Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 John · About this commentary
By Water and Blood
1 John 5:6
6 This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. · WEB
Two moments are named against a teaching that would have accepted one of them, and the phrasing shows which was being denied.
The sentence is compressed and its structure carries the argument. This is he who came by water and blood — then, immediately, a correction that shows what was at stake: not with the water only, but with the water and the blood.
A correction that specific implies an error that specific. Someone was affirming the water and stopping there. The letter does not name the teaching; what the text supplies is that a coming by water alone was on offer and is refused.
The two terms are not explained, which suggests the readers knew them. Both are moments the letter's own emphases point to: a beginning marked by water, and an end marked by blood. And blood is the term the letter has already used for what cleanses 1 John 1:7.
The insistence fits everything else the letter opposes. A group that would not confess Christ come in flesh 1 John 4:2–3 would find a Christ who arrived at a baptism easier than one who bled, since the second is the least deniable physical fact about him. That the letter fights for the blood rather than for the water tells the reader which end was under pressure.
The verse then adds a third: it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth — which is what the next two verses take up.
held with reason What this mark means