Biblia Pauperum {Bible of the Poor'). (I.) The title given to a Bible Manual, or Picture-Bible, pre- pared in the Middle Ages for the use of children of the poor, whence its name. It consisted of forty to fifty pictures, giving the events of the life of Christ, and some O. T. events, each picture being accompanied by an illustrative text or sentence in Latin. Nicolas of Hanapis, the last patriarch of Jerusalem, who died in 1291, is said to have written the first of the Latin texts for pictures. A similar work on a more extended scale, and with the legend or text in rhyme, was called Speculum Humana Sdvationis, i. e. the "Mirror of Hu- man Salvation." Before the Reformation, these two books were the chief text-books used, especially by monks, in preaching, and took the place of the Bible with the laity, and even clergy. The lower orders of the regular clergy, such as the Franciscans, Car- thusians, etc., took the title of " Pauperes Christi," Christ's poor. Many manuscripts of the Biblia Pau- perum and of the Mirror of Sulfation, several as old as the thirteenth century, are preserved in different languages, but they are nearly all imperfect. The pictures of this series Avere copied in sculptures, in wall and glass painting, altar-pieces, etc., and thus become of importance in the art of the Middle Ages. After the discover}' of printing, the Biblia Pauperum was perhaps the first book that was printed in the Netherlands and Germany, first with wooden blocks, and then with types. (II.) The name of Biblia Pau- perum is also given to a work of Bonaventura, in which the Biblical events were alphabetically arranged, and accompanied by notes — some of them very eccentric — for the benefit of preachers, thus attempting to relieve their intellectual shortcomings. — Pierer, Universal Lex- ikon, ii, 734 ; Home, Introduction to the Scriptures, Bibl. Appendix, Section vi, § 1.
Bibliander, Theodore, a Swiss divine of the Reformation period, whose proper name was Bueh- iiwnn. He was born in Thurgau about 1500. After studying theology ho became assistant, to Myeonius at Zurich, and afterward, in 1532, professor of theology and Biblical literature. He died of the plague at Zu- rich in 1564, He was eminent especially for Hebrew and Oriental learning. He was the only Swiss divine j who openly and strenuously opposed Calvinism, and
BIBLICAL CRITICISM
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BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
for this he was dismissed from his office in 1560. His chief work is Machumetis Saracenorumprincipis ejtisnue successirum litre, doctrini ac ipse Alcoran, etc. (Basil, 1543, fol.), a Latin version of the Koran, with a num- ber of valuable documents on Mohammedanism. To- gether with Pellican and Collin, he completed and edited the so-called Zurich Bible Translation of Leo Jndffi. Many of his numerous works have never been printed, but are preserved as manuscripts in the libra- ry of the cathedral of Zurich. — Meusel, Bibliotheca his- torica, ii, 1, 226 sq. ; Hoefer, Biog. Generate, v, 938.
Biblical Criticism. See Criticism, Biblical.
Biblical Exegesis, or Interpretation. See Hermeneutics.
Biblical Introduction. See Introduction to the Scriptures.
Biblical Theology is the name given, especial- ly in Germany, to a branch of scientific theology, which has for its object to set forth the theology of the Bible without reference to ecclesiastical or dogmat- ical formulas or creeds. (We make large use in this article of Nitzsch's article in Herzog's Iteal-Encyklo- pddie,\o\. i.)
The name Biblical theology can be takon (as is the term theology in genera!) in a narrower and a wider sense, the narrower including only the sum of relig- ious doctrine contained in the Old and New Testament Scriptures; the wider comprehending the science of the Bible in all the respects in which it may be made the object of investigation. Usually it is taken in the narrower sense, and some writers prefer, therefore, the name Biblical dogmatics.
As maybe seen from the definition, Biblical theology has a very clearly defined relation to exegetical and historical theology no less than to systematic theology. It is the flower and quintessence of all exegetical inves- tigations, for the very object of exegesis is to find out, with entire clearness, the true teaching of the word of God with regard to His own nature and the rela- tions of man to Him. Its relation to historical theolo- gy is that of the foundation to the superstructure, for both the History of Doctrines and the History of the Church must sat out with a fixed view of the teaching of the Scriptures as to the fundamental questions of religion. So, too, Systematic Theology, while it in
which, in accordance with Scripture, should be applied to them, and the best arguments in their defence." His was accordingly the first attempt to treat Biblical theology as a separate branch of theological science, independently of systematic theology. He was fol- lowed by Huffnagel (Bib/. Theologie, Erlang. 1785- 89), Amnion (Bibl. Thiol. Erlang. 1792), and Baum- garten-Crusius, among the Rationalists; and by Store and Flatt (1803), translated by Schmucker (Andover, 183G, 2d edition, 8vo), Supranaturalist. The position which Biblical theology now generally occupies in German theology was first defined by Gabler (Dejusto discrimine Theol. bibl. et dogmatica?, Altorf, 1787, 4to). Tholuck (MS. Lectures, transl. by Park, Bibliotheca Sacra, 1844, 552) remarks as follows on the state of Biblical theology up to that time: "In this depart- ment wc have no satisfactory treatise for students. The older writers, as Zacharia?, are prolix and de- void of taste. Storr and Knapp have given us, on the whole, the best text-books of Biblical theology in the proper sense of the phrase. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the name Biblical Dogmatic The- ology has been applied to the science which is more properly called Dogmatic History. Certain theolo- gians, who take a Rationalistic view of Christian doc- trine, have considered the various teachings of the Bible, from the time of Abraham to that of Jesus and the apostles, as the product of human reason in its course of gradual improvement; and, in this view, Biblical theology has for its object to exhibit the grad- ual development of reason in its application to religion, as it kept pace with the advance of the times in which the writers of the Bible lived. The Biblical Dog- matics of Von Amnion, De Wette, Baumgarten-Cru- sius, and Von Colin are written in this Rationalistic spirit" (see De Wette, Biblische Dogmatih Alten wid Neuen Testaments (Berlin, 1813, and often) ; Baumgar- ten-Crusius, Grundziige der Bibl. Theologie (Jena, 18^8); and Colin, Bibl. Theolcgie (Feips. 183G, 2 vols. 8vo)). Nitzsch, in his Christliche Lehre (6th ed. 1851; trans- lated (badly), Edinburgh, Clark's Library), develops his own view of the doctrines of the Bible in sys- tematic form, apart from all dogmatical creeds. But he distinguishes (§ 4) " Christian doctrine" from " Bib- lical theology" in this, that the former seeks to inter- pret " the period of completed revelation, and of Chris-