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First John 5:7 in the King James Version is such a great proof-text for the Trinity. Why is it not found in newer versions?

When you read 1 John 5:7 in the KJV it does seem like a great proof-text for the Trinity. It reads, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

Newer versions omit that wording.

So why would Christians omit wording that helps prove the Trinity? (1) Those words are not authentic, and (2) There is plenty of proof for the Trinity without them. We don’t need to use spurious words to authenticate the doctrine.

Scholar F.F. Bruce explained it well in his excellent book History of the Bible in English:

They [the words of 1 John 5:7 as found in the KJV] first appear in the writing of a Spanish Christian leader named Priscillian, who was executed for heresy in A.D. 385. Later they made their way into copies of the Latin text of the Bible. When Erasmus prepared his printed edition of the Greek Testament, he rightly left those words out, but was attacked for this by people who felt that the passage was a valuable proof-text for the doctrine of the Trinity. He replied (rather incautiously) that if he could be shown any Greek manuscript which contained the words, he would include them in his next edition. Unfortunately, a Greek manuscript not more than some twenty years old was produced in which the words appeared: they had been translated into Greek from Latin. Of course, the fact that the only Greek manuscript exhibiting the words belonged to the sixteenth century was in itself an argument against their authenticity, but Erasmus had given his promise, and so in his 1522 edition he included the passage. (Today one or two other very late Greek manuscripts are known to contain the passage; all others omit it.)

[New York: Oxford University Press, 1978 (third edition), pp. 141-2]

Ken Horn

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When was the first publication of red letters for the words of Jesus Christ? Why are the words of the Lord God, the Holy Spirit, or the Angel of the Lord in the O.T. not also given a special color?

In 1899, Louis Klopsch, editor of The Christian Herald read Luke 22:20 and was struck by the words “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” Because of the symbolism of the blood, Dr. Klopsch wondered if the words of the Lord might effectively be printed in red: “Why not a red-letter Bible with the red words to be those of our Lord?” He sought counsel from his pastor, T. DeWitt Talmage, of Brooklyn Temple. Talmage encouraged him and the first red-letter New Testaments were printed in 1901.

Red was applied to all the words of Jesus, including those quoted by others in the Bible, but not in the Old Testament theophanies (or appearances of Christ before He came to earth in flesh).

The first printing quickly sold out and red-letter Bibles have been immensely popular ever since.

Ken Horn

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