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WETSTEIN (also WETTSTEIN), JOHANN JAK...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 565 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WETSTEIN (also WETTSTEIN), JOHANN See also:JAKOB (1693-1754) , New Testament critic, was See also:born at See also:Basel on the 5th of See also:March 1693. Among his tutors in See also:theology was See also:Samuel Werenfels (1657-1740), an influential anticipator of See also:modern scientific exegesis. While still a student he began to See also:direct his See also:attention to the See also:special pursuit of his See also:life—the See also:text of the See also:Greek New Testarfient. A relative, Johann Wetstein, who was the university librarian, gave him permission to examine and collate the See also:principal See also:MSS. of the New Testament in the library, and he copied the various readings which they contained into his copy of See also:Gerard of Maestricht's edition of the Greek text. In 1713 in his public examination he defended a dissertation entitled De variis Novi Testamenti lectionibus, and sought to show that variety of readings did not detract from the authority of the See also:Bible. Wetstein paid See also:great attention also to Aramaic and Talmudic See also:Hebrew. In the See also:spring of 1714 he undertook a learned tour, which led him to See also:Paris and See also:England, the great See also:object of his inquiry everywhere being See also:manuscripts of the New Testament. In 1716 he made the acquaintance of See also:Richard See also:Bentley at See also:Cambridge, who took great See also:interest in his See also:work. The great See also:scholar induced him to return to Paris to collate carefully the Codex Ephraemi, Bentley having then in view a See also:critical edition of the New Testament. In See also:July 1717 Wetstein returned to take the See also:office of a See also:curate at large (diaconus communis) at Basel, a See also:post which he held for three years, at the expiration of which he exchanged it to-become his See also:father's colleague and successor in the See also:parish of St Leonard's. At the same See also:time he pursued his favourite study, and gave private lectures on New Testament exegesis. It was then that he decided to prepare a critical edition of the Greek New Testament.

He had in the meantime broken with Bentley, whose famous Proposals appeared in 1720. His earlier teachers, however, J. C. Iselin and J. L. See also:

Frey, who were engaged upon work similar to his own, became so unfriendly towards him that after a time he was forbidden any further use of the manuscripts in the library. Then a rumour got abroad that his projected text would take the Socinian See also:side in the See also:case of such passages as 1 See also:Timothy iii. 16; and in other ways (e.g. by regarding Jesus's temptation as a subjective experience, by explaining some of the miracles in a natural way) he gave occasion for the suspicion of See also:heresy. At length in 1729 the See also:charge of projecting an edition of the Greek Testament savouring of Arian and Socinian views was formally laid against him. The end of the See also:long and unedifying trial was his dismissal, on the 13th of May 1730, from his office of curate of St Leonard's. He then removed from Basel to See also:Amsterdam, where a relative, Johann Heinrich Wetstein, had an important See also:printing and See also:publishing business, from whose office excellent See also:editions of the See also:classics were issued, and also Gerard of Maestricht's edition of the Greek Testament. Wetstein had begun to See also:print in this office an edition of the Greek Testament, which was suddenly stopped for some unknown See also:reason.

As soon as he reached Amsterdam he published anonymously the Prolegomena ad Novi Testamenti Graeci editionem, which he had proposed should accompany his Greek Testament, and which was republished by him, . with additions, as See also:

part of his great work, 1751. The next See also:year (1731) the See also:Remonstrants offered him the See also:chair of See also:philosophy in their See also:college at Amsterdam, vacated by the illness of See also:Jean le Clerc, on See also:condition that he should clear himself of the suspicion of heresy. He thereupon returned to Basel, and procured a reversal (March 22, 1732) of. the previous decision, and re-See also:admission to all his clerical offices. But, on his becoming a See also:candidate for the Hebrew chair at Basel, his orthodox opponents procured his defeat i'nd his retirement to Amsterdam. At length, after much painful contention, he was allowed to instruct the Remonstrant students in philosophy and Hebrew on certain somewhat humiliating conditions. For the See also:rest of his life he continued See also:professor in the Remonstrant college, declining in 1745 the Greek chair at Basel. In 1746 he once more visited England, and collated See also:Syriac MSS. for his great work. At last this appeared in 1751-1752, in two See also:folio volumes, under the See also:title Novum Testamentum Graecum editionis receptae cum lectionibus variantibus codicum MSS., &c. He did not venture to put new readings in the See also:body of his See also:page, but consigned those of them which he recommended to a See also:place between the textus receptus and the full See also:list of various readings. Beneath the latter he gave a commentary, consisting principally of a See also:mass of valuable illustrations and See also:parallels See also:drawn from classical and rabbinical literature, which has formed a storehouse for all later commentators. In his Prolegomena he gave an admirable methodical See also:account of the MSS., the versions and the readings of the fathers, as well as the troubled See also:story of the difficulties with which he had had to contend in the See also:prosecution of the work of his life. He was the first to designate uncial manuscripts by See also:Roman capitals, and cursive manuscripts by Arabic figures.

He did not long survive the completion of this work. He died at Amsterdam on the 23rd of March 1754. Wetstein's New Testament has never been republished entire. The See also:

London printer, See also:William See also:Bowyer, published, in 1763, a text in which he introduced the readings recommended by Wetstein; J. G. See also:Semler republished the Prolegomena and appendix (1764); A. See also:Lotze commenced a new edition of the work, but the Prolegomena only appeared (See also:Rotterdam, 1831), and this " castigated." It is generally allowed that Wetstein rendered invaluable service to textual See also:criticism by his collection of various readings and his methodical account of the MSS. and other See also:sources, and that his work was rendered less valuable through his See also:prejudice against the Latin version and the principle of grouping MSS. in families which had been recommended by Richard Bentley and J. A. See also:Bengel. See Wetstein's account of his labours and trials in his Nov. Test. i. ; articles in C.

F. Illgen's Ztschr. See also:

fur histor. Theol. by C. R. See also:Hagenbach (1839), by L. J. See also:Van Rhyn in 1843 and again by Heinrich Bottger in 187o; S. P. See also:Tregelles, Account of the Printed Text of the New Testament; F. H. A. Scrivener's Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament; W.

Gass, Protestantische Dogmatik, vol. iii.; the See also:

art. in See also:Herzog's Realencyklopadie and in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.

End of Article: WETSTEIN (also WETTSTEIN), JOHANN JAKOB (1693-1754)

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