Philipp Melanchthon

Steven Avery

Administrator
Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560) - also spelled Melancthon

Grantley has a good short section.

There is a margin addition to a manuscript, a Vienna ms., to document.

Philippi Melanthonis opera quae supersunt omnia: Loci theologici (1535) check p. 135
http://books.google.com/books?id=21Y_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA365

1. lohannis 5. [vs. 7.:] Tres sunt, qui testimonium perhibent in coelo, Pater, Verbum et Spiritus sanctus; et hi tres unum sunt.

Quod autem Spiritus sanctus et a Patre et a Filio procedat, docet hic locus Iohannis 15. [vs. 26.:] Cum venerit Paracletus, quem ego mittam vobis a Patre, spiritum veritatis, qui a Patre procedit. Confirmat eum et a se mitti, et a Patre procedere. Discernitur igitur a Patre et Filio.

Quod Spiritus sanctus extiterit [1. epist. 1, 11.] antequam carnem induit Filius Dei, perspicue testatur Petrus, cum inquit de Prophetis: Spiritus Christi in eis praedicens Christum passurum esse. Hic diserte vocatur Christi Spiritus, qui fuit in Prophetis. _ Eodem igitur Spiritu sancto et Patres et Apostoli et pii deinceps sanctificati sunt.

http://books.google.com/books?id=21Y_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA633

This next one is the one included by Grantley, the first paragraph:

Recensui testimonia, quae personam esse Spiritum sanctum convincunt, quibus addam et illud 1. loan. 5. [vs. 7.:] Tres sunt, qui testimonium perhibent in coelo, Pater, λόyos et Spiritus sanctus, et hi tres unum sumt. Quod diserte inquit, Testimomium perhibent, admonet nos de patefactione. Dei, ut Deum sic 39) agnoscamus, ut se patefecit. Testificatur Deus de sese, quis et qualis sit, verus Deus, conditor rerum, conservator et opitulator. Testificatur et de doctrina sua et de voluntate erga uos, et affirmat tres esse in coelo, qui testimonia ediderunt.

Teneantur : ergo testimonia discermentia personas. Pater se patefecit 71) et discernit, cum clamat: Hic est Filius meus dilectus. Item Ioan. 12. [vs. 18.:] Et glorificavi, et glorificabo. Filius de Patre, de sese et de Spiritu sancto testificatur in doetrima sua, quam miraculis et sua ipsius resurrectione eonfirmavit. Spiritus sanctus discernitur, quia peculiari specie éffunditur in Christum et Apostolos, et testificatur postea in invocatione, confessione, miraculis, fortitudine tolerandi supplicia etc. Non igitur frustra Ioannes testimonii iiientionem facit; sed ideo sic loquitur, ut nos admoneat, ut ita agnoscamus Deum, sicut se patefecit, et ipsa testimoniorum editione nos confirmemus.

Etsi autem novi Testamenti dicta sunt magis perspicua, tamen his congruunt testimonia Prophetarum. Significata est persona divina dicto Ioel [2,28]: cuî ait Deus: Effúndam de Spiritu meo super omnem earnem. Quia enim inquit, meo, testatur £t mitti creatam agitationem, sed aliquid essentiae Dei. Necesse est aùtem persónam esse distinctam, $. est aliquid Dei, et tamen non est Pater.
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
Grantley McDonald

Melanchthon included a brief reference to the comma in the 1535 revision of his Loci communes (De spiritu sancto). Posset (1985) suggested that this was because he was not familiar with Luther’s unpublished lectures on 1 John, but Melanchthon was surely sufficiently familiar with Luther’s views and with Erasmus’ Annotationes, not to mention the patristic tradition, to make up his own mind. It seems rather that Melanchthon, in distinction to Luther, found this passage a valuable witness to the nature of the divine testimony:

“The expression they bear testimony is well said; he tells us about the way God reveals himself, that we should understand God as he reveals himself. God testifies about himself, who and what he is: the true God, creator of all things, who conserves and sustains them. And he testifies about his doctrine, about his will towards us, and affirms that there are three in heaven who have given this testimony.”162 Melanchthon is typically independent, drawing his own conclusions about the value of the passage. He does not explicitly mention whether he considered the divine unity as one of essence or testimony, though on balance the latter seems more likely. Bugenhagen, Cruciger, Jonas, Forster and Aurogallus by contrast rejected the comma. The editions of the Vulgate produced at Wittenberg by Paul Eber (1564) and Paul Crellius (1574) omit the comma, consistent with the general suspicion towards this passage shown by the first two generations of Lutherans.163

162 Melanchthon, 1856, 14: “Recensui testimonia, quæ personam esse Spiritum sanctum convincunt, quibus addam et illud 1 Joan. 5: Tres sunt, qui testimonium perhibent in coelo, Pater, λόγος, et Spiritus sanctus. Quod diserte inquit, testimonium perhibent: admonet nos de patefactione Dei, ut Deum sic agnoscamus, ut se patefecit. Testificatur Deus de sese, quis et qualis sit, verus Deus, conditor rerum, conservator & opitulator. Testificatur et de doctrina sua, et de voluntate erga nos, et affirmat tres esse in coelo, qui testimonium ediderunt.”

163 Bludau, 1903a, 289; Posset, 1985, 248-251.

Loci praecipui theologici (1856)
https://books.google.com/books?id=zlQMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA14

However, Grantley only has one reference, with the full references above the question of consent or testimony is likely answered.

Franz Posset
Melanchthon, on the other hand, who was not present in Wittenberg when Luther lectured on 1 John, had made use of 5:7 in his revised Common Places of 1535 as proof of the nature of the Holy Spirit.

SA: this next needs cleanup, it is just a possible future reference
17. Cf. ibid. See also Lic Vogt, "Melanchthons und Bugenhagens Stellung zum Interim und die Rechtfertigung des letzteren in seinem Jonascommentar," Jahrbiicherfllr protestantische Theologie (1887), pp. 33-34: "Er beschwiirt dabei die Buchdrucker, die mschlich eingeschobenen Worte v. 7 aus den Bibeln fernzuhalten . . . " @. 33).
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
Here are two other major 1500s Lutherans who supported the verse authneticity

Martin Chemnitz (1522–1586)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Chemnitz

Mattias Flacius (1520-1575)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Flacius

In the early 1600s, Johann Gerhard wrote extremly well in favor of authenticity.

Check Abbot, Posset and Grantley and bookmarks

And when Kettner made his list, which wrongly included Melancthon, some of them, like the Hebraist Aurogallus, seem to have nothing published. The list (heading) from Kettner was used by Grantley with errors and questions intact.

RGA - p. 218 - Kettner list with errors
When pondering why it was that the great theologians of his tradition like Luther, Melanchthon, Cruciger, Jonas, Förster, Aurogallus and Bugenhagen could have been convinced to reject the comma, Kettner first dismisses a number of possible explanations. It
 
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