In this ever-memorable passage, all scholars know that an interpolation has taken place. The words--"in heaven the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth"--are a gloss. A great sentence of one of the first of critics may well reassure any weak believers who dread the candour of Christian criticism, or suppose that it has impaired the evidence for the great dogma of the Trinity. "If the fourth century knew that text, let it come in, in God's name; but if that age did not know it, then Arianism in its height was beaten down without the help of that verse; and, let the _fact_ prove as it will, the _doctrine_ is unshaken."[313] The human material with which they have been clamped should not blind us to the value of the heavenly jewels which seemed to be marred by their earthly setting.
* * * * *
It is constantly said--as we think with considerable misapprehension--that in his Epistle St. John may imply, but does not refer directly to any particular incident in, his Gospel. It is our conviction that St. John very specially includes the Resurrection--the central point of the evidences of Christianity--among the things attested by the witness of men. We propose in another discourse to examine the Resurrection from St. John's point of view.
[299] δεδωκεν ἡμιν διανοιαν ἱνα γινωσκομεν κ.τ.λ. 1 John v. 20. N. T. lexicographers give as its meaning _intelligentia_ (_einsicht_). See Grimm. _Bretschn._, s.v. Prof. Westcott remarks that "generally nouns which express intellectual powers are rare in St. John's writings." But διανοια is the word by which the LXX. translate the Hebrew לֵב, and has thus a moral and emotional tinge imparted to it. We may compare the sense in which Aristotle uses it in his Poetics for the cast of thought, or general sentiment. (_Poet._, vi.)
[300] ει την μαρτυριαν των ανθρωπων λαμβανομεν. 1 John v. 9.
[301] The A. V. (very unhappily) tried to minimise this reiteration by the introduction of synonyms in four places--"bear record," "record" (vv. 7, 10, 11), "hath testified" (ver. 9).
[302] ὁ ελθων.
[303] δι ὑδατος και αιματος.
[304] ουκ εν τω ὑδατι μονον, αλλ' εν τω ὑδατι και εν τω αιματι.
[305] τρεις εισιν οι μαρτυρουντες, ver. 7.
[306] The _Water_, John iii. 5, cf. i. 26-33, ii. 9, iii. 23, iv. 13, v. 4, ix. 7. The _Blood_, vi. 53, 54, 56, xix. 34. The _Spirit_, vii. 39, xiv., xv., xvi., xx. 22. The water centres in _Baptism_ (iii. 5); the blood is symbolised, exhibited, in Holy _Communion_ (vi.); the Spirit is perpetually making them effective, and especially by the appointed ministry (xx. 22).
[307] ὁτι αυτη εστιν ἡ μαρτυρια του Θεου, ὁτι μεμαρτυρηκεν περι του υιου αυτου, ver. 9.
[308] v. 39, 46, etc.
[309] viii. 18.
[310] viii. 17, 18.
[311] ver. 36, x. 25.
[312] ὁ πιστευων εις τον υιον του Θεου, ver. 10. (See Bihs Ellicott on the force of various prepositions with πιστευω. _Comment, on Pastoral Epistles_.)
[313] Bentley. Letter of January 1st, 1717.