Sir Isaac Newton and 1 John 5:7

...but he who really thinks has to believe in God. ― Sir Isaac Newton

The genius that is Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest physicist in history, apparently studied greek manuscripts as well.

What, you forgot who Newton was? He discovered the rules of gravity. To top that, he created... he invented... he brought to existence Calculus!

Calculus, can you imagine that! Did I mention that he's a genius?

And he was also able to prove, through computations, that the planets revolve around the sun on elliptical orbits. And that was the 1700s. There was no NASA yet. Actually, the declaration of independence the United States of America has not even happened yet.

Sir Isaac Newton By Sir Godfrey Kneller

He authored the book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which was described by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as:

By the 1790s Newton's theory of gravity had become established among those engaged in research in orbital mechanics and physical geodesy, leading to the Principia becoming the exemplar of science at its most successful.

Newton was knighted by her majesty, Queen Anne of England in 1705. The credibility of Newton as a scientist is unquestioned. And I'm happy that he was able to apply his skill set on New Testament texts.

On 1 Jn 5:7, he wrote:

In the Eastern nations, and for a long time in the Western, the faith subsisted without this text 

What text was that? Here it is:

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

That's 1 Jn 5:7 of the KJV. The 1st part "For there are three that bear record" that's in the ancient koine greek manuscripts. The latter portion "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." is not.

And Newton was right.


From the pseudo-facsimile of the Codex Vaticanus:

TRANSLATION:

For there are three that testify:
the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement (1 Jn 5:7-8, New American Standard Version)

So the "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one", a verse that supports the trinity doctrine (that the Father, Word/Son, Holy Spirit are one and are equal and one and the same) does not exist. My pastor would be happy to elaborate on that.

Anyway, the same is true in the Codex Sinaiticus. The trinity part is not there :

  
Newton, after his superb research also said that:

And when printing came up, it crept out of the Latine into the printed Greek, against the authority of all the Greek MSS  

The trinity verse is really against all the authority of all greek manuscripts.

Newton was really a genius.

To the God (who exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth) be the glory!


PS
I'd like to promote our Church's twitter account: https://twitter.com/mcgidotorg