Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 John 5:6

"This is he that came by water and blood, [even] Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood." — 1 John 5:6 (ASV)

(6a) Jesus, the Son of God (v.5) and the Christ (v.1), came not just by water, but “by water and blood.” This enigmatic statement has given rise in the church to many interpretations. Augustine linked the reference to Jn 19:34, where the piercing of Jesus’ side produced water and blood.

Calvin and Luther connected it to Jn 4 and 6 and saw in it a reference to the sacraments. Most commentators today see the “water” as referring to Jesus’ baptism and the “blood” to his death on the cross. Even though John’s gospel does not describe the water baptism of Jesus, the Johannine community could not have been ignorant of it.

The purpose of the statement seems clear. The author once more affirms that it is the historical Jesus who is the Christ, the Son of God. Although the false teachers may have acknowledged Christ as the Savior, the divine Son of God, they denied his true human existence. Like Cerinthus, they probably held that the Christ came on the man Jesus at his baptism and remained till the time of the Crucifixion.

In this way they could deny that the Christ had ever been truly human and subject to suffering and death. John rightly regards this as a denial of the redemptive activity of God. It was the Son of God who came into the world. It was this same divine Son who was baptized and received the Spirit. It was the Son who, with the Father’s approval and in fulfillment of the Father’s intention, shed his blood on the cross to redeem humanity. God would not be involved in human redemption apart from the Christ’s true humanity, suffering, and dying. Water and blood become, therefore, the key words of the true understanding of the Incarnation.

Once the author had arrived at his primary understanding, he likely saw in the incident of Jn 19:34 a divine confirmation of it. He may also have seen the reference to the water in Jn 4:10, 14 and to drinking his blood in Jn 6:53 as confirmation. But these flow from the facts that are the historic base for them all. Jesus, the Son of God, came through the water of baptism. He came also through the Cross. This coming by water and blood is the basis of our salvation.

(6b) “And it is the Spirit who testifies” (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:8, 12), because the Spirit, as ultimate truth, is the only one capable of so bearing witness (cf. 1Jn 3:24; 4:13). One cannot receive the witness concerning the Son of God by oneself. There are no human categories available through which one can understand it. God’s redemptive act in Christ is not a bit of data humankind can deduce for itself by analogical reasoning. Like the Resurrection, it can only be announced. And this time it is not made known by angels (cf. Lk 24:6) but by the Spirit of God.

The Spirit bore witness historically in Jesus’ baptism by coming down from heaven as a dove and remaining on him . At Jesus’ death on the cross, the “blood and water” that flowed from his side bore witness and led to the following statement: “The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe” . But here in v.6 the present tense of the verb indicates that John wants to show that the Spirit continues in his witness to the community of believers.