the sword stands for the local parish church's patron, who is john the baptist – the church itself is called "johannes enthauptung", or “john’s beheading”, the sword being the instrument of this deed. the reference to john also recalls the community's name: "johannes" is a german form of the name john. for centuries the community was part of the electorate of mainz, symbolized in the arms by the wheel of mainz. the three-knolled hill, called a "dreiberg" in german heraldry, refers to the community's geographical location in the vorspessart, and also to the three constituent communities of johannesberg, breunsberg and sternberg, which all end in "—berg" (german for “mountain”), whereas the wavy bend sinister (slanted stripe), which is meant to resemble a brook, refers to the three constituent communities of oberafferbach, steinbach and rückersbach, which all end in "—bach" (german for “brook”).