New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-05-16

three, does the passage in question read
in translation as follows: There are three
who testify, the spirit, the water and the
blood and the three are one.' There is
not word in any of them about three
bearing witness in heaven.
Of the minuskel handwritings, older
than the invention of the printing press,
about 200 are found which contain the
epistles, the oldest being from the ninth
century. Among them only one is found
which contains the words about the three
witnesses in heaven, and this one is
lodged in the Vatican library at Rome
and dates from the eleventh century.
But even in this case the words in ques-
ton are not found in the text itself, but
are entered in the margin by another
hand in later time, according to Tisch-
eldorf, of the sixteenth century.
| Besides the above named copies a
number of lexiones in the original
Greek have bee. found and examined.
They were intended to be read at the
services oD the Sabbath and on holidays by
the early Christians, but in not u single
ons have the words been found about
the three witnesses IN heaven. Even the
oldest Latin translations fail to contain
them. The oldest known to science and
research are the "codex amiatinus" and
the s:codex fuldensis.'' The first is kept
in the library at Florence and was COM
pleted in A. D. 541 by Servandus; the
other, belonging to the library Of the
Abbot of Fulda, is from the same CEN
tury, but neither of them contain the
words which Mr.. Sheran sets forth in
proof of his Trinity and Unity doctrines.
The oldest Latin codex containing the
phrase is that kept at Toledo in Spain
(Codex Toletanus) and this one dates
from the seventh or eighth century at
the earliest. Since the Lateran Synod of
1915 officially recognized it, the same
phrase Is found added to number of
Latin codiccs, until 1t received papal
sanction through the Sixtiner issue OF
the Bible in 1890 and the Clementian is
the spurious words occur in the old La
tin codices, the following facts must be
borne in mind. The words are either
added in the margin by a different and
later hand, or in the text itself, but in
the latter case the eraser has always been
used to make place for them. Prof.
Rydberg also shows what Greek and La
tin literature of the early Christian per-
iod has to say regarding this subject,
and points out that some of the writer's
made an attempt to explain that the spir-
it, tie water and the blood signify the
Holy Trinity and that this naturally led
to the Interpolation.
Having done this he says: The author
of the Interpolation and the one who first
cites it as written by the Apostle John
was the ill-reputed African bishop, Vigi-
Illus, who lived towards the close of the
5th century. Writing against the Arian,
Varimad, under the assumed name of
Idecius Clarus, he says: .sThe Apostle
4 John says to the Partners: There are
\ three who bear testimony on earth, the
water, the blood and the flesh and the
i three are within US, and there are three
who bear testimony in heaven, the Faith
4 er, the Word and the Holy Ghost and
the three are one.'" .. D..
When Vigilius wrote this his church
was in great trouble. The Arian Van
dals were masters in Africa and their
King Hunnerick, prosecuted the followers
of orthdox faith. Summoned to a con-
cilium at Carthage they were requested
to show the authority for their Trinity
doctrine, and in their extreme peril they
resorted to the testimony which Idacius
pretended to quote from the Apostle
John. Hunnnerick punished this attempt
at interpretations in the Bible by dissolv-
ing the meeting and by inhlcting heavy
penalties on the orthodox bishops.
When Mr.. She. an claimed that John.
ST., SO explicitly and absolutely proved
the Trinity doctrine, he Of course as
| sumed that the words were written by
] the Apostle John and that the idea they
contained was revealed to the apostle by
i God himself. But we have seen from
the foregoing mass of evidence that the
verse in question is an interpolatin, put
in for a purpose by a man of bad repu-
tation about 500 years after the time Of
the Apostle John. "Can anything be
4 more eynlicit2, And now In $#c,,,n