Thesis advisor: Pheme Perkins / This study demonstrates how the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7b-8a), a Latin addition and “spurious” text of the New Testament, could proffer valuable meaning-making and intricate sociocultural realia to Christian history, although it has been long neglected in Johannine scholarship. Its first aim is to reconstruct the transmission and reception history of the CJ, starting with the Spanish Latin MSS (the direct evidence) and returning to patristic citations (the indirect evidence). Its second aim is to explore the theological and ecclesiological interpretations of 1 John 5:6-8 from the second through fourth centuries, in which the CJ could have been created. Chapter 1 reviews the history of scholarship on the CJ and the interpretations of 1 John 5 in contemporary Johannine scholarship. Chapter 2 discusses the methodological shift in contemporary text-critical scholarship that enabled the new perspective to appreciate the variant readings. Against the historical background, data, and evidence presented in Chapter 3, in Chapter 4, we reconstruct the transmission history of the CJ text from the seventh through the thirteenth centuries, mainly in the Spanish Latin Bible tradition. The Spanish Vulgate Bible is a mixture of the Old Latin biblical text, particularly in the Catholic Epistles, which also retain variant readings, including the CJ text. The earliest evidence—VL 64 and VL 67—exhibit the transition from North Africa to Visigothic Spain, preserving the seventh-century “Isidorian Renaissance.” The Spanish Latin Bible traditions—Codex Cavensis, Codex Toletanus, and Complutensis primus—all preserve the CJ text while formulating independent recensions. Outside Spain, Théodulf of Orleans, a Visigothic Spaniard, brought a Spanish Vulgate tradition to Charlemagne’s court; thus, Théodulf’s Mesmes Bible (ΘM) preserves the CJ in the textline, with a variant replacing uerbum with filius. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, St. Gall MSS—Cod. Sang 907 (Winithar) and Cod. Sang 83 (Hartmut)—also retain the CJ, along with some Spanish-type paratextual components. In ninth-century Spain and beyond, the Lesionensis group MSS (VL 91, 94, and 95) attest to another endpoint of the CJ’s journey. In addition, VL 95 affirms the date of the inversion of in terra and in caelo to the twelfth or thirteenth century (together with the second hand of VL 54). The CJ text, therefore, survived in the soil of Spanish cultural orbit, where the Vulgate text (mixed with the Old Latin readings) was received and survived. Simultaneously, the study reveals high levels of textual circulation and interregional cultural communication in North Africa, Spain, Gaul, and beyond. In Chapter 5, we examine the indirect evidence, focusing on Priscillian of Avila. While we rehabilitate Priscillian’s citation of the CJ, the earliest and most extended surviving indirect witness, as one recension in Spain, our examination of the indirect evidence also shows that there are at least three receptions of the CJ—(1) the terrestrial witness (in terra), a simple addition to the three witnesses in v.7a; (2) the celestial witness (in caelo), a further addition in v.8a, pointing to the trinitarian “heavenly witnesses,” and (3) a combination, which is the CJ properly so-called and eventually attested in the Vulgate. Finally, in Chapter 6, we explore the patristic interpretations of 1 John 5:6-8 (and John 19:34), which are laden with sacramental and ecclesiological connotations. In the second and third centuries, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Ps.-Cyprian expounded the baptismal interpretation with 1 John 5:6-8, and in the fourth century, Ambrose and Augustine crystalized trinitarian interpretations. Ambrose emphasized the divinity of the Spirit as the heavenly efficacy of the baptismal sacrament, which differentiated the invisible and visible realia of the sacraments. Augustine further developed his trinitarian interpretation of 1 John 5:6-8, grounded in incarnational theology of the Johannine turn; “the three” (tres) thus became the “signs” (signa) of the divine mystery of the Trinity. The CJ text could be another attempt to elucidate the crux interpretationis of 1 John 5:6-8. Exploring the patristic interpretations of these passages revealed the significance of the “lived life” of early Christian communities, which contemporary scholarship has somewhat devalued. This study thus reveals a forgotten sociocultural and religious history along with a journey of the CJ text. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_109938 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Miura, Nozomi Sophia |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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