What Does 1 John 5:8 Mean in the King James?
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Spirit is also breath here: unseen breath stands beside water and blood as a distinct witness, and the three converge in one.
THE MEANING
Breath, water, and blood testify together to Jesus, and their distinct witness converges in one. The verse meets you now as a claim that truth is borne through both unseen life and tangible realities, held together rather than divided.
THE ROOT
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
To breathe or blow; air in motion.
The same word holds what English separates as Spirit and breath; here its breath-sense can be heard beside water and blood. The verse’s witness is thus unseen and close to the body’s life.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To breathe, blow.
πνέω
This verb is the source of the word translated Spirit, keeping bodily breath within its meaning.
pnoē: Breath, a blast of wind.
πνοή
This related word makes the breath and moving-air sense explicit.
μαρτυροῦντες
marturountes
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
To testify or give witness.
“bear witness” in this verse is marturountes. This word-family names the act of testifying, the testimony itself, and the witness-person. The three are presented as active testimony, not merely three objects in a list.
ALSO GROWS
martyria: Testimony, witness-bearing.
μαρτυρία
The same root names the testimony itself, showing that the verse presents a shared claim.
martys: Witness.
μάρτυς
The root names the one who bears testimony as well as the act of bearing it.
THE PATTERN
Truth is established through distinct witnesses whose testimony converges.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?THE THREAD
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.Verse 6 names the Spirit as witness and places it beside water and blood. Verse 8 uses the same witness-root and gathers those three into one testimony.
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