1 John 5:9

9. For ἥν ([778][779]) read ὅτι with [780][781][782] and most Versions.

[778] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[779] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[780] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[781] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.
[782] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

9. εἰ τ. μαρτ. τ. ἀνθρ. λαμβάνομεν. ‘If we receive such testimony—and it is quite notorious that we do so’. Comp. εἰ οὕτως ὁ Θεὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς (1 John 4:11). In neither case does εἰ imply any doubt about the fact. See on 2 John 1:10. The argument is a fortiori and reads like an echo of that of Christ to the Pharisees ‘In your law it is written that the witness of two men is true’ (John 8:17); how much more therefore the witness of the Father and the Son? For λαμβάνειν in the sense of ‘accept as valid’, comp. John 3:11; John 3:32-33.

ὅτι αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ μαρτ. Because the witness of God is this (see on 1 John 1:5). This first ὅτι is elliptical. ‘I say the witness of God, because …’, or, ‘I use this argument, because …’, Winer, 774. The second ὅτι ([842][843][844] and most Versions) is less easy, and hence the corruption to the simple ἥν. This ὅτι may be epexegetic of αὕτη, or epexegetic of μαρτυρία, or parallel to the first ὅτι. The first of these possibilities seems best: that He hath borne witness. ‘I appeal to the witness of God, because (ὅτι) the witness of God is this, that (ὅτι) He hath borne witness concerning His Son’. Μαρτυρεῖν περὶ is frequent in the Gospel (John 1:8; John 1:15; John 2:25; John 5:31-32; John 5:36-37; John 5:39, &c.). The perfect, as so constantly in S. John, gives the permanent result of a past act: the testimony still abides. Comp. ὁ ἑωρακὼς μεμαρτύρηκεν … ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς πιστεύσητε (John 19:35).

[842] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[843] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.
[844] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.