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Question
Dear Father Angelo.
God bless you!
In 1 John 5:7-8 we read: “For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement”. Can you explain it? Is this passage referring to baptism?
As I await your reply, I send you my regards and blessings.
Lorenzo
Priest’s answer
1. First of all, it helps to quote the entire passage: “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.” (1 John 5:5-9).
2. St. John intends to prove that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God. He does this, asserting that Jesus is the one who came to accomplish his mission by water and blood.
3. Two interpretations have been given about these words.
According to the first interpretation, the water alludes to the Baptism of Jesus, and the blood to his death on the cross. Therefore, St. John wants to say that Jesus, at the beginning of his public life, manifested his divinity to men through water, i.e., through the Baptism he received from John the Baptist. On this occasion, the Father’s voice could be heard saying: “This is my beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17 and John 1:32-34).
At the end of his life, Jesus manifested his divinity again when he shed his blood on the cross and the centurion, looking at him, was compelled to say: “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54).
4. According to many (Tertullian, Beda, and others) John is hinting here at the heresy of Cerinthus, who separated Christ’s humanity from his divinity, affirming that Jesus was simply a man. Cerinthus affirmed that at the time of his baptism the divinity (the Christ) was united to his humanity (Jesus). However, at the time of his passion the Christ (the divinity) left Jesus, so that the one dying on the cross was simply a man, and not God made man. This is clearly a heresy, as it denies the universal redemption of infinite value accomplished by Christ.
St. John here underlined that the person who was made manifest at his baptism with water, and the person who shed his blood on the cross, are one and the same.
5. A second interpretation is given by St. Augustine and others. St. Augustine believes that the Apostle is alluding to the water and blood that poured out of the side of Jesus on the cross (John 19:34).
Here the water would be not only the matter of Baptism, but also a symbol of grace (John 4:10 and 7:38).
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrew 9:22). The blood is the symbol for atonement of sins, and Jesus Christ came to redeem men with his blood, and to cleanse them with baptism. He did not only come through water, but through water and blood, because the same Christ who instituted the baptism also died for us.
Or, according to St. Augustine, he came through the water and blood that poured out of his side to attest to the reality of his human nature.
6. Without discounting Saint Augustine’s interpretation, the first one is most likely the right one.
7. The Holy Spirit, together with water and blood, attests that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God.
The Spirit rendered this testimony during Jesus’s baptism (Mathew 3:16), on the day of his Resurrection (“Receive the Holy Spirit” John 20:22), and on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:33).
This testimony is rendered by the Holy Spirit, who is the Truth.
8. The Jews required two or three witnesses to settle a dispute. St. John conforms to this norm by producing three witnesses (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) who together confirm that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, Son of God.
I wish you to ever profit from the grace of Baptism, the redemption of the cross, and the sanctification of the Spirit.
I recommend you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo
