So What About 1John 5:7
Blog – 52
April 30,2026
By: Bill Watson
Direct Comments to:
There is a lot of debate about the authenticity of the Bible, specifically the King James Bible, which comprises 66 books in both the Old and New Testaments. Currently, there is a surge of interest in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bible and its 81 canonized books. Questions emerge about why and how did this happened? People want to know whether we are using the complete Bible or whether additional books should be included.
Interests in the validity of the book of Enoch [Ref. Blog #41] has been highly debated, or the books of Tobit, Judith, or Jubilees, and many more have been scrutinized and reviewed. But the history of 1 John 5:7 is just another one of those questionable items that have shocked some who learned that this scripture was NOT part of the original manuscripts, but was inserted in the text for the King James 1611 Bible.
So, how did this happen? Who authorized its interpolation? Where did it come from, and why was it allowed to be inserted into scripture? Furthermore, does this prove that the Bible was vulnerable to additional changes? Let’s answer this last question first.
Does this prove the Bible was subject to change? The answer to this is absolutely NOT! Clearly, there is a good reason for this. Presumably, giving the scribe the benefit of the doubt, it may have been that they were sincerely trying to enhance the meaning of the narrative.
Interestingly, this interpolation did not show up until about the tenth century, and then only as a marginal reference. It didn’t appear in the text until about the thirteenth century, and it was found only in one manuscript. However, all direct evidence of this interpolation and its ultimate insertion into the text dates to the sixteenth century.
Unquestionably, we can be certain that these partial 2 scriptures were NOT in the original manuscripts, because we presently have over 5,000 Greek manuscripts, including hundreds that predated this interpolation (read that again)!
Keep in mind that when the King James Version was translated, they had only about a dozen Greek manuscripts, none of which were older than about 1200 A.D. So their sources were rather limited compared to our current inventory of manuscripts today. Erasmus’ scholarly work was also part of the coalescence of the texts.
So, this mistake in the King James Version does not represent any malicious change to scripture, because we have certain evidence proving that these scriptures were not in the original manuscripts.
This brings us to another possible reason for this interpolation. We must realize that at this time, the Christian Orthodox teaching had adopted and was advancing the Trinitarian doctrine as the Nature of God. So, it would have been a very natural translation for those scribes, in their attempt to clarify and connect verse 6 with the middle parts of verse 7 and 8.
Notice how the original manuscript reads: “This is he that came by water and blood, even JesusChrist; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth (:6). For there are three that bear record (:7) …. the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one” (:8). This would be how the original would read.
The interpolation was added and inserted where the three dots are above; “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. and there are three that bear witness in earth…” It appears there may have been some Trinitarian bias that caused the scribes to insert this syntax into the text.
However, regardless of the reason for this insertion, the fact stands that the italicized words in the previous paragraph were NOT in the original manuscripts, and we know with certitude that they were added into the texts as early as the tenth century as a marginal notation that ultimately found its way into the text centuries later.
So, you can be assured that the Bible has not been changed, and its credibility is secured by over 5,000 manuscripts, the oldest of which is the Codex Sinaiticus, dating back to the fourth century! The oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts are contained in the Aleppo and Leningrad Codices, which were written by the Masoretes. The Dead Sea Scrolls, though fragmentary, do validate some Old Testament texts and date back to 250 to 68 B.C.E.
So, we can rest assured that there are many confirming manuscripts that authenticate and validate over the centuries that the Word of God, as we have it, has been supernaturally preserved for the benefit of mankind to be rescued from the “grips of death” by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord, with the promise of immortality!