Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/405

* EXEGESIS. 357 EXEGESIS. this doctrinal development; bul the full stage of the development is seen in the scholastic exegesis of the seventeenth century, especially among the Lutherans. Gerhard Mini Hi:>7). in liis most im- portant work, Commentary on the Harmony of Hi, Gospel History of the Passion, Resurrection, iiml Ascension of Christ (Jena, 1017), to which In- mldcd a completion of the t'hemnitz-Leyser har- mony, shows almost a pietistic spirit and evi- denees remarkable patristic learning, yet treats Scripture as throughout the canonically author- itative source for dogma; while Salomo Glass (died 1656), in spite of comprehensive knowledge and grammatical method, burdens bis Philologia Sacra (Jena, 1623-3(i) with casuistry and alle- gorism; and Calovius (died 1686) conceived his ehief exegetical work, Biblia Illustrate (Frank- fort. 1672-76), in the bitterness of a dogmatic polemic, dragging Scripture down to a mere col- lect ion of proof texts for Lutheran orthodoxy. Against this dogmatism arose the same protest as in the latter stage of the Counter-Reformation. The first intimation of it appeared in Calixtus (died 1656), who took an irenic position between Lutherans and Reformed, a position based on a lower estimate of Scripture than was current in his day, in which the almost idolatrous reverence for the book was laid aside. This protest came to its full issue in the pietistic school of Spener (died 1705), who in his Misused Bible Passages (1693) subordinated the interpreting of Scrip- ture for the sake of the creeds to the study of Scripture for the sake of the religious life. This principle was carried forward and developed by his pupils, Francke (died 1727) in his exegetical lectures at Leipzig (1080) and his various her- meneutical writings and Anton (died 1730) in his Bible lectures at Halle (from 1605 on), and his occasional writings in the field of the de- votional and practical life. In addition to these, Rambach (died 1735) produced in his Institute of Sacred Hermeneutics (Halle, 1724) and allied writings the first comprehensive presentation of the hermeneutical discipline, in which, however, the science of the study was endangered by the author's overpressure of the idea of inspiration. Midway between this confessional freedom of the Pietists and the symbol-worship of the Lutherans stood Bengel (died 1752), whose Gnomon of the New Testament (Tubingen. 1742) is the best exegetical product of the period. He had no extravagant ideas of inspiration, and yet was imbued with a profound sense of the religious value of the revelation contained in the words of Scripture; he was conscientious in the details of scholarship and yet comprehensive in the grasp of truth ; he was finished in style and yet full of spiritual power. This dogmatic development and reaction did not show itself so conspicuously among the Reformed cxegetes, whether in Germany. Switzerland, or France. The New Testament work done bv Parseus (died 1622), J. Capell (died 1624), Pis- cator (died 1625), Raphel (died 1715). Lampe (died 1729), and De Beausobre (died 1738), while burdened more or less with theological dis- cussion and characterized by theological analysis, is nevertheless devoid of confessional motive and is remarkably true in method. Even in Holland, where the controversy between Arminians and Calvinists was bitter in the extreme. Bible inter- pretation was not distorted in the interests of party positions. This is evident on the Calvin- isi side i" the exegetical work of Cocceius (died Hit io i . Epistli s, John's Gospi land A pot alypst . and in tin- New Testament printed in his Opera (Am- sterdam, 1676-78), which was directed igainst the dry scholasticism of Lutheranism, and rein- stated in a measure the early Reformation meth- ods, though its excessive typologj opened anew the way to the old error of allegorism. II also evident in the trorl oi hi p*upils Van Til (died L713) and Vitringa (died 1722). On the Arminian side it was equally evident in the great interpretative production of Grotius (died 1645), Annotations on the old and 'Hew Testa- ment, printed in Opera (Amsterdam, 1679), which iii its method was free from I he COntfol of dogmatic prepossessions, the author's aim be- ing to get at the plain historical sense of Scrip- ture. The further fact that, among Reformed scholars generally, there was produced a class of books called Observations which, while con- tributing to various phases of Bible study, such as philology, chronology, geography, and natural history, did so along exegetical lines, is clear proof of how scholarly their method was and how free it stood from the slavery of symbolism. Work- in this latter Meld were Scaliger (died 1609), Ca- saubon(died 1614), Drusius (died 1616), Bochart (died 1007), and Eisner (died 1750), to whom should be .added Wetstein (died 1754). whose critical edition of the New Testament (1751-52) was one of the greatest contributions to biblical scholarship in the century. In England, Lutheran scholasticism, with the accompanying protest against it, did not appear. There were all phases of theological belief, from hyper-Calvinism to Arianism, but Bible study preserved itself from eonfessionalism. Nothing more practical and devotional — and often nothing more scholarly — exists than the work of the English cxegetes of the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries, as Hall (died 1650), Hammond (died 1600), Trapp (died 1009), Lightfoot (died 1075), Poole (died 1079). Pearson (died 1080), Henry (died 1714), Whitby (died 1726), Dod- dridge (died 1751), Lowman (died 1752), and Gill (died 1771). Against all the dead scholasticism of German orthodoxy the devotional impulse of pietism was of no permanent avail. Its power was fully broken only by the deeper-reaching principles of the rationalism represented by such philos- ophers as Wolff (died 1754) and Lessing (died 1781), and reproduced in the work of such ex- egetes as Sender (died 1701), Eiehhorn (died 1827), and Eckermann (died 1836) — a group of scholars whose New Testament expository work was founded on the idea, not only that the Apostles and Evangelists were influenced by their Jewish surroundings, but that their writings could be properly interpreted only from the view- point of these surroundings. The influence of Sender, Preparation for New Testament Her- meneutics (Halle. 1760), and his Commentaries on John's Gospel, Romans, and Corinthians (Halle, 1770-70), was significant and can be said to have prepared the way for all the later work of New Testament criticism, while in turn their inspiration may be assigned to Raum- garten (died 1767), Exposition of the Hohi Scrip- tures (17421. and of Paul's Epistles (1749-67), who properly represents the translation from Pie- tism to rationalism. To this group should be added Gabler (died 1826) and Paulus (died