54 Matthew Oseka 1 John 5,7-8 the Latin text about the testimony of the Father, the Word and the Spirit which is identified by us as the Comma and which Jerome treasured for doctrinal purposes. In fact, Codex Fuldensis itself contains no Comma which could indicate a contradiction between the preface and the master text34. It is assumed that the Latin Comma could originally be a marginal note professing an allegorical interpretation of three witnesses (i. e. the Spirit, the water and the blood) as three persons of the Trinity which became with time a part of master text35. Undoubtedly, Augustine36 and Bede37 resorted to an allegorical interpretation of 1 John 5,7-8 but did not insist on the Comma as appertaining to the Greek original. There are other places in the general epistles (cf. 1 Peter 3,22; 1 John 5,9; 5,20; 2 John 1,11) in which some versions of the Vulgate contain readings that are attested by no Greek evidence38, that are missing in Codex Fuldensis39 and that appear to be glosses incorporated into the master text in the process of copying. Erasmus yielded to the demands of his opponents and declared that the Comma might be incorporated into textus receptus if any Greek manuscript corroborating it emerges. This brought about Codex Montfortianus (called by Erasmus Codex Britannicus or Codex Anglicanus) which was forged in order to coerce the Dutch Humanist into accepting the Comma. The said codex as a counterfeit cannot be admitted as a textual evidence. Furthermore, the Comma contained therein was translated from Latin into Greek and does not match the one provided by the Polyglot. In 1522 Erasmus succumbed to the pressure from the adherents of Codex Montfortianus and included the Comma in the 3rd edition of his Greek New Testament but he still voiced his doubts about the credibility of the aforementioned manuscript. He pointed out that no church father quoted the Comma as a part of master text, albeit such a text would be 34 Ernst Ranke, ed., Codex Fuldensis: Novum Testamentum Latine interprete Hieronymo (Marburg and Leipzig: Elwert, 1868), 426 [1 John 5,7-8]. 35 Bruce Manning Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2000), 648 [1 John 5,7-8]. 36 Augustinus Hipponensis, “Contra Maximinum Haereticum Arianorum Episcopum,” in Opera omnia, vol. 8/1 (Paris: Gaume, 1838), 1112-1113 [II, XXII, 3]. 37 Beda Venerabilis, “Expositio in Epistolam primam beati Ioannis apostoli,” in Opera, vol. 2 (Paris: Jodocus Badius Ascensius, 1521), CXCIVv-CXCVIv [1 John 5,7-8]. 38 Eberhard Nestle and Erwin Nestle, ed., Novum Testamentum Graece (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1998), 605 [1 Peter 3,22]. Ibidem, 624 [1 John 5,9]. Ibidem, 625 [1 John 5,20]. Ibidem, 626 [2 John 1,11]. 39 Ernst Ranke, ed., Codex Fuldensis: Novum Testamentum Latine interprete Hieronymo (Marburg and Leipzig: Elwert, 1868), 413 [1 Peter 3,22]. Ibidem, 426 [1 John 5,9]. Ibidem, 427 [1 John 5,20]. Ibidem, 428 [2 John 1,11].