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For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (1 John 5:7,8, King James Version)

The foregoing Scripture is often called the Comma Johanneum, or, the "Comma of John" because of the comma (in most modern Bibles) following the word "earth." In some Bibles the section in bold, above, is omitted. This subject has been the source of tremendous controversy through this age.

Why the controversy? According to a note in the Amplified Bible, the bold section is a "...familiar passage now recognized as not adequately supported by the original manuscripts." Mind you, there are no such thing as "original (Bible) manuscripts" since such have long since been destroyed by time, temperature and turning. Even the famous Dead Sea Scrolls are copies of originals (or perhaps earlier copies). Nevertheless, the manuscripts referenced are lacking for the section in question, meaning someone (or several someones) inserted the text at some time in the translation process, in an attempt either to: A) Clarify the author's intent, or B) Obfuscate or confuse the author's intent.

Such obfuscation is, of course, repugnant to our Creator, YHVH (Revelation 22:18,19). In the spirit of fairness, let us assume the addition was made for the sake of clarity.

The Comma (for purposes of this discussion, the text in bold) was added, apparently to strengthen the translators' belief in the existence of a tripartite God, or, shall we say, "Godhead" (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), which they call three persons. Now, we all know that personalities are all very distinct from one another, as are grains of sand, or snowflakes. Noah Webster, in his 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, defines personality as:

That which constitutes an individual a distinct person, or that which constitutes individuality.

Now this, on it very surface, would rule out the existence of three separate Agods,@ or even three separate "personalities" within a corporate body for, we are told, "these three are one." Of course, it is reasonable to presume the "one" means of one (unified) purpose, or at least being from a common root source. This is so, for in verse 8, the King James Version reads (speaking of Spirit, water and blood): "these three agree in one." Agreement, or solidarity, is the name of the game here, not semantics.

As given in the King James Version, the thought conveyed is that there are two separate realms: HEAVEN, and EARTH, and that, somehow, the Almighty must function, and is manifest differently, in each realm. In "heaven," God must sit on three thrones, debating affairs of "earth"! Not possible, if "they" are in agreement! Notice that the translators have seen fit to inform us that God bears "record" in heaven, but only a "witness" in the earth. We know this cannot be so, for in verse 6 of I John we are told that the (Holy) Spirit bears witness of itself.

Let's read the passage in a straight, linear approach, as found in the Concordant Literal New Testament (the phrasing, as rendered in English, may sound strange, but this due to the fewer number of Greek words than English):

And the Spirit is the (one) witnessing that the Spirit is the Truth that three are the (ones) witnessing - the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and the three into the one are of The God.

In essence, this is saying Father, Son and Holy Spirit--being in agreement--witness (or testify) because the Holy Spirit witnesses all that is Truth.

This transforming power of the Holy Spirit and its very intuitiveness runs throughout the Gospel of John, which is why Bible translator Ferrar Fenton placed the First Ephesian Epistle of John (I John) immediately after the Gospel of John, for it was a clarification and postscript to that Gospel, probably written in his old age, following the destruction of Old Jerusalem, as an instruction to his disciples.

In John 16:13-16, we find this transforming clarification of the Holy Spirit, as spoken by Jesus Christ:

But when the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all the Truth; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will make known to you things which are to come in the future. He will glorify me, because He will take of my own and show it to you. Everything that my Father has is mine; this is the reason why I told you that He will take of my own and show it to you. A little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me, because I am going to the Father. (Lamsa)

The Christ's disciples, being of ordinary mind, couldn't fathom the expression rendered "going to the Father" since (to them) it implied direction and place. For this same reason, we confuse heaven with a "place you go when you die," instead of the intended meaning, the estate (or realm) of heavenly order, law, government. What Jesus Christ told His disciples was that He would be assuming (in mortal terms, temporary) spirit existence until such time as He would be once again be "knowable" to them, in whatever form that might be. Scripture tells us in The Christ's meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:7-26):

For God (YHVH) is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (Lamsa)

There is a tendency (in certain circles) to maintain that "Jesus is God," and no critical questions must be asked, nor observations made which would clarify such a statement. Proponents of the "Jesus is God" dogma use John 1:1 and verse 14 to supposedly prove their point, when those verses show us something distinctly different. When we read that the WORD "was made flesh," our English grammar mode kicks in, telling us that this WORD must somehow metamorphose as a chrysalis might, being transformed into flesh. In such a case, the latter would lose the essence, and identity, of the former.

The ancient Greeks had no such word as "word." The Greek employed in John 1:1, 14 is logos, meaning quite literally, an expression or communication. Jesus Christ was the expression of what the Father (Spirit) is like, in action. This truth cannot be ascertained by the five senses alone, but by the selfsame Spirit acting upon our intellect.

We sometimes use the logical syllogism, "Things equal to other things...are equal to each other." This is why the KJV can get away with its rendering of Philippians 2:5,6:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God (YHVH-Father) also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.

Ironic, isn't it? The Adam of Genesis was created "in the image of God" (Gen 1:26,27) and, after the Fall, it was necessary for God (in His expression of Jesus Christ) to be "in the likeness of men (Adam)" to be an atonement for the Fall? Isn't our God wonderful, creative, and re-creative?!

Hence, the strange title of this essay, "The Comma and the Comma-Cause-ies (kamikazes)." Some theologians (and some laymen) will throw their lives away in a gesture of defiance to the ONE GOD of Israel, the God of the Celtic, Saxon, Scandinavian and kindred peoples of this globe, who both created us and allowed us to prosper, who allowed us to fall, and who provided a loophole by which He might pick us up, to test us in the fires of Humanist opposition, that we might one day shine forth as beacons upon His Holy Hill, and witnesses of His only begotten Son, who in turn was a witness of The Father in the heavenly, being both spirit and truth.

© 1998; All essays herein are the property of Christian Research, which reserves all rights to their use and disposition, and may not be used or reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of Christian Research and Dan Gentry, with the sole exception that they may be used as is, in totality, for review purposes, with attribution and mailing address for Christian Research listed.