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These Three Are One


For centuries Christians have used their version of the first letter of John to provide clear evidence for the Trinity doctrine. However chapter 5 verse 7 (below) was added by Christian scribes and is not found in the original text. 

"...in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." - King James Version


The first time this clause appeared was in the Latin treatise Liber Apologeticus attributed to Priscillian of Avila ca. 350 c.e. or his disciple Instantius. Most scholars believe it was originally a marginal note that was later incorporated into the text. The oldest occurrence in the Latin scriptures dates to the 10th century and then relegates it only as an alternative reading in the marginal notes, rather than appearing directly in the text.

No Greek church father ever referenced the clause in their writings and the first appearance in the Greek language was in a translation of the Latin, Acts of the Latern Council 1215 c.e. It took 1500 years for the clause to appear in any Greek text of the scriptures, and even that it was back-translated from the Latin

It finally entered into English bibles after 1522 c.e., which coincides with its first appearance in the 3rd edition of Erasmus' Greek text. Lacking source, Erasmus originally did not include it in the first two editions. It was only upon losing a wager that he was forced to include it. He stated that if a single Greek manuscript containing the clause could be produced he would include it in future editions. In response, a Franciscan produced a new manuscript. Relenting, Erasmus added a footnote expressing his suspicion that the manuscript was an expedient forgery. The King James Version, which is heavily based upon this source, remains virtually alone in retaining the clause.

Although this clause is now generally recognized as an interpolation understanding of the whole passage has been in short supply. It is actually a defense for the full humanity of the messiah using typical Jewish idiom.

"This is he who came about by means of water and blood, Yëshuå the anointed one. He was not created by water alone, but by water and blood. And the Spirit testifies, for the Spirit is the link. So there are three witnesses, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. And the three of them together as one." - Peshitta, 1 Yuħänän (John) 5:6-8

Now compare this.

"There are three partners in man: The Holy One, blessed be he, the father and the mother. The father supplies the semen , the white substance, out of which are formed the child's bones, the sinews, the nails, the brain and the white of the eye. The mother supplies seed, the red substance, out of which are formed the skin, flesh, hair, blood and the black of the eye. God provides the spirit, the soul, the beauty of the features, eyesight, the power of hearing, ability to speak and walk, understanding and intelligence." - Talmud, Tractate Nidda, 30a

In Hebrew and Aramaic, "water" is a euphemism for the father's semen (Mäzmura/Proverbs 5:16-18), and "blood" represents the mother's egg (Wïqra/Leviticus 12:2). This concept is repeated throughout rabbinic writings in times before modern medicine determined that the mother's blood was not her "seed". 

"One Rabbi writes that although a woman has ovaries comparable to a man's testicles, either no seed is created in the ovaries or the seed is coagulated so that it contributes nothing to the fetus. The term "emits seed", in regard to women, therefore, refers to uterine blood which accumulates at the end of intercourse and combines with the male's sperm. Another Rabbi also says that the term "emits seed" in regard to the woman refers to menstrual blood because a woman has no seed; rather, her uterine blood is her seed and is therefore called "red". Yet another Rabbi writes that the fetus is created from menstrual blood and the sperm of the man. ...Some later rabbinic authorities also write that the seed of a woman is her menstrual blood, which sometimes flows during a passionate time." - Encyclopedia of Jewish medical ethics: a compilation of Jewish medical law, by Avraham Steinberg, Fred Rosner, p.915

This completely contradicts those who say Yäuşëp (Joseph), the father of Yëshuå, had no biological role in his existence. This is further collaborated by the fact two separate genealogies are given for Yëshuå, one of his mother and his father which is a useless "witness" for making any hereditary claims without an implied biological connection. But Yuħänän (John) writes that his father's biological genealogy is a "witness" and it has now been demonstrated that he was using idioms consistent with contemporary rabbinic thought.

So this leaves the obvious question: Was Yëshuå's mother a virgin or not, and if so, how was Yausep's seed united with Miriam's seed? The answer is provided in the scripture above - "for the Spirit is the link". The word translated as "link" is the Aramaic sharar which has a secondary meaning which indirectly alludes to "truth" as an element of assurance, unbroken security and certainty, from the primary meaning of "firmness, consolidation, strength, power, assurance, etc". There is perhaps a play on semantics between ch.4 v.6 "the spirit of the sharar", and ch.5 v.6 "the spirit is the sharar" but judge for yourself.

Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud and Midrashic Literature, by Marcus Jastrow, (1926) p.1634


Here the Spirit acts as the technician in an artificial intrauterine insemination procedure, combining the egg and sperm thus producing a miraculous conception and ensuring that the messiah would be born at precisely the right time. This answers to all the details, how Yausep is the biological father while maintaining the mother's virginity, providing them a special sign that their son would be the promised messiah.

The Battle Against Docetism

This passage is one of several in the sermon of 1 Yuħänän against the heresy of Docetism which is the belief that Yëshuå the messiah never manifested in the flesh but was an apparition, illusion, hologram, spirit, etc. They reasoned that because they thought of Yëshuå as ontologically God, and because flesh is sinful that God would not manifest Himself in flesh, that Yëshuå must therefore not be made of flesh, and not human. Yuħänän emphatically states that Yëshuå was a flesh and blood person just like any other man, made from the egg and sperm of his parents, and not even by his mother's egg alone as some others imagined. He did not counter the belief that God does not appear in flesh, and this only reaffirms that Yëshuå was not God Who can not even be seen even as an apparition.

"We relate to you that which is from the beginning, he whom we have heard and have seen with our eyes seeing, and have touched with our hands, he who is the word of life." - 1 Yuħänän 1:1


This is contrasted with God whom no one has seen or heard or touched.


"No one has ever seen the Almighty, however if we love one another, the Almighty remains in us and His love is performed in us." - 1 Yuħänän 4:12

"By this we know the Spirit of the Almighty. Every spirit which acknowledges that Yëshuå, the anointed one, has come in the flesh, it is from the Almighty. And every spirit that does not acknowledge that Yëshuå has come in the flesh, it is not from the Almighty, but it is from a false anointing which you have heard would come into the world, and  now exists here in the world already." - 1 Yuħänän 4:2-3

Not only has Yuħänän addressed the Docetists, but the half Docetists, and all those who conflate the son and the Father, Yëshuå and his God.



Additional Sources

The Comma Johanneum and Cyprian, Daniel B. Wallace

Medicine in the Bible and the Talmud: selections from classical Jewish sources, by Fred Rosner p. 251

Jewish law and the new reproductive technologies,  by Emanuel Feldman, Joel B. Wolowelsky p. 5-8

A Time to Be Born: Customs and Folklore of Jewish Birth, by Michele Klein p. 70

Biomedical ethics and Jewish law, by Fred Rosner p.170

The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon - myyn, maya

  1 water Com.
  2 semen Syr.
  3 juice Syr.
  4 in collocations . --(a) + body ܡܲܝ̈ ܦܲܓܪܵܐ : urine Syr. --(b) + feet (as euph. for genitals) ܡܲܝ̈ ܪܸ̈ܓܠܸܐ : urine Syr. --(c) + salt ܡܲܝ̈ ܡܸܠܚܵܐ : garum (fish sauce) Syr. --(d) + ashes ܡܲܝ̈ ܩܸܛܡܵܐ : a) lye-ash; b) oil-of-myrrh Syr. (d.1) + soap ܡܲܝ ܣܦܘܢܪ̈ܐ : lye(?), cinerea(?) Syr. --(e) + vitriol ܡܲܝ ܚܪܬܐ, ܡܲܝܝܵܐ ܕܚܪܬܐ : ink Syr.


shrära
aiyteyh
ruwħa
dhiy
mashda
wruwħa
wädma
bmäya
æla
bälħuwd
bmaya
huwa
la
mshiyħa
yeshuwå
wädma
mäya
byäd
dæta
hänäw
שררא
איתיה
רוחא
דהי
מסהדא
ורוחא
ודמא
במיא
אלא
בלחוד
במיא
הוא
לא
משיחא
ישוע
ודמא
מיא
ביד
דאתא
הנו
5:6
the link is the spirit for it testifies and the spirit and blood by water but alone by water created not the anointed Yëshuå and blood water by means of who came this is he <<

ænuwn
bħäd
wäthlätäyhuwn
wädma
wmäya
ruwħa
sähdiyn
thläta
wiaytäyhuwn
 אנון
בחר
ותלתיהון
ודמא
ומיא
רוחא
סהדין
תלתא
ואיתיהון
5:8
they in unity and these three and the blood and the water the spirit to testify three and there are <<