RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Biblical Introduction.
the origin of the Gospels, not to explain individual peculiarities, but to establish the dogmatic unimportance of variations in the Gospel
1. To the narratives. Similarly, the church prac- Keforma- ^e 0f usmg m service the private
tlon' letters of Paul as well as the public letters and of excluding the spurious ones from use was established. The vacillation of the Church in reference to such writings as the Apocalypse of Peter and the Sheperd of Hermas, the Marcionitic criticism of the canon of the Gospels and of the Pauline epistles, the opposition of the Alogi to the Johannine writings as being the production of a heretic of the apostolic age, the writings of Melitus and Hippolytus about the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse — all these suggest the way in which the need for a kind of Introduction made itself felt in even those early times. So a beginning was made in the writing of Dionysius on the Apocalypse, while the sentiments and traditions of the different Churches began to take systematic form in the writings of Origen. Eusebius used considerable space in his works in setting forth the varied views and early testimonies concerning the New Testament books. Jerome followed in the steps of Eusebius, but without contributing much that was new in this particular line of investigation. The doctrinal contests of the fourth and succeeding centuries turned the channel of investigation away from the history of the canon, and for a considerable time there appeared only reproductions of the early opinions about the New Testament books in the prefaces to the commentaries or summaries and synopses which came into being and which gave a general view of the arrangement, contents, and origin of the New Testament writings.
The silence of the Middle Ages gave place during the Reformation to the utterances of the Catholic scholars Sanctes Pagninus of Lucca (d. 1541),Sixtus of Sienna (d. 1599), and A. Rivetus, who wrote an Isagoge sive introductio to both the Old and New Testaments (Leyden, 1627). These works contained much information in this department, along with dogmatic discussions concerning inspiration and the relations of Scripture and tradition . Richard Simon (q.v.) published (at Rotterdam) his three works upon the critical history of the New Testament (Histoire critique du texte, 1689, des versions, 1690, and des principaux commentateurs, 1693, du Nouveau Testament), and thus won his place as the
2. The father of New Testament Introduction. Six- By " critique " he understood the
teenth investigations for the establishment and of the original text; and, by his his-
Seven- tory from the sources, he impugned
teenth not onry tne protestant claim of " a centuries. witness of the Spirit," but also the scholastic treatment, which, resting upon imperfect acquaintance with antiquity, could not prove that Christianity was a religion based on facts and that the Bible was the record of those facts. In the effort to establish the New Testament text, he traversed a large part of the province of Introduction.
The next name is Johann David Michaelis (.q.v.), who wrote the Einleitung in die gottlichen
Schriften des Neuen Bundes (Gottingen, 1750). He disclaimed dependency upon Simon, and
3 Micha y6t *"S W°rk WaS really> in its nrst elis a" snaPe> Dase(i upon Simon. With each succeeding edition it was greatly improved; but, even in the fourth and last edition (1788), its standpoint was a strongly rational supernaturalism. The differences to be noted between the editions are mainly that his attacks on the " doubters " became milder, and that he gave up the inspiration of the historical books, denied also the inspiration of the non-apostolic books (among which he reckoned apparently the Epistle to the Hebrews), and declared that the " inner witness of the Spirit " was of as little worth as the witness of the Church in proof of the inspiration of any book.
Johann Salomo Semler (q.v.) made the next contribution of importance (in his Abhandlung von freier Untersuchung des Kanons, 4 parts, Halle, 1771-75), when he distinguished between the word of God, which contained the doctrines of directly spiritual value, and the Holy
4. Semler, Scriptures, which contained them
and °nly sP°radically- There is> how-
Others ever> no historical proof that any particular passage was the word of God; the inner witness for the truth was the only source of proof. The Church had the right, exercised by the ancient Church and by the Reformers, to say what books should constitute the canon. It can not be said that Introduction was influenced permanently by Semler; the greater impulse was given by Michaelis, who was followed by J. E. C. Schmidt (1804), Eichhorn (1804-14), Hug (1808), Berthold (1812), and De Wette (1826), while in England Home (1818) had included in his work the domains of Biblical geography and antiquities, which were excluded by the Germans. Schmidt applied the phrase " historico-critical " — since so widely used — to his Introduction; Eichhorn started his fruitful " original Gospel " theory; Hug, in an unexcelled manner, investigated the relations of the synoptists. Schleiermacher (1811) called attention to the need of a reconstruction of this branch of study, declaring that its object was a history of the New Testament, so that its present readers might be, in their knowledge of the origin of the books and their text, on a level with the first. Credner (1832 sqq.) projected a fairly complete scheme for a treatment of the subject, embracing the history of the science of Introduction, history of the origin of the New Testament Scriptures, history of the canon, of translations, of the text, and of interpretation. This scheme he was not permitted to carry out, though his posthumous publications completed the history of the canon. Reuss followed Credner's lead in the Geschichte der heiligen Schriften des Neuen Testaments (Brunswick, 1842), while Hupfeld made a contribution in his Begriff und Methode der biblischen
Einleitung (Marburg, 1844).
Ferdinand Christian Baur (q.v.; d. 1860) has had by far the most influence upon New Testament studies of any man of modern times. He attempted nothing less than a reconstruction of all apostolic
Biblical Introduction Biblical Theolog-y