What Does 1 John 5:6 Mean?
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus, the Anointed One; not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood. And it is the breath that bears witness, because the breath is the truth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.THE KEY
The breath that bears witness is part of the same embodied testimony as the water and blood.
THE MEANING
Here, Jesus is presented through water and blood together, while the breath bears witness because the breath is truth. Truth is not detached from lived reality; it is encountered through embodied signs and a living witness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that spiritual truth must be detached from bodily reality: its witness stands alongside water and blood.
THE ROOT
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
to blow, breathe
The word family holds breath, wind, and spirit together; here, the breath bears witness. Its root keeps truth within living motion, beside the water and blood named in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
pnoē: breath, a blowing
πνοή
It makes the breath-root audible in the witness: this testimony belongs to living movement.
pneō: to blow, breathe
πνέω
The verb beneath pneuma shows the word’s connection to breath in motion.
μαρτυρεῖ
martyrei
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
to bear witness, testify
“bears witness” in this verse is martyrei. The witness-word belongs to the same family as both testimony and the person who testifies. The breath is not a vague impression here; it bears a testimony about Jesus alongside the water and blood.
ALSO GROWS
martyria: testimony, witness
μαρτυρία
It names the testimony produced by the act of bearing witness.
martys: witness
μάρτυς
It names the one who testifies, keeping the verse’s witness rooted in a living bearer.
THE PATTERN
Truth is established through witnesses that converge on one matter.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.But if he does not hear you, take along with you one or two more, so that upon the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.the breath, and the water, and the blood; and these three converge into one.THE THREAD
the breath, and the water, and the blood; and these three converge into one.The same μαρτυρ- family appears in “bear witness,” while this verse names breath, water, and blood as the witnesses. It opens the single witness of verse 6 into a threefold testimony that agrees in one.
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