Johann Albrecht Bengel

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Johann Albrecht Bengel
Born	24 June 1687 Winnenden, Württemberg
Died	2 November 1752 (1752-11-03) (aged 65) Stuttgart, Württemberg
Nationality	German
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Tübingen
Academic work
Notable students	Jeremias Friedrich Reuß

Johann Albrecht Bengel (24 June 1687 – 2 November 1752), also known as Bengelius, was a

After acquiring his degree, Bengel devoted himself to theology. Even at this time he had religious doubts; it is interesting in view of his later work that one cause of his perplexities was the difficulty of ascertaining the true reading of certain passages in the Greek New Testament. Bengel entered the ministry in 1707 and was appointed to the parochial charge of Metzingen-unter-Urach. In the following year he was recalled to Tübingen to undertake the office of Repetent (theological tutor).

He remained at Tübingen until 1713, when he was appointed head of a seminary recently established at

For 28 years, from 1713 to 1741, he was master (German: Klosterpraeceptor) of the Klosterschule at Denkendorf, a seminary for candidates for the ministry established in a former monastery of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. To these years, the period of his greatest intellectual activity, belong many of his chief works.

In 1741 he was appointed prelate (i.e. general superintendent) at

His reputation as a Biblical scholar and critic rests chiefly on his edition of the Greek New Testament (1734) and his exegetical annotations on the same, which have passed through many editions in Latin, German, and English and are still highly valued by expositors of the New Testament.^[4]

Greek New Testament

Bengel's edition of the Greek New Testament was published at Tübingen in 1734, and at Stuttgart in the same year, but without the critical apparatus. As early as 1725, in an addition to his edition of Chrysostoms De Sacerdotio, he had given an account in his Prodromus Novi Testamenti Graeci recte cauteque adornandi of the principles on which his intended edition was to be based. In preparation for his work, Bengel was able to avail himself of the collations of upwards of twenty manuscripts, none of them, however, of great importance, twelve of which had been collated by himself. In constituting the text, he imposed upon himself the singular restriction of not inserting any variant reading which had not already been printed in some preceding edition of the Greek text. From this rule, however, he deviated in the case of the Apocalypse, where, owing to the corrupt state of the text, he felt himself at liberty to introduce certain readings on manuscript authority. In the lower margin of the page he inserted a selection of various readings, the relative importance of which he denoted by the first five letters of the Greek alphabet in the following manner: α was employed to denote the reading which in his judgment was the true one, although he did not venture to place it in the text; β, a reading better than that in the text; γ, one equal to the textual reading; and δ, readings inferior to those in the text. Robert Estienne's division into verses was retained in the inner margin, but the text was divided into paragraphs.

The text was followed by a critical apparatus, the first part of which consisted of an introduction to the criticism of the

His investigations had led him to see that a certain affinity or resemblance existed amongst many of the authorities for the Greek text manuscripts, versions, and ecclesiastical writers: for example, if a peculiar reading was found in one of these, it was generally also found in the other members of the same class; and this general relationship seemed to point ultimately to a common origin for all the authorities which presented such peculiarities. Although disposed at first to divide the various documents into three classes, he finally adopted a classification into two: the African or older family of documents, and the Asiatic, or more recent class, to which he attached only a subordinate value. The theory was afterwards adopted by J.S. Semler and J.J. Griesbach, and worked up into an elaborate system by the latter critic.

Bengel's labors on the text of the Greek Testament were received with great disfavour in many quarters. Like

The text of Bengel long enjoyed a high reputation among scholars, and has been frequently reprinted. An enlarged edition of the critical apparatus was published by Philip David Burk in 1763.

Gnomon Novi Testamenti

The other great work of Bengel, and that on which his reputation as an exegete is mainly based, is his Gnomon Novi Testamenti, or Exegetical Annotations on the New Testament, published in 1742. It was the fruit of twenty years labor, and exhibits with a brevity of expression, which, it has been said, condenses more matter into a line than can be extracted from pages of other writers, the results of his study. He modestly entitled his work a Gnomon or index, his object being rather to guide the reader to ascertain the meaning for himself, than to save him from the trouble of personal investigation. The principles of interpretation on which he proceeded were, to import nothing into Scripture, but to draw out of it everything that it really contained, in conformity with grammatico-historical rules not to be hampered by dogmatical considerations; and not to be influenced by the symbolical books. Bengel's hope that the Gnomon would help to rekindle a fresh interest in the study of the New Testament was fully realized. It has passed through many editions, has been translated into German and into English (by Charlton T. Lewis and Marvin Vincent in 1860), and is still valued by expositors of the New Testament. Methodist founder John Wesley made great use of it in compiling his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), despite an initial inclination towards "consulting none but the inspired writers".^[5]

Besides the two works already described, Bengel was the editor or author of many others, classical, patristic, ecclesiastical and expository. The more important are: Ordo Temporum, a treatise on the chronology of Scripture, in which he enters upon speculations regarding the end of the world, and an Exposition of the Apocalypse which enjoyed for a time great popularity in Germany, and was translated into several languages. His fame was such that almost 200 years later, Hermann Hesse has the hero of The Glass Bead Game discuss Bengel's writings.

Chiliastic views

Bengel’s meticulous study of the Bible led him to believe that dates and time periods were related, all the way through from Genesis to Revelation, bringing him to the conclusion that June 18, 1836 would witness the start of the Millennium, to include the fall of the Antichrist, which he believed to be the Roman Catholic Church, the conversion of the Jews, the reign of Christ for 1000 years as promised in Revelation 20, and the final judgement.^[6] 

Bengel’s calculations regarding a date for the return of Christ and the end-times influenced not only his contemporary,

Bengel’s date for the Second Coming and the final judgement were largely unknown by the English speaking Adventists during the early 19th century, partly due to the fact that he wrote in Latin, which was translated into German, and partly overshadowed by the popular writings of William Miller and his projected date of 1844.^[8]

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bengel, Johann Albrecht". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

• Oskar Wächter, J. A. Bengels Lebensabriss
• John C. F. Burk, ed., A memoir of the life and writings of John Albert Bengel (German: J. A. Bengels Leben und Wirken), translated into English by Rev. R. F. Walker (London, 1837 and 1842)
• Realencyklopädie
• E. Nestle, Bengel als Gelehrter (1893)
• Werner Raupp: "Bengel, Johann Albrecht", in: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL), vol. 22, Nordhausen: Bautz 2003 (
  ISBN 3-88309-133-2
  ), kol. 84–110 (with detailed bibliography).
• Werner Raupp: "Bengel, Johann Albrecht (1687–1752)", in: Heiner F. Klemme, Manfred Kuehn (Hrsg.), The Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers, vol. 1. London/New York 2010, p. 92–95.

External links

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• Gnomon Novi Testamenti Vol. 1. (English translation, covering Matthew and Mark.)
• Gnomon Novi Testamenti Vol. 2. (English translation, covering Luke, John, and Acts.)
• Gnomon Novi Testamenti Vol. 3. (English translation, covering Romans, I Corinthians, and II Corinthians.)
• Gnomon Novi Testamenti Vol. 4. (English translation, covering Galatians through Hebrews.)
• Gnomon Novi Testamenti Vol. 5. (English translation, covering the Catholic Epistles and Revelation.)
• Novum Testamentum Graecum, 1734 (Greek text with Latin introduction)
• Exposition of the Apocalypse (English translation)
• A Memoir of the Life and Writings of John Albert Bengel (English translation)