What is the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7-8)?
Answered from the commentary of William Kelly, Edward Dennett, The Christian's Friend and 7 others
The Comma Johanneum is the added passage in 1 John 5:7-8 that names the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost as three witnesses in heaven who are one. The passages chiefly answer that this wording is an interpolation, not part of the original text: the true reading speaks of three witnesses—the Spirit, the water, and the blood—whose testimony agrees in one. The added words interrupt the passage’s argument, which concerns Christ’s death and the testimony that eternal life is in the Son; the three witnesses testify to the cleansing, expiation, and life given through Him. A minority of passages presents the heavenly wording as Scripture or discusses it without rejecting it.
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What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
v.7-8
7For they that bear witness are three 8the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three agree in one.
The larger part of verse 7 and the opening of verse 8 have to be omitted, as having no real authority in the ancient manuscripts. The Revised, and other later versions show this. It simply is, "For there are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." The Spirit of God is the living active Witness. The water and the blood are silent witnesses, but all three converge on one point. The point on which they converge is found in verses 11 and 12. Verses 9 and 10 are parenthetical.
But we must consider this more carefully; and in doing so we must first give a better translation than the one in our ordinary version. Verses 6 to 8 should be read: "This is He that came in the way of water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in the power of the water only, but in the power of the water and the blood; and it is the Spirit that testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. Because there are three that testify: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three are with a view to one [testimony]."
v.7-8(Vv. 7, 8). Passing over verse 7, which is an admitted interpolation, we have the three witnesses again presented, but now in the order of their testimony on earth. In verse 6 we have had the historical order in which the Holy Ghost came after the death of Christ. When it is a question of testimony to us, the Holy Spirit is first mentioned, for it is by the Spirit that we receive the testimony of the death of Christ and appreciate the value of the water and the blood. These three, the Spirit, the water and the blood, unite in one testimony to the Son and the efficacy of His work, and the blessing of eternal life that comes to the believer through that work.
1 John 5:8. The words of verse 7 are evidently an interpolation, for there is absolutely no need for any witness in heaven; witnesses are required for men on earth, not for unfallen angels, or for the redeemed in the presence of the Lord. On earth, God has given us three witnesses, each with its own peculiar testimony, but all agreeing to the establishing of the same thing, namely to directing our hearts to the Person of the Son of God, and to the fact that in Him we have eternal life. The witness of the Spirit we have already referred to: He has come from heaven, from the Son and from the Father, to assure our hearts regarding the perfection of the work completed on the cross, and witnessed in the glory given to the Son in the Father's presence. As a witness, the water assures the heart of the great work of cleansing, moral cleansing, wrought out by the Lord Jesus, secured in His death. If we think of the state of defilement of our nature, received from Adam; can that hinder our reception of divine blessing? The water that flowed from the side of Christ, dead upon the cross, assures the heart that moral purification, to meet this, has been made. Can our sins hinder us from being blessed of God? No! The witness of the blood is to a work, gloriously completed, by which God can freely forgive in righteous grace. Therefore do these three witnesses speak of the greatness of the work completed by the Son of God, and tell us there is nothing that can possibly hinder the blessing of eternal life being given to us.
1 John 5:9. Two or three witnesses are accepted by men for the establishing of any matter; it is a divine institution for men, both under law and in Christianity. Human witnesses may err, even if their veracity could not be called in question, for all men have their weaknesses and imperfections. But look at the divine witnesses! One is a divine Person, come from heaven to declare what He knows, what He has seen, and what He has heard. The other two witnesses have come from the side of Christ in death; come to tell us of all the love made manifest in that death, and of the greatness of the Person Who was able to tell out that love and to accomplish such a work. How wonderful the grace that has stooped to our weakness to bring before us three witnesses, thus to persuade our poor hearts regarding what He desires to tell us of. God's witness is greater than man's because of the character of His witnesses, and because of the matter He desires to establish before us. All three witnesses direct our thoughts and hearts to the Son of God. There is no other that God desires to bring before us: it is the Gospel of God, concerning His Son. He would have us know what His Son has accomplished for His glory on the cross, and the place that He fills in His presence.
As to verse 7, reliable manuscripts have proven that it is an unwarranted addition inserted by some early copyist: it was not in the original. There is certainly no need of a witness in heaven: it is here that witness is required. And there is an abundance of Scriptural testimony to the fact of the Trinity, without the necessity of adding man’s witness.
“And there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” Perfect concord exists in this threefold witness to the fact of eternal life being a present possession, in Christ the Son of God, of every believer. First, the Spirit of God dwelling in the believer, and who makes real the truth of God to the heart, is Himself a Witness that the believer has eternal life. For, “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9). Secondly, the Word of God itself, — “the water of the Word,” “the living water” — is plain and clear in its testimony; and the believer, laying hold upon this Word, as one drinking in its fresh ministry of life, finds it an assuring, solid witness to his present possession of eternal life. Thirdly, the blood of Christ having been shed at Calvary is the witness of a perfectly accomplished redemption, sins having been fully atoned for, so that eternal life, rather than death, is the present result for the believer in the Son of God. Who can destroy such blessed solid, true, united witness as this? Will God throw out of court such witnesses, and instead accept the witness of man’s works, man’s experience, man’s feelings? Certainly not. None of these latter can be depended upon in the least, but all of the former are thoroughly unimpeachable. Blessed resting place for faith!
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record [or witness] that God gave of His Son.” In normal circumstances men will commonly receive men’s witness concerning matters of which they have been witnesses. How much more ought we to receive God’s witness! Indeed, we have seen that God’s witness is a threefold one, clear and unquestionable. And primarily this witness is concerning His own Son, with Whom blessing to mankind is vitally connected. God bears witness to Him as coming by water and blood, as the eternal Creator providing moral cleansing; as the Son of Man bringing judicial cleansing; and the Spirit of God attesting the truth of this both in His own history on earth and in the results of His grace at present in souls. Only callous unbelief will dare to fly in the face of so clear a witness. But the believer has the witness in himself. The Spirit of God makes these things a living reality in the souls of saints.
The passage
v.ch.5325 1 John 5.