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The detailed work of Richards, 22 supplemented marginally by that of Amphoux, 23 has shown that in all probability the text of the Johannine Epistles is supported by three text types—Alexandrian (with three subgroups), Byzantine (seven subgroups) and Mixed (three subgroups)—not two or four, as some have argued.
Only a few passages contain variants of substantial exegetical significance, the most notorious being the addition of the "Trinitarian witnesses” at 1 John 5:7-8a: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth” (KJV). This is certainly a gloss. It is found in no Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century, except for one eleventh- and one twelfth-century manuscript, where the words have been added in the margin by a much later hand. None of the early Greek fathers quotes the words, and it is quite certain that had they known of them, they would have used them in the ancient Trinitarian debates. None of the ancient versions supports the gloss, including the early editions of the (Latin) Vulgate. The words first appear in a fourth-century Latin treatise (not a biblical manuscript), after which some Latin fathers start to use them.