אבנימ

Biblical Hermeneutics Part Third Chapter 9

In his final chapter on the history of biblical interpretation, the author reviews the progress made in his own century, the nineteenth. No earlier era in history was better suited to sound and profitable exegesis than his own, as he and his peers inherited and built upon all the richness of previous philological and theological research. The scientific scholarship of the previous two centuries in textual criticism culminated in the nineteenth century in a near perfect critical text. This is demonstrated by a comparative analysis of work of the leading nineteenth century textual scholars, viz. Tischendorf, Tragelles, and Westcott and Hort. The cultural climate in the nineteenth century was also particularly favorable to academic pursuits of all kinds, and this benefited biblical scholarship as well.

Though rationalism had taken a firm hold in German scholarship, this had the positive benefit of eliciting sound responses from competent defenders of the faith.  At the outset of the century Schliermacher was instrumental in initiating a reaction against rationalism.  Terry provides a long catalog of German scholars, the range of their philosophical perspectives from skepticism to evangelical orthodoxy, and their respective contributions to biblical hermeneutics.    Among these are De Wette, Gesenius and Meyer, who were mainly rationalistic, but due to their meticulous scholarship made useful contributions in philology and scientific exegesis.  Among the more orthodox are Hengstenberg, Tholuck, Winer, Keil and Deilitzsch.  In France there was Godet, in England Clark, Kitto, Alford, Trench, Ellicott, et al., and in the United States Hodge and Barnes among others.

All in all, the author considered that from his vantage point at the end of the nineteenth century, the current condition and future prospects for biblical interpretation were very encouraging.  This is shown by the fact that the intrinsic exegetical worth of the least known and read expositors of his own time was far superior to anything produced by the early fathers or medieval writers.