I was confused by that too, until I realised that the article is specifically about the Saturn V.
What the author wrote was: "After only two unmanned launches, the third Saturn V took Apollo 8 to the moon."
Apollo 7 used a Saturn IB booster and so, while it was the first manned Saturn launch, Apollo 8 was the first manned launch of a Saturn V. The two unmanned launches were Apollo 4 and Apollo 6, which both used the Saturn V [1].
