What Does 1 John 5:9 Mean in the King James?
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
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
English gives us “witness” and “testified,” but the Greek keeps both in one word-family: testimony is bound to the act of bearing witness.
THE MEANING
The testimony you receive from people is real, yet God’s testimony about the Son is greater. God has testified, and that witness still speaks to you with greater weight than every human report. The verse centers that testimony on the Son, not on an abstract claim about God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief undone is that human testimony is the highest authority available, with God’s witness merely one opinion beside it.
THE ROOT
μαρτυρία
martyría
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
The Greek word-family of bearing witness and giving testimony.
“witness” in this verse is martyría. The noun μαρτυρία (martyría, testimony) and the verb μεμαρτύρηκεν (memartýrēken, has testified) share the same stem. English gives them different forms, while Greek keeps the testimony and the act of witnessing joined.
ALSO GROWS
mártys: Witness; a person who bears testimony.
μάρτυς
The same word-family names both the testimony and the one who bears it.
martyreō: To testify or bear witness.
μαρτυρέω
The verb translated “hath testified” grows from the same stem as “witness,” joining God’s testimony to God’s act of bearing it.
THE PATTERN
A testimony’s weight is disclosed by its source and by what bears it out.
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
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.In the next verse, the Greek μαρτυρία (martyría, testimony) appears where the KJV says both “witness” and “record.” The greater witness named here is also described as present within the one who trusts the Son.
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