1 John 5:6 variants - Ehrman analysis

Steven Avery

Administrator
1 John 5:6 (AV)
This is he that came by water and blood,
even Jesus Christ;
not by water only, but by water and blood.
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness,
because the Spirit is truth.

Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἐλθὼν δι᾽ ὕδατος καὶ αἵματος
Ἰησοῦς ὁ Χριστός
οὐκ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι μόνον ἀλλ᾽ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι καὶ τῷ αἵματι·
καὶ τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστιν τὸ μαρτυροῦν
ὅτι τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἡ ἀλήθεια

LaParola
http://www.laparola.net/greco/index.php?rif1=69&rif2=5:6

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water and blood - Ehrman-text Vulgate and Old Latin mss
water and spirit - Ehrman-1
water and holy spirit - Ehrman-omit Ambrose and Cyril 1/4
water and blood and spirit - Ehrman-3 vg mss - Origen Cyril 1/4
water and blood and Holy Spirit - Ehrman-4
water and spirit and blood - Ehrman-2 vg mss


Ehrman writes about it here:

The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament
Bart Ehrman
https://books.google.com/books?id=HGpL9x19GaEC&pg=PA59
p. 59-61

A comparable textual corruption occurs elsewhere in the Johannine corpus, this time near the end of the first epistle. Establishing a plausible interpretation of 1 John 5:6 has proved more difficult over the years than establishing its text.75 Nonetheless, the verse’s textual problems prove interesting for our investigation, because here the author says something about Jesus’ manifestation to the world:

“This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood.”

Among the variant readings preserved in the textual tradition, those that affect the introductory clause are particularly germane to the present discussion. For the words

“the one who came through water and blood”
(δι᾽ ὕδατος καὶ αἵματος)

have been modified in a variety of ways.
The following four variants are all attested:76

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