THEOLOGICAL COMMONPLACES

Exegesis, or A More Copious Explanation of Certain Articles of the Christian Religion (1625)

On the

Nature of

GOD

and

On the Most Holy Mystery

of the

TRINITY

JOHANN GERHARD

Translated by Richard J. Dinda

Edited with Annotations by Benjamin T. G. Mayes

concordia publishing house • saint louis

English translation © 2007 Concordia Publishing House

3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, Missouri 63118-3968

1-800-325-3040 • www.cph.org

This edition is translated by Richard J. Dinda from the original Preuss edition.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House.

All quotations from Scripture and other authors in this work are translated from volume 1 of Johann Gerhard, Loci Theologici, edited by Ed. Preuss (Berlin: Gust. Schlawitz, 1863).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gerhard, Johann, 1582–1637.

[On the nature of God and on the most holy mystery of the Trinity. English]

Theological commonplaces. On the nature of God and on the most holy mystery of the Trinity / Johann Gerhard; translated from the original Latin by Richard J. Dinda.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-7586-0989-2

ISBN 978-0-7586-0989-2

1. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Lutheran Church—Doctrines. I. Dinda, Richard J. II. Title.

BS511.3.G47 2007

220'.41—dc22

2006004920

Contents

Editor’s Preface

Comparison of Editions of Gerhard’s Loci

Commonplace II (1625 Exegesis): On the Nature of God and the Divine Attributes

As Holy Scripture is the only principle of knowing in theology, so also God is the only and greatest principle of being with respect to Holy Scripture itself and the divine works, § 1.

The doctrine of God is commended by its: (1) Necessity, § 2. (2) Utility, § 3. (3) Difficulty, § 4

The doctrine of God consists both of nomenclature and factual material, § 6

Chapter I: Nomenclature includes: (1) The etymology of the divine names, § 7

Chapter II: (2) Homonyms: The word Elohim, § 12, and θεός, § 14

Chapter III: (3) Synonyms, to which pertain the various divine names, § 20, among which the three most eminent are: (a) Jehovah, § 22. (b) Adonai, § 48. (c) Elohim, § 52

Chapter IV: In the factual material, the first thing demonstrated is the ὅτι, that God exists, § 58

God’s existence is demonstrated both from nature and from Scripture, § 59. Here we deal with the natural knowledge of God, § 63

Chapter V: Second, the τί ἔστι, what God is, § 89

Chapter VI: From the definition of God it is clear that we should consider in God: (I) The unity of essence, which is demonstrated in § 95

Chapter VII: (II) The divine attributes, which are treated in general in § 104

Chapter VIII: For the sake of teaching, they are divided into three classes. To the first belongs the fact that God is an essence that is: (1) Spiritual and incorporeal, § 114, ...