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GRIESBACH, JOHANN JAKOB (1745-1812)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 594 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRIESBACH, JOHANN See also:JAKOB (1745-1812) , See also:German biblical critic, was See also:born at Butzbach, a small See also:town of See also:Hesse-See also:Darmstadt, where his See also:father, Konrad Kaspar (1705-1777), was pastor, on the 4th of See also:January 1745. He was educated at See also:Frankfort-on-the-See also:Main, and at the See also:universities of See also:Tubingen, See also:Leipzig and See also:Halle, where he became one of J. S. See also:Semler's most ardent disciples. It was Semler who induced him to turn his See also:attention to the textual See also:criticism of the New Testament. At the See also:close of his undergraduate career he undertook a See also:literary tour through See also:Germany, See also:Holland, See also:France and See also:England. On his return to Halle, he acted for some See also:time as Privatdozent, but in 1773 was appointed to a professorial See also:chair; in 1775 he was translated to See also:Jena, where the See also:rest of his See also:life was spent (though he received calls to other universities). He died on the 24th of See also:March 1812. Griesbach's fame rests upon his See also:work in New Testament criticism, in which he inaugurated a new See also:epoch. His See also:critical edition of the New Testament first appeared at Halle, in three volumes, in 1774-1775. The first See also:volume contained the first three Gospels, synoptically arranged; the second, the Epistles and the See also:book of See also:Revelation. All the See also:historical books were reprinted in one volume in 1777, the synoptical arrangement 'of the Gospels having been abandoned as inconvenient.

Of the second edition, considerably enlarged and improved, the first volume appeared in 1796 and the second in 18o6 (Halle and See also:

London). Of a third edition, edited by See also:David Schulz, only the first volume, containing the four Gospels, appeared (1827). For the construction of his critical See also:text Griesbach took as his basis the See also:Elzevir edition. Where he differed from it he placed the Elzevir See also:reading on the inner margin along with other readings he thought worthy of See also:special See also:consideration (these last, however, being printed in smaller type). To all the readings on this margin he attached special marks indicating the precise degree of See also:probability in his See also:opinion attaching to each. In weighing these probabilities he proceeded upon a particular theory which in its leading features he had derived from J. A. See also:Bengel and J. S. Semler, dividing all the See also:MSS. into three main See also:groups—the Alexandrian, the Western and the See also:Byzantine (see See also:BIBLE: New Testament, " Textual Criticism "). A reading supported by only one recension he considered as having only one See also:witness in its favour; those readings which were supported by all the three recensions, or even by two of them, especially if these two were the Alexandrian and the Western, he unhesitatingly accepted as genuine. Only when each of the three recensions gives a different reading does he proceed to discuss the question on other grounds.

See his Symbolae criticae ad supplendas et corrigendas variarum N.T. lectionum collectiones (Halle, 1785, 1793), and his Commentarius criticus in textum Graecum N.T., which extends to the end of See also:

Mark, and discusses the more important various readings with See also:great care and thoroughness (Jena, 1794 ff.). Among the other See also:works of Griesbach (which are comparatively unimportant) may be mentioned his university thesis De codicibus quatuor evangelistarum Origenianis (Halle, 1771) and a work upon systematic See also:theology (Anleitung zur Kenntniss der popularen Dogmatik, Jena, 1779). His Opuscula, .consisting chiefly of university "Programs" and addresses, were edited by See also:Gabler (2 vols., Jena, 1824). See the See also:article in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie, and the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.

End of Article: GRIESBACH, JOHANN JAKOB (1745-1812)

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