John Mill

Steven Avery

Administrator
John Mill (1645-1707)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mill_(theologian)

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PBF
1700s - John Mill
https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php?threads/john-mill.5887/

Vulgate Prologue - super-evidence - English translations
David Martin shreds frivolous arguments of Martianay and John Mill - Richard Simon
https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php?threads/vulgate-prologue-super-evidence.56/#post-4777


Let us find the John Mill Vulgate Prologue section exact words

Later we can check all the John Mill bookmarks and we can coalesce more info from PBF pages
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
2026 Recent Vulgate Prologue discussion.

Facebook - Randy Eckman to Nick Sayers
https://www.facebook.com/Nickolas.Sayers/posts/10241261470143648

Nick, Thank you for being a part of the discussion on 1 John 5:7. You were very informative. I really enjoyed everyone on the team.
I happen to see that John Mills believed that the prologue of Jerome was not actually by Jerome. Do you disagree with that statement? My intention is to sharpen iron with iron, not be a critic. I think you are the best.

My Answer next post

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Maybe came from

Facebook - Textus Receptus Academy
https://www.facebook.com/groups/467...504&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen

youtube
Examining: Pseudo-Jerome Prologue, 1 John 5:7-8, the Johannine Comma and the Latin by TurretinFan 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHwR_gwNRO8

Comment
St. Jerome used the word "canonical" in the prologues to his Vulgate translation of the Bible, particularly when distinguishing between the Hebrew Bible and the deuterocanonical books (like Tobit, Judith, and 1 & 2 Maccabees), which he referred to as "apocryphal" or "non-canonical". However, he also used it to distinguish between canonical and non-canonical gospels, and the Church as a whole later accepted the deuterocanonical books as canonical, despite his initial distinction. Deuterocanonical books: In the prologues to his Vulgate, Jerome explicitly listed several books as non-canonical because they were not found in the Hebrew Bible. Examples include the books of Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, and Sirach. Gospels: Jerome also distinguished between the "canonical" and "apocryphal" gospels, as seen in his Preface to the Gospels. Church's acceptance: Despite his initial stance, the Church did not accept Jerome's distinction, and the deuterocanonical books were later accepted as canonical by the Church. 1:10:59
 
Last edited:

Steven Avery

Administrator
My answer to Randy Eckman

Steven Avery
A few years before John Mill a number of frivolous arguments had been made about the Vulgate Prologue not being from Jerome. They were very weak and are no longer used.
They also thought the Prologue was late, that was refuted by Fuldesis, c. 1850.
So JM was in a fog.

Erasmus, who accepted Jerome as the author, as did everybody up to the late 1600s, had cagily left the Vulgate Prologue to the Canonical Epistles out of his Jerome edition. Bishop Fell called him on the carpet for that.
Note that Erasmus got away with silence on the amazing Cyprian usage, which he has published by c. 1520. (It may have been part of the reason for the 3rd edition flip.). Thomas Smith has an interesting section on the Cyprian omission.
Erasmus also gave a bumbling attempt to hand-wave the solecism.
Erasmus tried hard to hand-wave the Vulgate Prologue, too, trying to paint Jerome as the Great Interpolator. (Even though he normally was a big supporter of Jerome.)
You can find details on the purebibleforum.
The Council of Carthage was likely not yet available, as well as most of the early Latin writers and manuscripts.
Or the Athanasius Disputation with an Arian.
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
p 579-581

6. Καὶ αίμαζα] Καὶ πνούμαζο Vien. καὶ πνίύμαζα κι αΐμα Steph.δ.ε. ι. Æthiop. Καὶ αΐμαζα κὶ πνεύμα. (Alex. Cov. 2. N. 1. Copt. Cyril. Oecumen. ut apparet ex Commentario) ἁγίs Lin. Pet. 2. Interpretamentum ex Commate octavo hujus Cap. † xessos] Addito yos Colb. 7. † ̓Αλλ ̓ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι] ̓Αλλὰ νὰ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι Steph. s. ια. Cyril. + καὶ τῷ αἵματι] καὶ αΐματι Laud. 2. Comp. Ἐν τῷ αἵματι Cyril. Lin. N. 1. Ev τῷ πνούματι Alex. Lu. + Τὸ πνεῦμα ἐσι τὸ μαρτυρῶν] Spiritûs teftimonium Ambrof. lib. 3. de Spiritu S. cap. 11.
In Spiritu fuit, qui teftis erat Æthiop. † Ὅτι τὸ πνεῦ μα] Pro τὸ πνεῦμα habent Christus Vulg. Augustin. Leo, Beda, alii. Sed Ambrof. loco fupra dicto, ut & Auctor Tractat. de Baptifmo Hæreticorum inter Opera Cypriani, Græcis congruit.
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7. Ἐν τῷ ἐρανῷ] Deeft in Steph. δ. ε. ζ. θ. ι. ια. ιγ. Si quidem femicirculus in Edit. Roberti Steph. lectionis terminum designans, suo loco fit collocatus. Certe totum illud, ἐν τῷ ἐρανῷ, ὁ Πατὴς, ὁ Λόγο, κὶ τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα καὶ ὅτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἐν εἰσι. και τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρῶντες ἐν τῇ γῇ, omittunt Codices plurimi: & ut & Seidel. + Verum de hoc verficulo fufius agemus infra, ad finem hujus Epistolæ.
8. Καὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν] Ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν Β. 3. † τὸ πνεῦμα ] Omittunt artic. τὸ non folum hic, fed etiam ante ὕδωρ & αἷμα, Laud. 2. Codex Britannicus. Froben. † καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἓν εἰσιν] Omittunt Comp. Cod. Britannicus, (de quo poftea.) Codd. Lat. Lovanienfes 15. In veris Exemplaribus non habetur, etur, inquit Aquinas, fed dicitur effe appofitum ab Hæreticis Arianis, ad pervertendum intellectum sanum de Unitate Essentiæ trium perfonarum. Nempe non viderat Exemplaria Græca. Prætermissum potius crediderim in dictis iftis Codd. ne Spiritus, Aqua, & Sanguis, eodem modo unum putentur, quo Pater, Verbum & Spiritus unum funt. Et hi tres unum funt in Christo Jesu Clem. Alexandrin. in Latinis Caffiodori. Ambrof. (lib. 3. de Spir. S. c. 11.) Vigilius Tapfenfis (fi quidem is Auctor Libri fub Athanafii nomine de unitâ Deitate Trinitatis, & Libri de Fide ad Theophilum.) Nempe verbis in Chrifto Jesu cautum, ne eadem intelligatur unitas Spiritûs, Aquæ & Sanguinis, quæ eft personarum Trinitatis.
9. Ἡ μαρτυρία & Θεῖ] Ἡ μαρτυρία & Θεῦ, ἡ μείζων isi Vel. Testimonium Dei, quod majus eft, Vulg. + "Ην] "Ὅτι Steph. δ. ε. Alex. Codex Gr. Bibliorum Vatican. (ad quem accurata eft Edit. Lxx Interpretum) Cov. 4. Genev. Vel. † Αὐτῶ] Deest in Hunt. 1.
10. Μαρτυρίαν] Τέ Θες addunt Steph. δ. ε. ια. Alex. Lin. Col. Vulg. + ̔ἑαυτῷ] Αὐτῷ Αlex. Land. 2. Magd. 1. Cod. Vatican. Lin. Cov. 2. Lu. N. 1.2. Comp. † Tῷ Θεῷ]
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* ἔτιν ἁμαρτία αρὸς θάνατον· * & αεὶ ἐκείνης λέγω ἵνα ἐρωτήσῃ.
17 Πᾶσα ἀδικία ἁμαρτία ἐσίν· κὶ ἔσιν ἁμαρ τία ἐ πρὸς θάνατον.
18 Οἴδαμν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημύο ἐκ τË Θεῖ, * ἐχ ἁμαρτάν· ἀλλ ̓ ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τε Θεῷ τηρεῖ ἑαυτὸν, * κὶ ὁ πονηρὸς ἐχ ἅπλεται αὐτῶ.
19 Οἴδαμθμ ὅτι ἐκ τῷ Θεῷ ἐσμεν, κὶ ὁ κόσ μα ὅλο ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται..
20 Οἴδαμεν ἢ ὅτι ὁ ὑὸς τῷ Θεῦ ἥκὶ, κὶ δέ δωκεν ἡμῖν Αμάνοιαν ἵνα γινώσκωμεν * * ἀληθινόν· καὶ ἐσμεν ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ, ἐν τῷ ἡῷ αὐτῷ Ιησε Χειτῷ. * ἑτός ἐτιν ὁ ἀληθινὸς Θεὸς, * κὶ ἡ ζωὴ αἰώνιο.
21 Τεκνία, φυλάξατε ἑαυτὸς * ἀπὸ ἢ εἰ δώλων. Αμία.
Η Ιωάννα ὑπιςολὴ καθολικὴ πρώτη ἐγράφη
ἐν σίχοις σογ ́.
Verf. 11. Infr. v. 12, 20. Supr.2.25. & 4.9, 14. 70.1.4. & 3.36. Verf. 12. Supr. v. II. Infr. v. 20. Jo. 3.36. & 5. 24. Verf. 13. J0.20.31. Verf. 14. Supr. 3. 21, 22. 4. 17. Jer. 29. 12. Mat. 7.8. & 21.22. Mar. 11. 24. Luc. 11. 9. Jo.14. 13. & 15.7. & 16.24. Jac. I.5,6. Verf. 16. Job. 42.8. * (Vide infr. v. 21. collat. cum Deut. 13.5, 9, 10, 11.) Num. 15.30. 1 Sam. 2.25. Mat. 12. 31,32. Mar. 3.29. Luc. 12. 10. Hebr. 6.4, &c. & 10.26, &c. 2 Pet. 2.20, &c. * Vide Jer. 7.16. & 11.14. & 14. 11. & 15.1. Verl. 17. Supr. v. 16. & 3.4. Verf. 18. Supr.3.6,9. * Non delinquit] Scilicet delictum quod ad mortem eft, Tertul. lib. de Pudic. c. 19. *Supr v.4. & 2.13, 14. Verf. 19. 2 Tim. 2.26. Jo. 12. 31. & 16.11. Ephef. 2.2. Verf. 20. Luc. 24.45. Fo.17.3. Supr. 2. 20, 21, 27. * Apoc. 3.7, 14. * Rom. 9. 5. Jo. 1.1. Act. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 3.16. Hebr.1.8, 10. * Supr. v. II, 12. J0.1.4. Actor. 3.15. Verf. 21. 1 Cor. 8. 10. & 10.7, 14. * Ab Idolis] Non jam ab Idololatria quafi ab officio, (b.e. re quæ officiat five noceat) fed ab Idolis, id eft, ab ipfa effigie eorum, Tertul. 1. de Corona Militis, c. 10.
Θεῷ] Τῷ ἡῷ Steph.δ.ια. Alex. Cov. 4. Genev. Vel. Copt. Vulg. Arab. Æthiop. Rectius, inquit Grot. † οὐ πεπίςδύκεν] Οὐκ ἐπίςοδυσεν Alex. Lin. † Ὁ Θεός] Deest in B.3. Æthiop.
11. Μαρτυρία] Το Θες addit Æthiop. omiffo ὁ Θεὸς, quod fequitur.
12. Ὁ ἔχων τψὸν, ἔχὶ τὴ ζωlώ] Hæc defunt in B. 3. Post τὸν ἡὸν addunt & Oss Steph. a. Vel. Cov. 2. Col. † τῷ Θε] Deeft in Vulg.
13. Έγραψα] Γράφω Vel. Scribo Vulg. (fed 7. MSS. & Beda, fcripfi.) † Ὑμῖν τοῖς πισδύεσιν &c.] Ὑμῖν, ἵνα εἰδῆτε ὅτι ζωἰὼ ἔχετε αἰώνιον οἱ πισδύοντες εἰς τὸ ὄνομα ξ ἡς Θες &c. Steph. δ. ε. Alex. Genev. Barb. 2. Vel. Copt. Vulg. Syr. Arab. Æthiop. Melius, inquit Grot. † Π σδύητε] Πις δύσητε Ν. 2. Πισσίητε εἰς τὸ ὄνομα & μονογλυῶς
O Vien.
14. Ἔχομεν] Ἔχωμεν Alex. Codd. aliq. teste Luca Brug. † Αἰτώμεθα] Αἰτῶμεν Ν. Ι. L. Æthiop.
† Αὐτὸν] Deum MSS + Tì] Deest in Alex. † Θέλημα] Ὄνομα Alex.
15. Καὶ ἐὰν οἴδαμεν, ὅτι ἀκός ἡμῶν] Hæc omittit Alex. Ἐὰν non reddit Vulg. ut nec Augustin. in Speculo. † Ἔχομεν] "Ἔχομεν Syr. "Εξομεν Arab. † Ἠτήκαμεν] Ητήσαμεν Genev. † Παρ ̓ αὐτῶ] ̓Απ ̓ αὐτῶ Colb.7.
16. Εάν τις ἴδῃ] Ὅσις οἶδεν Vel. † "Ιδη] Είδη Pet. 3. † Αἰτήσα] Αἰτείτω Vel. Petat Vulg. Syr. Tertull. Hilar. Hieron. Vide etiam Prol. 781. + Δώσε αὐτῷ ζωζώ] Δοθήσεται αὐτῷ ζωὴ Vel. Post ζωlώ addit Copt. αἰώνιον. Post αὐτῷ addit Deus Hilar. † Τοῖς ἁμαρτάνεσι μὴ] Τοῖς μὴ ἁμαρτάνεσιν ἁμαρτίαν μὴ Alex. Τοῖς ἁμαρτάνεσιν ἁμαςτίαν μὴ Arab. Τῷ ἁμαρτάνοντι ἁμαρτίαν μὴ Æthiop. Et fic Vel. fed omiffo ἁμαρτίαν. † Ἔσιν] Γὰς addunt Tertull. lib. de Pud.c. 18. Syr. Arab. Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. † Οὐ] Kay & Colb. 7. Arab. Æthiop. † "Ινα ἐρωτήσῃ] Ἵνα μή τις ἐρωτήσῃ Cov. 3. ἵνα ἐρωτήσῃ τις Ν. 1. Vulg. Syr. Clem. Alex. Tertull. loco jam dicto.
17. οὐ] Deeft in Vulg. Æthiop. Tertull. lib. de Pud. c. 19. Vide etiam Prol. 503.647.
18. ̓Αλ'] Addit έγλυνήθη Colb. 7. • † Γεννηθείς] ΓεΚυνηθί &c. Orig. in Joan. p. 302. Γένεσις & Θες Vel. Generatio Dei Vulg. Hieron. lib. 2. contra Jovinian. Vide etiam Prol.602.‡ † Ἑαυτὸν] Αὐτὸν Vulg.
,
20. Οἴδαμεν ἢ ] Καὶ οἴδαμεν Steph. ε. 1. Alex. Lin. N. 1. Colb. 7. Cov. 4. Genev. Col. nescio an & Vulg. Syr. Arab. † Δέδωκεν] "Ἔδωκεν Alex. Colb.7. L. † Τὸν ἀληθινὸν ] Quod eft verum (τὸ ἀληθινὸν) Facund. lib. 1. c. 1.4. Τὸν ἀληθινὸν Θεὸν Steph. δ. ε. ι. ια. Alex. Lin. Colb. 7. Cov. 4. Barb. 1. Pet. 3. Vel. Cod. Rhodienfis in Biblioth. Complutensi. Comp. Col. Vulg. Arab. Æthiop. Bafil. lib. 4. adverfus Eunom. Cyril. lib. 3. de Trin. Ambrof. lib. i. de Vocat. Gentium, c. 6. Beda. † Ἐσμὲν] Ὦμεν Vel. † ̓Αληθινῷ Κυρίῳ addit Arab. † Ἐν τῷ ἡῷ] Omittunt ἐν τῷ Vel. Cyril. de Trin. Dial. 3. Bafil. lib. 4. contra Eunom. Auctor Difput. in Conc. Nicæno. Lin. Vulg. Ambrof. Hieron. Augustin. lib. 1. de Trin. c. 6. Faustin. p.114. Facund. Fulgent. Beda. Καὶ αὕτη ζωή ἐσιν ἐν τῷ ἡῷ Copt. † Inoš Xρισῷ] Deest in Alex. Vel. Vulg. † Θεός] Χρισός Baroc. † Ἡ ζωὴ] Ζωή (absque articulo) Alex. Laud. 2. Hunt. 1. Comp. Ζωή ή Barb. 8. Pet. 3. Cov. 4. Cod. al. apud Curcellum. † Αἰώνι] Et refurrectio nostra in ipso addit ceu verba Apoftoli Fauftinus haud semel. + Vide etiam Prol. 771.±
21. Τεκνία] Ms addunt Steph. a. Syr. Arab. Æthiop. | Φυλάξατε] Φυλάξαθε Colb.7. † Ἑαυτές] Εαυτὰ Steph.ε. θ. ι. N. 2. Baroc. Genev. † ̓Αμlώ.] Deeft in Alex. Colb. 7. Cov. 4. Genev. Syr. Arab. Æthiop. Copt.
[ ̓Ιωάννε] Εὐαγδελις addunt Laud. 2. Pet. 2. Sin. † Καθολική] Omittunt Sin. Laud. 2. Pet. 2. † Ἐγρώ φη] Εγράφη από Εφέσε Laud. 2. Pet. 2. Sin. † Στί χοις σον ́] Στίχ. σοδ' Baroc. Pet. 1.2. Sin.
Epistolæ hujus Cap. 5. v. 7, 8. verba ista, ἐν τῷ ἐρ νῷ, ὁ Πατὴς, ὁ Λόγου, και , και τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα ̇ και ὅτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἐν εἰσι. καὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρῶντες ἐν τῇ γῇ, omittunt Alex. Vaticanus Gr. Bibliorum Codex (ad quem accurata est Editio Lxx Interpretum) Hunt. 1. Pet. r. 2.3. Cant. 2. N. 1.2. Lin. Magd. 1. Cov. 2. 3. 4. Sin. Baroc. Barb. 8. Genev. Laud. 2. Codex Rhodienfis. Codices 5. in Bibliotheca Regia Parifiis, teste Cl. Simonio Critic. Hift. N. Testamenti, c. 18. Colb. 7. & alii Codices 5. in Bibl. Colbertina, quos idem Simonius fuper hâc re confuluit. Duo Codd. in Bibliotheca Bafileenfi, Dddd 2
anno
annorum circiter 500. ac Venetus unus, annorum 400. (quos infpexit Ecclefiæ Sarisburienfis Præful hodiernus, mihi longe amiciffimus, D. Gilbertus Burnettus, ὁ πολυΐσωρ.) Codex Leicestrenfis. Pervetustus Cod. in Bibl. Cafarea. Codex MS. in Bibl. Regia no 2247. annorum, uti cenfet Cl. Simonius, 500. in quo omnia ifta defiderantur, excepto ἐν τῇ γῇ. (Sed è regione verborum commatis sequ. ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρῶντες ἐν τῇ γῇ, τὸ πνεῦμα, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, και τὸ αἷμα, ponitur hoc Interpretamentum in marg. τετέςι τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, και ὁ Πατὴς, καὶ αὐτὸς ἑαυτοδ. Unde colligit D. Simonius, Auctorem iftius notulæ putâsse per Spiritum, Aquam, & Sanguinem, hoc loco mystice fignificatos fuisse Patrem, Verbum, & Spiritum Sanctum: quod autem primum in orâ Codicis pofitum erat explicationis causâ, tranfiffe demum in contextum. In eodem Exemplari, ad ista, καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἓν εἰσι, ponitur hæc nota marginalis, τετέςι μία θεότης, εἷς Θεός. Codex in Bibl. Colbertina no 871. in quo ad marg. habentur ista: εἷς Θεός, μία θεότης ̇ & etiam ibid. μαρτυρία & Θες (f. ἡδ) τε Πατρὸς, και ξ ἁγία Πνδύματα.) Editiones N. T. Venetiis per Aldum an. 1518. Bafilee per Erasmum an. 1516. itemque an. 1519. Hagenoe an. 1521. Argentorati an. 1524. Parifiis per Sim. Colinæum. an. 1534. Verfiones, Syr. Coptica (MS. inter Codices Huntingdonianos) Arab. Æthiop. Russica, excusa anno 1581. Latina, cujus Auctores ex hæretica fraude versum hunc septimum omififfe afferit Hieronymus, five alius quispiam sub ejus nomine, Prologo in Epistolas Canonicas. Certe è plurimis qui hodieque exftant MSS Codd. Latinis, aliqui versum hunc plane prætermittunt; duo Codd. Donatianici, teste Erafmo. Codex in Bibl. Bafileenfi, & alius Tigurinus; quos ad annos 800 affurgere putat reverendus, quem fupra memoravi, Episcopus. Duo Codd. Argentorati; quorum unum 800, alterum vero 900 abhinc annis scriptum censet idem Cl. Vir. In hoc vero pofteriori versus 7mus ponitur in imo paginæ, aliâ manu. Exemplaria quinque notata in marg. Bibliorum Lovanienfium. Codex vetustus in Bibl. Bodlejana. Alii rejiciunt in marginem libri; Codex Minoritarum Antverpenfium, in cujus marg. adfcriptum fuisse notat Erasmus Scholion de teftimonio Patris, Verbi & Spiritus Sancti, fed manu recentiore. Codex in Bibliotheca Regia Parifiis no 3584, teste Simonio; qui è regione verborum tres funt qui teftimonium dant, habet manu codici ipfi coævâ ista in marg. in cælo Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus: & tres funt qui teftimonium dant in terra; & hi tres unum funt. Codex in Bibl. Colbertina no 158. in quo, ad verba, tres funt qui teftimonium dant, additur in marg. in cœlo Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus: & tres funt qui teftimonium dant in terra, Sanguis, Aqua, & Caro: & quo melius conveniant inter se textus & nota marginalis, verba aliqua in contextu commutata funt. Codex vetuft. in Bibl. S. Germani, in quo versus 7mus exhibetur in marg. & quidem eâdem quæ librum defcripfit manu. Codex Argentorati, qui teftimonium Patris, Verbi, & Spiritus scriptum habet in ora libri. Et fic Exemplar vetustum in Bibl. Bodlejana. Alii denique verfuum 7mi & 8vi ordinem immutant: Duo Codd. Constantienfes, tefte Erasmo. Cod. vetus Argentorati. MSS Codd. in Bibl. Bodlejana. Codex alter in eâ dem Bibl. in quo post teftimonium Spiritus, Aque, & Sanguinis, additur alterum Patris, Verbi, & Spiritus in marg. Codex in Bibl. S. Germani 800 ante annos scriptus, tempore Lotharii Regis. Codex Genevenfis, duoque alii in Biblioth. Veneta ac Florentina, teste Cl. Burnetto. Codex S. Andrea juxta Brugas. Hujufmodi Codice usus est Idacius Clarus lib. contra Varimadum. Patres ac Scriptores Græci, Iren. lib. 3. c. 18. ubi cum Chriftum Dominum ac Deum effe probat, citatque haud femel Epiftolam hanc, etiam & Caput ejus quintum, hæc tamen verba, cum locus effet maxime opportunus, non attingit. Clemens Alexandrin. Adumbrat. in Latinis Caffiodori. Dionyfius Alexandrin. in Epiftola (fi quidem is Auctor) ad Paulum Samofat. in qua fæpe verfum 8vum citat, non item septimum, quanquam de Deitate Chrifti ac de Trinitate per totam fere agat Epiftolam. (Nec scio equidem an Patrum qui ante Concilium Nicænum floruere Græcorum quisquam, quorum quidem scripta jam exftant, citarit hunc versiculum.) Athanas. in Operibus ipfius genuinis, etiam iis, in quibus Deitatem Filii & Spiritus Sancti, ipfumque Trinitatis dogma, conquifitis undique Scripturæ locis,
adftruit contra Arianos. Auctor Synopseos S. Scriptura, ut videtur ex Argumento huic Epistolæ præfixo. Patres Synodi Sardicenfis, Epift. Synodica apud Theodoret. Hift. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 8. in qua cum Trinitatis Personarum Unitatem in eâdem Essentiâ probent ex Joan. 10.30. aliisque aliquot locis, verficulum hunc, quamvis admodum opportunum, non omnino attingunt. Epiphanius, qui Hærefi 57. & 62. cum pluribus facrarum Literarum teftimoniis firmet Trinitatis dogma, pericopen hanc non producit; uti nec quidem Hærefi 65. ubi S. Scripturas de hoc articulo accurate loqui dicit, eaque de causa complures locos citat. Haresi etiam 69 & 74. cum ex aliis locis Fides Catholica contra Arianos muniatur ac Pneumatomachos, altum de hoc versu filentium; ut & in Hærefi Anomœorum, in qua de Trinitate fufius disputatur. Bafilius M. lib. de Spiritu Sancto, aliisque confimilis argumenti Libris: ubi maxime in rem fuerat locum hunc citasse. Alexander, Alexandriæ Epifcopus, Epistola quadam apud Theodoret. lib. 1. c. 4. in qua Deitatem Filii, ejusque cum Patre Unitatem, corrafis in hanc rem compluribus Scripturæ locis, probare satagit. Nyffen. Libris 13. contra Eunomium, & 1. de Trinitate, & quod Spiritus S. fit Deus: ubi maxime opportune adduci poterat iste locus. Nazianz. Orat. ad Arianos, lib. de Fide Nicæna, & etiam Orat. quinta de Theologia; in qua ad probandum Spiritum S. esse Deum, & adorari debere, adducit inter alia, pofterius illud teftimonium, τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρῶντες, τὸ Πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ αἷμα κὶ τὸ ὕδωρ. Didymus, lib. 1. de Spiritu Sancto, in quo de Trinitatis Unitate fusius difputat. Chryfoft. Homiliis contra Anomœos; in quibus de Chrifti Divinitate plurima habet. Orat. quod Christus fit Deus. Tract. de sancta & consubstantiali Trinitate, ei adfcripto, & in Homiliis aliq. in Joannem: ubi de Filii cum Patre Unitate, deque Spiritus S. cum utroque æqualitate uberius argumentatur. Cyrillus Alexandrin. Thefauri Affert. 34ta p. 363. ubi versus 6, 8, 9. citat, omiffo 7mo. colligitque porro Spiritum S. esse Deum, non exiftis, οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἓν εἰσι versus 7mi; fed ex eo quod fequitur, εἰ τιὼ μαρτυρίαν ἢ ἀνθρώπων λαμβάνομεν, ἡ μαρτυρία & Θεου μείζων ἐσί quod ad Spiritum refert, cujus ante facta mentio. Idem hunc verfum 7mam omittit Capitulo Argumentorum quæ continentur in Dial. de Spiritu S. ac Libro de recta in Deum Fide, p. 95. Auctor Expofitionis Fidei inter opera Justini, scriptæ circa annum 470. Qui cum probet Filium & Spiritum S. eodem ordine numerari, ex Mat. 28. 19. aliifque aliq. locis, & vero ex hac Perfonarum συντάξd quam vocat, seu quod Filius & Spiritus S. conjunctim cum Patre legantur, colligat unam effe Patris, Filii, & Spiritûs S. effentiam; locum hunc, in quo tam diferte conjunguntur tres perfonæ, non attingit. Cæfarius (five aliquis fub ejus nomine) Dialogo primo, qui maxima ex parte de Trinitate agit. Proclus, Epift.ad Armenos de recta Fide; quæ tota fere in hoc argumento versatur. Concilii Nicani Patres, fi quid Historiæ Gelafii Cyziceni credimus. In illa enim Synodo Leontius Episcopus Cæfareæ Cappadociæ, nomine Patrum Nicænorum refpondens ad argumenta Philofophi cujufdam, qui dogma de Divinitate Spiritûs S. impugnarat, inter alia Scripturæ loca profert & Joannis ifta, τὸ Πνεῦμά ἐσι τὸ μαρτυρῶν, ὅτι τὸ Πνεῦμα ἐσιν ἡ ἀλήθεια, ceu verba quibus videbatur Apoftolus plane & aperte de Spiritu Sancto θεολογῶν. Certe qui ex iftis Divinitatem Spiritûs adstruit, sequentem, fi quidem in ipfius Codice haberetur, verficulum, in quo Spiritus cum Patre & Filio numeratur, & cum iis unum effe dicitur, neutiquam omififfet. Patres ac Scriptores Latini, Auctor Tractatus de Baptifmo Hareticorum, inter Opera Cypriani, ejusque forte ævo confcripti; qui verfum 6tam & 8vum conjungit, omiffo septimo. Novatian. qui Libro de Trinitate, cum pluribus Scripturæ teftimoniis probet Chriftum ut & Spiritum S. esse Deum, hunc certe locum, in primis opportunum, præterit. Hilar. apud quem in Libris duodecim de Trinitate, aliifque Tractatibus adverfus Arianos, (in quibus plurima è Sacris Libris congerit, ad rem fuam fæpe minus idonea) de verficulo hocaltum filentium. Galaritan. Lib. de non conveniendo cum Hæreticis, aliisque ejus Tract. ubi commoda admodum occafio erat verba ifta Joannis, fiquidem in Latino ejus Codice exftitiffent, proferendi. Phœba
gensis: & quidem circulum, qui lectionis terminum defignat, ad verba cử τῇ γῇ verf. prox. apponi debuiffe afferit Cl. Simonius, nefcio qua auctoritate; neque enim dicit se libros istos consuluisse. At vero nifi Pericopen hanc integram (exceptis ἐν τῷ ἑρανῷ, quæ desunt) exhibuerint Libri ifti, maxime δ. ε. ζ. 1. qui funt in Bibliotheca Regia; vix equidem fieri posse videtur, ut idem Robertus declararit in Epiftola præfixa Editioni N. T. quæ prodiit anno 1549. se Codices nactum aliquot ipsa vetuftatis specie pene adoran
dius, Lib. contra Arianos. Ambrofius, Libris de Fide, ubi de infeparabili trium personarum unitate difputat contra Arianos, totusque est in ipforum hærefi refellenda. Libro vero 3. de Spiritu Sancto Cap. 1. probaturus Spiritum S. esse Deum, secundum Evangelium; cum inter alia citasset Joannis illud, Quod natum eft de carne, caro est, quia de carne natum est: & quod natum est de Spiritu, Spiritus est, quia Deus Spiritus eft, (ita nimirum habebat Codex ejus; & ilta, quia Deus Spiritus eft, deleta dicit ab Arianis) addit: Alibi ut de hoc Spiritu scripsisse se idem Evan-dos, quorum copiam ei suppeditavit Bibliotheca Re
gelista referaret, "Per Aquam, inquit, & Spiritum ve,,nit Chriftus Jefus. Non folum in Aquam, fed per » Aquam & Sanguinem; & Spiritûs teftimonium, quo,,niam Spiritus eft veritatis. Quia tres funt teftes, Spi,, ritus, Aqua, & Sanguis, & hi tres unum funt in Chri»sto Jesu.,, Hieron. qui in Operibus indubitate genuinis loci hujus nufquam meminit. De Prologo (fub ejus nomine) in Épistolas Canonicas dicemus postea. Fauftinus, Libello de Trinitate seu Fide contra Arianos: in quo cum frequens occafio fuerit locum hunc adducendi, nunquam certe citat, hoftis licet Arianismi infentiffimus. Augustin. qui lib. 3. contra Maximinum, cum nullum non moveat lapidem, ut ex S. Literis probet Spiritum S. esse Deum, & tres Personas effe ὁμουσίας, hoc tamen teftimonium non adducit; imo vero Cap. 22. clare indicat in Exemplari suo haud compertum; cum in verficulo 7mo à se identidem hîc citato, per Spiritum, Sauguinem, & Aquam fignificatos dicit Patrem, & Filium, & Spiritum S. Eucherius, Quæst. N. Testamenti. Ubi adductis verbis, tria Sunt quæ teftimonium perhibent, Aqua, Sanguis & Spiritus, ad Quæftionem quid in hoc indicatur? refpondet, plures hîc ipfam interpretatione mystica intelligere Trinitatem; Aqua Patrem, (fontem aquæ vivæ) Sanguine Chriftum, (utique per paffionis cruorem) Spiritu autem Spiritum S. manifestante. Leo M. Epift. 10. ad Flavian.c. 5. Facundus Hermianenfis, 1. 1. cap. 3. Qui verfum 8vum citans, illum de Patre, Filio, & Spiritu S, dictum dicit: Spiritu Patrem, (fecundum illud Joan. Evang. Spiritus eft Deus) Aqua Spiritum S. (flumen aquæ viva Jo.7.38,39.) Sanguine Filium, (qui communicavit carni & Sanguini) significante. Junilius, qui lib. de partibus Divinæ Legis, ad Quæstionem de his quæ perfonis Trinitatis funt communia, locum hunc non memorat. Cerealis, lib. contra Maximinum, c. 2. in quo cum de Unitate Patris & Filii & Spiritus S. agat, textum hunc non adducit. Beda, Comment. in locum, ubi cum accurate multisque verbis exponat triplex Testimonium in terra, alterum Patris, Verbi, & Spiritûs non attingit. Cæteros mitto qui post Bedam scripsere, quique tempora illa proxime attigerunt, in quibus Pericope ista de S. Trinitate comparuerit in Bibliis Ecclefiarum Occiden
talium.
Enumeratis hactenus MSS Codd. & Bibliis, Verfionibus vett. Patribus, Scriptoribusque, quorum opera exftant, Græcis ac Latinis, quod quidem sciam omnibus, ab ipfis Ecclefiæ Catholicæ primordiis, ad annum Chritli septingentefimum, ac paulo ultra, qui in Operibus fuis, iis maxime quæ de Trinitate ac Fide Catholica contra Arianos aliofque Hæreticos agunt, hunc verficulum non citant, ideoque nec videntur in Codicibus fuis legiffe: reftat ut oftendam quæ in alteram partem ad αὐθεντίαν hujus Textus stabiliendam adduci poffunt, haud pauca. Pericopen hanc præferunt Codices MSS. Britannicus Erasmo dictus, cujus auctoritate repofuit ille Testimonium de Patre, Verbo, & Spiritu S. in Editione sua N. Teftamenti Gr. an. 1522. quod in binis prioribus prætermiferat. Verba Codicis ita fe habent: ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρῶντες ὦ τῷ ὐρανῷ, Πατὴς, Λόγο, κὸ Πνεῦμα ̇ (deest ἅγιον) κὶ ὅτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἐν εἰσιν. και τρεῖς εἰσιν μαρτυρῶντες ἐν τῇ γῇ, πνεῦμα, ὕδωρ, κὸ αἷμα εἰς (1. εἰ) των μαρτυρίαν ἢ ἀνθρώπων &c. Vaticani antiquiffimi & emendatiffimi aliq. ad quos, (fidem enim eis abrogare nefas, inquiunt, videatur) Hifpani Theologi ediderunt Teftamentum Complutense, in quo habetur hæc Pericope. Stephanici omnes, quotquot Epiftolas Catholicas complectebantur, nempe δ. ε. ζ. θ.ι. ια. ιγ. reliqui enim Epiftolas has non exhibent. In iftis septem nihil hîc deesse notatur præter verba ὦ τῷ ἐρανῷ. An recte hoc loco lectionem variantem fignarit Rob. Stephanus, dubitat Lucas Bru
gia, (Codices iftius Bibliothecæ dicit, quorum, ut & aliorum novem, variantes lectiones posuit in interiori margine Editionis an. 1550.) ex iis ita Librum hunc fuum recenfuiffe, & nullam omnino literam fecus esse pateretur, quam plures iique meliores Libri, tanquam teftes, comprobarent. Certe fi Editionem fuam ad Codices iftos tain accurate exegerit, verficulus iste, quem integrum repræfentat Editio ifta, Librorum illorum, quos tantopere prædicat, fuffragio comprobetur necesse est. Editiones, Complutensis an. 1515. in qua Pericope de quaagimus, fic legitur : Ὅτι τρῶς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρῶντες ἐν τῷ ἐρανῷ, ὁ Πατὴς, και ὁ Λόγου, και τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα ̇ κὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἓν εἰσι. Καὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρῶντες ἐπὶ ἡ γῆς, τὸ πνεῦμα, και τὸ ὕδωρ, κὶ τὸ αἷμα. Εἰ τιὼ μαρτυρίαν &c. Frobeniana Bafileæ 1541. Hervagiana 1545. omnes denique omnino præter tres vel quatuor fupra memoratas; è quibus tamen duæ duntaxat videntur ad MSS Codices expressæ. His addi poteft Apoftolos, five collectio Epiftolarum ex N.T. feorfim edita Venetiis 1602. Orientalibus Græcis in ufu: in qua Pericope hæc legenda præcipitur, τῇ ε' τ λε' έβδο μάθω, five feria quinta hebdomadis à Pafchate 35tz. Versiones, Vulg. in Editis & MSS. quam plurimis. Notant Theologi Lovanienfes, ex Latinis multis Exemplaribus, quæ ad manum habebant, quinque tantum fuiffe in quibus verficulus iste defideraretur. Armena, quod nos olim monuit vir longe doctiffimus Guil. Gifius, ὁ μακαρίτης. Italica Bruccioli, de Græco facta. Ven. 1532. Recentiores nefcio an omnes. Scriptores Græci, Auctor Difputationis in Concilio Nicæno habitæ, inter Opera Athanafii. Πρὸς ἢ τέτοις πᾶσιν, inquit Auctor ifte, de Personis Trinitatis agens, ̓Ιωάννης Φάσκλ· και οἱ τρεῖς τὸ ἓν εἰσι. Referri autem ifta, non ad verfum 8vum, quod vult Cl. Simonius, (qui Auctorem hunc 8vi ista, τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἓν είσι, accommodaffe putat Trinitati: interpretamentum autem hoc occafionem dediffe Græcis quibufdam Scholiaftis notam istam primo in margine Librorum, poftea vero in ipfo contextu collocandi) fed ad verf. 7mum, ex eo probabile est, quod verea commatis octavi fint in omnibus Gr. Exemplaribus εἰς τὸ ἓν εἰσι, πoυ τὸ ἓν είσι. Patres Concilii Lateran. fub Innocentio tertio, qui Capitulo secundo, de hoc Joannis loco fic loquuntur: ὃν τρόπον ἐν τῇ κανονικῇ ὁ ̓Ιωάννα ἐπιςολῇ ἀναγινώσκεται, ὅτι τρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρῶντες ὦ ὐρανῷ, ὁ Πατὴς, Λόγο, και Πνεῦμα ἅγιον και ὗτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἐν εἰσιν. εὐθύς τε ποσίθησι, - και θὼς ἔν τισι κώδηξιν εὑρίσκεται. Ex quo hoc faltem colligitur, Codices aliquos tum temporis verba hæc exhibuiffe: & quidem tantæ apud eos auctoritatis fuiffe hunc verficulum, ut eodem Caput Fidei Catholicæ confirmatum dederint. Manuel Calecas, Libro de Principiis Fidei Catholicæ, apud Combefifium in Auctuario, p. 519. Scriptores Latini, Tertull. quem ad hunc locum Joannis manifeste allufiffe putant Hammondus, Bullus, alii, lib. contra Prax. c. 25. Caterum, inquit, de meo fumet (Paracletus) ficut ipfe de Patris: ita connexus Patris in Filio, & Filii in Paracleto, tres efficit cohærentes, alterum ex altero. Qui tres unum funt, non unus; quomodo dictum eft, Ego & Pater unum fumus; ad fubftantiæ unitatem, non ad numeri fingularitatem. Nempe verba hæc, tres unum funt, minime ipfius Tertulliani verba fuiffe puto, fumpta ex fequu. Ego & Pater unum fumus; cum adhibeantur ista duntaxat ad illuftrandam trium personarum unitatem; fed omnino Joannis Apoftoli hoc versu 7mo. (neque enim 8vum tempore Tertulliani mystice de Personis Trinitatis_explicatum fuiffe, fufius infra oftendo.) Certe in Exemplaribus Africanis Gr. aliq. Tertulliani seculo exftitifse verfum hunc, haud inepte colligi videtur ex paulo infra notatis. Cyprian. lib. de Unit. Ecclefiæ. Dicit Dominus: Ego & Pater unum fumus. Et iterum, de Patre, Filio, & SpiDddd 3




=============================================



p. 582-586
quæro cujus Dei? Si Creatoris;
; non
ritu Sancto fcriptum eft: Et hi tres unum funt. Ita,
Editiones omnes. Neque difcrepant ab Editis Manu-
scripti; nifi quod pro his, & hi tres unum funt, Co-
dices Voffianus tertius, Lambethanus, & Eboracen-
fis (uti & Fulgentius) habeant, Et tres unum funt.
Idem Cyprianus, Epift. ad Jubajanum: Si baptiza-
ri quis apud Hæreticum potuit, utique & remissam
peccatorum consequi potuit: fi peccatorum remissam
confecutus est, & Sanctificatus eft, & templum Dei
factus eft;
potuit,
qui in eum non credidit: fi Chrifti; non hujus potest fieri
templum, qui negat Deum Christum; fi Spiritus Sancti;
cum tres unum fint, quomodo Spiritus Sanctus placatus
esse ei potest, qui aut Patris aut Filii inimicus eft? De
duobus hifce locis notandum, 1. Verba Joannis 1 Ep.
c. 5. v. 7. hîc adeo clare proponi, ut fi vel maxime in
illa oculos intendisset beatissimus Martyr, ne potuerit
quidem, ratione verborum, quibus inferuntur, habitâ,
citâsse ea disertius & explicatius. 2. Fulgentium Afri-
canum aperte teftari Respons. contra Arianos, fub fi-
nem, quod priore loco illo Lib. de Unitate Eccl. ad
hunc Textum refpexerit Cyprianus. Beatus Joannes
Apoftolus, inquit, testatur dicens: Tres funt qui teftimo-
nium perhibent in cælo, Pater, Verbum & Spiritus;
& tres unum funt. Quod etiam beatissimus Martyr Cy-
prianus in Epistola de Unitate Ecclefiæ confitetur, di-
cens: Qui pacem Chrifti & concordiam rumpit, adver-
Sus Chriftum facit: qui alibi præter Ecclefiam colligit,
Chrifti Ecclefiam spargit. Atque ut unam Ecclefiam
unius Dei esse monstraret, hæc confestim teftimonia de
Scripturis inferuit: Dicit Dominus, Ego & Pater unum
sumus. Et iterum: De Patre, Filio, & Spiritu Sancto
Scriptum eft, Et tres unum funt. 3. Levis plane mo-
menti esse quod ex Facundo notatur, Cyprianum sc.
hæc ex versu octavo allegasse. Unde factum enim ut
B. Martyris mentem melius norit Facundus, qui 300
post Cyprianum annis floruit, quam Fulgentius qui
Cypriano aliquanto propior? Unde etiam conftat,
ætate Cypriani quenquam Aquam, Spiritum, & Sangui-
nem Mystico sensu accepiffe pro Personis Trinitatis?
Certe ficut apud Græcos qui versum 7mum non lege-
bant, nufquam occurrit explicatio illa mystica: ita nec
Latinorum quisquam, ut opinor, per annos à Cypria-
no plus centum, Spiritualis hujus sensus mentionem
facit. Interpretationem iftam primus omnium invexisse
videtur Augustinus Lib. 3. contra Maximinum cap. 22.
quem secuti funt complures, teste Eucherio. Nimi-
rum cum ab ipforum Codicibus abeffet versus 7mus;
& vero ex Tertulliano, Cypriano, aliisque fortaffe,
quorum scripta intercidere, didiciffent de Patre, Filio,
& Spiritu Sancto in S. Literis dictum esse, hitresunum
funt: Comma Cap. hujus 8vum (cum alibi nusquam
exftaret τὸ tres unum funt) statim illud ipsum effe col-
ligebant, ad quod dicti Patres refpexerint; ideoque &
per aquam, spiritum, & fanguinem mystice fignificari
Patrem, Filium, & Spiritum Sanctum. Quid mirum
igitur fi Facundus nactus, quod plurimi alii, mutilum
hoc versu Exemplar, intrepide, ex aliorum proculdu-
bio sententia pariter ac ipfius propria, affirmaverit 1. 1.
c. 3. teftimonium Joannis versu 8. hujus Cap. à Cy-
priano de Patre, Filio, & Spiritu Sancto dictum intelli-
gi Mihi, fateor, hanc rem paulo attentius confide-
ranti, expofitio hæc Allegorica tam incerta & lubrica
videtur; (neque enim de ea inter ipsos apud quos ufur-
patur Scriptores bene convenit: aliis per aquam Pa-
trem, ac per spiritum, Spiritum Sanctum ; aliis ex ad-
verso per spiritum, Patrem; per aquam autem, Spiri-
tum S. intelligentibus) tam futilis & nugatoria; (quid
enim puerilius isto, aqua mystice designat Patrem,
quia Deus apud Prophetam dicitur fons aquæ vive;
spiritus fignificat Patrem, quia Deus eft Spiritus?) tam
coacta denique ac detorta; (quamque nifi ex occafione
fupra dicta vix ac ne vix quidem effinxiffet Augufti-
nus, vel Latinorum quispiam) ut eam nullo modo
Cypriano tribuendam arbitrer. Imo vero cum apud
Auctorem castum fi quis unquam, minime diffluen-
tem laxis mysticisque interpretamentis, in citandis
Scripturis ipforum verborum scrupulofius tenacem,
tam expreffe de Patre, Filio, & Spiritu S. scriptum dica-
tur, hi tres unum funt; omnino adducor ut credam,
eum ad Capitis hujus verfum 7mum refpexiffe. Sic
enim judicio meo res habet. Sicut Ecclefia Africana,
Romanæ propago, dudum ab ipfis Fidei incunabulis
Italice Versionis Libros facros acceperat, Evangelia
faltem, & Epistolas Paulinas; ita jam tum & Catho-
licas (quarum, quod pleræque minoris quam reliquæ,
quæ ad certas Ecclefias missæ funt, auctoritatis in Eccle-
sia effent, Exemplaria erant rariora) in manus Docto-
rum ejus Ecclefiæ devenisse certiffimum eft. His paulo
post plantatam in Africa fidem, usos credo Tertullia-
num & Cyprianum; & quidem Joannis Epiftolam
Commate hoc septimo (quo mutilata fuisse jam ab
initio Latina suspicor) auxiffe ex Græcis quæ penes
eos erant Exemplaribus. Verum de hac re poftea.
Auctor Prologi in Epiftolas Canonicas, sub Hieronymi
nomine. Cui si fides habenda, nullus omnino relin-
quetur de Commatis hujus αὐθεντίᾳ dubitandi locus:
cum ex ipfius sententia Græci Codd. omnes ante eum,
locum hunc integrum repræfentarint; & à Tranflato-
ribus infidelibus (quos vocat) seu hæreticis factum, ut
in Exemplaribus Latinis nusquam adhuc comparuerit,
donec ipse demum in Editione sua versum hunc ad
Exemplarium Græcorum fidem reponendum curasset.
Qua, (Epistolæ Canonica) inquit, fi ficut ab eis (Græ-
cis) digestæ funt, ita quoque ab Interpretibus fideliter in
Latinum verterentur eloquium; nec ambiguitatem legen-
tibus facerent, nec fermonum sese varietas impugnaret,
illo præcipue loco, ubi de Unitate Trinitatis in prima
Joannis Epistola pofitum legimus, in qua etiam ab infi-
delibus Translatoribus multum erratum esse à Fidei ve-
ritate comperimus; tria tantummodo vocabula, hoc eft,
aquæ, Sanguinis, & Spiritus, in ipsa sua Editione po-
nentibus, & Patris Verbique ac Spiritus teftimonium
omittentibus, in quo maxime & Fides Catholica robo-
ratur, & Patris ac Filii ac Spiritus Sancti una Divi-
nitatis substantia comprobatur. Hæc ille. Verum, ut
libere dicam quod sentio, testimonio isto auctoritatem
Textui conciliare velle, nihil aliud quidem esse puto
quam dὸ τὸ ψούδες τιὼ ἀλήθειαν συσήσαθαι. Præfatio
hæc neque Hieronymi effe videtur, neque cujusquam
certe qui rei Biblicæ per tempora illa, de quibus agit,
ftatum recte intellexerit. Licet enim in Prologi dictio-
ne fit spiritûs & ftomachi nefcio quid, Hieronymiano
non abfimile; etiam & in argumento nonnihil, Hiero-
nymo non indignum: Quale est 1. Sicut Evangelia,
fic etiam Epistolas se ad veritatis lineam correxisse,
seu ad Græcorum qui penes eum erant Codicum fi-
dem recenfuisse: id enim ex Ep. 102. ad Marcellam,
aliisque locis quibus Interpretem Vulgatum perstrin-
git, satis probabile. 2. Apud Græcos Epistolam Jaco-
bi reliquas Catholicas ordine anteire: liquet sc. hoc ex
MSS Codd. omnibus, Cyrillo Catech. 4. Auctore Sy-
nopseos S. Scripturæ, Concilio Laodiceno Can. 60.
60. &
Greg. Nazianzeno, Jamb. ad Seleucum. 3. In Latinis
Libris Petri Epiftolis primum locum datum inter Catho-
licas: id enim conftat ex Antiqua Tranflatione, jam
olim ab ipfo fortaffe Apoftolorum feculo in ufu, (in
qua, teste Caffiodoro 1. Divin. Lect. c. 14. ordo fic erat:
Epiftolæ Petri ad gentes, Jude, Jacobi, Joannis ad
Parthos, feu Epistola prima; fecunda enim & tertia,
quas fortasse haud dum publice acceperant Ecclefiæ
Latinorum, non hîc veniunt in censum) Catalogo
Librorum S. Scripturæ in MS. Cod. Claromontano,
(in quo Epiftolæ Catholicæ in hunc modum difpofitæ
funt: Ad Petrum 1. Ad Petrum 2. Joan. Epift. 1.
Joan. Epist. 2. Joan. Epist. 3. Jude Epistola.) Ruffi-
no Expos. in Symbol. Auguftino 1. 2. de Docer. Chrift.
cap. 8. & Concilio Carthaginenfi, an. 419. celebrato.
4. Epistolas istas in hunc quem observarunt Græci or-
dinem se primum omnium revocaffe; id enim admo-
dum verifimile. Qui eodem quo Græci ordine Catho-
licas Epistolas recenfet in Epift. ad Paulinum, nequa-
quam certe ordinem istum mutasset in Editione Lati-
na. Nec obstat, quod longe post Hieronymi tempora
Vulgati Interpretis ordinem retinuerint Exemplaria
Latina aliq. ut apparet ex Caffiodoro, Divin. Lect. c. 8.
Junilio, lib. 1. de Part. Divinæ Legis, ac Stichometriis
MSS. quarum vetuftam unam edidit ex Bibliotheca
Regia Cotelerius, Notis in Barnabam. Ifti fiquidem
Libri aut Versionem veterem meram continebant;
(quales diu post Editionem, quæ Hieronymi nomine
circumfertur, paffim in ufu fuiffe notiffimum eft) aut
veterem quidem ad Hieronymianæ Exemplaria cor-
rectam & caftigatam. Unde factum, ut textu ad Hie-
ronymi istam mutato, eique per omnia refpondente
ordo quidem Epiftolarum maniarepondent
,
que

(
1
L
cus,
que qui in veteri Versione. Quamvis, inquam, pauca quædam hujufmodi non inepte quis affinxerit Hieronymo; reliqua tamen adeo ab omni veritatis specie aliena funt, ut cujusvis potius esse videantur, quam eruditiffimi iftius Patris. 1. Quale enim hoc, quod de Græcorum integre sapientium & rectam fidem sectantium, seu Catholicorum Patrum Libris dicitur, eos versum hunc feptimum exhibuisse! Norunt omnes, quibus inspecta veterum monumenta, maxime Hieronymus, qui veterum omnia devorarat, multa & in Latinum verterat, ex Scriptoribus Græciæ neminem unum jam ab omni Christianismi ævo ad illius tempora, pericopen hanc citâffe. Mirum equidem exftitiffe in omnibus Græcis Codicibus, (id enim credi vult Prologi Confarcinator) de quo nemo Veterum quidquam inaudiverat: vidisse in Textu Græco Hieronymum, quod non viderant Scriptores ætate ista celeberrimi Græci, Chryfoftomus, Didymus, Epiphanius, & uterque Gregorius: lectitatum paffim tum temporis egregium de Sancta Trinitate teftimonium in Joannis Græcis, quod nusquam allegârant acerrimi Fidei Catholica propugnatores, Athanafius ac Patres Nicæni, etiam cum in id ipsum convenêre, ut Arianam Hærefin profligarent & extinguerent. Qui ista credit, næ is tribuat hunc Prologum Hieronymo. 2. Neque minus ab omni veri specie abhorret, quod de Interpretibus Latinis affirmatur; expunctum sc. fuisse ab iis hunc versi culum, ex hæretica nefcio qua pravitate. Ut enim Interpretes privatos mittam, qui primis Fidei temporibus, teste Auguftino, ut cuique in manus venit Codex Graillum mox interpretari ausi sunt, & ex Græcis bonis Latinas fecere non bonas; quibus inscitiam & Græca male reddita haud raro objicit Hieronymus, non item Hærefin, quod sciam, aut mutilatum parte aliqua Sacri Codicis Textum: certe qui ab Auctore Interpretationis vet. Italice (nam & in hac, fi quid Prologo credimus, defuit verf. 7. aliter quomodo Hieronymus primus istum ad fidem Codd. Græcorum restituerit?) versum hunc fraude hæretica fublatum dicit, oftendit eo ipso se penitus ignorare naturam ac genium iftius Verfionis. Scripta erat hæc, & in usu, fi non ab ipfis Ecclefiæ primordiis, certe diu ante motam de dogmate Sanctæ Trinitatis controverfiam. Scripta erat Latinorum caussa, jussuque, ut videtur, Epifcoporum ejus Ecclefiæ; quos in re omnium graviffimâ, transferendis dico S. Literis in fermonem patrium, Viri alicujus eruditione (prout ferebat ætas ifta) juxta ac pietate spectatissimi operam adhibuiffe par est omnino ut credamus. Imo res ipsa loquitur. Adeo nihil in hac Verfione detractum, additum, aut quoquo modo mutatum ex arbitrio Interpretis, nedum dolo malo; ut Græca sua religiofiffime e ubique secutus fit & κξ' πόδας, etiam ubi dissentit à Græcis hodiernis. Unde fi abfuerit in Latinis versus iste 7mus, conferendum certe hoc quicquid est vitii non in Interpretem, (qui quod muneris fui erat fecit, ac Græca, quæ ob oculos erant, expreffit fideliter & ad verbum) fed in Exemplaria Græca quæ fecutus eft. Quod fi vero Hæreticum egerit Interpres in hac claufula, cur non eâdem opera & in aliis? Si Hæreticus erat, unde factum ut nemo illud fubodoratus fit ante Hieronymum? unde, ut ejus nufquam meminerit ipse Hieronymus nifi in hoc Prologo? Certe qui in hanc Verfionem liberius haud femel invehitur, qui Sectatores ejus homunculos, afinos, bipedes afellos vocat; fi quid in ea reperiffet, unde vel minima suspicio esset Auctorem hærefi laborasse; vix credi poteft, quam impotenter ubique triumphatum effet de misello Interprete; quanta in eum per omnem fere Epistolam convitiorum plauftra conjeciffet biliofus Cenfor; quoties ad inferos damnasset Verfionem, quam procuderit sc. non jam homuncio barbarus & indoctus, fed hæreticus tenebrio, facrilegus nebulo, falsarius & corruptor Sacrarum Scripturarum. 3. Nec minus falsum quod hic de Hieronymo dicitur, eum primum in Editione sua hunc verfum 7mum repofuiffe. Si enim reftituerit Hieronymus, unde factum ut in Bibliis ejus pervetuftis & optimæ notæ plurimis, verficulus iste non legatur? Imo vero cur nunquam citat illum Hieronymus in Operibus fuis, ubi illi res eft cum Arianis, aliisque iftiufmodi Hæreticis? Mirum hocplane, cum in Epiftolis Librisque Polemicis ad Catholicam de mysterio S. Trinitatis Do&rinam firmandam addu
cat paffim alia Sacri Codicis loca; eum ne uno aliquo loco proferre hoc teftimonium Joannis, quodex Græcis ipse restituerat scilicet, & in quo maxime & fides Catholica roboratur, & Patris ac Filii ac Spiritus Sancti una Divinitatis substantia comprobatur. Quid plura? Si Epistola ista seu Prologus Hieronymi fit, cur non locum habet in MSS Codicibus, adeoque & in Editis Hieronymi? cur magis hanc illi adfcriptam velis, quam cæteras omnes Libris N. Testamenti præfixas, quæ etiam Hieronymi Presbyteri titulo superbiunt; quarum aliæ ridicule fabulofe, confarcinate aliæ ex Epiftolis genuinis Hieronymi? Ego equidem de Præfationibus iftis ita cenfeo: scriptas omnes longe post Hieronymum, à variis, & variis temporibus. Pleræque ineptientis cujufdam Rapsodi esse videntur, qui vixerit aliquanto ante Bedam. Verum Præfatio hæc in Canonicas Epistolas, cum de perfidia Latinorum in omittendâ hâc Pericope queratur, quæ jam demum ope Codicibus Græcorum reftituta fit, scripta omnino videtur poft tempora Bedæ ; (neque enim illi notum hoc comma, ut apparet ex Commentario in locum) & quidem paulo ante seculum octavum. Sub illud tempus admiffam puto Præfationem hanc primum in privatorum hominum Codices, tandem vero & in publicos Libros Ecclefiarum Occidentalium. Certe in Codicibus octavi seculi exftitiffe, testantur Biblia Caroli Calvi, in quibus eft hic Prologus, fed absque præfixo Hieronymi nomine, quod notat Cl. Simonius. Ex hoc autem Prologo manifeste colligitur, ætate, quâ is confcriptus fit, seculo puta septimo, Codices Græcos verficulum hunc agnoviffe. Victor Vitenfis, lib. 3. de Perfecutione Vandalica, ubi Confeffio Fidei, Hunnerico Vandalorum Regi anno 4840 oblata ab Eugenio Epifcopo Carthaginenfi, aliifque Orthodoxis Epifcopis Ecclefiæ Africane; in qua habentur ista: Et ut adhuc luce clarius unius Divinitatis effe cum Patre & Filio Spiritum Sanctum doceamus, Joannis Evangelista teftimonio comprobatur: ait namque, tres funt qui teftimonium perhibent in cœlo, Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus Sanctus; & hi tres unum funt. Nunquid ait tres in differenti qualitate Sejuncti, aut quibuslibet diverfitatum gradibus longo feparationis intervallo divisi? Sed tres, inquit, unum funt. Hæc est sententia totius Ecclefiæ Africanæ, Regis jussu prolata. Neque fieri quidem poteft, ut Textum hunc citaverint, fi aut non exftitiffet in Epistola, aut etiam pro insititio haberetur; cum Arianis, qui aderant, fraus ifta facile patuiffet. Rectiffime de hac re Cl. Smithius nostras, Defenf. Differtationis in 1 Joan. 5. 7. p. 161. Putabimus ne, inquit, Eugenium Carthaginenfem, cæterosque Orthodoxos Ecclefiæ Africanæ Epifcopos adeo defipere potuiffe, ut in illo Lis bello, Hunnerici Regis Ariani jussu scripto, anno 484. hunc Textum difertiffimis verbis, fub nomine Joannis Evangelistæ adhibuisse vellent, fi à Codicibus Sacris tunc temporis abfuiffet, vel fi ante seculum unum aut alterum de novo additus infitusque fuisset? Quam facile crimen illud falfi à sedulis adverfariis potuisset ipfis exprobari? quam male audiiffent, tanquam Sacrarum Scripturarum corruptores? Sane Sanctissimi illi Confessores de fama sua & de veritate Catholici dogmatis, quod fufceperint defendendum, melius ivere consultum, nec iftiufmodi malis artibus utendo, fibi infamiam & veritati Chriftianæ præjudicium accerfere imprudentes & ultro voluere. Non hoc autem est unius viri, sed totius Africane Ecclefiæ teftimonium, post examen sedulum fæpe Sæpiusque recoctum, ut modefticæ charitatisque Chriftianæ expers effe videatur, qui flagitiofa hæc crimina hifce venerandis & Sanctitate ac doctrina conspicuis Antistitibus, illo tempore horrendum in modum rabida Arianorum fævitie oppreffis, impingere audeat. Hæc ille. Nempe, quod infra oftendemus, delituere in Africa jam inde à seculo Cypriani pauca quædam Exemplaria, quæ versum hunc 7mum repræfentarunt; in quæ ut inciderunt demum Episcopi, describi curabant ad eorum fidem Apographa bene multa in ufum Ecclefiæ. Vigilius Tapsenfis, qui confeffioni paulo fupra memoratæ subscripfit, Libro, qui fub Idacii Clari nomine olim prodiit, contra Varimadum Arianum. Item ipse (sc. Joannes Evangelista, cujus Evangelium ante allegaverat) ad Parthos: tres funt qui teftimonium perhibent in terra, aqua, Sanguis, & caro; & tres in nobis funt. Et tres funt qui testimonium perhibent in cælo, Pater, Verbum, & Spi
1
ritus

ritus; & ii tres unum funt. Et Libro de unitâ Deitate Trinitatis, qui Athanafio à quibufdam tributus eft, tres funt, inquit, qui teftimonium dicunt in cælo, Pater, & Verbum, & Spiritus; & in Christo Jesu unum sunt. Item Libro Lat. ad Theophilum, inter Opera Athanafii, qui Vigilii esse creditur: Unde & Joannes, inquit, in Epiftola fua ait: Tres funt qui teftimonium dicunt in cælo, Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus; & in Christo Jesu unum funt; non tamen unus, quia non eft earum una persona. Fulgentius, Respons. contra Arianos, fub finem: B. Joannes Apoftolus, inquit, teftatur dicens: Tres funt qui teftimonium perhibent in cœlo, Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus; & tres unum funt. Quod etiam beatiffimus Martyr Cyprianus in Epistola de Unitate Ecclefiæ contestatur, &c. Idem lib. de Trinitate ad Felicem Notarium: En habes, inquit, in brevi, alium effe Patrem, alium Filium, alium Spiritum S. alium & alium in persona, non aliud & aliud in natura: & idcirco, Ego, inquit, & Pater unum fumus; unum ad naturam referre nos docens; fumus ad perfonas: fimiliter & illud, tres funt, inquit, qui teftimonium dicunt in cœlo, Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus; & hi tres unum funt. Auctor Libri de Fide Catholica adversus Pintam Epifcopum Arianum, sub Fulgentii nomine; qui inter reliqua de Trinitate teftimonia, etiam Joannis hoc nostrum adducit. Auctor Explanationis Fidei ad Cyrillum, Tomo 9. Operum Hieronymi, p. 62. prope finem: Nobis, inquit, unus Pater, & unus Filius ejus verus Deus, & unus Spiritus Sanctus verus Deus: & hi tres unum funt; una divinitas, & potentia, & regnum. Cæteros qui post seculum octavum pericopes hujus mentionem faciunt, prudens omitto; fub annum fiquidem octingentefimum, aut paulo poft, comparuit, ut fupra observavimus, versus 7mus hujus Cap. in Latinis Bibliis.
Et jam fubductis utrinque calculis; allatis summâ fide quæ ad auctoritatem hujus textûs elevandam, quæ ad stabiliendam facere videantur, Exemplarium MSSorum & Impressorum, Verfionum, Patrum denique Græcorum ac Latinorum teftimoniis; restat ut quæ mea fit de hac re fententia, paucis exponam. Dico igitur 10. Pericopen hanc, utcunque poftea disparuerit, in ipso certe Joannis Autographo exftitiffe, aliisque aliquot ad illud defcriptis Exemplaribus. Compertum fatis mihi hoc ex Tertulliani teftimonio fupra adducto: qui cum ætate illa vixerit, qua (teste ipso, Præfcript. c. 36.) apud Ecclefias recitatæ fint ipfæ literæ authentica Apoftolorum, h e. aut Archetypa ipsa, (quæ certe longe ultra ætatem Tertulliani durasse probabile eft; fiquidem inter tempus, quo scripta Epistola Joannis, & quo fcriptus Tertulliani Liber de Præfcript. medii funt anni duntaxat 110.) aut faltem Codd. ad Archetypa fideliter expreffi; & vero provocet ad Authenticum Gracum Pauli, (lib. de Monog. cap. 11.) five Codicem Epiftolarum ejus, quas, uti & cæteras, originalibus ipfis conformes, habuerit ad manum: nequaquam certe fieri poteft ut Textum hunc (magni in primis momenti ad firmandam fententiam fuam contra Praxeam) citârit, seu, quod idem, ad eum alluserit, nifi in Græcis fuis legiffet. Quod idem de S. Cypriano, apud quem verba ista Joannis bis habentur, (non obfcurius aliquanto, quomodo apud Tertul. salebrosum Scriptorem, qui verba S. Scripturæ carptim attingere magis folet, quam plenius citare; fed 2/αρρήδω & expresse admodum profert) dicendum. Neque enim allegavit ista fupra memorata ex versu octavo mystice explicato; (cum Interpretatio ista myftica diu post Cyprianum excogitata fuerit, ut oftendimus) neque vero ex Versione aliqua Latina contra fidem Codicum, qui penes eum ac Tertullianum erant, Græcorum. Præterquam enim quod ab Italica vetere, quæ fola tunc Ecclefiis Africanis in usu, abfuiffe jam ab initio verfus iste videatur: certe adduxiffe B. Martyrem semel atque iterum, idque non ὡς ἐν παρόδῳ, fed confulto plane, & argumenti, quod tractabat, gratiâ, verba aliqua tanquam S. Codicis, quæ in Græcis ejus nufquam comparebant, nemo certe, cui penitius paulo expensa ista, ullo pacto crediderit. Non dico hoc ὑποθέσεως ἕνεκα ̇ tanquam qui nihil non arreptum undecunque, ac velut obtorto collo tractum huc velim, quod ad auctoritatem huic textui conciliandam valeat apud credulos, narisque minus emuncta Lectores. Imo non indiget Deus noftro mendacio, ut pro illo loquamur dolos. Qua de causa &
Prologi in Epiftolas Catholicas, quo tantopere in hac re nituntur Eruditi, cuique haud dum ad examen revocato & ipfi õlim multum tribuimus, νόθευσιν pluribus fupra indicare visum eft. Quod vero ad hunc locum Cypriani spectat, in eo certe Pericope hæc tam clare (habitâ verborum, quibus intexta est, ratione) ac liquido proponitur, ut (cum ex versu 8vo accerfitam esse gratis plane dicatur, & absque omni ratione) ne quidem aliter fieri poffit quam ut cordatus quisque depromptam cenfeat ex Græcis quæ penes eum erant, adeoque & ex Authentico Joannis. Quod idem & de loco Tertulliani, obfcuriore licet, quomodo reliqua fere istius Auctoris, dictum omnino velim. Reclamat, inquis, Græcorum pene omnium fides. Si in Apoftoli Archetypo comparuissent hæc verba, quî factum ut Scriptores Græci, per tria prima fecula, illa in Codices fuos non admiferint? Unde notum Africanis istis, quod latuit ipsum Irenæum, doctrinarum omnium curiosissimum Exploratorem, imo Polycarpi, qui ipfius Joannis discipulus erat, auditorem? Ego equidem de tota hac re ita cenfeo: Sufficere abunde in αὐθεντίαν Commatis, quod à Tertulliano & Cypriano citetur, licet nullo modo, ne per conjecturam quidem, assequi poffemus unde factum ut apud Joannem legerint ipfi, quod nemo quisquam Græcorum viderit: imo licet in nullis omnino ab illo tempore in hunc usque diem Exemplaribus comparuerit. Cæterum ne inique secum agi putet Lector, fi non & explicavero quo modo factum exiftimem, ut quod in Archetypo Joannis exftabat, omnibus fere Libris poft exciderit; omissum vero per secula aliquot, emerserit demum è tenebris, redieritque in contextum Epistolæ in Exemplaribus Græcis & Latinis: quod in hac re aliquatenus certe deprehendiffe mihi videor, lubens exponam. Dico igitur 2o. Uti certum est versum hunc mum haud longe post scripturam ipfius Autographi abfuisse à Græcis plerifque omnibus, ita nihil omnino caufæ effe cur erafum eum suspicemur ab Hæreticis. Hæreticos cum dico, nolim Arianos intelligas: quid enim illis cum Pericope, fublata è contextu Gr. 150 annis ante quam nafceretur Arius? (quanquam neque, ut id obiter notem, Arianis objectum memini apud Scriptores Ecclefiafticos, excepto uno Ambrofio (Fulbertus enim Carnotenfis, qui Epift. 1. eandem cantilenam canit, Ambrofii duntaxat fide & auctoritate nixus eft.)] lib. 3. de Spir. S. cap. 11. qui tamen loco isto omnino fallitur, Sacri Textûs depravationem) fed omnino eos qui inter annum, quo confcripta creditur hæc Epistola, 97mum vixere, & tempora Irenæi; (cujus Codicem commate hoc mutilatum fuiffe fupra notavimus) Basilidem dico, Saturninum, Valentinum, Marcionem, & fi qui alii dogmata cum iftis communia habuere. His autem cum opinionum portenta objiciunt Irenæus, Epiphanius, alii; tum vero foli Marcioni, quod sciam, crimen violati S. Textûs. Reliquis commune illud, quod ultra quam Apoftoli ipfi, in rerum divinarum γνώσε provecti, fi placet, Evangelia nova procuderint. Verum in iis non tollebant vetera, fed adfuebant duntaxat illis absurdas nefcio quas τερατολογίας. In Epistolis Apoftolorum nihil temerarunt. Et quidem ipsius Marcionis in corrumpendis S. Literis audacia, quanta quanta erat, intra Luca Evangelium & Epiftolas Paulinas fe continuit: Epistolas Catholicas intactas reliquit. Certe quidem, uno hoc Interpolatore (si tamen Interpolatorem dicas, qui Apoftolorum Scripta rejecit verius quam corrupit) excepto, qui in Apoftolico fuo (ex Epiftolis aliquot Pauli, ficut ex quatuor Evangeliis cæterorum PfeudoEvangelia, consarcinato) Textûs Paulini aliqua mutabat; (non item omnia quæ pro corruptis habet Epiphanius, ut in Notis noftris oftendimus) non puto Hæreticorum quemquam S. Textum in aliquo, nedum in hoc nobiliffimo Joannis teftimonio, depravaffe. Quorfum enim ? ex Codicibus Catholicorum patuisset statim corruptela. Imo vero quo pacto? Poterant quidem corrumpere Libros fuos, ac fuorum gregalium, paucos illos; aliorum non poterant, ne quidem in initio cum raro admodum effent Exemplaria, multo minus cum plurima post ubique per Ecclefiam Chriftianam spargerentur. 3. Unde igitur factum dicamus, ut Codicibus exciderit hic verficulus? Minime quidem dolo malo, quod arbitror; fed omnino cafu, ac pura puta negligentia Librarii; qui
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cum forte inter scribendum tolleret oculos ad illud i μαρτυρῶντες verf. 6. mox in idem incidens verf. 7. intermedia ἐν τῷ ἐρανῷ, ὁ Πατὴς, ὁ Λόγο, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα κὰὶ ὅτοι οἱ τρεῖς ἐν εἰσι. κὰὶ τρεῖς εἰσιν, intacta præterierit. Proclivi admodum errore, quod nôrunt quibus cum veteribus membranis res est. Imo, inquis, in leviculo aliquo accidere hoc poterat; fed in Capite hoc infigni, quo dogma de S. Trinitate tam aperte adstrui videtur, vix eft ut cespitarit Scriba. Quafi vero inter fcribendum expendat vulgus Librariorum quid leve, quid gravioris momenti; ac non omnia pari fere five diligentia five incuria describat? Fidelis Exscriptoris eft fingula curare. Si ἐξ ἀποσεξίας labatur, quod facit fubinde optimus quisque, cadit error in maxima perinde ac minima. Sed ex recenfione, inquis, emendantur errores. Recte quidem. Sed difficili tempeftate, qualis erat cum prima quædam Epiftolæ hujus Apographa defcriberentur, ubi rari, quibus facultas aut otium S. Codices transfcribendi, rara Exemplaria ad quæ describi poffent, Librique cum primum exarati, avidiffime mox à Chriftianis arrepti fint, ac propter æftum perfecutionis in varias regiones statim diftracti; minime certe mirandum, si è primis, qui tunc fcripti funt Codicibus, unus aliquis in quo prætermissa hæc Pericope ex ἀβλεψίᾳ Scribæ, haud recenfitus fit ad aliud Exemplar, sed inemendatus mox in Libros tranfierit alios, & quidem alios. Quidni enim? Dices fortaffe non potuifsse vitium hoc nifi in unum & alterum Codicem propagari; detecturos illud statim ex Libris invicem collatis Christianos. Atqui vero, præterquam quod non poterant ad Archetypum Joannis provocare; quod aut apud Parthos longe diffitos erat , (ad quos fcriptam hanc Epiftolam dicit in ejufdem Titulo Vulgatus Interpres, teste Cassiodoro) aut faltem in privatis latebat nefcio quibus manibus Afianorum: in fumma certe Exemplarium paucitate quæ tunc erat, difficile omnino fuit Libros, ad quos mutili ifti exigerentur, comparare, fi quam maxime vellent. Et quidem cum de summa rei Christianæ hoc tempore ageretur, ingravescente scil. Persecutione fub Trajano; adeo non vacabant Chriftiani recenfioni Librorum, ut ne quidem convenire iis licuerit, nifi ante lucem. Trucidati plurimi, alii damnati ad metalla, cæteraque id genus fupplicia, pulsi alii in exteras regiones. Curatum denique non jam ut libros defcriberent, aut ad aliorum fidem recognitos darent, fed utcunque defcriptos secum deportarent. Apographum igitur aliquod istius Epistolæ, mutilatum qua ratione diximus, etiam primis illis temporibus in plura Exemplaria diffundi potuiffe manifestum est. Imo vero hac Afianorum 2/ασπορᾷ factum omnino arbitror, ut Exemplaria ista etiam ad exteros devenerint, ac (curato quidem hoc uno, ut verba củ τῇ ชῇ verí. 8. tanquam fuperflua delerentur, quod in primo vel fecundo Apographo obfervatum forfan, & fic fere in sequentibus) Ecclefiis transfcribenda traderentur. Inde magnus aliquanto poft Exemplarium numerus per Græciam, Ægyptum, aliafsque Provincias, ubi vigebat fermo Græcus. Tali certe Apographo Romæ ufus effe videtur Vulgatus Interpres, tali Irenæus, Clemens Alexandrinus, cæterique quos fupra memoravimus Græci Scriptores. Quinimo nullum omnino Codicem Ecclefiis Græcis in ufu fuiffe cre
do, nifi qui ad mutilatos, quos dicimus, descriptus fit, pene ab ipfius Archetypi scriptura usque ad seculum unum vel etiam alterum post Athanafium. Nempe tum demum Auctor Difputationis in Concilio Nicæno habita, fub Athanafii nomine, textum hunc citavit. Unde vero, inquis, cognitum huic Scriptori, quod cæteros Græcos latuerat per aliquot secula? Ex antiquioribus Græcis, puris atque integris. Sicut enim ex Chriftianorum Afiaticorum difperfione factum videtur, ut mutilati hoc Commate Codices in Græcia aliisque locis paffim legerentur; ita nec dubium quin integri aliquot eodem tempore in exteras regiones delati apud privatos delituerint. Exstabat aliquandiu certe Archetypum ipfius Apoftoli apud Parthos, aut Afianos. Latebant apud eofdem Apographa pauca quædam ad illud expressa. Transmissa fuisse aliqua in Africam, id vero certiffimum eft ex teftimoniis Tertulliani ac Cypriani fupra allatis. Quidni igitur Auctor dictæ Difputationis inciderit forte in Græca integra, 250 annis poft Cyprianum, cujus ætate Græca iftius
modi exftitiffe certo constat? Habemus nos hodieque in Anglia Codices Sacros unum & alterum plus quam mille annorum: habent in Gallia qui ad eandem ætatem affurgunt. Quid mirum ideo fi Codex aliquis per annos 300. vel etiam 400. (hoc eft, à tempore ipso quo fcripta Joannis Epistola) privatis clathris conclufus, emergat demum, ac fiat usûs publici ? Quotidiana funt ifta. Neque obftat fane quidquam, quo minus ad Auctoris iftius seculum fupereffe potuerit (fi quidem probe tractatum) Apoftoli ipfius Autographum, nedum defcripta Cypriani tempore, vel etiam fortaffe poft, Exemplaria. Quid quod Auctoris modo memorati seculo, non unus aliquis iftiufmodi Liber exftitiffe videatur, fed multi quidem? Certe inepte citaffet Pfeudo- Athanafius hanc pericopen Joannis, nisi etiam Libri Arianis essent ad manum, ex quibus expendere poffent teftimonium ad quod ibi provocatur. Imo vero, inquis, inepte citaffet. Sed quid fi inepte citaverit? erat delirus Monachus: neque ex hujus teftimonio tuto colligas fortaffe vel unum aliquem hujufmodi Librum fuiffe tunc temporis, nedum complures. Esto. Sed unde obfecro Codices ad an. 800mum vel 900mum descripti, nifi aut ex Libris qui fub hoc tempore vel etiam ante exftiterint, aut ex Apographis ad illos expreffis ? Equidem haud paucos fuifle atque etiamnum exftare, e, qui ultra annum 700mum, imo ad 800mum afsurgant, ex Editorum Teftamenti Complutenfis ac Roberti Stephani teftimonio clare colligere mihi videor. Dicunt illi se in Novi Teftamenti Editione, in qua occurrit hic verficulus, secutos Exemplaria antiquissima Vaticana, quibus fidem abrogare nefas videbatur: Robertus autem, se Codices nactum aliquot vetuftatis specie pene adorandos, à quorum plurium ac meliorum fuffragio, in N. Testam. à se edito an. 1549. (in quo item exftat hic verfus) ne in una aliqua litera discefferit. Certe antiquissima ac vetuftatis specie pene adoranda Exemplaria neutiquam dixerint, nifi quæ 700, aut potius 800 essent annorum. Atque hic quidem pedem figimus: neque enim ad secula recentiora defcendere opus est. Id unum noto; fundamento omni carere quod ex jam dicto Pfeudo - Athanafiii loco colligit Cl. Simonius, Hiftoriæ Critice Novi Teftam. cap. 18. Verba nempe καὶ οἱ τρεῖς τὸ ἓν εἰσιν, ab Athanafio ad S. Trinitatem accommodata, occafionem dedisse Græcis quibufdam Scholiaftis explicationem istam in orâ Codicis collocandi; quæ poftea in Contextum irrepferit. Miffis enim quæ fupra indicavimus; (exftitiffe verfum hunc 7mum in ipfius Apoftoli Archetypo; ifta τρεῖς τὸ ἐν εἰσι, minime octavi Commatis effe, cum hoc in MSS. omnibus_fit εἰς τὸ ἓν εἰσιν ̇ Interpretationem istam mysticam Latinorum commentuin effe, Patribus Græcis inauditum:) certe Scholia de quibus agit, ad marginem fcil. Exemplarium Regii no 2247. ac Colbertini no 871. ejufmodi funt, quæ nequaquam adınitti poterant in Contextum. Notulæ funt fateor, ex quibus formare poffet Studiofus aliquis hujufmodi verficulum. Sed à nemine repertum ufquam puto Codicem Græcum, qui Pericopen hanc integram repræsentarit in margine. Atque de Græcis hactenus. Ad Codices Latinos quod spectat, de Verfione quidem Italica vetere idem quod de Syriaca, Coptica, aliisque aliquot, in quibus defideratur hic verficulus, dicendum arbitror; expressam scilicet fuiffe ex Græcis hoc commate mutilatis. Mutilam porro manfiffe credibile est in omnibus plerifque Codd. per plurima secula; & quidem per annos plus centum in omnibus omnino Exemplaribus, ad tempora dico Tertulliani & Cypriani. His certe cum obtigerint Græca integra, quod diximus, curatum tum demum opinor ut ad iftorum fidem reftitueretur hic verficulus in Latinis. Conveniebat nempe pietati illorum, maxime beatiffimi Martyris, ut Græca nacti, traderent Ecclefiæ Africanæ Libros Sacros perfectos & omnino integros. Hinc statim Apographa pauca, scripta Carthagine aliifque locis, ubi Cypriani vigebat auctoritas. Pauca dico, cum ob alias caufas, tum ob graves calamitates, quibus preffi funt in Africa Christiani fub Decio ac Valeriano. Hinc enim factum, ut, erepto è vivis Cypriano, rationibusque Fidelium mifere turbatis, intermiffa fit in præfentia cura omnis defcribendi integros iftos Codices. Cæterum de paucis illis quos Ecclesia scribendos curaverat, id plane con
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stare videtur, eos durasse & quidem publici usus fuiffe in Ecclefiis Africanis quibufdam per tempora illa difficilia; tandemque poft annos 80, aut ad summum 100, in Exemplaria plurima paffim dimanaffe. Nempe cum Libellum (in quo erat versus hic 7mus) offerebant Hunnerico Eugenius, cæterique Ecclefiæ Africanæ antistites, anno 484to, Exemplaribus iftis abundâsse videtur Africa. At vero textum in Fidei suæ confirmationem adducturos eos effe, qui aut in Libris vulgatis non erat, aut quem in Epistolæ corpus ante feculum unum aut alterum irrepfiffe adstantes Ariani fufpicarentur, nemo sanus crediderit. Quinimo ex fola hâc confessione Patrum Africanorum tuto fatis colligi posse videtur, Latina hæc integra quæ dicimus, non modo per Africam omnem, fed etiam per alias dispersa latius fuisse Latinorum Ecclefias. Certe qui textum apud adversarios Fidei ftrenue, quod Episcopi isti, ac aperte urgent; qui in scriptis fuis (uti Fulgentius, aliique) identidem citant atque inculcant, eoque ceu validissimo telo contra Ecclefiæ hoftes utuntur; fatis clare profitentur, Pericopen ad quam toties & tam fidenter provocant, non in unius regionis angulo aliquo latere, fed per Ecclefiam Chriftianam paffim diffundi. Id quod de plurimis Codd. qui seculo hoc ac proxime sequentibus exarati funt, veriffimum esse arbitror. Imo vero post seculum octavum, Librorum in quibus exstaret hæc Pericope, crevit eousque cum numerus, tum auctoritas, ut Studiosi seu etiam Librarii, quæ in suis deerant, ex integris hisce restituerint, descripto ad marginem suorum Codicum versu hoc 7mo. Neque enim quæ ad oram Librorum Latinorum adscripta videmus hoc loco, additamenta funt Studioforum, quibus effet animus aptare textum Joannis ad Prologum Hieronymi, quod exiftimat Cl. Simonius; fed verba ipsa Commatis 7mi, five recte, five, ut fit, vitiose descripta. Sic quæ è regione verborum, Tres funt qui teftimonium dant, posita funt ad marg. Codicis Regii no 3584. Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus:
& tres funt qui teftimonium dant in terra: & hi tres unum funt, ipfius Apoftoli funt, male habita. Textus Joannis in isto Cod. five vitio Scribæ, five etiam Exemplaris quod fecutus eft, ita se habet: Tres funt qui teftimonium dant, omiffis reliquis versus 7mi & 8vi. Supplevit quæ deerant in textu Librarius, aut alius quifpiam, qui Apographum recenfuiffet, hoc modo: ad verba, tres sunt qui teftimonium dant, adjecit recte Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus: mox omiffo τῷ & tres unum funt, quod fc. ab iifdem vocibus inciperet, quibus ea, quæ sequuntur, tranfit ad reliqua, & tres funt qui teftimonium dant in terra: & bi tres unum funt, præteritis incuriâ nefcio quâ intermediis, Spiritus, aqua, & fanguis. Simile quiddam videre licet in additamento marginali Codicis Colbertini no 158. Ad ista tres funt qui teftimonium dant, ponitur in orâ Libri Pater, Verbum, & Spiritus; ac prætermiffis, ut in Cod. Regio, (ob eadem initialia verba, quæ habet sequens claufula) istis, & tres unum funt, tranfitur ad illa, & tres funt qui teftimonium dant in terra &c. intactis ultimis, & hi tres unum funt, quæ & in plurimis MSS Libris defiderantur. Additamenta vero ifta ad marginem posita, in textum poftea admiserunt Librarii, nunc recte, nunc (quod in MSSis plurimis observavimus) ordine præpostero, posito teftimonio spiritus, aquæ, & fanguinis, ante alterum illud, Patris, Filii, & Spiritus Sancti.
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Verum de Pericope hac vexatissimâ plus fatis. Quæ in utramque partem cum ad minuendam tum ad firmandam Commatis hujus αὐθεντίαν allata hactenus funt rationum momenta, sedulo perpendimus. Utra pars præponderet, eruditis judicandum relinquimus. Mihi, fateor, (meliora, si quid melius certiusque dederit longior dies, difcere parato) argumentis ad auctoritatem huic Verficulo conciliandam modo adducatis tantum roboris inesse videtur, ut eum nullo modo de loco suo movendum effe cenfeam. + Vide etiam Prol.623. feqq. 713.938.1320.
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
John Mill - heavenly witnesses - English

p. 582-586

I ask whose God? If of the Creator; ; it is not written in the Holy Rite: And these three are one. Thus, all Editions. Nor do they differ from the Editions of the Manuscripts; if for these, and these three are one, the Codices Voffianus tertius, Lambethanus, and Eboracen- fis (as well as Fulgentius) have, And three are one. The same Cyprian, Epist. to Jubajan: If anyone could be baptized by a Heretic, he could certainly also obtain the remission of sins: if he has obtained the remission of sins, and has been sanctified, and has been made a temple of God; he could, who has not believed in him: if of Christ; he cannot be made a temple of him who denies God Christ; if of the Holy Spirit; since the three are one, how can the Holy Spirit be appeased by him who is an enemy of either the Father or the Son? Of these two places it should be noted, 1. The words of John 1 Epistle, c. 5. v. 7. are here so clearly set forth, that if the most blessed Martyr had even paid the greatest attention to them, he could not, by reason of the words to which they are inferred, have cited them more eloquently and explicatively. 2. Fulgentius Afri- canus is openly quoted in his Respons. against the Arians, and finally, that in the previous place in his Book of Ecclesiastical Unity Cyprian referred to this Text. Blessed John the Apostle, he says, testifies, saying: There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and these three are one. Which also the most blessed Martyr Cyprian confesses in his Epistle on the Unity of the Church, saying: He who breaks the peace and concord of Christ, does it against Christ: he who gathers the Church elsewhere, scatters the Church of Christ. And in order to show that there is one Church of the one God, he immediately brought this testimony from the Scriptures: The Lord says, I and the Father are one. And again: Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit it is written, And the three are one. 3. That which is noted from Facundus is plainly of a fleeting moment, Cyprian, the scholar, has alleged this from the eighth verse. For whence comes it that Facundus, who flourished 300 years after Cyprian, knows the mind of the blessed Martyr better than Fulgentius, who is somewhat nearer to Cyprian? Whence also does he confess, that at the age of Cyprian anyone received Water, Spirit, and Blood in a mystical sense for the Persons of the Trinity? Certainly, among the Greeks who did not read the 7th verse, that mystical explanation never occurs: so neither, as I believe, for more than a hundred years since Cyprian, does any Latin mention this spiritual sense. Augustine seems to have introduced this interpretation first of all, Book 3. Against Maximinus, Chapter 22. whom many have followed, as Eucherius testifies. Of course, since verse 7 is omitted from their Codes; and indeed from Tertullian, Cyprian, and others perhaps, whose writings have been lost, they learned that it is said of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Holy Letters, that they are here: The 8th paragraph of this Chapter (since nowhere else it is stated that the three are one) immediately gathered that very thing to which the said Fathers referred; and therefore by water, spirit, and blood the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mystically signified. What wonder then, if Facundus were to be found, that many others, having taken this verse as an example, fearlessly, from the opinion of others as well as his own, affirmed 1. 1. c. 3. the testimony of John in verse 8 of this Chapter by Cyprian concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to understand that I have said, I confess, when I have considered this matter a little more attentively, this allegorical explanation seems so uncertain and slippery; (for it does not agree well with the writers among whom it is used: to some by water the Father, and by spirit the Holy Spirit; to others on the contrary by spirit, the Father; but by water, the Holy Spirit, to those who understand) so futile and trifling; (For what is more childish than this, that water mystically designates the Father, because God is called by the Prophet the fountain of living water; the spirit signifies the Father, because God is the Spirit?) so constrained and distorted, (although if it were not for the occasion of the above-mentioned, Augustine, or any of the Latins, would scarcely have invented it) that I do not think it to be attributed to Cyprian in any way. Nay, indeed, when it is said in the writings of a chaste Author, who never strays from loose and mystical interpretations, and is scrupulously tenacious in quoting the Scriptures, that these three are one, I am altogether led to believe that he referred him to the seventh verse of this Chapter. For thus, in my judgment, is the case. Just as the African Church, a Roman propagator, had long since received from the very cradles of the Faith the books of the Italian Version, the Gospels, and the Pauline Epistles; so it is certain that the Catholics (of which, since most of them are of less authority in the Church than the others, which are sent to certain Churches, copies were rarer) had already come into the hands of the Doctors of that Church. I believe that Tertullian and Cyprian were used by these shortly after the faith was planted in Africa; and indeed the Epistle of John, with its seventh paragraph (which I suspect had already been mutilated from the beginning in Latin), was added from the Greek copies which were in their possession. But of this matter later. Author of the Prologue to the Canonical Epistles, under Jerome

In which name. If faith is to be had, there is absolutely no room left for doubting the authenticity of this Comma: since, according to his own opinion, all Greek Codices before him, represented this place intact; and it was done by the infidel Translators (whom he calls) or heretics, so that it has not yet appeared anywhere in the Latin Exemplars, until he himself at last took care to restore this verse to the faith of the Greek Exemplars in his Edition. Which, he says (of the Canonical Epistles), if, as they were compiled by them (the Greeks), so also the speech would be faithfully translated into Latin by the Interpreters; neither would they cause ambiguity to the readers, nor would the variety of the words be opposed, especially in that place where we read of the Unity of the Trinity in the first Epistle of John, in which we find that even by the infidel Translators much has been erred from the truth of the Faith; only three words, that is, water, blood, and spirit, in their own edition, and omitting the testimony of the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, in which both the Catholic Faith is most strengthened, and the one substance of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is proved. This is he. But, to freely say what I feel, wanting to reconcile the authority of the text with this testimony, I think it is nothing else than to say that the truth is not true. This preface does not seem to be Jerome's, nor certainly anyone's who correctly understood the Biblical matter during the times of which he is speaking. For although in the Prologue the words of the spirit and the stomach are used, not unlike Jerome's; also and in some argument, not unworthy of Jerome: Such as

1. Like the Gospels, he corrected the Epistles also to the line of truth, or to the faith of the Greeks who were in his possession, for this is quite probable from Ep. 102. to Marcellus, and other places where he criticizes the Interpreter of the Vulgate.

2. Among the Greeks the Epistle of James precedes the other Catholics in order: it is clear from MSS Codd. omnibus, Cyril Catech. 4. Author of the Synopses of the Holy Scriptures, Council of Laodicea Can. 60. 60. & Greg. Nazianzen, Iamb. to Seleucus.

3. In the Latin Books the Epistles of Peter are given first place among the Catholics: for this is evident from the Ancient Translation, already by him perhaps the most fruitful of the Apostles in use, (in which, according to Caffiodorus 1. Divin. Lect. c. 14. the order was: Epistles of Peter to the Gentiles, Jude, James, John to the Parthians, and the first Epistle; for the fruitful and third, which perhaps were not publicly accepted by the Latin Churches, are not here included in the census) in the Catalog of the Books of Holy Scripture in the MS. Cod. Claremontano, (in which the Catholic Epistles are thus distributed: To Peter 1. To Peter 2. John. Epist. 1. John. Epist. 2. John. Epist. 3. Jude Epist.) Ruffin's Exposition in the Symbol. Augustine 1. 2. of the Doctrine. Chrift. cap. 8. & the Council of Carthage, celebrated in the year 419.

4. These Epistles are first of all referred to in this order which the Greeks observed; for that is almost certain. He who recens the Catholic Epistles in the same order as the Greeks in the Epistle to Paulinus, would certainly not have changed this order in the Latin Edition. Nor does it prevent the fact that long after the times of Jerome the Latin Exemplars have retained the order of the Interpreter of the Vulgate, as appears from Caffiodorus, Divin. Lect. c. 8. Junilus, book 1. on the Part of the Divine Law, and Stichometrics MSS. of which an old one was published from the Royal Library by Cotelerius, Notis in Barnabas. If these Books contained only the old Version; (such as long after the Edition, which is circulated under the name of Jerome, is known in the use of the word) or the old one, indeed, corrected and corrected according to the Jerome Exemplars. Whence it came to pass, that the text, having been changed to that of Jerome, and corresponding to it in all respects, indeed the order of the Epistles, corresponded

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and who in the old Version. Although, I say, some few things of this kind have not been unwisely attributed to Jerome; yet the rest are so foreign to all appearance of truth, that they seem to be rather of any one than of the most learned of his Fathers. 1. For what is this, which is said of the Greeks who were perfectly wise and followed the right faith, or of the Books of the Catholic Fathers, that they have exhibited this verse most excellently! All who have inspected the monuments of the ancients, especially Jerome, who had devoured all the ancients, and had translated many into Latin, know that not one of the Greek Writers, from the whole age of Christianity to his times, has ever cited this verse. It is indeed a wonder that in all the Greek Codices (for this is what the compiler of the Prologue wishes to believe) of which no one of the Ancients had heard anything: that Jerome saw in the Greek Text what the most famous Greek writers of that age, Chrysotos, Didymus, Epiphanius, and both Gregorys, had not seen: that the excellent testimony of that time about the Holy Trinity in John's Greeks was read, which the most ardent defenders of the Catholic Faith, Athanasius and the Nicene Fathers, had nowhere alleged, even when they had agreed to this very thing, to crush and extinguish the Arian heresy. He who believes this, let him not attribute this Prologue to Jerome. 2. Nor is it less averse from all appearance of truth, which is affirmed of the Latin Interpreters; that this verse was omitted by them, out of heretical wickedness. For I will send private interpreters, who in the early times of the Faith, as Augustine testifies, dared to interpret the Grail Codex as soon as it came into their hands, and made Latin from good Greek not good; to whom Jerome not infrequently objects ignorance and badly rendered Greek, not likewise Haerefin, as far as I know, or the mutilated text of the Sacred Codex in some part: certainly he who says that this verse was fabricated by the Author of the Interpretation in the Old Italian (for in this, if we believe the Prologue, verse 7 was missing. Otherwise how could Jerome first restore this to the faith of the Greek Codex?) by this very fact show that he is completely ignorant of the nature and genius of that translation. This was written, and in use, if not from the very beginnings of the Church, certainly long before the controversy arose about the dogma of the Holy Trinity. It was written for the Latins, and by order, as it seems, of the Bishops of that Church; which in the most serious matter of all, I say, in translating the Holy Letters into the form of the Fathers, it is entirely fitting that we believe that the work of some man, highly regarded for his learning (as the age was), was employed. Indeed, the fact itself speaks for itself. So much so that nothing in this Version has been subtracted, added, or in any way changed by the Interpreter's discretion, let alone malicious deceit; as his Greek is followed religiously everywhere and is used, even where it disagrees with the Greeks of today. Hence if this verse is absent in the Latins, this whatever fault is to be attributed certainly not to the Interpreter, (who did what was his duty, and expressed the Greek that was before his eyes faithfully and verbatim) but to the Greek Exemplars which he made. Which if the Interpreter acted heretically in this clause, why not in the same works and in others? If he was a heretic, how did it come about that no one before Jerome has ever done that? whence, that Jerome himself never mentions him except in this Prologue? Certainly he who attacks this Version more freely than ever, who calls his followers little men, little fellows, two-footed animals; if he had found anything in it, from which there was even the slightest suspicion that the Author had labored heresy; it is scarcely believable, how impotently he has everywhere triumphed over the wretched Interpreter; how many a shower of reproaches the bilious Cenfor has thrown at him in almost every Epistle; how often he has condemned the Version to hell, which he has cast out. He is no longer a barbarian and unlearned man, but a heretic of darkness, a scoundrel, a falsifier and corrupter of the Holy Scriptures. 3. Nor is it less false that what is said here of Jerome, that he first put this verse back in his Edition. For if Jerome had found it, how is it that in his very old and best known Bibles, this little verse is not read? Indeed, why does Jerome never cite him in his Works, where he is dealing with Arians and other heretics of the same kind? It is absolutely strange, since in his Epistles and Polemic Books he cites other places of the Sacred Code to confirm the Catholic Doctrine concerning the mystery of the Holy Trinity; that he does not in one place bring forward this testimony of John, which he himself had restored from the Greeks, namely, and in which the Catholic faith is most strengthened, and the one substance of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is proved. What more? If this Epistle or Prologue is made by Jerome, why does it not have a place in the MSS Codices, and also in the Editions of Jerome? Why would you rather attribute this to him than all the other Books prefixed to the New Testament, which also boast of the title of Jerome the Priest; some of which are ridiculously fabled, others concocted from the genuine Epistles of Jerome? I indeed think of these Prefaces thus: they were all written long after Jerome, by various people, and at various times.

Most of the foolish ones seem to be some Rhapsody, who lived somewhat before Bede. But this Preface to the Canonical Epistles, when he complains of the perfidy of the Latins in omitting this Pericope, which is now finally being restored with the help of the Greek Codices, seems to have been written entirely in the time of Bede; (for he was not even aware of this paragraph, as appears from the Commentary on the place) and indeed a little before the eighth century. At that time I think I have admitted this Preface first into the Codices of private men, and finally also into the public Books of the Western Churches. Certainly it exists in the Codices of the eighth century, as is attested by the Bible of Charles the Bald, in which this Prologue is found, but without the prefix of the name Jerome, as Cl. Simonius notes. But from this Prologue it is clearly gathered that at the age in which it was written, say in the seventh century, the Greek Codices did not recognize this verse. Victor Vitellis, lib. 3. on the Vandalic Perfection, where the Confession of Faith, presented to Hunnericus, King of the Vandals, in the year 484 0, by Eugenius, Bishop of Carthage, and other Orthodox Bishops of the African Church; in which these are contained: And that we may teach still more clearly with light the one Divinity of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, it is proved by the testimony of John the Evangelist: for he says, there are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. Does he say three in a different quality, joined together, or divided by any degrees of diversity by a long interval of separation? But three, he says, are one. This is the opinion of the entire African Church, pronounced by the king's command. Nor can it be that they cited this Text, if either it did not exist in the Epistle, or if it were also considered as an insititution; with the Arians who were present, the fraud would easily have been revealed. Correctly on this matter Cl. Smith ours, Defenf. Differtationis in 1 John. 5. 7. p. 161. Shall we suppose, he says, that Eugenius of Carthage, and the other Orthodox Bishops of the African Church, could have so deceived him, that in that war of Lis, by the written order of the Arian King Hunneric, in the year 484, they would have used this Text in different words, and in the name of John the Evangelist, if it had been omitted from the Sacred Codes of that time, or if it had been newly added and added a century or two before? How easily could that crime have been disproved by diligent adversaries? How ill they heard, as corrupters of the Sacred Scriptures? Indeed, those most holy Confessors, concerning their reputation and the truth of the Catholic dogma, which they undertook to defend, had better consult, and did not, by using such evil arts, imprudently and voluntarily wish to bring upon themselves infamy and prejudice to the truth of Christianity. But this is not the testimony of one man, but of the entire African Church, after careful and repeated examination, so that it may seem devoid of modesty and Christian charity, who dares to impute these outrageous crimes to these venerable and conspicuous Prelates in holiness and doctrine, who at that time were oppressed in a horrendous manner by the rabid fervor of the Arians. These are they. For, as we shall show below, a few copies have survived in Africa since the time of Cyprian, which represented this verse; and when the Bishops finally fell into it, they took care to write down, in their faith, many Apographs for the benefit of the Church. Vigilius Thapsenfis, who subscribed to the confession a little before mentioned, in a book which once appeared under the name of Idacius Clarus, against the Arian Varimadus. Likewise he (sc. John the Evangelist, whose Gospel he had previously allegorized) said to the Parthians: There are three who bear witness on earth, water, blood, and flesh; and three are in us. And there are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit.

; and these three are one. And in the Book on the Unitary Deity of the Trinity, which is attributed to Athanasius by someone, he says, there are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and in Christ Jesus they are one. Likewise in the Latin Book to Theophilus, among the Works of Athanasius, who is believed to be Vigilius: Whence also John, he says, in his Epistle says: There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and in Christ Jesus they are one; yet not one, because they are not one person. Fulgentius, Respons. against the Arians, at the end: Blessed John the Apostle, he says, is testified saying: There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and three are one. Which also the blessed Martyr Cyprian testifies in his Epistle on the Unity of the Church, &c. The same book. on the Trinity to Felice Notarius: Lo, you have, he says, in short, another Father, another Son, another Holy Spirit, another and another in person, not another and another in nature: and therefore, I, he says, and the Father are one; teaching us to refer one to nature; the smoke to persons: similarly and that, there are three, he says, who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and these three are one. The author of the Book on the Catholic Faith against the Arian Bishop Pinta, under the name of Fulgentius; who among the rest of the testimony on the Trinity, also adds this of ours of John. The author of the Explanation of the Faith to Cyril, Volume 9. Works of Jerome, p. 62. near the end: For us, he says, one Father, and one His Son true God, and one Holy Spirit true God: and these three are one; one divinity, and power, and kingdom. The rest who make mention of this passage after the eighth century, I prudently omit; The year was indeed eighty years, or a little later, it appeared, as we have observed above, in the 7th verse of this Chapter in the Latin Bibles. And now having made both calculations; having brought forward with the utmost faith the testimonies of the Exemplary MSS and Printers, Versions, Fathers, and finally the Greek and Latin testimonies which seem to elevate the authority of this text, and to establish it; it remains for me to briefly explain what I have to say on this subject. I say therefore 10. This passage, however it may have disappeared later, certainly exists in the Autograph of John himself, and in some other copies written to it. You have ascertained this from the testimony of Tertullian, cited above: he who lived at that age, at which (as witness, Preface, c. 36.) the authentic letters of the Apostles are recited among the Churches, h e. either the Archetype itself, (which is certainly probable to have lasted far beyond the age of Tertullian; for between the time when the Epistle of John was written, and when Tertullian's Book of Prescripts was written, there are only 110 years between them) or the Codex faithfully expressed from the Archetype; and indeed he calls upon the Authentic Gracchus of Paul (Book of Monog., chap. 11), or the Codex of his Epistles, which, as well as the others, conform to the originals, he had at hand: it certainly could not have been that he quoted this Text (which was of great importance in the first instance to strengthen his belief against Praxea), or, what is the same, alluded to it, unless he had read it in his Greek. The same must be said of St. Cyprian, in whom these words of John are found twice (not somewhat more obscurely, as in Tertullian, the celebrated writer, who prefers to touch upon the words of Holy Scripture briefly rather than to quote them more fully; but he utters them very clearly and expressly). For he did not allege these things mentioned from the eighth verse mystically explained; (since this mythical interpretation was devised long after Cyprian, as we have pointed out) nor indeed from any Latin Version contrary to the faith of the Greek Codices, which were in his and Tertullian's possessions. For apart from the fact that he seems to have been from the beginning averse to the old Italian, which was then in use in the African Churches, he certainly cited the Blessed Martyr once and again, and that not as a parody, but clearly refuted and with the grace of the argument that he was dealing with, some words as if from the Holy Code, which never appeared in his Greek, no one certainly, who had paid a little more attention to this, would have believed it by any means. I do not say this as an assumption, as if I wanted nothing not seized from somewhere, and dragged here as if by a twisted neck, which would be of use in conciliating the authority of this text among the credulous, and the less snotty readers. Indeed, God does not need our lies, so that we speak deceits for him. For this reason, the Prologue to the Catholic Epistles, on which the learned strive so much in this matter, to which we have not yet returned to the examination and to which we have given much credit, has seemed to indicate more than one idea. But as regards this place of Cyprian, in that Pericope this is certainly so clearly (by reason of the habit of the words in which it is written) and clearly proposed, that (since it is said to have been quoted from the 8th verse gratuitously, and without any reason) it cannot be done otherwise than that any man of heart should draw up a prompt quotation from the Greeks which were in his possession, and also from the Authentic of John. I would like to say the same thing about the place of Tertullian, although more obscure, as is the rest of that Author. You say, the faith of almost all Greeks demands it.

If these words had appeared in the Archetype of the Apostle, which fact the Greek writers, through the first three verses, did not admit into their Codices? How did these Africans know, that Irenaeus himself, the most curious explorer of all doctrines, and indeed the listener of Polycarp, who was John's disciple, was unaware of? I indeed think thus of the whole matter: It suffices abundantly for the authenticity of the Commas, which is quoted by Tertullian and Cyprian, although we can in no way, not even by conjecture, attain from whence it came that they read it in John, which no one of the Greeks has seen: nay, although it has appeared in no copies at all from that time to this day. But lest the reader think himself wronged, if I do not also explain in what way the fact that it was in the Archetype of John, could have been omitted from almost all the Books; but omitted for several centuries, it has finally emerged from the darkness, and returned to the context of the Epistle in the Greek and Latin Exemplars: which in this matter I seem to have certainly detected to some extent, I will gladly explain. I say therefore 2o. As it is certain that this verse was absent from most and all Greeks not long after the writing of his Autograph, so there is absolutely no reason why we should suspect it of being removed by Heretics. When I say Heretics, I do not mean the Arians: for what have they to do with the Pericope, taken out of the context of the Greek 150 years before Arius was born? (although, as I may note in passing, I do not remember any objection to the Arians among the Ecclesiastical Writers, except one Ambrose (for Fulbert of Carthage, who sings the same song in Epistle 1, relies solely on the faith and authority of Ambrose)] Book 3. On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 11. who, however, is entirely mistaken in this place, regarding the depravation of the Sacred Text) but entirely those who lived between the year in which this Epistle is believed to have been written, 97, and the times of Irenaeus; (whose Codex was mutilated with this comma, as we noted above) I mean Basilides, Saturninus, Valentinus, Marcion, and those who had dogmas in common with them. But to these Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and others object with portents of opinion; and also to Marcion, as far as I know, the crime of violating the Sacred Text. You leave aside the common fact that, having advanced beyond the Apostles themselves in the knowledge of divine things, if you please, they produced new Gospels. But in them they did not abolish the old ones, but only added to them absurd things, which are called teratologies. In the Epistles of the Apostles they did not dare anything. And indeed the audacity of Marcion himself in corrupting the Holy Letters, whatever it was, he kept within the Gospel of Luke and the Pauline Epistles: he left the Catholic Epistles intact. Certainly, with the exception of this one Interpolator (if you call him an Interpolator, who rejected the Writings of the Apostles rather than corrupted them), who in his Apostolic (compiled from some of the Epistles of Paul, as well as from the four Gospels of the other Pseudo-Evangelies) changed some of the Pauline texts; (not also all that Epiphanius holds to be corrupt, as we have offered in our Notes) I do not think that any of the Heretics corrupted any of the Holy Texts in any way, let alone in this most noble testimony of John. For who? The corruption would have been immediately evident from the Codices of the Catholics. Indeed, how could they? They could indeed corrupt their Books, and those few of their fellows; they could not of others, not even at the beginning when there were very few copies, much less when many were afterwards scattered everywhere throughout the Christian Church. 3. How then can we say that this little man fell out of the Codices? Not by any evil trick, I think; but by sheer negligence, and by the sheer negligence of the Librarian; who,

when perhaps in the course of writing he raised his eyes to that of the witnesses, verse 6. soon falling upon the same verse 7. the intermediate passages in the text, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are in being. and three are, passed by untouched. I am quite prone to error, which they know with whom the matter is with the old manuscripts. Indeed, you say, this could have happened in some trivial matter; but in this infamous Chapter, in which the dogma of the Holy Trinity seems to be so clearly set forth, it is scarcely possible that the Scribe should have taken the trouble. But how can the common people of Librarians, in the course of writing, weigh what is of minor importance, what of more serious importance; and not describe everything with almost equal diligence or carelessness? It is the duty of a faithful Copyist to take care of the mold. If he slips out of ignorance, which every best man does, the error falls into the greatest as well as the least. But from recension, you say, errors are corrected. Right indeed. But in a difficult time, such as it was when some of the first Apographs of this Epistle were being written, when few, who had the ability or leisure to transcribe Holy Codices, had rare Examples to which they could be written, and Books, when first written, were eagerly seized upon by Christians, and because of the desire for perfection were immediately carried away to various regions; it is certainly not surprising if, from the first Codices that were then written, some one in which this Pericope from the Scribe's oversight was omitted, was not rewritten to another Example, but unamended and soon transferred to other Books, and indeed others. Why not? You will perhaps say that this defect could not have been propagated in one and the other Codex; Christians would have discovered it immediately from the Books collated together. But truly, apart from the fact that they could not have been led to the Archetype of John; which was either widely unknown among the Parthians (to whom the Vulgate Interpreter says that this Epistle was written under the same title, according to Cassiodorus) or else it was hidden in private hands, for fear of being lost in the hands of the Athenians: certainly in the very small number of copies that existed at that time, it was altogether difficult to procure the Books to which the mutilated ones would be required, even if they wished to do so. And indeed, since the most important Christian matter was being discussed at this time, namely, the growing persecution under Trajan; the Christians were so idle in reviewing the Books that they were not even allowed to meet, unless before daybreak. Many were massacred, some condemned to the metal, and other such punishments, others driven into foreign regions. Finally, it was no longer cared for to describe books, or to give them recognized to the credit of others, but to carry them with them in some way described. It is therefore clear that some apograph of this Epistle, mutilated for the reason we have mentioned, could have been spread even in those early times in many copies. Indeed, I think that this was done entirely by the Aphians, that these copies also reached foreigners, and (taking care indeed of this one thing, that the words of the verse 8. should be deleted as superfluous, which was perhaps overlooked in the first or fruitful apograph, and almost in the following ones) were handed over to the Churches to be copied. From this a somewhat large number of copies arose throughout Greece, Egypt, and other provinces where the Greek language flourished. Certainly such an apograph seems to have been used by the Vulgate Interpreter at Rome, such by Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and the other Greek writers whom we have mentioned above. For I believe that no Codex was in use in the Greek Churches at all, except that which was written down for the mutilated, whom we speak of, almost from the writing of the Archetype itself until one or even two centuries after Athanasius. For it was then that the Author of the Disputation held at the Council of Nicaea, under the name of Athanasius, quoted this text. But whence, you say, did this Writer know that it had been hidden from the rest of the Greeks for several centuries? From the more ancient Greeks, pure and intact. For just as it seems to have happened from the difference of the Christians of Asia, that mutilated Codices of this Codex were read in Greece and other places; so there is no doubt that some intact ones were carried to foreign regions at the same time and hidden among private individuals. Certainly the Archetype of the Apostle existed for some time among the Parthians or the Aphthians. A few Apographs written to it were hidden among the same. That some had been transmitted to Africa is certain from the testimonies of Tertullian and Cyprian, quoted above. Why then did not the Author of the said Disputation happen to be in complete Greece, 250 years after Cyprian, at whose age it is certain that Greek of this kind existed? We have even today in England Sacred Codices, one and the other, more than a thousand years old: they have in Gaul those who aspire to the same age. What wonder, therefore, if some Codex, closed for 300 or even 400 years (that is, from the very time when the Epistle of John was written), should finally emerge and become public use? They are daily. Nor is there anything that would prevent the Autograph of the Apostle himself from being able to reach the age of the Author (if indeed it had been carefully treated), not to mention the copies written in the time of Cyprian, or perhaps even later. What if, in the century of the Author just mentioned, not one such Book seems to have existed, but many?

Certainly Pseudo-Athanasius would have quoted this passage of John ineptly, unless the Arian Books were also at hand, from which he could weigh the testimony to which he is there challenged. Indeed, you say, he quoted ineptly. But what if he quoted ineptly? The monk was a madman: nor from this testimony can you safely gather that perhaps even one Book of this kind existed at that time, let alone several. Be that as it may. But where, I ask, are the Codices described in the year 800 or 900, if not from Books that existed at this time or even before, or from Apographs expressing them? Indeed, not a few existed and still exist, and, who arise beyond the year 700, nay, to the year 800, I seem to gather clearly from the testimony of the Editors of the Complutensian Testament and Robert Stephen. They say that in the New Testament Edition, in which this verse occurs, they followed the most ancient Vatican Exemplars, in which it seemed wrong to abrogate faith: Robertus, however, said that he had found some Codices almost adorable in appearance, from the suffrage of which many and better, in the New Testament published by him in 1549. (in which this verse also appears) not to deviate in a single letter. Certainly they would not have said that the most ancient and almost adorable Exemplars were 700, or rather 800 years old. And here indeed we fix our foot: for there is no need to descend to more recent centuries. I know one thing; that there is no foundation whatever which from the already mentioned place of Pseudo - Athanasius collects Cl. Simonius, Historiae Critique Novi Teftam. chap. 18. The words καὶ οἱ τρεῖς τὸ ἓν εἰσιν, adapted by Athanasius to the Holy Trinity, have given some Greek Scholiasts the opportunity to place that explanation in the margin of the Code; which they then brought into Context. For the things which we have indicated above; (this seventh verse is found in the same Apostle's Archetype; if τρεῖς τὸ ἐν εἰσι, at least in the eighth Comma, since this is in all MSS. εἰς τὸ ἓν εἰσιν ̇ This mystical interpretation of the Latin commentaries is unheard of by the Greek Fathers:) certainly the Scholias of which he speaks, in the margin of the Royal Exemplars no. 2247. and Colbert's no. 871. are of such a kind that they could not possibly have been added into Context. I admit that there are notes from which any studious person may form a verse of this kind. But I think no one has ever found a Greek Codex that represents this Pericope in its entirety in the margin. And so far about the Greeks. As for the Latin Codexes, I think the same can be said about the old Italian Version, as well as about the Syriac, Coptic, and some others, in which this verse is missing; namely, it was expressed from the Greek mutilated with this comma. The mutilation is still credible in all and most Codices for many centuries; and indeed for more than a hundred years in all Exemplars, I mean up to the times of Tertullian and Cyprian. When these certainly have come across the entire Greek, which we have said, I think that it was taken care of, then at last this verse was restored to their faith in Latin. It was fitting for their piety, especially that of the most blessed Martyr, that they should have found the Greek, and deliver to the African Church the Sacred Books perfect and completely intact. Hence immediately a few Apographs, written at Carthage and other places, where the authority of Cyprian was strong. I say a few things, both because of other reasons and because of the grave calamities that the Christians in Africa suffered under Decius and Valerian. For this is why, after Cyprian was taken from the living and the minds of the faithful were greatly disturbed, all care was taken to write down the complete Codex. But of the few whom the Church had taken care to write, it was clearly

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It seems to stand that they lasted and indeed were in public use in the African Churches, some during those difficult times; and finally after 80 years, or at most 100, they spread in very large numbers. For when the Libellus (in which this verse was the 7th) was offered to Hunneric by Eugenius, and the other bishops of the African Churches, in the year 484, Africa seems to have abounded in copies of them. But no one in his right mind would have believed that they would adduce a text in confirmation of their Faith, which was either not in the popular Books, or which the Arians present before one or another in the body of the Epistle would have irrevocably added. For it seems that from this confession of the African Fathers it can be safely gathered that this complete Latin, which we speak of, was not only widely spread throughout Africa, but also more widely spread through other Latin Churches. Certainly those who constantly and openly urge the text among the adversaries of the Faith, which these Bishops, and who in their writings (such as Fulgentius and others) repeatedly cite and emphasize, and use it as a very powerful weapon against the enemies of the Church; clearly profess that the Pericope to which they so often and so confidently challenge, is not hidden in some corner of one region, but is widely spread throughout the Christian Church. That which I consider to be most true of the many Codices which were written in this century and those which immediately followed. Indeed, after the eighth century, the number and authority of the Books in which this Pericope was found increased to such an extent that scholars or even Librarians restored from these the whole of what was missing in theirs, having described this verse in the margin of their Codices, 7th century. For what we see attached to the margin of the Latin Books in this place are not additions to the Study, by which we have the intention of adapting the text of John to the Prologue of Jerome, which Cl. Simonius extols; but the words themselves of Comma 7mi, either correctly, or, as is the case, defectively described. Thus which from the region of the words, Three are they that bear testimony, are placed at the margin of the Royal Code no. 3584. Father, Word, and Spirit: and three are they that bear testimony on earth: and these three are one, they are the Apostles, badly kept. The text of John in this Codex, either through the fault of the Scribe, or also through the fault of the Exemplar which was made, is thus: Three are they that bear testimony, omitting the rest, verses 7mi and 8vi. The Librarian, or someone else who revised the Apograph, supplied what was missing in the text in this way: to the words, three are who bear witness, he correctly added Father, Word, and Spirit: soon omitting and three are one, because the fc. began with the same words, with which those that follow, he transferred to the rest, and three are one, passing by the careless thing that is in between, Spirit, water, and mud. Something similar can be seen in the marginal addition of the Colbertine Codex no. 158. To these three are who bear witness, the Father, Word, and Spirit are placed in the margin of the Book; and by omitting, as in the Cod. Regio, (because of the same initial words, which the following clause has) these, and three are one, are transferred to those, and three are who bear witness in the earth &c. The last ones are intact, and these three are one, which are also in many MSS Books. But the additions placed in the margin, the Librarians later admitted into the text, now correctly, now (as we have observed in many MSS) in the order of the last, placing the testimony of the spirit, water, and blood, before the other, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. [ocr errors] But about this Pericope, I am most troubled by fate. Which points of reasoning have been brought forward on both sides, both to diminish and to strengthen the authenticity of this Comma, we have carefully weighed. Which side should prevail, we leave to the learned to judge. I confess, (being ready to speak better, if a longer day will give anything better and more certain) the arguments thus adduced to reconcile the authority of this Verficulus seem to have so much strength, that I do not think it should be moved from its place in any way. + See also
Prol.623. etc. 713.938.1320.
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
Randy Eckman
Steven Avery,
Did John Mill believe the dating of the book of 1 John was 97AD? I found this quote in the article you posted on John MIll annotations. It was in bold print, and it said, "lived between the year in which this Epistle is believed to have been written, 97

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steven
In Latin there is 97mum vicere, the mum is a small superscript. Here you can see it in the 1822 Burgess section.


It will need Latin-savvy to confirm.

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Randy

Steven Avery I asked Copilot AI and it says John Mill gave the date of the epistle as 97AD. Here is what AI said:

What John Mill Says About the Date of 1 John
In the passage you quoted, Mill writes (paraphrased for clarity):

“…those who lived between the year in which this Epistle is believed to have been written, 97, and the times of Irenaeus…”

This line appears in Mill’s long discussion of the Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7–8).
Here, Mill is not arguing for the date—he is stating the commonly accepted date in his time.

✅ So what date does Mill give?
Mill dates the First Epistle of John to the year 97.

This is exactly what your quotation shows. He uses this date as a chronological marker to evaluate which early writers should have known the text of 1 John if the Comma were original.

🧠 Why Mill Uses the Date 97
Mill’s reasoning goes like this:

If the Epistle was written in 97,

Then any Christian writers living after 97 and before Irenaeus (c. 180)

Should have known the text of 1 John.

But none of them cite the Comma.

Therefore, Mill argues, the Comma was not in the earliest Greek copies.

So the date 97 is part of his textual-critical argument.

📜 Where Mill Got the Date
Mill did not invent the date.
He inherited it from:

Patristic tradition (especially the idea that John wrote in extreme old age)

The common chronology of his era, which placed John’s writings in the reign of Domitian (81–96) or slightly after

Earlier scholars such as Louis Ellies du Pin and Henry Hammond, who also placed 1 John in the 90s

Thus, Mill is simply repeating the standard scholarly date of the late 1st century.

End of AI dialogue ***************

Steven Avery, You hold to a preterist position of 1 John do you not?

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steven
I believe the full New Testament was written before AD 70.

Usually Revelation is the book that is attempted to be given a 90s date.

I’ll check a bit the late dating attempts for the Johannine Epistles.
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
This is the early part before p. 582 may be duplicate

Bibliotheca Bafileenfi, Dddd 2 year years about 500. and Venetus unus, annorum 400. (quos infpexit Ecclefiæ Salisburyenfis Praeful hodierunus, mihi longe amiciffimus, D. Gilbertus Burnettus, ὁ πολυΐσωρ.) Codex Leicesterfis. Pervetustus Cod. in Bibl. Cafarea. Codex MS. in Bibl. Regia no 2247. annorum, uti cenfet Cl. Simonius, 500. in quo omnia iftas defiderantur, except ἐν τῇ γῇ. (But in the region of the words of the comma, that there are three witnesses in the earth, the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, this Interpretation is placed in the margin, τετέσι τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, και ὁ Πατὴς, και αὐτὸς ἑαυτοδ. From which D. Simonius gathers that the author of the earlier note thought that by the Spirit, Water, and Blood, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit were mystically signified in this place: but what was first placed in the margin of the Codex for the sake of explanation, was finally transferred into the context. In the same copy, to this, and to this, and to this, there are three witnesses, this marginal note is placed, τετέσι μία θεότης, εἷς Θεός. Codex in the Bibliotheca Colbertina no. 871. in which to the margin these are found: μία θεός, μία θεότης ̇ & also ibid. μαρτυρία & Θεός (f. ἡδ) τε Πατρὸς, και ξ ἁγία Πνδύματα.) Editions N. T. Venice by Aldus in 1518. Bafilee by Erasmus in 1516. also in 1519. Hagen in 1521. Argentorati in 1524. Paris by Sim. Colin in 1534. Versions, Syr. Coptic (MS. between Huntingdonian Codices) Arab. Æthiop. Russian, excuse in 1581. Latin, whose Authors, out of heretical fraud, omit this seventh verse, Hieronymus, or someone else under his name, in the Prologue to the Canonical Epistles. Certainly of the many Latin Codices which still exist today, some omit this verse altogether; two Codices Donatianici, as Erasmo testifies. The Codex in the Bible of Bafileen, and another Tigurinus; which the reverend, whom I mentioned earlier, Bishop, thinks to be 800 years old. Two Codices of Argentorati; one of which the same Cl. Vir considers to have been written 800, the other 900 years ago. In this latter verse 7 is placed at the bottom of the page, in another hand. Five copies noted in the margin of the Louvain Bible. An old codex in the Bodleian Library. Others reject it in the margin of the book; the Codex Minoritarum Antwerp, in whose margin Erasmus notes that the Scholium on the testimony of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit was inscribed, but in a more recent hand. Codex in the Royal Library of Paris no. 3584, witness Simon; who from the region of the words three are those who testify, has in the hand of the codex itself this co-written in the margin in heaven the Father, the Word, and the Spirit: and three are those who testify on earth; and these three are one. Codex in the Library Colbertina no 158. in which, to the words, there are three who testify, is added in the margin in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit: and there are three who testify on earth, the Blood, the Water, and the Flesh: and in order that the texts and marginal notes may better agree with each other, some words have been changed in context. Codex vetuft. in the Bibliotheca St. Germani, in which the 7th verse is shown in the margin and indeed the same one which the book is written by. Codex Argentorati, which has the testimony of the Father, the Word, and the Spirit written on the mouth of the book. And there is an old example in the Bibliotheca Bodleiana. Others finally change the order of the 7th and 8th verses: Two Codices Constantienfes, such as Erasmus. Cod. vetus Argentorati. MSS Codices in the Bibliotheca Bodleiana. Another codex in the same Bibliotheca in which after the testimony of the Spirit, Water, and the Blood, another of the Father, the Word, and the Spirit is added in the margin. Codex in the Bibliotheca St. Germanus, written 800 years ago, in the time of King Lothair. Codex Genevenis, and two others in the Venetian and Florentine libraries, according to Cl. Burnett. Codex St. Andrea near Bruges. This kind of codex was used by Idacius Clarus in his book against Varimadum. Paters and Writers of the Greeks, Iren. book 3. c. 18. where, although he proves Christ as Lord and God, and quotes this Epistle, and even its fifth Chapter, he does not touch on these words, although the place is most opportune. Clement of Alexandria. Outlines them in the Latins of Caffiodorus. Dionysius of Alexandria in his Epistle (if indeed he is the Author) to Paul of Samothrace. in which he often quotes the 8th verse, not the seventh, although he deals with the Deity of Christ and the Trinity throughout almost the whole Epistle. (I do not know whether any of the Greek Fathers who flourished before the Council of Nicaea, whose writings are now extant, quoted this verse.) Athanasius. in his genuine works, even those in which the Deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the dogma of the Trinity, are established from all places of Scripture, has attacked the Arians. The author of the Synopsis of Holy Scripture, as appears from the Argument prefixed to this Epistle. The Fathers of the Synod of Sardis, Epist. Synodical in Theodoret. Hift. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 8. in which, while they prove the Unity of the Persons of the Trinity in the same Essence from John 10.30. and a few other places, they do not entirely touch on this verse, although very opportune. Epiphanius, who in Heresies 57. & 62. with many testimonies of authentic Letters establishes the dogma of the Trinity, does not produce this pericope; as indeed neither does Haerefi 65. where St. says that the Scriptures speak accurately about this article, and for that reason many lo


Having enumerated the present MSS Codified & Bibles, Vetted Versions. Fathers, Writers, and whose works are extant, Greek and Latin, as far as I know, from the very beginnings of the Catholic Church, to the seven hundredth year of Christ, and a little beyond, who in their Works, especially those which deal with the Trinity and the Catholic Faith against the Arians and other Heretics, do not cite this verse, and therefore do not seem to read it in their Codices: it remains to be offered that which can be brought to the other side to establish the authenticity of this Text, not a few. This passage is preferred by the Codices MSS. Britannicus, called Erasmus, on whose authority he replaced the Testimonium de Patre, Verbo, & Spiritu S. in his Editione sua N. Testamenti Gr. an. 1522. which he omitted in the two previous ones. The words of the Codex are thus: that three witnesses are to God, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit (the Holy Spirit is missing) and that three witnesses are to God. and three witnesses are to God, the Spirit, the Blood, and the Blood (1. is missing) to men and women, etc. The most ancient and most improved Vaticans, to whom, (for it is wrong to abrogate faith in them, they say, it may be seen) the Spanish theologians published the Complutensian Testament, in which this Pericope is contained. All the Stephanians, as many as included the Catholic Epistles, namely 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. for the rest do not exhibit these Epistles. In these seven nothing is missing here except the words to God. Does Rob rightly imagine a variant reading in this place? Stephen, doubts Lucas Brugge, (he says the Codices of the Library of Rome, of which, as well as the nine others, he placed variant readings in the inner margin of the Edition of 1550.) from them he thus revised this Book of his, and would not allow any letter at all to be omitted, which many and better Books, as if they were proofs. Certainly if he had so accurately executed his Edition according to the Codices of the Library, this one, whom the Edition of the Library of those Books, which he so greatly preaches, must be proved by the fuffage. Editions, Complutensis of 1515. in which Pericope of which we are speaking, we read: Ὅτι τρῶς εἰσιν οἱ ἐρανῷ, ὁ Πατὴς, και ὁ Λόγου, και τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα ̇ καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἓν εἰσι. And there are three witnesses on earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood. Of these witnesses &c. Frobeniana Bafileae 1541. Hervagiana 1545. all indeed except the three or four mentioned above; of which however only two seem to be expressed in the MSS Codices. To these can be added the Apostles, or the collection of the Epistles from the N.T. of the New Testament published in Venice in 1602. Oriental Greeks in ufu: in which Pericope this legend is prescribed, on the 5th day of the week from Pafchate 35tz. Versions, Vulg. in Editis & MSS. than many. The theologians of Louvain note that out of the many Latin copies they had at hand, there were only five in which this verse was found. Armenian, which was once warned us by a very learned man, Guil. Gifius, the blessed. Italian, by Bruccioli, from the Greek. Ven. 1532. More recent than all. Greek writers, Author of the Disputation held in the Council of Nicaea, among the Works of Athanasius. Concerning all, says the Author of this, dealing with the Persons of the Trinity, John the Baptist, and the three in one. This is to be referred to, not in the 8th sense, which Cl. Simonius wants (who thinks that the Author of this 8th sense, three in one, is suitable for the Trinity: but this interpretation is given by some Greek Scholiasts, who note this first in the margin of the Books, and then in the context of the same) but in the 7th sense, from which it is probable that the eighth comma is in all the Gr. Examples of the one who is one. The Fathers of the Lateran Council. and Innocent III, who in the second Chapter, speak of this place of John: in the same way in the canon John declares, that there are three martyrs in the flesh, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are. They are to be believed, - and in this code they exist. From which this error is gathered, some Codices of that time exhibited these words: and indeed this verse was of such authority among them that they confirmed it in the same Chapter of the Catholic Faith. Manuel Calecas, Book of Principles of the Catholic Faith, published in Combefiium in Auctuario, p. 519. Latin writers, Tertullus. which Hammond, Bull, and others think to be clearly alluded to in this passage of John, in contra Prax. c. 25. Caterum, he says, shall come forth from me (the Paraclete) as he came forth from the Father: thus the Father being connected in the Son, and the Son in the Paraclete, makes three coherent, one from the other. Who are three one, not one; how it is said, I and the Father are one; to the unity of the three; not to the singularity of the number. For these words, three are one, I think not to be the words of Tertullian himself, but from the same. I and the Father are one; since these are used only to illustrate the unity of the three persons; but altogether in this verse of John the Apostle. (For neither in the time of Tertullian had the Persons of the Trinity been mystically explained, as will be explained below.) Certainly
 
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