On Christ - Theological Commonplaces

418 Pages·2009·15.892 MB·English

by  Johann Gerhard

ON THE PERSON AND OFFICE OF CHRIST
THEOLOGICAL COMMON PLACES
Exegesis, or A More Copious Explanation
of Certain Articles of the Christian Religion (1625)
ON T
PERSON
OFFICE or CHRIST
JOHANN GERHARD
Translated by Richard J. Dinda
Edited with Annotations by Benjamin T. G. Mayes
CON COR DIT A PUBLISHING HOUSE ° SAINT LQOQUIS
59-1 14/7
ISBN 13: 978-Q- 7586-1010-2
ISBN LQ: 0-/7586-1010-6
Systematic Theology / Historical Theology
English translation © 2009 Concordia Publishing House
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of Concordia Publishing House.
All quotations from Scripture and other authors in this work are translated from volume 1 of Johann Gerhard. Loci
Theologici, edited by Friedri@g Reinhold Eduard Preuss (Berlin: Gustav Schlawitz, 1863).
This work uses the SBL Hebrew Unicode font developed by the Font Foundation, under the leadership of the
Society of Biblical Literature. For further information on this font or on becoming a Font Foundation member, see
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Manutactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gerhard, Johann, 1582—1637
[On the person and office of Christ. English]
Theological commonplaces. On the person and office of Christ / Johann Gerhard ; translated from the original Latin
by Richard J. Dinda.
W. CIT}.
ISBN 0-7586-1010-6
ISBN 978-0-7586-LO1L0-2
1. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Lutheran Church—Doctrines. I. Dinda, Richard J. Il. Title.
BS5S11.3.G47 2006
220.4
2006004920
lL 2 3 4 5 6 F 8 GQ JQ 18 17 16 15 #14 47312 +41 =~:10 £429
( ONTENTS
FEpItoR’s PREFACE
Comparison of Editions of Gerhard’s Loci
COMMONPLACE IV (1625 EXEGEsIS): ON THE PERSON AND OFFICE OF CHRIST
The preface shows this doctrine’s: (1) Dignity, § 1.
(2) Usefulness, § 2. (3) Necessity, § 3.
Chapter I: The treatment of this article consists of nomenclature and tactual
material. (I) The nomenclature contains: (1) The etymology of the
name “Jesus,” § 6, and of “Christ,” 8 13.
Chapter II: (2) The homonyms of the name “Jesus,” 8 18, and of “Christ,” § 22.
Chapter III: (3) The synonyms, presenting various names of Christ, § 23,
and types of Christ, 8 28.
Chapter IV: (II) The factual material deals with the person and office of
Christ. The person of Christ consists of two natures, divine and
human, 8 34.
Chapter V: The true deity of Christ is proved, 8 42: (1) From His divine
names, § 45. (2) From His essential divine attributes, § 47.
(3) From His personal property, 8 52. (4) From His divine
works, 8 55. (5) From divine worship, 8 63.
Chapter VI: The human nature of Christ is proved, § 79.
Chapter VII: The personal union of these two natures in Christ is
proved, 8 101. Here there is discussion of its: (1) Efficient
cause, 8 102. (2) Material, § 109. (3) Form, 8 115. 4) End, § 140.
Chapter VIII: From the personal union there arises: (1) The communication
of the natures, § 148.
Chapter IX: The personal propositions result from the union and
communication of natures, 8 155.
Chapter X: (2) The communication of properties, which is dealt with
in general, § 174.
Chapter XI: Three genera of this communication of properties are established. L80O
The first is that by which the things proper to both natures are
predicated about the person of Christ, 8 186. This is also where
those predications belong in which the properties of the human
nature are predicated about the Son of God, § 193.
Chapter XII: The second is that by which the divine nature of the Son.
remaining without the sufferings of the flesh, communicates
its glory and excellence to the human nature, § 201.
In this genus, the following things are to be considered:
(1) The communication itself. (2) And the use of the things
communicated. In the communication, these things are to be
considered: (a) Essential things. (b) And circumstantial things.
The essential things are: (a) The termini. (6) And the material
of the communication. There are two termini, namely, He who
communicates, § 203, and the ending point, namely, He to whom
it is communicated, § 205.
The material of the communication, or that which is commun-
icated, is divine majesty, glory, and power; and, hence, truly
infinite and divine gifts. These are dealt with in general, § 210,
and specifically: (1) On the divine name, § 213. (2) On the divine
properties, namely: Omnipotence, § 214. Omniscience, § 215. The
power to give life, 8 216. The power to execute judgment, § 217.
(3) On the divine works, namely: Omnipresence, § 218. The
working of miracles, § 230. The work of redemption, § 231. The
establishment of the ministry and the gathering of the Church,
§ 232. The sending of the Holy Spirit, § 233. Cleansing from
sins, § 234. The raising of the dead, the administration of
judgment, and the glorification of the devout, § 235. (4) On the
worship of religious adoration, § 236.
The circumstances of the communication are: (1) The mode.
§ 267. (2) And the time, 8 270.
Chapter XIII: The third genus of the communication of properties is that by
which, in the works of Christ’s office, each nature does what
is proper to itself with the communication of the other, § 282.
The distinction between the states of emptying and of exaltation
Chapter XING
arises from the use of the properties communicated, 8 293.
Chapter XV: The office of Christ is commonly established as triple, § 320: 318
Prophetic, 8 322. Priestly, § 323. And royal, 8 324.
33]
(xl OSSARY
PERSON INDEX 335
34)
SCRIPTURE INDEX
WorKS CITED 354
EDITOR S PREBACE
“This article treats of Christ, who is the center of all prophetic and apostolic Scripture, the
foundation of the Church, the treasury of our hope, the fountain of salvation and grace. It
is from Him that we are called Christians, and from Him come down all things necessary
for our salvation” (8 1). With these words, Johann Gerhard begins the present volume of
his Theological Commonplaces and describes its importance. Here, the mystery of Christ—
the heart of Christian faith and life—is set forth in clarity and scholarly erudition.
Gerhard’s Theological Commonplaces began to be published in 1610. After he had
finished the entire series, he started over—repeating the commonplaces on Scripture, the
nature of God, the Trinity, and the person and office of Christ—but this time in much
more detail. The result of his labors was the 1625 Exegesis, or A More Copious Explanation
of Certain Articles of the Christian Religion, which was included with printings of the
Theological Commonplaces even in the seventeenth century. The present volume, On the
Person and Office of Christ (1625 Exegesis), is thus the last volume of the Commonplaces to
be written. Gerhard would live and work for another twelve years after the Exegesis was
published, before being called home to heaven in 1637.
Regarding Gerhard’s terminology in this volume, a few things can be said. The terms
“subsistence” and “hypostasis” mean “person.” Also, the earlier fathers of the Church ~
often used concrete names for the natures in Christ (“Word of God,” “the Man”) in
place of abstract names (“divinity,” “humanity”), even though they affirmed the unity
of Christ’s person. (See § 253 for an example of this.) Sometimes Gerhard will speak
this way as well, though not at all implying that there are two persons in Christ. Over
and over, Gerhard stresses the unity of the God-man. Yet, like the early church fathers,
Gerhard also speaks of “Christ our God” or “Christ the man,” not meaning two dillerent
persons, but meaning “Christ, considered according to His divine nature,” or “Christ,
considered according to His human nature.”
When he comes to speak of the “communication of properties” (communicatio iai-
omatum), Gerhard uses three terms—one Greek and two Latin. Idioma (Greek iSiwpa) is
by far the most prevalent, and it means “property,” that is, something characteristic or
belonging specifically to one of the natures in Christ. Gerhard also uses the terms proprie-
tas/proprium (“property”) and attributum (“attribute”). Often these three terms are used as
synonyms. By using the term idioma, Gerhard shows us that he was well aware ot patristic
Greek teaching on the person of Christ, such as that of John of Damascus, and that he
read the fathers in the original Greek. “Property” (idioma) denotes that which is “proper
to something or someone” and is thus more concrete than the English word “attribute, ’
V11i COMMONPLACE IV (EXEGESIS)
which can be understood as a conceptualization of how something is or as a quality that
the mind of the beholder attributes to something. In Preus’s translation of Chemnitz’s Two
Natures in Christ, the word translated as “attribute” was usually the Greek word idiwya.
Thus, in the present volume, Gerhard is not introducing an innovation in speaking of the
“communication of properties” (communicatio idiomatum)—that is how Chemnitz spoke
of it as well.
The attentive reader will note that Gerhard’s arrangement of the three genera of the
communication of properties differs trom that found in the Formula of Concord. For
Chemnitz and the Formula of Concord (and for Gerhard himself in his 1610 locus On the
Person and Office of Christ), the communication of majesty was the third genus, whereas
here, in the 1625 Exegesis, it is the second. This difference in arrangement does not aifect
the doctrine, but it can lead to contusion if one is not clear about what genus is being
discussed. Already Matthias Hafenretfer, Loci Theologici, 3rd ed. (Tubingae, 1606), and
Balthasar Mentzer, Catholisches Handbichlein (Marburg, 1620; repr., Géttingen, 1938),
had switched the order of these genera, putting the communication of majesty (later
called the genus maiestaticum) second and the communion of effects (later called the
genus apotelesmaticum) third, in order to connect better with the doctrine of the states of
Christ that followed.
With regard to the states of Christ, Gerhard speaks of Christ’s “state of emptying”
instead of the more familiar expression “state of humiliation.” Gerhard’s term is exinani-
tio (“emptying” or “emptying out”), which is the noun form of the verb exévwoe (Latin:
exinanivit) in Phil. 2:7. The distinction between “emptying” and “humiliation” becomes
important in the chapter on the “state of emptying” (88 293-319). Gerhard’s Exegesis
commonplace On Christ was published during a controversy on the person of Christ
within the Lutheran Church, centering on the universities of Giessen and Tubingen
during the years 1619 to 1628. As a professor at Jena, Gerhard was not in the center of
the controversy; in the present volume he never explicitly mentions this debate. However,
part of the controversy dealt with the state of emptying. When Christ was in His humble
condition, how are His divine glories and majesty, which were communicated to His
humanity, to be understood? Did Christ continue to make use of them, but in a hidden
way (the Tubingen answer), or did He cease to make use of them (the Giessen answer)?
Gerhard takes a position regarding this question and explains carefully that Christ’s
emptying was His voluntary nonuse ol His full majesty, power, and glory, not its hiding
(§ 316).
May God grant “that we learn the doctrine of Christ with singular zeal and diligence
and fortify our hearts against any corruptions thereof. As Christ is the Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end (Rev. 1:8), so also He must be the beginning and end in our
meditations and studies” (§ 5).
Benjamin I. G. Mayes
ON THE PERSON AND OFFICE OF CHRIST
EDITIONS OF THE [THEOLOGICAL COMMONPLACES
There are four main editions of Gerhard’s Theological Commonplaces: the Jena edition otf
1610 (the edition printed during Gerhard’s lifetime), the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition otf
1657 (edited by Johann Ernst Gerhard, the author’s son), the Tubingen edition of 1762
(edited by Johann Friedrich Cotta), and the Berlin/Leipzig edition of 1863 (edited by
Edward Preuss). Dr. Richard Dinda made his translation from the Preuss edition, and |
have edited the text with an eye not only on Preuss but also on the Cotta edition, which
was employed to correct the many typographical errors of Preuss’s edition (some ol
which were carried forward from the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition). On the top of each
page of the Concordia edition, references are given to both the Cotta and Preuss editions.
Thus “C3:44” means “Cotta edition, volume 3, page 44,” and “P1:143” means “Preuss
edition, volume 1, page 143.”
In the preface to his edition, Preuss noted that he was reprinting the Jena edition
of 1610. However, instead of including the original Commonplaces I-VII of the Jena
edition, Preuss substituted the four commonplaces he found at the beginning of the
Frankfurt/Hamburg edition. These were published in 1625, after Gerhard had finished
his Theological Commonplaces, with the title “Exegesis, or a more copious explanation
of certain articles of the Christian religion.” They were not meant to be a substitute for
the 1610 Commonplaces I-VII but were intended as a supplement. It is these “Exegesis”
Commonplaces that Preuss included, and it is the same that we present to our readers
here. These “Exegesis” Commonplaces have been included with printings of Gerhara’s
Theological Commonplaces since the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition; therefore they do belong
in this series. Yet we hope to give our readers more clarity on what they are reading than
Preuss gave to his readers.
The enumeration of the commonplaces has also presented difficulties. Both Preuss
and Cotta presented different numbering systems than the seventeenth-century editions
of the Theological Commonplaces. We have decided to follow the original enumeration as
found in the Jena and Frankfurt/Hamburg editions. A comparison chart is included on
p. XI.
In the Concordia edition, we refer to the commonplaces included both in the original
Jena edition and in Preuss’s edition as, for example, “Commonplace XI.” We refer to the
“Exegesis” Commonplaces included in Preuss’s edition as “1625 Exegesis, Commonplace
11.” And we refer to the original Commonplaces I-VII, which were not included in
Preuss’s edition, as “1610 Loci Theologici, locus 5.” In the indices, reference is given
first to the commonplace number, then to the section number. For example: “E3.34°
means “1625 Exegesis, Commonplace III, § 34.” And “8.55” means “1610 Commonplace
VIII, § 55.” This manner of indexing will allow the reader to refer to any edition of the
Theological Commonplaces from the seventeenth century to the present.
COMMONPLACE IV (EXEGESIS)
Preuss’s edition and the Concordia edition occasionally surround sections of text
with double asterisks (**). These sections are Gerhard’s marginal notes on his Theological
Commonplaces that his son included in the Frankfurt/Hamburg edition.