came forth from the side of Jesus Christ, being dead on the cross. The same chapter, ver. 34. — i to ni nZpd sen r'o ftuprvpovv, and it is the Spirit that hearetli witness ) He hearetli witness of Jesus Christ : ver. 5, ii. 22 ; 2 John, ver. 9. — on to nveu/jod ienv ^ a?^#s/a, because the Spirit is the trutli) The apostle declares what he here means by the word Spirit , namely, the truth. But what does he mean by the word truth ? There is no doubt but that, in this professed enume- ration, he embraces in some way all things which appertain to the testimony concerning Jesus Christ, except the Divine testimony itself. We shall collect these testimonies from the writings of St John and others of the NewT Testament. The Scriptures testify of Jesus Christ, John v. 39, that is, Moses and the prophets, John v. 46, i. 46 ; Acts x. 43 ; John the Baptist testified, John i. 7. After- wards the apostles bare testimony, John xv. 27 ; 1 John i. 2, iv. 14 ; Acts i. 8, ii. 32 ; and especially the writer of this Epistle, John xix. 35. Now when the apostle collects the testimonies concerning Jesus Christ, as concerning Him who is come, he by no means over- looked the Gospel. He indeed never calls it the Gospel; he generally calls it the testimony. But in this passage it would be inconvenient to say, there are three that bear witness , the testimony , and the water , and the blood ; therefore, instead of testimony, he says the truth; the truth, namely, not only with respect to knowledge, but also with respect to its publication : and he distinguishes the truth by the name of the Spirit; with which subject the predicate, to bear witness , ele- gantly agrees. Let the name of Spirit be thoroughly weighed : ch. iv. 1, 2 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 12 ; Apoc. xix. 10; John vi. 63. In this Spirit the prophetic testimony also of the Old Testament is con- tained, together with its fulfilment and demonstration. The apostle says, Jesus Christ came both by water and by blood : he does not here say, and the water and blood are they which bear witness. Again he says, with remarkable emphasis, KAI to nvsvpd ken TO /xapTvpouvj it is the Spirit which bears witness : he does not say, Jesus Christ came by the Spirit , or in the Spirit ; for the Spirit was bearing witness, even before the coming of Christ, through many ages : but the water and the blood were most intimately connected with His very coming. And the testimony is more properly ascribed to the Spirit, than to the water and the blood : inasmuch as the Spirit of itself has the power of bearing witness, and the water and blood obtain and exercise the same power, when the Spirit is added to them.
7. ” On TpsT; tieiv oi ju,a,prvpouvreg, because there are three bearing
1 JOHN y. 7.
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witness) The participle, bearing witness , used instead of the noun, witnesses , implies that the act of bearing witness, and the effect of the testimony, are always present. Before also he had spoken of the spirit, in the neuter gender, ro Ian TO MAPTTPOTN :
now he speaks in the masculine gender, there are three who bear witness , of the spirit also ; at the same saying, that the water and the blood bear witness, also in the masculine gender. Those femi- nines, faith , hope , charity , are said to be three ( tria ), in the neuter gender, 1 Cor. xiii. 13 ; but here vdup, a/jaa, all of the neuter
gender in Greek, that is, the spirit , the water , arffl the blood , are rpsTg {jLctprvpouvTss, in the masculine gender. To be bearing witness is properly applied to persons only : and the fact that three are de- scribed, by personification, as bearing witness on earth, just as though they were persons, is admirably adapted (subservient) to the personality of the three who bear witness in heaven ; but yet neither the spirit (that is the truth of the Gospel), nor the water, nor the blood, are persons. Therefore the apostle, advancing from the preceding verse to the one now present, employs a trope, adapted to the brevity of the discourse, so as to say this : There are three classes of men (ver. 9, compared with John v. 34), who dis- charge the office of bearing witness on earth ; (1st) that class of witnesses in general which is employed in preaching the Gospel ; and, in particular, (2d) that class of witnesses, which administers baptism, as John the Baptist and the others ; and also (3d) that class of witnesses, which beheld and puts on record the passion and death of the Lord. There is therefore a Metalepsis,1 and that of a most weighty kind: viz. one wherein ( a ) by a Synecdoche of number, instead of the whole class of witnesses, there is put one who witnesses ; as though it were said, a prophet , baptist , apostle : for although these three functions might often meet in one man, yet of themselves they were divided : comp. Eph. iv. 11 : and on that account the Metonymy is the more suitable, on which presently. The degrees of these three functions are found, Matt. xi. 9, 11, where however the word prophet is used in a more restricted sense. (b) By Metonymy of the abstract term, instead of those who bear witness, as a vronrai xai varripirui ( eye-witnesses and ministers ), the spirit itself, the water , and the blood , are mentioned. — hv rr\ yjj, on earth) See below. — ro arv net l ro udoop, xai rb al/xa, the spirit , and the water , and the blood) The apostle changes the order : for where-