For there are three that testify:
This verse raises two questions: what did John write here, and what does God's testimony to His Son say? Older English Bibles name the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit as three witnesses in heaven; most modern versions say only that three bear witness, then name them in the next verse.
The Disputed Clause
Commentators here judge that the words about heavenly witnesses were added later. John did not write them. One writer traces how they likely got in:
William KellyBut the text here has suffered, whether by carelessness or by design. Briefly: from "in heaven" in verse 7 to "on earth" in verse 8 is not Scripture but an insertion. It may have been at first only a note in the margin, later copied into the text by men who did not understand the truth. Scholars have traced the history of this case fully and carefully. The result is clear. The same grounds that make the New Testament text certain everywhere else prove just as surely that these words are a human addition.
Another writer had long doubted the words, on grounds of sense:
J. N. DarbyI have always held this verse, to say the least, to be very doubtful from the way the meaning runs.
Commentators differ. Elsewhere in this collection the longer wording is quoted as a statement of the Trinity. That doctrine, though, does not stand or fall with this verse.
Why Witness Belongs On Earth
The longer reading also runs into a question of sense. What would witness in heaven be for?
William KellyFirst, what is the meaning of bearing witness "in heaven"? When you weigh the thought, is it not foolish as well as unscriptural? How could there be such a need or fact as bearing witness in heaven? The natural inhabitants of heaven are angels, and they never needed anyone to bear witness to them… People on earth need witness, and God in His grace gives it, because they are steeped in darkness and lack the truth. Pilate only expressed the ignorance of the whole world in his question, What is truth?
There is a second problem — the pairing of the names:
William KellyNo inspired man ever wrote, "The Father, the Word." They are not matching terms. In Scripture we have the "Word" with "God," and the "Son" with the "Father."
The Three Who Testify
The witnesses John does name are the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Each answers to something Christ came to do:
George DavisonThe Lord came in relation to these three great truths: moral cleansing; judicial cleansing, or judicial expiation; and the gift of the Spirit of God, who makes these things good in our hearts. The water has dealt with our state. The blood has dealt with our guilt. Because of this two-fold work, the Spirit of God dwells in the hearts of those who are cleansed both morally and judicially.
The three are not witnesses in the same way, and John's order is not the order of history:
William KellyIn history the order was the blood, the water, and then the Spirit sent from heaven in honour of Christ's redemption… Strictly speaking, of course, the personal witness is the Holy Spirit. He is also the present living power. The water and the blood are only called witnesses in a figure, and so are personified. But the Holy Spirit is a true Person in the Godhead.
One Testimony, One Subject
Three witnesses, yet John says they agree in one — because they say one thing about one Person:
William KellyGod bears His testimony in this wonderful group of three — the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Three witnesses, yet only one testimony: there is no life in the first man at all, and all the blessing is in the Second. He it is who by His death expiates my sins and cleanses me, and the Holy Spirit gives me the joy of both by faith.
This is where settled assurance comes from:
The Christian's FriendGod bears witness to Him, not to us. That is what He does when He would establish our hearts before Himself in the full blessing of what He has revealed to us. The ground of all divine assurance in the soul is "the witness of God which He has witnessed concerning His Son."
Summary
- Witness, weighed. Commentators here treat the clause about three heavenly witnesses as a later insertion. The truth of the Trinity does not rest on a disputed line.
- Witness is for earth. Heaven does not need testimony; angels never needed it. People on earth do, because they sit in darkness.
- Witness is threefold. Water meets our state, blood meets our guilt, and the Spirit makes both real in the heart.
- Witness is one. Three testifiers, one message: no life in the first man, all blessing in the Second.
- Witness is about Christ. God testifies about His Son. That is why assurance holds when a look at ourselves fails.