek manuscript dating before the 16th century [the era of controversy over Erasmus Greek edition]. The passage is quoted by none of the Greek Fathers, who, had they known it, would certainly have employed it in the Trinitarian controversies of the 3rd and 4th centuries (Sabellian and Arian). The passage is absent from the manuscripts of all ancient versions (Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic, Slavonic) — except the Latin. It is also not found in Jeromes original Latin Vulgate (Codex Fuldensis, Codex Amiatinus) or in the Old Latin version in its early form (as used by Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine). The earliest instance of the passage is in a 4th century Latin treatise entitled Liber Apologeticus (chap. 4), attributed either to Priscillian (d. ca. 385) or his follower Bishop Instantius in Spanish. The passage was apparently written in the margin as an allegorical gloss. In the 6th century scribes began to include it within the text of 1 John 5, where it shows up in later copies of the Old Latin. It is not dfound in Jeromes original Vulgate translation (ca. AD 400). From: B.M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament (2nd ed., 1968). Martin Luther kept out verse 7 from his German Bible (1545). But in 1574 the printer Feyerabend added it to later editions of Luthers translation. The English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was an avid Bible student. In a letter to a friend (14 Nov. 1690), he wrote at length on 1 John 5:7, which he regarded as spurious [The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H. W. Turnbull (Cambridge, 1961), 3:83-109]. Throughout the early centuries, Christian scribes made other changes in their Greek texts to validate the doctrine of the Trinity. Here are examples, some of which appear in modern English translations. John 1:18 — No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him (NASB-95). This reading [monogenes theos] is found in an Egyptian papyrus copy of John dated to around AD 200 [P66] and a papyrus from the early 3rd cent. [P75]. The major 4th cent. uncials Alef-Sinaiticus and B-Vaticanus also have it. Most translations today have this reading. But Richard Weymouths The N.T. in Modern Speech (1929), David Sterns Jewish New Testament (1989) and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (2011) instead read: the only Son; the only and unique Son; the One and Only Son (respectively) . They follow Johns singular form monogenes used elsewhere in his writings (Jn 1:14; 3:16, 18; 1 Jn 4:9), and in other Greek mss of this verse. Their readings (only, unique son) also reflect the Hebrew yachid, at times rendered in the LXX by monogenes. For details: HaYachid—The Unique Messiah [PDF]. 1 Corinthians 8:6 — For us there is one God, the Father...and one Lord, Jesus Christ...and one Holy Spirit, in whom are all things and we in him. The addition of the Holy Spirit phrase lacks significant manuscript support and is not found in modern translations. The addition was quoted by Gregory of Nazianus in the 4th cent. [Orat. xxxix.12). The oldest Greek NT text containing it is from the 10th cent. (miniscule 0142). 1 Timothy 3:16 — ...God was manifested in the flesh (KJV). This reading is not found in the earliest Greek mss.; none before the 8th cent. The Greek edition used by the KJV translators (Textus Receptus) contains it, but the TR was compiled using a few, later, edited manuscripts. The oldest texts read (he) who was revealed in the flesh; NASB-95, NIV-2011, HCSB, etc.). The difference between these two words in the Greek uncial alphabet is one horizontal stroke in the letter omicron. Hebrews 12:22-24 — You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem...and to God, the Judge of all, and to the Spirit of the righteous...and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. The earliest reading Spirit is found in uncial Codex D of the 5th cent. The oldest texts read: to the spirits [plural] of the righteous. Sources: Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1968), 62, 101-02, 136n.1 Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (2nd ed., United Bible Societies, 1994), 647-49 The Greek-English New Testament [Novum Testamentum Graece & English Standard Version] (28th ed.; Stuttgart: German Bible Society, and Wheaton, IL, 2012), 1450 B. & K. Aland, M. Black, C. M. Martini, B. M. Metzger, A. Wikgren, The Greek New Testament (4th rev. ed., United Bible Societies, 1998), 819 E. Nestle, B. & K. Aland, J. Karavidopoulos, C. Martini, B. M. Metzger, Novum Testamentum Graece (27th ed., Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 1993), 623
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 02:36:14 +0000
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