1 John 5:7

For there are three that bear record in heaven,.... That is, that Jesus is the Son of God.

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Three. Two or three witnesses were required by law to constitute adequate testimony.

Having mentioned the Spirit’ s testifying in the close of , he returns to give us in order, in these two verses, the whole testimony of the truth of Christianity, which he reduces to two ternaries of witnesses. The matter of their testimony is the same with that of their faith who are born of God, that Jesus is the Son of God, and the Messiah, as may be collected from what was said before, ,5, and what is said afterwards, . What they believe, is no other thing than what these testify. For the first three, in heaven, that is not said to signify heaven to be the place of their testifying; for though the same thing concerning Jesus be also no doubt testified to the glorious inhabitants of that world, yet that is not the apostle’ s present scope, but to show what reason we have, who inhabit this world, to believe Jesus to be Christ, and the Son of God. In heaven therefore is to be referred to three, not to bear record, or witness; as if the text were read, which it may as well: There are three in heaven who bear witness; the design being to represent their immediate testifying from thence unto us, or the glorious, heavenly, majestic manner of their testifying. So the Father testified of the man Jesus by immediate voice from heaven, at his baptism and transfiguration: This is my Son, & c. The eternal Word owned its union with him, in that glory with which it so eminently clothed his humanity, and which visibly shone through it in the holy mount, whereof this apostle was a spectator, and whereto he seems to refer in his Gospel, : We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, i.e. such as sufficiently testified him to be so, even the very Son of God. And the Holy Ghost testified, descending as a dove in a visible glorious appearance upon him, at his baptism also. And these three are one, viz. not only agreeing in their testimony, as , but in unity of nature: an express testimony of the triune Deity, by whatsoever carelessness or ill design left out of some copies, but sufficiently demonstrated by many most ancient ones, to belong to the sacred text: of which L. Brug. Not. in loc., with the other critics, and at large, Dr. Hammond.

7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Ver. 7. Three that bear record] viz. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God. These three heavenly witnesses have given testimony hereof in earth. These three are one] In essence and will. As if three lamps were lighted in one chamber, albeit the lamps be different, yet the lights cannot be severed; so in the Godhead, as there is a distinction of persons, so a simplicity of nature.

V. (8.) FAITH THE TEST OF LOVE (1 John 5:1-12). (a) Its power (1 John 5:1-5). (b) The evidence on which it rests (1 John 5:6-10). (c) What it contains (1 John 5:11-12). (8 a.) St. John has been setting love in the supreme place which it held in our Lord’s teaching and in St. Paul’s. But there is another faculty which has to regulate, purify, direct, and stir up our weak and imperfect loving powers, and that is, faith. Without faith we cannot be certain about the quality of our love. He begins very simply with a position already laid down: genuine faith in Christ is the genuine birth from God. From that faith, through that birth, will come the proper love, as in a family: the love of our spiritual brothers and sisters. (This is specially sympathy with real Christians; but it does not exclude the more general love before inculcated.) If we are doubtful about the quality of our love, or are not sure whether any earthly elements may be mingled with it, we have only to ask ourselves whether we are loving God and keeping His commandments: the true work of faith. The love of God does, indeed, actually consist in keeping His commandments (and none can complain that they are tyrannical, vexatious, or capricious). The very object of the divine birth is the conquest of all that is opposed to God and to His commandments, and the instrument of the conquest is faith. There can be no victory over these elements that are opposed to God, and, consequently, no pure, true, God-like love, except through faith. (8 b.) Having left the discussion about the effect of faith on love with the same thought which began it—belief in Jesus Christ—he is led to state the grounds on which that faith rests. These are here stated to be three: water, or Christ’s baptism, symbolising the complete fulfilment of the Law in His own perfect purity, and thus appealing to the Old Testament; blood, or His meritorious cross and passion, symbolising His own special work of atonement and reconciliation; and the Spirit, embracing all those demonstrable proofs of His kingdom which were from day to day forcing themselves on the attention of believers. If we accept human testimony on proper grounds, far more should we receive this divine testimony of God to His Son—the witness of the Old Testament, of the work of Christ, and of the Spirit. This witness is not far to seek, for it is actually within the true believer. (8 c.) The contents of the record which God has thus given us are at once most simple and most comprehensive: the gift of eternal life in His Son. The presence of the Word of God in the heart is the sole condition of life. (8 a.) (1) Whosoever believeth . . .—What may be the works of God among those who have not heard of His Son we do not here inquire.

Verse 7. There are three that bear record] The FATHER, who bears testimony to his Son; the WORD or λογος, Logos, who bears testimony to the Father; and the HOLY GHOST, which bears testimony to the Father and the Son. And these three are one in essence, and agree in the one testimony, that Jesus came to die for, and give life to, the world. But it is likely this verse is not genuine. It is wanting in every MS. of this epistle written before the invention of printing, one excepted, the Codex Montfortii, in Trinity College, Dublin: the others which omit this verse amount to one hundred and twelve. It is wanting in both the Syriac, all the Arabic, AEthiopic, the Coptic, Sahidic, Armenian, Slavonian, c., in a word, in all the ancient versions but the Vulgate and even of this version many of the most ancient and correct MSS. have it not. It is wanting also in all the ancient Greek fathers; and in most even of the Latin. The words, as they exist in all the Greek MSS. with the exception of the Codex Montfortii, are the following:- "1 John 5:6. This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth. 1 John 5:7. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one. 1 John 5:9. If we receive the witness of man, the witness of God is greater, c." The words that are omitted by all the MSS., the above excepted, and all the versions, the Vulgate excepted, are these:- [ln heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one, and there are three which bear witness in earth.] To make the whole more clear, that every reader may see what has been added, I shall set down these verses, with the inserted words in brackets. "1 John 5:6. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 1 John 5:7. For there are three that bear record [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. 1 John 5:8. And there are three that bear witness in earth,] the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. 1 John 5:9. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, c." Any man may see, on examining the words, that if those included in brackets, which are wanting in the MSS. and versions, be omitted, there is no want of connection and as to the sense, it is complete and perfect without them and, indeed much more so than with them. I shall conclude this part of the note by observing, with Dr.

7. For there are three that bear record in heaven] If there is one thing that is certain in textual criticism, it is that this famous passage is not genuine. The Revisers have only performed an imperative duty in excluding it from both text and margin. External and internal evidence are alike overwhelmingly against the passage. A summary of both will be found in Appendix D. But there are three facts, which every one should know, and which alone are enough to shew that the words are an interpolation. (1) They are not found in a single Greek MS. earlier than the fourteenth century. (2) Not one of the Greek or Latin Fathers who conducted the controversies about the doctrine of the Trinity in the third, fourth, and first half of the fifth centuries ever quotes the words. (3) The words occur first towards the end of the fifth century in Latin, and are found in no other language until the fourteenth century. The only words which are genuine in this verse are, For there are three that bear record, or more accurately, For those who bear witness are three: ‘three’ is the predicate; for ‘witness’ see on 1 John 1:2.

For there are three that bear record in heaven ... - There are three that “witness,” or that “bear witness” - the same Greek word which, in 1 John 5:8, is rendered “bear witness” - μαρτυροῦντες marturountes.

7. For—Scholars are agreed, at the present day, that this entire verse and the words in earth in the following verse are not genuine; being a late interpolation and not the words of St. John.