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treatise De Spinosismo, which was afterwards published. After taking his degree, Bengel devoted himself to theology. Even at this time he had religious doubts; it is interesting in view of his later See also:

WORK

work that one cause of his perplexities was the .difficulty of ascertaining the true See also:

READING

reading of certain passages in the See also:

Greek New Testament. In 1707 Bengel entered the See also:

MINISTRY

ministry and was appointed to the parochial See also:

charge of Metzingen-unter-Urach. In the following See also:

YEAR

year he was recalled to Tubingen to undertake the See also:

OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")

office of Repetent or theological See also:

TUTOR (Lat. tutor, guardian, tueri, to watch over, protect)

tutor. Here he remained till 1713, when he was appointed See also:

head of a See also:

SEMINARY (Lat. seminarium, from semen, seed)

seminary recently established at Denkendorf as a preparatory school of theology. Before entering on his new duties he travelled through the greater See also:

PART

part of See also:

Germany, studying the systems of See also:

EDUCATION

education which were in use, and visiting the seminaries of the See also:

JESUITS

Jesuits as well as those of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Among other places he went to See also:

HEIDELBERG

Heidelberg and See also:

Halle, and had his See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention directed at Heidelberg to the canons of scripture See also:

criticism published by See also:

Gerhard von Mastricht, and at Halle to C. Vitringa's Anacrisis ad Apocalypsin.

The See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence exerted by these upon his theological studies is See also:

MANIFEST (Lat. manifestus, clear, open to view)

manifest in some of his works. For twenty-eight years—from 1713 to 1741—he was master (Klosterprdceptor) of the Klosterschule at Denkendorf, a seminary for candidates for the ministry established in a former monastery of the canons of the See also:

HOLY

Holy See also:

Sepulchre. To these years, the See also:

period of his greatest intellectual activity, belong many of his See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief works. In 1741 he was appointed See also:

PRELATE (Lat. praelatus, set above, from praefero, prefer)

prelate (i.e. See also:

General See also:

SUPERINTENDENT

Superintendent) at Herbrechtingen, where he remained till 1749, when he was raised to the dignity of consistorial counsellor and prelate of Alpirspach, with a See also:

RESIDENCE (Latin residere, to remain behind, to dwell, reside)

residence in Stuttgart. He now devoted himself to the See also:

DISCHARGE (adapted from the O. Fr. discharge, modern decharge, from a med. Lat. discargare, to unload, dis- and earn care, to load, cf. " charge ")

discharge of his duties as a member of the See also:

CONSISTORY (Lat. consistorium, literally, a standing place, hence meeting place, waiting or audience chamber)

consistory. A question of considerable difficulty was at that time occupying the attention of the See also:

church courts, viz. the manner in which those who separated themselves from the church were to be dealt with, and the amount of See also:

TOLERATION (from Lat. tolerare, to endure)

toleration which should be accorded to meetings held in private houses for the purpose of religious edification. The See also:

CIVIL

civil See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power (the See also:

DUKE (corresponding to Fr. duc, Ital. duca, Ger. Herzog)

duke of Wurttemberg was a See also:

ROMAN

Roman See also:

CATHOLIC (Gr. KcaBoXuK6s, general, universal)

Catholic) was disposed to have recourse to See also:

MEASURES

measures of repression, while the members of the consistory, recognizing the See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good effects of such meetings, were inclined to concede considerable See also:

LIBERTY (Lat. libertas, from liber, free)

liberty. Bengel exerted himself on the See also:

side of the members of the consistory. In 1751 the university of Tubingen conferred upon him the degree of See also:

DOCTOR (Lat. for " teacher ")

doctor of divinity. He died after a See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short illness, in 1752. The works on which Bengel's reputation rests as a Biblical scholar and critic are his edition of the Greek New Testament, and his See also:

GNOMON

Gnomon or Exegetical Commentary on the same.

(A.) His edition of the Greek Testament was published at Tubingen in 1734, and at Stuttgart in the same year, but without the See also:

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

critical apparatus. So See also:

early as 1725, in an addition to his edition of See also:

CHRYSOSTOM

Chrysostom's De Sacerdotio, he had given an See also:

account in his Prodromus Novi Testamenti Graeci recte cauteque adornandi of the principles on which his intended edition was to be based. In preparation for his work Bengel was able to avail himself of the collations of upwards of twenty See also:

MSS., none of them, however, of See also:

GREAT

great importance, twelve of which had been collated by himself. In constituting the See also:

TEXT (Lat. textum, woven fabric, from texere, to weave)

text, he imposed upon himself the singular restriction of not inserting any various reading which had not already been printed in some preceding edition of the Greek text. From this See also:

RULE

rule, however, he deviated in the See also:

case of the See also:

Apocalypse, where, owing to the corrupt See also:

state of the text, he See also:

FELT (cognate with Ger. Filz, Du. vilt, Swed. and Dan. fill; the root is unknown; the word has given Med. Lat. filtrum, " filter ")

felt himself at liberty to introduce certain readings on See also:

MANUSCRIPT

manuscript authority. In the See also:

LOWER

lower margin of the See also:

page he inserted a selection of various readings, the relative importance of which he denoted by the first five letters of the Greek See also:

ALPHABET (see also WRITING)

alphabet in the following manner:—a was employed to denote the reading which in his See also:

JUDGMENT

judgment was the true one, although he did not venture to See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place it in the text; 19, a reading better than that in the text; -y, one equal to the textual reading; S and e, readings inferior to those in the text. R. See also:

ETIENNE, CHARLES GUILLAUME (1778-1845)

Etienne's See also:

DIVISION (from Lat. dividere, to break up into parts, separate)

division into verses was retained in the inner margin, but the text was divided into paragraphs. The text was followed by a critical apparatus, the first part of which consisted of an introduction to the criticism of the New Testament, in the See also:

THIRTY

thirty-See also:

FOURTH

fourth See also:

section of which he laid down and explained his celebrated See also:

CANON

canon, " Proclivi scriptioni praestat ardua " (" The difficult reading is to be preferred to that which is easy "), the soundness of which, as a general principle, has been recognized by succeeding critics. The second part of the critical apparatus was devoted to a See also:

CONSIDERATION (from Lat. considerare, to look at closely, examine, generally taken to be from con-, and the base seen in sidus, sideris, a star, the word being supposed to be originally an astrological or astronomical term)

consideration of the various readings, and here Bengel adopted the See also:

plan of stating the See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence both against and in favour of a particular reading, thus placing before the reader the materials for forming a judgment. Bengel was the first definitely to propound the theory of families or recensions of MSS. His investigations had led him to see that a certain See also:

affinity or resemblance existed amongst many of the authorities for the Greek text—MSS., versions, and ecclesiastical writers; that if a See also:

PECULIAR

peculiar reading, e.g., was found in one of these, it was generally found also in the other members of the same class; and this general relationship seemed to point ultimately to a See also:

COMMON

common origin for all the authorities which presented such peculiarities.

Although disposed at first to See also:

DIVIDE

divide the various documents into three classes, he finally adopted a See also:

CLASSIFICATION (Lat. classis, a class, probably from the root cal-, cla-, as in Gr. icaMce, clamor)

classification into two—the See also:

AFRICAN

African or older See also:

FAMILY

family of documents, and the See also:

ASIATIC

Asiatic, or more See also:

RECENT

recent class, to which he attached only a subordinate value. The theory was afterwards adopted by J. S. See also:

SEMLER, JOHANN SALOMO (1725-179I)

Semler and J. J. See also:

Griesbach, and worked up into an elaborate See also:

SYSTEM

system by the latter critic. Bengel's labours on the text of the Greek Testament were received with great disfavour in many quarters. Like See also:

BRIAN (926-1014)

Brian See also:

Walton and See also:

John See also:

Mill before him, he had to encounter the opposition of those who believed that the certainty of the word of See also:

God was endangered by the importance attached to the various readings. J. J. See also:

WETSTEIN (also WETTSTEIN), JOHANN JAKOB (1693-1754)

Wetstein, on the other See also:

hand, accused him of excessive caution in not making freer use of his critical materials. In See also:

ANSWER (derived from and, against, and the same root as swear)

answer to these strictures, Bengel published a See also:

Defence of the Greek Text of His New Testament, which he prefixed to his See also:

HARMONY (Gr. dpµovia, a concord of musical sounds, dpA'ew to join; &plan midi (sc. TeXvil)

Harmony of the Four Gospels, published in 1736, and which contained a sufficient answer to the complaints, especially of Wetstein, which had been made against him from so many different quarters.

The text of Bengel See also:

long enjoyed a high reputation among scholars, and was frequently reprinted. An enlarged edition of the critical apparatus was published by See also:

Philip See also:

David Burk in 1763. (B.) The other great work of Bengel, and that on which his reputation as an exegete is mainly based, is his Gnomon Novi Testamenti, or Exegetical Annotations on the New Testament, published in 1742. It was the See also:

FRUIT (through the French from the Lat. fructus; frui, to enjoy)

fruit of twenty years' labour, and exhibits with a brevity of expression, which, it has been said, " condenses more See also:

MATTER

matter into a See also:

LINE

line than can be extracted from pages of other writers," the results of his study. He modestly entitled his work a Gnomon or See also:

INDEX

index, his See also:

OBJECT

object being rather to See also:

GUIDE (in Mid. Eng. gyde, from the Fr. guide; the earlier French form was guie, English " guy," the d was due to the Italian form guida; the ultimate origin is probably Teutonic, the word being connected with the base seen in O. Eng. witan, to know)

guide the reader to ascertain the meaning for himself, than to See also:

SAVE, or SAVA (Ger. Sau; Hungarian Szdva; Lat. Savus)

save him from the trouble of See also:

PERSONAL

personal investigation. The principles of See also:

INTERPRETATION (from Lat. interpretari, to expound, explain, inter pres, an agent, go-between, interpreter; inter, between, and the root pret-, possibly connected with that seen either in Greek 4 p4'ew, to speak, or irpa-rrecv, to do)

interpretation on which he proceeded were, to import nothing into Scripture, but to draw out of it everything that it really contained, in conformity with grammaticohistorical rules: not to be hampered by dogmatical considerations; and not to be influenced by the symbolical books. Bengel's See also:

hope that the Gnomon would help to rekindle a fresh See also:

INTEREST

interest in the study of the New Testament was fully realized. It has passed through many See also:

EDITIONS

editions, has been translated into See also:

German and into See also:

ENGLISH

English, and is still one of the books most valued by expositors of the New Testament. John See also:

Wesley made great use of it in compiling his Expository Notes upon the New Testament (1755). Besides the two works already described, Bengel was the editor or author of many others, classical, patristic, ecclesiastical and expository. The more important are: Ordo Temporum, a treatise on the See also:

CHRONOLOGY (Gr. xpovo?oyfa, computation of time, xp6vos)

chronology of Scripture, in which he enters upon speculations regarding the end of the See also:

WORLD

world, and an Exposition of the Apocalypse which enjoyed for a time great popularity in Germany, and was translated into several See also:

LANGUAGES

languages.

End of Article: BENGEL, JOHANN ALBRECHT (1687-1752)

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