Reventlow - History Of Biblical Interpretation, Vol. 4

Front 1

Henry Graf Reventlow

Back 1

Former Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Exegesis and Theology at the University of Ruhr, Bochum

Front 2

Purpose of the Series

Back 2

Reventlow is concerned with showing how the Bible has remained viable throughout the ages by the adaptation of its interpretation to the changing times.

Front 3

Purpose of fourth volume

Back 3

With the fourth volume of the series Reventlow focuses on biblical interpreters in Europe, mostly German, from the 16th century to the present, culminating in Barth and Bultmann.

Front 4

Chapters 1-4: Precritical

Back 4

1. Matthias Flacius Illyricus (Christological), Johann Gerhard (Rule of Faith).
2. Puritans (Biblical Way), Hobbs, Locke, Toland (Reason over Scripture)
3. Text Critical Issues challenged "Word of God"
4. Simon, TC, De Spinoza - Xanity based on false Foundation. Scripture points to moral truth. Pierre-Daniel Huet - precritical, assumed bible true.

Front 5

Chapter 5: German Enlightenment (Wahoo)

Back 5

1. From Spener to Franke (Transitional)
2. Edelmann - Reason is divine.
3. Hermann Samuel Reimarus placed natural religion and reason as supreme and sufficient apart from any special revelation.

4. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing -Revelation serves to advance reason and reason advances revelation, and thus Christianity will eventually be supplanted

5. Johann Salomo Semler - created “the final condition for a differentiated, historical assessment of the Bible”

6. Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus - Can get historical Jesus from scientific study of text.

7. Johann Gottfried Eichhorn is notable for his work on myth in Genesis 1-3

8. Johann Philipp Gabler - Domatic theology can be derived from good exegesis.

Front 6

Chapter 6: The Science of Biblical Studies 1

Back 6

Martin Leberecht de Wette - Examination of the Bible began by carving it into pieces and placing them in opposition to each other, arguing for multiplicity of authorship across time, with differing ideologies and opposing views. Offered a new definition of Christ’s role as a “subject of feeling,” simply an “aesthetical symbol,” and thus, it was only through feeling that Christ could be understood.

David Friedrich Strauss fragmented scripture and argued that progressive citizens like himself were no longer Christians and had instead adopted a “religion of humanity”

F.C. Bauer. His self proclaimed historical standpoint led to the diagnosis of two opposing Christianities in the New Testament, one created by Peter and another later created by Paul

Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg and Heinrich Ewald were conservatives who where not contextualized and exposing Edald's errors produced "New Knowledge"

Front 7

Chapter 6: The Science of Biblical Studies 2

Back 7

Julius Wellhausen community’s written composition of its tradition was in process, it was fluid. Bernard Duhm - Prophets came before Preists and over time, the true religion was overrun by the theological system of the priestly tradition (332).

Front 8

Chapter 7: History of Religions School

Back 8

1. Focused upon the New Testament by studying “late Judaism” and Hellenistic thought and then comparing them with “primitive Christianity” (336-7).

2. Wilhelm Bousset - saw Jesus’s self proclamation as the Son of Man to be a later creation of the community and argued that the term kurios was taken out of Greco-Roman world rather than from the Old Testament. Willing to adapt = good.

Front 9

Chapter 8: New Directions

Back 9

1. Karl Bart saw first step, “the factual understanding of the Bible” (385). While he naively rallied against much of his contemporary (Hist. Crit.) setting, his effectiveness lies in his ability to readjust and adapt it.

2. Bultmann’s examination of the synoptic problem his criticism pointed to redaction with additions imposed by the Jewish or Hellenistic communities (395-6).