1 John 5:7
in 1 John 5For there are three that testify:
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth.
KJV
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
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This verse in 1 John 5
Commentary
17 notes on this verseThe manuscripts
The Three Heavenly Witnesses
on 1 John 5:7-8
The clearest case on this site: the words about the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost entered the Greek New Testament in 1522, out of Latin, and the doctrine of the Trinity never needed them. What it changes: Nothing. Not one thing. This is the most important sentence on the page, and it is not a comfort offered to soften a blow, it is the plain state of the case.
The Lord says, "I and the Father are one;" and again it is written of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, "And these three are one." And does any one believe that this unity which thus comes from the divine strength and coheres in celestial sacraments, can be divided in the Church, and can be separated by the parting asunder of opposing wills? He who does not hold this unity does not hold God's law, does not hold the faith of the Father and the Son, does not hold life and salvation.
This site's exposition
three that bear record in heaven
on 1 John 5:7-8
The three heavenly witnesses of verse 7 stand in the KJV floor and the reader should know their history: the words are absent from every Greek manuscript before the late middle ages, absent from the early versions and from the fathers' trinitarian debates where they would have been decisive, entering the printed Greek text with Erasmus's third edition, and defenders from Gill's day to now are a named minority against the broad judgment that the clause grew from a Latin gloss. The doctrine of the Trinity does not lean on the disputed words; it stands on Matthew 28:19, the baptismal scenes, and this letter's own Father, Son, and Spirit grammar, which is why the question can be told honestly. The undisputed verse 8 gives the letter's own triad, the spirit, and the water, and the blood, three witnesses agreeing in one testimony, the law's two-or-three-witness standard met for the Son.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
A commentator
Clement of AlexandriaFrom the Latin Translation of Cassiodorus · Written before 215.
proposed
He says, "This is He who came by water and blood;" and again - "For there are three that bear witness, the spirit," which is life, "and the water," which is regeneration and faith, "and the blood," which is knowledge; "and these three are one." For in the Saviour are those saving virtues, and life itself exists in His own Son.
The Medieval Church4 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 8 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
There are two Seraphim established in us through faith, and each one makes the triple exclamation, but refers only once to the Lord God. For the understanding of God is the understanding of three Persons with unity of essence. Wherefore "there are three that bear …
A commentator
BonaventureDisputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 1 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
The words also testify to this same thing, among which, although many there be, that one statement is express which the friend of the Bridegroom wrote in First John five: There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy …
A commentator
BonaventureDisputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 2 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
1 John 5: Three are they who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one; I say one absolutely, which I say with no addition: therefore they are one absolutely: therefore the trinity does not take …
Since there are three who bear witness on earth, etc. The Spirit has borne witness that Jesus is truth, when it descended upon Him at His baptism. For if he were not truly the Son of God, by no means would the Holy Spirit have …
9 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church2 voices
And (he says) the three are one. For these remain indivisible, and none of them is separated from its connection, because divinity is not to be believed without true humanity, nor humanity without true divinity. But in us also these are one, not by nature …
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. Witness is given by the Three, but it is expressed through the Word, for the Word expresses the Father, and Itself, and the …
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
It is alleged that many old Greek manuscripts have it not. We shall not here enter into the controversy. It should seem that the critics are not agreed what manuscripts have it and what not; nor do they sufficiently inform us of the integrity and value of the manuscripts they peruse.
If all the Greek manuscripts and ancient versions say concerning the Spirit, the water, and the blood, that in unum sunt--they agree in one, then it was not of them that Cyprian spoke, whatever variety there might be in the copies in his time, when he said it is written, unum sunt--they are one.
most appositely occurs, as a proof of the authenticity of the Spirit's testimony; he must needs be true, or even truth itself, if he be not only a witness in heaven, but even one (not in testimony only, for so an angel may be, but in being and essence) with the Father and the Word. We are stopped in our course by the contest there is about the genuineness of
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
For there are three that bear record in heaven,.... That is, that Jesus is the Son of God.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
For there are three that bear record in heaven ... - There are three that “witness,” or that “bear witness” - the same Greek word which, in 1Jn 5:8, is rendered “bear witness” - μαρτυροῦντες marturountes. There is no passage of the New Testament which has given rise to so much discussion in regard to its genuineness as this.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
A scholium quoted in Matthæi, shows that the words did not arise from fraud; for in the words, in all Greek manuscripts "there are three that bear record," as the Scholiast notices, the word "three" is masculine, because the three things (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) are SYMBOLS OF THE TRINITY.
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, Ethiopic, the Coptic, Sahidic, Armenian, Slavonian, etc., 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: - “1Jn 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. 1Jn 5:7. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one. 1Jn 5:9. If we receive the witness of man, the witness of God is greater, etc.” The words that are omitted by all the MSS., the above excepted, and all the versions, the Vulgate excepted, are these: - [In 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. “1Jn 5:6. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 1Jn 5:7. […]
The words behind it
5 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ὅτι | hoti | For | G3754 → | 1292 times |
| τρεῖς | treis | three | G5140 → | |
| εἰσιν | eisin | there are | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| οἱ | hoi | those | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| μαρτυροῦντες, | marturountes | bearing testimony: | G3140 → | 76 times |
ὅτιFor
hotiG3754 →1292 times
τρεῖςthree
treisG5140 →
εἰσινthere are
eisinG1510 →2333 times
οἱthose
hoiG3588 →19766 times
μαρτυροῦντες,bearing testimony:
marturountesG3140 →76 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
it leads to
- Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- John 17:5
And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.
- Revelation 19:13
He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God.
- Colossians 1:17
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
- John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- Genesis 1:1
Through
Matthew 28:19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
it leads to
- Mark 16:15–16
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
- Acts 2:38–39
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
- Mark 16:15–16
Where this verse is studied
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About 1 John
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 8; Bonaventure, Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 1; Bonaventure, Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 2; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9; Clement of Alexandria, From the Latin Translation of Cassiodorus; Cyprian, Treatise 1. On the Unity of the Church; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.