hobie
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- Aug 9, 2019
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We have this text:
1 John 5:7-8
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
The Johannian Comma found in the Vulgate of Jerome and many Latin text and some say was attested to by the early church and leaders and preceded by other biblical manuscripts. We find this from Jerome:
Jerome’s Prologue to the Canonical Epistles
The order of the seven Epistles which are called canonical is not the same among the Greeks who follow the correct faith and the one found in the Latin codices, where Peter, being the first among the apostles, also has his two epistles first. But just as we have corrected the evangelists into their proper order, so with God’s help have we done with these. The first is one of James, then two of Peter, three of John and one of Jude. Just as these are properly understood and so translated faithfully by interpreters into Latin without leaving ambiguity for the readers nor [allowing] the variety of genres to conflict, especially in that text where we read the unity of the trinity is placed in the first letter of John, where much error has occurred at the hands of unfaithful translators contrary to the truth of faith, who have kept just the three words water, blood and spirit in this edition omitting mention of Father, Word and Spirit in which especially the catholic faith is strengthened and the unity of substance of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is attested. In the other epistles to what extent our edition varies from others I leave to the prudence of the reader. But you, virgin of Christ, Eustochium, when you ask me urgently about the truth of scripture you expose my old age to being gnawed at by the teeth of envious ones who accuse me of being a falsifier and corruptor of the scriptures. But in such work I neither fear the envy of my critics nor deny the truth of scripture to those who seek it.
End of Prologue
We also read how Jerome began his translating of the Vulgate, "Damasus, bishop of Rome from 366 to 384, likely commissioned Jerome to compose a new translation of the Gospels based on the best Greek manuscripts and yet mindful of ancient Latin Christian traditions. This translation, completed in 383, was designed to produce a version free of the errors of inaccurate translators and copyists (Jerome, Letter to Damasus). Twenty years later, Augustine complimented Jerome for the success of his version, thanking him for producing such a careful translation; he was significantly less enthusiastic about Jerome’s approach to the LXX (see Jerome’s Epist. 71)". (The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol 5, p 765, 2006 AD)
Jerome attempted to create a translation of the Old Testament based on a Hebrew version, rather than the Septuagint, as prior Latin Bible translations had done. Jerome was a true believer and could read Hebrew which is important, and when he wrote the Vulgate tried to use only the original Hebrew text or Masoretic Text or Greek text. Jerome had lived near Antioch and had spent his time studying what he found there. He learned Hebrew and seems to have been in correspondence with Jewish Christians in Antioch. He copied for himself a Hebrew Gospel and translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek. It seems that around the time he began the project translating the Vulgate, he went to Jerusalem to strengthen his grip on Jewish scripture commentary. He carefully did the translating but it wasnt long before the politics of the leaders in Rome got into the mix and Roman church leaders forced some text from the Septuagint which was really from the Alexandrian codices which were in Greek, but its source was well hidden, and the Apocrypha. Jerome was sent packing when he finished his work and spent the rest of his life exiled from Rome, defending his use of the Masoretic Text and Greek text and indirectly condemning the Alexandrian text or non Canon of the Apocrypha forced on him. So the Vulgate allowed some of the partial distortion and corruption of the Alexandrian codices and of course the non Canon of the Apocrypha.
So can the Johannian Comma be supported and what evidence do we have.
1 John 5:7-8
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
The Johannian Comma found in the Vulgate of Jerome and many Latin text and some say was attested to by the early church and leaders and preceded by other biblical manuscripts. We find this from Jerome:
Jerome’s Prologue to the Canonical Epistles
The order of the seven Epistles which are called canonical is not the same among the Greeks who follow the correct faith and the one found in the Latin codices, where Peter, being the first among the apostles, also has his two epistles first. But just as we have corrected the evangelists into their proper order, so with God’s help have we done with these. The first is one of James, then two of Peter, three of John and one of Jude. Just as these are properly understood and so translated faithfully by interpreters into Latin without leaving ambiguity for the readers nor [allowing] the variety of genres to conflict, especially in that text where we read the unity of the trinity is placed in the first letter of John, where much error has occurred at the hands of unfaithful translators contrary to the truth of faith, who have kept just the three words water, blood and spirit in this edition omitting mention of Father, Word and Spirit in which especially the catholic faith is strengthened and the unity of substance of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is attested. In the other epistles to what extent our edition varies from others I leave to the prudence of the reader. But you, virgin of Christ, Eustochium, when you ask me urgently about the truth of scripture you expose my old age to being gnawed at by the teeth of envious ones who accuse me of being a falsifier and corruptor of the scriptures. But in such work I neither fear the envy of my critics nor deny the truth of scripture to those who seek it.
End of Prologue
We also read how Jerome began his translating of the Vulgate, "Damasus, bishop of Rome from 366 to 384, likely commissioned Jerome to compose a new translation of the Gospels based on the best Greek manuscripts and yet mindful of ancient Latin Christian traditions. This translation, completed in 383, was designed to produce a version free of the errors of inaccurate translators and copyists (Jerome, Letter to Damasus). Twenty years later, Augustine complimented Jerome for the success of his version, thanking him for producing such a careful translation; he was significantly less enthusiastic about Jerome’s approach to the LXX (see Jerome’s Epist. 71)". (The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol 5, p 765, 2006 AD)
Jerome attempted to create a translation of the Old Testament based on a Hebrew version, rather than the Septuagint, as prior Latin Bible translations had done. Jerome was a true believer and could read Hebrew which is important, and when he wrote the Vulgate tried to use only the original Hebrew text or Masoretic Text or Greek text. Jerome had lived near Antioch and had spent his time studying what he found there. He learned Hebrew and seems to have been in correspondence with Jewish Christians in Antioch. He copied for himself a Hebrew Gospel and translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek. It seems that around the time he began the project translating the Vulgate, he went to Jerusalem to strengthen his grip on Jewish scripture commentary. He carefully did the translating but it wasnt long before the politics of the leaders in Rome got into the mix and Roman church leaders forced some text from the Septuagint which was really from the Alexandrian codices which were in Greek, but its source was well hidden, and the Apocrypha. Jerome was sent packing when he finished his work and spent the rest of his life exiled from Rome, defending his use of the Masoretic Text and Greek text and indirectly condemning the Alexandrian text or non Canon of the Apocrypha forced on him. So the Vulgate allowed some of the partial distortion and corruption of the Alexandrian codices and of course the non Canon of the Apocrypha.
So can the Johannian Comma be supported and what evidence do we have.