There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. (NKJV)

För de som inte känner till det finns det flera olika grekiska manuskript att tillgå vid översättningar. Manuskriptet bakom New King James Version ovan, liksom Karl XII:s Bibel, heter Textus Receptus och är från 1500-talet v.t. De flesta översättningar, däribland Folkbibeln och Bibel 2000, grundar sig istället på andra manuskript däribland Codex Sinaiticus och Codex Vaticanus. I dessa står det bara ”Det är tre som vittnar”. Versen i Textus Receptus är alltså mycket längre än i de andra manuskripten. Men hur blev detta möjligt? Enligt exegeten Daniel B. Wallace lades orden dit utifrån politiska påtryckningar.

Regarding 1 John 5.7–8, virtually no modern translation of the Bible includes the ”Trinitarian formula,” since scholars for centuries have recognized it as added later … The passage made its way into our Bibles through political pressure, appearing for the first time in 1522, even though scholars then and now knew that it was not authentic. The early church did not know of this text, yet the Council of Constantinople in AD 381 explicitly affirmed the Trinity! How could they do this without the benefit of a text that didn’t get into the Greek NT for another millennium? (1)

Bruce M. Metzger (d. 2007), en av århundradets främsta textkritiker av NT, skriver i sin A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament varför orden i 1 Joh 5:7 inte bör betraktas som trovärdiga.

That these words are spurious and have no right to stand in the New Testament is certain in the light of the following considerations. (A) EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. (1) The passage is absent from every known Greek manuscript except eight, and these contain the passage in what appears to be a translation from a late recension of the Latin Vulgate. Four of the eight manuscripts contain the passage as a variant reading in the margin as a later addition to the manuscript … (2) The passage is quoted by none of the Greek Fathers, who, had they known it, would most certainly have employed it in the Trinitarian controversies (Sabellian and Arian). Its first appearance in Greek is in a Greek version of the (Latin) Acts of the Lateran Council in 1215. (3) The passage is absent from the manuscripts of all ancient versions (Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic, Slavonic), except the Latin … (B) INTERNAL PROBABILITIES. (1) As regards transcriptional probability, if the passage were original, no good reason can be found to account for its omission, either accidentally or intentionally, by copyists of hundreds of Greek manuscripts, and by translators of ancient versions. (2) As regards intrinsic probability, the passage makes an awkward break in the sense. (2)

Personligen håller jag mig borta från översättningar baserade på Textus Receptus, likt KJV, NKJV och Karl XII:s Bibel, åtminstone vid en läsning av NT.

(1) Wallace, Daniel B. The Gospel according to Bart. http://bible.org/article/gospel-according-bart   2020-11-01

(2) Metzger, Bruce M. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. German Bible Society, 1994, s. 647-649.