Home › Studies › Changes › 1 John 5:7-8 — What Changed in the Bible Text
Published 28 July 2026 · Updated 16 September 2026
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What the source reads — there are three who testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and the three agree as one.
What this version reads — there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
The 'heavenly witnesses' (the Comma Johanneum) — absent from every Greek manuscript before the 14th century and from the earliest versions. Erasmus left it out, then added it under pressure; it entered the Textus Receptus and the KJV. The Bible's most famous documented insertion, and the New Testament's clearest single proof-text for the Trinity.
Read this chapter side by side — 1 John 5:7-8 →