This day in history: Dutch Catholic scholar Desiderius Erasmus died on this day in 1536. Though Erasmus remained Catholic his entire life, his influence was felt greater on the Protestant side of Christianity. His Greek Testaments passed into the Stephanus Greek New Testament in 1551 (the first New Testament in verses), which came to be called the Textus Receptus, and became the basis for the Geneva Bible New Testament in 1557 and the Authorized King James Version in 1611.
There is a disputed controversy concerning one particular Scripture in his New Testament, that of the Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7,8).
It reads in the King James Bible:
"For there are three that bear record (witness) in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."
However, most other Bibles have:
"For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree."
Take note of the words that are missing.
Erasmus was attacked for not adding the Comma Johanneum (the Three Heavenly Witnesses). He answered that he had not found the words in any Greek manuscript, including several he examined after publishing his editions. But he unwisely said that he would insert the Comma Johanneum in future editions if a Greek manuscript could be found that contained the spurious passage. Interestingly, one was found, or made, that contained the words. The manuscript was made by a Franciscan friar named Froy(or Roy) in 1520 A.D. Erasmus kept his word and added the passage in his 3rd edition, but he added a long footnote expressing his suspicion that the manuscript had been prepared just so to confute him.
Or at least, that is how the story goes with objections in some quarters.
In one Interrogation of Unitarian Anabaptist Martyr Herman van Vlekwijk, Erasmus' name was brought up repeatedly for promoting Anti-Trinitarianism.
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