1 John 5:6-8: „6 It is this Yehoshua ha Mashiah who came through water and blood; not with water alone, but with water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. 8 And there are three who bear witness in the Earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three are for one“.
If one reads the highlighted section of this Bible passage, one might assume that it refers to three persons who ‚reign‘ in heaven to bear witness to Yehoshua Mashiah (Jesus Christ). We wish to refute this.
1) What is a witness?
According to the dictionary (Google), a witness is 1. a „person who has observed a particular incident“ and 2. a „person who testifies in court“.
2) The witnesses to the Sonship of God: Background – the Old Covenant
The Apostle Yohanan (John) explains, both in his Gospel and in 1 John, which witnesses testify for Yehoshua Mashiah because they know him. We must not forget, particularly regarding Yehoshua’s own statements, that he was speaking to Jews at that time and had not yet died, meaning the Old Covenant was still in force. This stipulated that a single witness had no validity.
Witnesses who are not sufficient
Yehoshua asserts in John 5:31: „If I bear witness concerning myself, my testimony is not true“.
He speaks these words against the backdrop of the Mosaic Law:
„… at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, will the matter be established„ (Deuteronomy 19:15; John 8:17).
Furthermore, Yehoshua is speaking here of himself as a human being, not as Elohim (God).
John 5:33–34: „33 You have sent to Yohanan, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 But I do not receive witness from human being …“.
As Elohim, Yehoshua cannot accept the testimony of a human being, because it is not sufficient. He needs divine testimony!
Valid witnesses: Bible passages
Yehoshua, as Elohim, bears witness to himself, because he knows where he came from and where he is going (John 8:14).
„[…] He who is coming out of heaven is above all, 32 and what he has seen and heard, that he testifies, but no one receives his testimony. 33 He having received his testimony has set a seal that Elohim is true“ (John 3:31–33).
We know that Elohim is in heaven and that only Elohim can come from heaven, nothing human.
The Father who sent him bears witness to him (John 8:18; John 5:37). He is both the one who sent him and the one who has come.
The works of Yehoshua/Elohim bear witness to him (John 5:36; John 10:25).
The Scriptures bear witness to Yehoshua (John 5:39). The Scriptures are the Word of Elohim (more on this in the following chapter).
Yehoshua’s disciples bear witness to him (Acts 1:8).
3) The witnesses in heaven
„For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one“ (1 John 5:7).
Some translations read „and these three are one“. This is incorrect. Rather, the text should read: „and these three are ONE“. The choice of words used here in the Greek corresponds to the Hebrew „EHAD“, which appears in Deuteronomy 6:4, where Elohim teaches the Israelites that He is ONE (not one; a flawed English Bible translation!). This makes it clear that it is indeed only One, not three distinct persons.
Let us now consider the three more closely, namely „the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit“.
The Word is Elohim
In John 1:1 it is written: „In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was toward the Elohim, and Elohim was the Logos„.
Here one cannot claim that „Elohim“ refers to the Son, but rather it says ELOHIM. Elohim encompasses everything. He is the Creator.
Verse 4 continues: „In him was life …“. We believe that life is in Elohim, and that „… the life was the light of the humans“.
Yehoshua says of himself that he is the light of the world (John 8:12). We therefore recognise that the manifestations of the Father and the Son are ONE, namely the living Elohim.
The Lord is the Spirit / The Word is Spirit
We read on in John 1:14: „And the Logos became flesh, and he set up his tent among us …“.
This is the Word (Logos), the Father (who, according to John 4:24, is the Spirit), the Holy Spirit, who previously bore witness in heaven and continues to bear witness:
„But when he, the Spirit of truth will come, he will guide you in all truth, for he will not speak from himself, but he will speak of whatever he will have heard and he will announce you the things to come“ (John 16:13).
The Spirit can therefore also bear witness on earth, as we shall read later. He has revealed himself in human form. This is clearly expressed in 2 Corinthians 3:17–18, where it says:
„17 Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with uncovered face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit„.
In John 6:63, Mashiah teaches us: “ It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life“.
Summary: the indescribable Elohim
In heaven, therefore, the Holy Spirit, who gives life, bears witness (John 6:63).
In other words, one could also say that the Word bears witness, because it is spirit and life (John 6:63; John 1:4).
Since the Word is Elohim, and Elohim is Spirit, and Elohim is also the Father, the Father also bears witness. (John 1:1; John 4:24)
Thus we understand that these are not different persons, but different ways in which Elohim reveals himself to us. Let us therefore not confuse the various aspects and facets of Elohim with different persons!
To those who need a father, Elohim is a father.
To those who need a doctor, Elohim is a healer.
To those who need a word, Elohim is the Word.
To those who need water or bread, He is water or bread.
To those who need more fire, He is fire.
HE is EVERYTHING. He is Elohim.
HE is both Lamb and Lion.
He was both a baby in the manger and, at the same time, a star in the sky guiding the Magi from the East. (Matthew 2)
HE appeared to more than 500 people at the same time (1 Corinthians 15:6), even though He is not 500 people, but ONE (“EHAD”).
Elohim is Spirit, Elohim is Father, Elohim is Word.
In Revelations 1:7–8 it is written: „7 Behold, he comes with the clouds. And every eye will see him, and even those who pierced him, And all tribes of the Earth will beat their breasts with grief because of him. Yes, Amen! 8 I am the Aleph and the Tav, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, the Being, and the Was, and the Coming, the Almighty„.
4) The witnesses on earth
The Spirit, the water and the blood bear witness on earth (1 John 5:6,8).
The water
We read in Ezekiel 36:25 about the water: „Then will I sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you”.
Water is there for cleansing, and it is clear that this water refers to the Word of Elohim. For Yehoshua says to his disciples:
„You are already pure, because of the word which I have spoken to you“ (John 15:3).
The water is poured out, that is, spread, to cleanse us from false teachings, sins and idols. This becomes even clearer in Eph 5:25–26, where it is mentioned that Mashiah cleanses the church „… with the washing of water bath by the word …“. Water and Word are therefore synonymous.
The Spirit
John 3:5: „Yehoshua answered: Amen, amen, I say to you: Except anyone be born out of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Elohim“.
Here, the Lord mentions water and the Spirit in the same breath. We have just read about the water bath in the Word. However, the Epistle to Titus also speaks of „the bath of the new birth and renewing of the Holy Spirit“, which the Lord Yehoshua Mashiah has „shed on us abundantly“. (Titus 3:5-6)
The Spirit is therefore the water. A further Bible verse expands our understanding even further: „The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life“ (John 6:63).
The Word is therefore Spirit. But the Word is also life, and that is precisely what this is about: the witnesses to life.
The Blood
In what follows, we shall see that blood, too, is life.
„For the blood is the soul“ (Deuteronomy. 12:23).
In Hebrew, the same word is used for „soul“ and „life“, namely „nefesh“ (literally: „breath“, „airway“, „throat“; = life-giving breath, life force; but the living person themselves is also referred to as nefesh).
In Leviticus 17:11 it is written: „For the soul of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul“.
Elohim had to shed His blood for us, that is, pour out His life for us. His blood bears witness that He, the Life, became flesh.
Conclusion and summary
Blood = Life; whoever wishes to live must have the blood of Yehoshua.
Word = Life
Water = Life, because without water, life cannot come into being. That is why Elohim created the waters first (Genesis)
Whoever wants to have life must have the water of life, the Word.
Whoever wants to have life must also have the Spirit of Elohim.
Christians as Witnesses
Following the death and resurrection of Yehoshua, the congregation of Yehoshua Mashiah, as his body with its individual members, bears witness to Yehoshua Mashiah. The testimony of these people is – in contrast to that of the people under the Old Covenant – a true and valid testimony. For they have been cleansed by the blood and have the Word of Elohim and the Holy Spirit within them permanently, who bear witness both in heaven and on earth. These Christians, as partakers of the New Covenant, are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13).
As the bride of Yehoshua Mashiah, they have been cleansed in the water bath of the Word (Ephesians 5:25–26; John 17:17). They do —as Yehoshua did before them— the works of Elohim (John 14:12; Luke 8:21; 1 John 3:22). They have therefore been called by Yehoshua himself to be witnesses (Matthew 28:20; John 15:26–27; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:32).
„And the Spirit and the Bride say: Come! …“ (Revelations 22:17).