Bible Historymanuscripts · dates · variants
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"1 John 5:7 ('the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one') belongs in the Bible."

Late Latin addition. Not in any Greek manuscript before the 14th century.

Evidence card

The rating is tied to the stated evidence, the stated caveat, and the named source trail below.

False
Evidence
What can be affirmed
Caveat
What the slogan hides
Source trail
2 named sources

What's actually true

It appears in the Latin Vulgate (in some later manuscripts) and entered Erasmus's third edition (1522), then the Textus Receptus, then the KJV.

What gets left out

Absent from every pre-14th-century Greek manuscript. Not cited by any Greek Father in the Trinitarian controversies of the 4th century — they would certainly have used it if they had it. Erasmus only added it under pressure. Modern translations (including the NKJV, in a footnote) acknowledge this. The Trinity is still defensible from the rest of the New Testament — but not from this verse.

Source trail

Named scholarship, catalogues, or projects used for this claim rating.

2 sources
Citation cue
Metzger 1994
Citation cue
Aland & Aland 1989