Basic HTML Version
Trinity
(Continued from page 5)
manuscripts? Did you know this
spurious section was no t found in
the text of any G reek manuscripts
until
after
the invention of printing?
Comparison with many of the mo re
modero transla tions and simple re–
search will prove my point. Ve rses 7
and 8 should actually read as fo l–
lows: "There are three witnesses, th e
Spirit, the wa te r, and the blood ; a nd
these three agree." This is how th e
passage is rendered in the Revised
Standard Ve rsion, perhaps the best
overall of mod ern Bible trans–
lations.
The edito rs of both liberal a nd
conservative Bible commenta ri es
(ancient and modero) agree as to
the ve ry dubious o rigin ofl John 5:7
(as it now stands in the King J ames
or Authorized Version). Notice a
couple of quo tes from two com–
mentaries of mo re recent vintage.
Says the conserva tively oriented
New Bible Commentary Revised:
" ... The words a re clearly a g loss
and are rightly excluded by RSV
[Revised Standa rd Version] even
from its margin" (p. 1269).
Peake's
Commentary on the Bib/e,
univer–
sally recognized as a standard lib–
era l wo rk, is even mo re incisive with
its comments: "The famous inte r–
pola tion a fter ' three witnesses' is no t
printed even in RSV, and rightly.
... No res pectabl e Greek MS
[manuscript] contains it. Appearing
first in a la te 4th century Latín text ,
it entered the Vulgate and fin a lly
th e NT [N ew T es t a m e nt) of
Erasmus [and eventually the King
James)" (p. 1038).
The transla tors of the Revised
Ve r s ion o f 188 1 imm e di a t e ly
spotted the difficulties with 1 John
5: 7. The passage occurs in
only
two
modero Greek manuscripts. in one
o r two ancient versions of litt le
value and, of course, in many la te
copies of the La tín Vulgate. This is
the extent of the textual suppo rt fo r
this dubious verse.
The fact could not be ignored tha t
no t a sing le Greek manuscript o r
church-lesson book before the fi f–
teenth century had any trace of
1 John 5:7. Also it is omitted in
nearly every ancient version of any
40
crit ica!
va lue- inc/uding
the very
best copies of the Latín Vulga te it–
self. Finally no Greek fa the r even
quotes it in any discussion con–
cerning the Trinity doctrine itself.
Consequently the passage was
omitted and it does
not
appea r in
the Revised Version of 188 1- the
first scho la rly revision of the King
James Version of any consequence.
F . F. Bruce, a respected British
scholar. has this to say about 1 John
5:7: " . . . A footno'te rightly points
out tha t the passage is 'not in any of
the ea rly G reek mss, or any o f the
early transla tions, or in the bes t mss
of the Vulgate itself and sugges ts
that it is probably a gloss tha t has
crept into the text"
(The English
Bib/e,
p. 217).
Clearly I John 5:7 is a spurious
addition tha t is in no way, manne r,
sha pe or fo rm a pa rt of the New
Tes tament ca non.
Matthew 28:19
Another g rossly misunderstood text
(often cited to " prove" there is in–
deed a Trinity) is Ma tthew 28: 19:
"Go ye the refore, and teach a ll na–
tions, bapt izing them in the name of
the Fa ther, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit."
To imply that this verse means
tha t all three (the Father. the Son
and the Ho ly Spirit) are persons is
just not being honest with the Scrip–
tures . Clearly the first two (God the
Fa ther and His Son Jesus Chr is t)
are two sepa rate individual spirit
personalities in the Godhead , but
that fact does
not
automa tically
make the Ho ly Spirit a lso a person.
Think about it a moment! People
g ive names to many tbings tha t a re
simply not persons. Every thing–
whether pe rson, place or thing- has
a name!
Bu t why did Jesus command the
apostles to baptize conve rts into
these three names? And why must
they be baptized (see Acts 2:38) in to
these names in o rde r to receivc the
Ho ly Spirit? God th.e Fa ther
grants
human beings
real repentance
(Rom.
2:4; Acts 11 :1 8; 11 Tim. 2:25). We
become His sons (literally !)- the
sons of God
(bearing His na me)–
when we receive the Ho ly Spirit
(Rom. 8:9, 14. 16-1 7). Is tha t so hard
to understand? Human beings often
bear the na mes of their fo rebea rs,
e.g. , Johnson. Robertson, Jackson.
meaning o rigina lly the sons of John,
Robe rt a nd Jack.
" God" is the family name in
English of the divine Kingdom of
spirit beings. The Fa the r's na me is
" God" in Eng lish. Jesus Chris t- who
was crucified so our past si ns may
be fo rgiven- is a lso called
God
in
John 1: 1, Hebrews 1:8 and o ther
New T es tament texts. The Ho ly
Spirit- which comes forth from th e
very person of God- is the begetting
agent by which we receive the ear–
nes t of our salva tion ( II Cor. 1:22;
Eph . 1: 14; Rom. 8: 16).
Many re ligionists do no t under–
stand the pa rt that the Fa the r, the
Son and the Holy Spirit each play in
the salvation process. The Trinity is
the result. in pa rt. o f such funda–
menta l misunde rstandings.
But here is another one of those
" fa mous" biblical opposi tes. lnstead
of teaching th e pagan doctrine of
the Trinity, Matthew 28: 19 rea lly
tells us tha t God is a growing family
or Kingdom into which we may en–
ter upon repentance. ba ptism. the
rece ipt of the Ho ly Spirit and
pa tient endurance to the end of our
natural lives and/or Christ 's com–
ing- whichever comes first.
A closed Trinity, triad , o r tri–
umvira te of three persons is as fa r
from God's mind and His plan a nd
purpose fo r human be ings as the
east is from the wes t. The fa lse doc–
trine of the Trinity can only blind
gullible human beings to the tran–
scendent purpose of human life: to
be born as litera l spirit beings (sons
ofGod) into the great God family !
G od is
not a
limited Trinity! He is
the divine Head of a growing fam ily
or Kingdom into wh ich we may.
through the grace of God. freely en–
ter! The apostle Peter wro te that
if
you have the fru its of God's Ho ly
Spirit (11 Pc ter 1:5-9),
"an entrance
shall be ministered unto you
abun–
dam ly into
the everlasting kingdom
o f o ur Lo rd a nd Sav io u r Jesus
Christ"(verse 11 ).
o
RECOMMENDED READING
Was humanity created for a great pur–
pose and, if so. why is humankind so
totatty unaware of it? To find out, wnte
tor our free booklet titled
Why Were
You Born?
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1978