The Spirit, the Water, the Blood, and God’s Testimony to His Son

John describes Jesus Christ as the one who came “by water and blood” and then places the Spirit alongside the water and blood as witnesses. The exact interpretation of water and blood has been debated: proposals include Jesus’ baptism and death, the realities signified by John 19:34, and polemical emphasis on the full earthly career of Jesus. What is certain in the passage is the purpose of the testimony: God bears witness concerning his Son, and eternal life is found in the Son. Because the KJV includes the longer wording in verses 7–8 about the Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, this passage requires a major textual-criticism Deep Study. The famous “Comma Johanneum” is absent from the early Greek manuscript tradition and entered the received Greek text through a much later transmission history. The doctrine of the Trinity does not depend on this late variant.