RGA - p. 262
Johann Jakob Griesbach contributed to the
epistolary exchanges on the Johannine comma by publishing a lengthy reply to a
defence of the comma which Wilhelm Friedrich Hezel, professor of oriental
languages at Gießen, had addressed to him the year before. Griesbach comported
himself more politely than had any of the English critics, writing to Hezel that he
considered his colleague’s letter not as a declaration of war, but as an invitation to
a mutual search for the truth.
Griesbach, Johann Jakob.
-----. Bemerkungen über des Herrn Geheimen Regierungsraths Hezel Vertheidigung der Aechtheit
der Stelle 1 Joh. 5, 7. Giessen: Heyer, 1794.
BCEME - p. 130
A defence of the comma by
Franz Anton Knittel (1785) and an exchange between Wilhelm Friedrich
Hezel and Griesbach in the 1790s were amongst the few extended treatments
of the subject in German to appear in the last third of the eighteenth
century. As a result, public discussion – and personal investment – in this
issue was less widespread in Germany than in Britain.
Hezel, Wilhelm Friedrich. Ueber die Aechtheit der Stelle Johannis (1 Joh. v. 7), Drey sind die da zeugen im Himmel, etc. aus Gründen der höhern Kritik.
Giessen: Heyer, 1793.