1 John, verse-by-verse
Session 15 | 1 John 5:6-9
1 John 5:6-9 | The Nature of Jesus Christ
Verse 6 --
Jesus is described as having come by water and blood, which is emphasized again, not by water only, but by water and blood.
This is somewhat cryptic rather than clear. What does it mean? The answer must be testified by the Holy Ghost, for it is the Spirit that beareth witness.
I would propose that by water is a reference to the baptism of Jesus. If this baptism was His ordination to the priesthood which was the method by which the Lord came to Israel in His official ministry. This was testified by the Spirt, which came upon Him as a dove at the Baptism.
He also came by blood. This could be reference to His incarnation or (more likely) His crucifixion. Since all of us were born into the flesh, it seems redundant to speak of Jesus as having come in this manner. But few have been crucified.
So, by water and blood is by water baptism and crucifixion.
In all likelihood, this statement would have a stronger message to the Jewish mind than the modern western mind.
Verse 7 -
Verse 7 contains a textual variant that is very important: this is the only passage in all the Bible which explicitly affirms the Trinity.
However, none of the modern versions (except NKJV) contain any of the Trinitarian evidence.
“standard" answer is that the clause beginning with in heaven and ending with in earth (v. 8) crept into the text by some well-meaning defender of trinitarian doctrine. Almost every evangelical commentary will say something along the lines of the GotQuestions answer:
*ripts is actually quite rare until the 15th century A.D. It is primarily found in Latin manuscripts."***
The problem is, the answer is not nearly as convincing as it sounds.
First, the truth about 1 John is that many of the oldest Greek manuscripts don't include 1 John at all.
Second, the fact that many of the documents that quote the extended passage are found in Latin manuscripts is perfectly normal. Latin was the language of the day, not Greek.
“none of the very early church fathers include it" is simply false. Here is a partial list from Answers To Your Bible Version Questions by David Daniels*:*
200 AD Against Praxeas, chapter 25.
250 AD On The Lapsed, On the Novatians,
350 AD Priscillian referred to it [*Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Academia Litterarum *Vindobonensis, vol. xviii, p. 6.]
350 AD Idacius Clarus referred to it [*Patrilogiae Cursus Completus**, Series Lati*na by Migne, vol. 62, col. 359.]
350 AD De Incarnatione
398 AD De Trinitate against the heresy of Sabellianism
415 AD Council of Carthage appealed to 1 John 5:7 when debating the Arian belief (Arians didn't believe in the deity of Jesus Christ)
450-530 AD Several orthodox African writers quoted the verse when defending the doctrine of the Trinity against the gainsaying of the Vandals. These writers are:
Vigilius Tapensis "Three Witnesses in Heaven"
Victor Vitensis Historia persecutionis [*Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum *Latinorum, *Academia Litterarum *Vindobonensis, vol. vii, p. 60.]
Fulgentius "The Three Heavenly Witnesses" [*Patrilogiae Cursus Completus*, Series Latina by Migne, vol. 65, col. 500.]
So, 1 John 5:7 speaks of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. --but most of the Bibles used by Christians today leave this out.
Verse 8 --
In addition to the Three-in-one that bear record in heaven (v. 7) there are three that bear witness in earth.
Since the Holy Ghost was in v. 7 (Greek: το Αγιον Πνευμα), then the spirit (Greek: τοπνευμα) would be some spirit other than the third Person of the Trinity. It could be the wind, but this doesn't seem to bear witness to the Son. If we keep the water, and the blood as in v. 6 (the baptism and the crucifixion), then the spirit would be something along the lines of the spirit of God's people, etc. Another possibility is that the spirit* is a reference to the breath of man*, either in life itself or in the witness man may give.
Verse 9 -
Verse 9 seems to affirm the inclusion of the so-called Comma Johanneum in verses 7-8 in that it contrasts the witness of God (v. 7) with the witness of men (v. 8). In any case, it does state that God hath testified of his Son and that such testimony should be given more credibility than that of man.
