GRIE3BACH, JOHN JAMES. 



GRIESBACH, JOHN JAMES. 



208 



ilescriptio et examen,' 2 torn. Svo, 1785-93; a most important work, 

 containing a full development of the author's system of Biblical 

 criticism. The second volume contains a laborious collation, with the 

 Greek Vulgate, of all the quotations from the New Testament made 

 by Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus. ' Synopsis Evangeliorum 

 jfatthiei, Marci, ct Lucse, una cum iis Joannis Pericopis, cjucc Histo- 

 riam Pasaionis et Rcsarrectionis Historiam complectuntur,' Svo, 

 179". As some of the transpositions were deemed arbitrary, and 

 several [important passages were omitted in this synopsis of the 

 first three gospels, the work was made the basis of a more complete 

 synopsis by De Wette and Liicke, published in 4to at Berlin, in 

 1818. 



Of all modern critical editions of the New Testament, Griesbach's 

 was at the time of its publication the most complete and valuable, 

 and consequently his text has been taken as a standard by numerous 

 other editors. His marginal note*, as forming a general and correct 

 index to the great boHy of collated Greek manuscripts (about 500), 

 are a treasure invaluable to the scholar and necessary to the divine. 

 Every emendation is introduced on quoted authority, and never on 

 mere critical conjecture ; and a very important advantage, not pre- 

 viously afforded, is a clear and precise statement of the relative degree 

 of authority for each particular reading. Adopted readings are distin- 

 guished by a different type ; those rejected are inserted in the margin 

 with appropriate references, and those not admissible into the text, 

 but yet worthy of consideration, are exhibited with indications of 

 their respective claims. It is generally agreed that the best practical 

 mode of distinguishing authentic from spurioni readings is decidedly 

 the classification of manuscripts suggested by Bengel and Semler, and 

 reduced to practice by Griesbach, who distinctly avows the derivation 

 of his plan from those distinguished critics. ('Prolegom.' in New 

 Testament.) 



The peculiar principle of Dr. Grienbach's system consists in a division 

 of the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament into three classes, 

 each of which is considered as an independent witness for the various 

 readings ot the manuscripts which it comprises. He thus contem- 

 plates the existence of three distinct species of texts, which, with 

 respect to their relationship or affinity, are called by Bengel ' families,' 

 and by Semler, Griesbach, and Jlicbaelii, ' recensions,' or ' codices,' 

 namely: 1. The 'Alexandrine' recension or codex, comprehending 

 manuscripts which, in peculiar readings, agree with the citations found 

 in the early Greek-Egyptian Fathers, particularly Origen and Clemens 

 of Alexandria. 2. The ' Western ' recension, which ia identified with 

 the citations of the Latin Fathers, especially Cyprian and IVrtullian, 

 and was used by the Christians of Carthage, Rome, and the west of 

 Europe. 3. The ' Byzantino ' or Asiatic recension, comprising nume- 

 rous manuscripts which were used especially in the see of Constanti- 

 nople and the adjacent Oriental provinces, and have furnished the 

 Received Text, called the Greek Vulgate. Each of these recensions 

 has characteristics peculiar to itself, yet no individual manuscript 

 exhibit* an; recension in a pare state, but is assigned to the Alex- 

 andrine or Western clas, as the peculiar reading of each of those 

 classes preponderate. Though Griesbach considers departures from 

 the received Greek Vulgate as various readings, he does not allow the 

 existence of any standard text as a criterion for determining which are 

 genuine or spurious readings ; his object being to show, not the 

 character of particular deviations from any individual recension, but 

 the general coincidences of manuscripts with one recension or codex 

 more than with another. The authorised text does not regulate, but 

 ia regulated by, his critical opinion of its comparative value ; and the 

 immen-ie number of various readings form a floating medium in which 

 the genuine text i considered to be in all instances discoverable. 

 However, although he professes to determine the value of readings 

 by the number of classes by which they are supported, he constantly 

 display! a very decided preference for the Alexandrine class, which be 

 places far above the two others in the rank of authority ; a few manu- 

 scripts of this recension being supposed to outweigh a multitude of 

 such as belong to the Byzantine recension, which hu regards as cer- 

 tainly the most untrustworthy of all. (' Prolegom.' Ixxii.) The reason 

 assigned by Griesbach for thin decision is the fact that, the Greek 

 transcripts of this class contain a remarkably large number of sus- 

 pected readings, owing to the very great liberties taken by learned 

 copyists in making successive alterations ; and finding the coincidence 

 of the numerous Scriptural quotations of Origen of Alexandria with 

 the celebrated Greek manuscript of the New Testament from that 

 city to be very striking, be thence concludes that the passages now 

 extant in this Father's writings, of the commencement of the third 

 century, discover the earliest and therefore the purest text of which 

 we have any knowledge to be that of the Alexandrine manuscripts. 

 His ultimate choice of readings is consequently determined by the 

 testimony of Origen, in confirmation of which be often adduces much 

 collateral evidence from the primitive fathers and versions ; and of 

 the readings thus proved to be genuine is formed his corrected text of 

 the New Testament. . 



Against the complicated hypothesis on which Dr. Griesbach has 

 based his system of recensions many very important objections were 

 urged by learned Biblical critics of Germany, and in England especially 

 by Archbishop Lawrence and Dr. Frederic Nolan. The primary fact 

 enforced by Griesbacb, that the Alexandrine readings which are sup 



jorted by the quotations of Origen possess the highest authority of 

 all, is disputed by Professor Mattbise, of Moscow, in his critical edition 

 of the New Testament, and with greater confidence by Professor 

 Martin Scholz, of Bonn, in the prolegomena to his very learned and 

 elaborate edition, founded on a system wholly at variance with that 

 of Griesbach. The Alexandrine manuscripts are acknowledged by 

 Scholz to be more ancient, but he asserts them to be more corrupt 

 than any others, and contends that in Alexandria the alterations of 

 Lhe text principally originated. He divides all the manuscripts, not 

 as Griesbach, into three, but, into two classes, the Byzautine and the 

 Alexandrine, in which latter he includes the Western ; and he gives a 

 decided superiority to the authority of the Byzantine recensions, 

 which, in opposition to Griesbach, he strenuously maintains to be 

 directly derived from the autographs of the evangelists and apostles 

 themselves. The work by Archbishop Lawrence on this subject is 

 entitled ' Remarks upon the Systematical Classification of Manuscripts 

 adopted by Dr. Griesbach,' Svo, 1814. The learned author states that, 

 he considers Griesbach to be what Bishop Marsh denominated him, 

 " the most consummate critic that ever undertook an edition of the 

 New Testament ; " but in the course of his critical strictures on the 

 origin and execution of his plan of appreciating manuscripts, ho 

 employs the severest terms of censure, observing that " Griesbach's 

 mode of investigation is unsatisfactory, his classification fallacious, 

 and his statement of the number of readings inaccurate; that no such 

 classification of the manuscripts of the New Testament is possible ; 

 the existence of three distinct species of texts being a fact only 

 synthetically presumed, and not capable of any analytical demonstra- 

 tion ; so that the student finds he is treading not on solid ground, but 

 on a critical quicksand." 



Griesbach was long and severely attacked by Trinitarian writers 

 an opposer of the doctrine of Christ's divinity, chiefly in conse- 

 quence of his having rejected from his text the celebrated passage 

 respecting the three that bear witness, 1 John, v. 7, and also for 

 inserting As for 8!j in 1 Tim. iii. 16, and Kvplov for 0eoii in Acts xx. 28. 

 In consequence of these and other points in his critical works the 

 commendation and patronage of the Unitarians were bestowed upon 

 him ; but in the preface to his treatise on the apostolical writings, 

 he makes the following solemn declaration : " Ut iniquas suspicionea 

 omnes, quantum in me est, amoliar, et hominibus malerolis calumniandi 

 ansam pracripiam, publice profiteer, atque Deum testor, neutiquam 

 me de veritate istius dogmatis dubitare ; " and to this may be added 

 a statement from his ' Prolegomena,' namely, that " nulla emendatio 

 a recentioribus editoribus tentata ullam Scripture; Sacra doctrinam 

 immutat, aut evertit," though " pauciu sensum senteutiarum afficiunt." 

 The laborious and minutely learned work by the Reverend Dr. Nolan, 

 entitled ' An Inquiry into the Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, or 

 Received Text of the New Testament,' published in 1815, is chiefly 

 occupied in presenting evidence to subvert the critical system of 

 Griesbach, and to establish the position since taken by Professor 

 fccholz and others, that the Byzantine and not the Alexandrian codices 

 are the most worthy of reliance. " Griesbach's theory," fays Dr. 

 Nolan, "is one of the most elaborate of those that have unsettled 

 the foundation on which rests the entire canon. His corrected text 

 can be received only as a proof of the general corruption of the 

 Sacred Scriptures, and of the faithlessness of the traditionary testimony 

 by which it is supported, since he states that the two principal classes 

 of text, the Alexandrine and the Western, have been interpolated in 

 every part; that the authorised Greek version! exhibits 150,000 

 various readings, and has remained 1400 years in its present state of 

 corruption ; that there appears therefore to be no reservation by 

 which the doctrinal integrity of the Sacred Scriptures can be saved ; 

 for if, in the apostolic and primitive ages, corruption was prevalent, 

 whatever be the text gathered out of the immenee number of various 

 readings, it may be as well any other as that originally delivered by 

 the inspired writers." Griesbach indeed declares, in his 'Symbols) 

 Critical,' that the manuscripts of the Alexandrine and Western recen- 

 sions, on which bis system is founded, were grossly corrupted in the 

 age succeeding that of the apostles ; that those which he held in the 

 highest esteem were corrupted in every page by marginal scholia and 

 interpretations of the fathers, and contained innumerable and very 

 serious errors ("ionumeros gravissimo-que errores.") He further 

 rtates in the same treatise that no reliance can be placed on the 

 printed editions of the works of Origen, on the fidelity of his different 

 transcribers, on the accuracy of his quotations, or, finally, on the 

 copies of the Scriptures from which he quoted ; so that, as observed 

 by Dr. Nolan, we have only to take his own account of the state in 

 which he finds the best part of his materials to discover the extreme 

 insecurity of the fabric which he has raised on such a foundation. 

 " His innovations," continues the same learned divine, " are formidable 

 iu number and nature ; his corrections proscribe three important 

 passages (already named) affecting the doctrinal integrity of the 

 inspired text ; for a proof once established of its partial corruption 

 in important matters must involve its character for general fidelity : 

 and the deservedly high character and singular merit of this learned 

 edition must heighten apprehension and alarm at the attempts thus 

 made to undermine the authority of the Received Text, for the 

 scrupulous accuracy of its execution must always command respect." 

 In addition to the works above mentioned, reference has been made 



