Luther’s Textual Study of the Greek New Testament 57 in unum sunt” [these three amount to one]) and disagreed with the other (“tres unum sunt” [these three are one])51. Consequently, the Wittenberg Vulgate (“tres simul sunt” [these three are together]) and Luther German Bible (“die drei sind beisammen” [these three are together]) made it clear that these three (i. e. the Spirit, the water and the blood) are not one and the same thing but rather a nexus in the sense that the Holy Spirit applies the salvation founded on Jesus’ blood through the baptism which is the Word of the Gospel connected with the water. It appears that Luther also lectured on 1 John 5 in 1529-1530 but the Latin original of lecture notes is lost and only the German translation52 by Friedrich Eberhard Rambach survived so that the authenticity thereof could not be verified53. In these lectures Luther recognised the Comma as a part of the commented text but did not treat it as a proof of the doctrine of the Trinity. For him, the Comma was an opportunity to discuss how the Trinity bestows the forgiveness of sins upon man. In his view, the triune God gives the life eternal through the means, which he himself established, namely through the Gospel in the Word, in the baptism and in the Lord’s Supper. This soteriological paradigm came to light in the explanatory note to 1 John 5,7-8 in Luther German Bible. Erasmus’ concession to the Comma secured its position for a long time and created a false impression that an attestation thereof in Greek manuscripts is beyond doubt. For that reason, Calvin, although he was aware that the textual support for the Comma is questionable and although he declared that he would prefer to refrain from comment, felt obliged to follow “the best and most credible” printed editions of the Greek New Testament which all, at that time, contained the Comma54. 51 Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, ed., Novum Testamentum Latine (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1998), 623-624 [1 John 5,8]. 52 Martin Luther, “Eine andere Auslegung der ersten Epistel St. Johannis (1529-1530),” in Sämtliche Schriften, vol. 9, ed. Johann Georg Walch (St. Louis: Concordia, 1893), 1636- 1638 [1 John 5,7-8]. 53 Gustav Koffmane, “Vorlesung über den 1. Brief des Johannes (1527),” in Martin Luther, Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, vol. 20 (Weimar: Böhlau, 1898), 594-598. 54 For Calvin “codex” meant either a printed book or a manuscript which is lexically admissible. Karl Ernst Georges, Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, vol. 1 (Leipzig: Hahn’sche Verlags-Buchhandlung, 1869), 905 [s. v. codex]. Jean Calvin, “In Epistolae Iohannis,” in In Epistolas Novi Testamenti Catholicas commentarii (Halle: Gebauer, 1832), 157 [1 John 5,7]. Idem, “Commentaries on the First Epistle of John,” in Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, trans. John Owen (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1855), 257-258 (n. 1) [1 John 5,7].