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Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες
because three are the_‹ones› testifying
In this statement, John reaffirms that the three things that he mentions in verse 6 give us confidence that Jesus is the Son of God and came from him. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could indicate this explicitly. Alternate translation: “So there are three who testify that Jesus is God’s Son and came from him”
Note 2 topic: translate-textvariants
ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυροῦντες
because three are the_‹ones› testifying
See the discussion of textual issues at the end of the General Notes to this chapter to decide whether to follow the reading of ULT or to follow the reading of some late manuscripts and say in your translation, “For there are three who testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three who testify on earth.” As the General Notes recommend, if you decide to use the longer reading, put it inside square brackets [ ] to indicate that it was most likely not in the original version of 1 John.
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / personification
οἱ μαρτυροῦντες
the_‹ones› testifying
Here, John speaks of water and blood as though they were people who could testify, or speak about what they saw. If this might be confusing for your readers, you could express this meaning plainly. Alternate translation: “ways that God has given us to know that he sent Jesus”
5:7-8 three witnesses: The Spirit descended on Christ at his baptism (see John 1:32-34). The water is the water in which Christ was baptized (see Matt 3:13-15; Mark 1:9-11). The blood is the blood that Christ shed at his crucifixion (see Mark 15:37-39). All three proclaim Jesus as God’s Son (1 Jn 5:6).
• After the phrase three witnesses, a few very late manuscripts add in heaven—the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And we have three witnesses on earth. The longer version was written in Latin several centuries after John to explain the three elements (water, blood, and Spirit) as symbols of the Trinity. This explanation found its way into some Latin editions of 1 John, including later copies of the Latin Vulgate. Eventually, Erasmus translated it into Greek and included it in what became the Textus Receptus, the “received text,” which is why it was included in the King James Version. The longer version cannot be found in any Greek manuscript prior to the 1700s and was never cited by any of the early fathers of the church. For these reasons, few modern English translations recognize the longer version as part of the authentic text.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the SR-GNT.