Monday, August 15, 2022

Philip Melanchthon on Daniel 9:24: "Eternal" can Denote Something having a Starting Point in Time

  

. . . Melanchthon went after Osiander’s understanding of eternity, an especially important aspect of his (Osiander’s) Platonizing tendencies. Daniel talked about an eternal righteousness [in Daniel 9:24]; only God was eternal; therefore, only God was righteousness. Or, alternatively, Daniel called righteousness eternal; forgiveness was not eternal; therefore, forgiveness was not righteousness. In both instances, Melanchthon called into question Osiander’s assumption about the meaning of the word “eternal.” Rather than always being something without beginning or end, which would have forced Melanchthon to concede the argument, “eternal” could also designate a righteousness given to human beings that had a beginning (in imputation) but would be brought to its true consummation in eternity. That is, it would never fail. (Timothy J. Wengert, Defending Faith: Lutheran Responses to Andreas Osiander’s Doctrine of Justification, 1551-1559 [Spätmittelalter, Humanismus, Reformation 65; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012], 146)

 

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