Did Melanchthon teach Luther the Gospel? Or vice versa?

      Sometimes one discovers something that previously stared them in the face, but went unrecognized. That was the case while re-reading my series "The 'Carrying' of Melanchthon on the Part of Luther" a year ago. In Part 3 of that series Walther quoted Melanchthon, saying that the quote came from "a particularly splendid confession of Melanchthon in the testament which he wrote in 1539 in a premonition of death." In the language of Melanchthon, Latin, he wrote in his Testimony: 

"Ago autem gratias Reverendo D. Doctori Martino Luthero, primum, quia ab ipso Evangelium didici. Deinde pro singulari erga me benevolentia, quam quidem plurimis beneficiis declaravit, eumque volo a meis non secus ac patrem coli. Ego quia vidi et comperi praeditum esse excellenti et heroica vi ingenii et multis magnis virtutibus ac pietate, doctrina praecipua, semper eum magnifeci, dilexi, et colendum esse sensi."

In English, per Google Translate, he said (Corp. Ref. III, 827, my emphasis):

"I thank the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther, first, because I learned the Gospel from him."

Again, this was stated on "a premonition of death", and so it was made in all seriousness.

       But the exact opposite assertion was made by Dr. Lowell Green († 2014), a noted teacher in the LC-MS now promoted by Drs. Scott Keith (Concordia-Irvine, CA, 1517.org) and John T. Pless (CTS-FW). Keith's "1517 Publishing" has re-published, in a new edition, Dr. Green's 1980 book in 2021. One need only quote the title to discover their assertion:

       “How Melanchthon Helped Luther Discover the Gospel”

Unfortunately for Drs. Green and Keith, Melanchthon disagrees with them!