RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Exegesis or Hermeneutics
two dictionaries, the Dictionary of the Bible (1899- 1904) and the Encyclopaedia Biblica (1899-1903), constitutes an epoch. The International Critical Commentary demonstrates that critical methods have at last won their full rights in the field of English interpretation.
It is easy to understand why the critical movement should have been late in getting under way in America. The country had no inherited culture, no stores of learning, no uni- 8. Exegesis versities. Population was thinly spread in the over vast areas. Practical needs ex- United erted an irresistible pressure. The States. country being intensely Protestant and having few ecclesiastical traditions, the Bible alone and by itself counted for more in the building of the nation than anywhere else in the world. As a result of all these conditions, the established Protestant interpretation of Holy Scripture acquired an immense hold. The revival of religion and missionary interest in the first quarter of the nineteenth century resulted in the founding of a large number of theological schools, beginning with Andover, 1807, which, however, offered no leverage for free and critical thinking. The dominant opinion in the various churches had complete control within the seminaries. Nowhere was critical detachment so hard to achieve. The Unitarian movement, while it exalted reason, made no direct contribution to interpretation. The philosophical movement of New England, coming from Germany and England, endowed the orthodox churches with liberating thought. Horace Bushnell (1802-76) is a typical figure. But the exegesis this movement inspired, like the exegesis of Coleridge and Maurice, lacked the historical sense and method. The prominent theological reviews (e.g., Bibliotheca Sacra, The Princeton Review) down beyond the middle of the century are almost wholly occupied with dogmatic, devotional, and institutional questions. But the influence of Germany, through translations of German books and through an increasing body of men who had studied in Germany, was steadily growing. The life of Philip Schaff (1819-93) is representative. The Schaff-Lange Commentary, both translation and original work, indicated a rising tide. The part taken by American scholars in the work of Bible revision was another significant sign. The logical sequence of critical Bible-studies has held strikingly true in America. The rapid rise of Old Testament criticism in the last quarter of the century is the notable phenomenon. With the exception of Ezra Abbott (1819-84), distinguished as a text-critic, and Joseph Henry Thayer (1828- 1901), noted as a lexicographer, the American names of the first rank have been made in the Old Testament field (Charles Augustus Briggs, Crawford Howell Toy, George Moore, Francis Brown). American scholarship has worked with English scholarship to produce the two Bible dictionaries noticed above and the International Critical Commentary above mentioned.
The history of the critical interpretation clearly proves that the great need of the time is patient and thorough exegesis. The constructive imagi-
nation, beginning with Baur, has done its work. The New Testament student has before him all the hypotheses that can give facile and imposing synthesis. The task that lies ahead is the deep study of individual documents. This is all the more necessary because the wide gaps in our knowledge of the Apostolic Age make constructive synthesis as tempting as it is dangerous. The other great need is that the student shall be on guard against the personal equation. The critical individual of modern Christianity is not wholly competent to understand the men of the Bible, for whom religion was a superb passion and the corporate life instinctive. He needs also to remember that the distinction between metaphysics and religion, which has become a necessary element of thought, was wholly foreign to the men of the New Testament. The " critical " exegete may be, in some ways, quite as naive as the patristic exegete.
Henry S. Nash.
Bibliography: On the history of exegesis: C. A. Briggs, Study of Holy Scripture, New York, 1899 (the best single book for the English reader); J. J. Conybeare, Hist, and Limits of Spiritual Interpretation, Oxford, 1824; Z. Frankel, Einfluss der palastinischen Exegese auf die alexandrinische Hermeneutik, Leipsic, 1851; L. Diestel, Geschichte des Alien Testaments in der christlichen Kirche, Jena, 1869; S. Berger, De glossariis et compendiis exegeticis raedii ozvi, Paris, 1879; L. Wogue, Hist. de V exegese biblique,
Paris, 1881; F. W. Farrar, Hist, of Interpretation, London, 1886 (covers all periods except the very modern); W. Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators, Baltimore, 1906 (from the Talmud to the 20th century); G. H. Gilbert, Interpretation of the Bible; a short History, New York, 1908.
On the theory, but often including the history, of interpretation: F. Schleiermacher, Hermeneutik und Kritik, ed. F. Lucke, Berlin, 1838; H. N. Clausen, Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments, Leipsic, 1841; S. Davidson, Sacred Hermeneutics, Edinburgh, 1843; C. G. Wilke, Die Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1843- 1844; S. Lutz, Biblische Hermeneutik, ed. A. Lutz, Pforzheim, 1849; J. E. Cellener, Manuel d'hermeneutique, Geneva, 1852, Eng. transl., Biblical Hermeneutics, by C. Elliott and W. J. Harsha, New York, 1881 (covers five varieties of exegesis); A. Kuenen, Critical et hermeneuticoz, Leyden, 1856; P. Fairbairn, Hermeneutical Manual, Edinburgh, 1858; J. J. Doedes, Manual of Hermeneutics for the New Testament, ib. 1867; S. R. Bosanquet,
Interpretation, London, 1874; C. H. Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries, London, 1876; A. Immer, Hermeneutik des N. T., Wittenberg, 1873, Eng. transl., Hermeneutics of the New Testament, Andover, 1877; J. C. K. von Hofmann, Biblische Hermeneutik, ed. W. Volck, Erlangen, 1880; M. S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, New York, 1883 ; E. Reuss, Geschichte der Heiligen Schriften des A. T., §§ 501-600, Brunswick, 1887, Eng. transl., Edinburgh, 1884; C. F. G. Heinrici, //. Korintherbrief, pp. 552-553, Berlin, 1887; D. R. Dungan, Hermeneutics, Cincinnati, 1888; T. Zahn, Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, vols, i.-ii., Leipsic, 1889-92; F. Blass, Hermeneutik und Kritik, Munich, 1896; G. Dalman, Worle Jesu, vol. L, Leipsic, 1898; G. A. Deissmann, Die sprachliche Erforschung der griechischen Bibel, Giessen, 1898; P. Gennrich, Der Kampf um die Schrift. Berlin, 1898; B. Jowett, The Interpretation of Scripture, London, 1906.
On special phases of exegesis: C. Maitland, Apostles' School of Prophetic Interpretation, London, 1849; C. D. Ginsburg, The Kabbalah, London, 1865; D. McC. Turpie, The O. T. in the New, London, 1868; idem, The N. T. View of the Old, ib. 1872; C. Siegfried, Philo . als Ausleger des A. T., Jena, 1875; H. Kihn, Theodor von Mopsuestia und Junilius Africanus als Exegeten, Freiburg, 1880; F. H. Chase, Chrysostom: A Study in Biblical Interpretation, London, 1887; A. Clemen, Der \Gebrauch des A. T. in den neutestamentlichen Schriften, Giitersloh, 1895; E. Moviat, Notion augustinienne de I'hermeneutique,
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Exercitia Spiritualia