Jehovah's Witnesses acknowledge that the Comma Johanneum is not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts and was a later addition to 1 John 5:7 to support the doctrine of the Trinity. Witnesses use this textual fact as evidence that the Trinity is not an apostolic doctrine but a later theological development in the church.

The absence of the Comma from early manuscripts is seen by Witnesses as proof that the verse does not support the doctrine of God as three coequal persons. For Witnesses, the true teaching about God is monotheistic: Jehovah alone is God. Jesus is God's Son and is divine in power, but he is not part of a Trinity. The 'three witnesses' in 1 John 5:7-8 (even in the shorter version) refer to the Spirit, the water, and the blood.