Erasmus’
first (
1516) and second (1519) editions of the Greek New Testament did not include the
Comma Johanneum in the text of First John. The
Comma Johanneum, which refers to the Father, Word, and Holy Spirit as three heavenly witnesses, had become very popular in Europe due to its inclusion in medieval editions of the Vulgate. Some scholars (especially Edward Lee and Jacobus Stunica) protested against Erasmus’ non-inclusion of the
Comma Johanneum. The late Bruce Metzger wrote that in response, “In an unguarded moment Erasmus promised that he would insert the Comma Johanneum, as it is called, in future editions if a single Greek manuscript could be found that contained the passage.” James White has similarly stated that “Erasmus had promised, in his response to Lee, to include the passage should a Greek manuscript be found that contained it.”
That story has been circulated by many commentators. (Even
Samuel Tregelles spread this story, back in the 1800’s.) However, researcher
Henk de Jonge, via
a detailed direct study of the relevant compositions, has shown that Erasmus never made the promise described by Metzger, White, and many others. Instead, Erasmus, in a letter written in May of 1520, in the course of explaining why he had not included the
Comma Johanneum, stated, “If a single manuscript had come into my hands which attested to what we read [in the Vulgate], then I would certainly have used it to fill in what was missing in the other manuscripts I had.”
Erasmus also stated that Edward Lee did not have a valid reason to accuse Erasmus of negligence in this regard;
de Jonge provides Erasmus’ retort: “What sort of indolence is that, if I did not consult the manuscripts which I could not manage to have? At least, I collected as many as I could. Let Lee produce a Greek manuscript in which are written the words lacking in my edition, and let him prove that I had access to this manuscript, and then let him accuse me of indolence.”
Shortly after this exchange between Edward Lee and Desiderius Erasmus, the existence of Codex Montfortianus, and the inclusion of the
Comma Johanneum in its text of First John, were pointed out to Erasmus. Erasmus never made a promise to include the
Comma Johanneum in a future edition of the Greek New Testament if a Greek manuscript containing it could be found; he merely insisted that he could not validly be accused of omitting it in his first two editions due to negligence, because he had not found it in the manuscripts accessible to him. However, it is also clear that because of Erasmus’ statement that he would have included the
Comma Johanneum if he had found it in a single manuscript, Erasmus could easily anticipate in 1522 that if he were to omit the
Comma Johanneum in
his third edition, after being informed of the existence of a Greek manuscript that contained the passage, he would certainly be accused of inconsistency, having already stated that if he had possessed a single Greek manuscript with the passage, he would have included it.
