340, note, line 6, for "XeYoYTES" read “λeYoVTES."

353, last line but one, for "absolute" read "obsolete."

THE TÜBINGEN SCHOOL,

ETC.

PART I.

GENERAL ANTECEDENTS.

A Modern Protestant Dilemma.

It seems strange that in a country where the Bible is so highly prized as it is in England, so little notice should be taken of some of the best opportunities of making it intelligible. Few have even heard the name of the Tübingen School, unless through desultory notices in reviews, or the misrepresentations of opponents. Yet here may unquestionably be found some of the ablest efforts ever made towards explaining to the healthy unperverted reason, the meaning and origin of the writings of the New Testament. And the neglect seems the more remarkable when we reflect that the Bible is the commonly reputed basis of English education.1 No pains, one

1 Lord Derby, for instance, said (February 28, 1852): "The greater the amount of education you are able to give, and the more widely you spread that education through the masses of the community, the greater chance there is for the tranquillity, happiness, and well-being of the country. But when I use the word education, don't let me be misunderstood; I don't mean the mere development of the mental faculties, the mere acquisition of temporal knowledge, or mere instruction, useful no doubt as it may be, which may enable a man to improve his condition in life, and may give him fresh tastes and habits, and the means and opportunity of gratifying those tastes and habits; but valuable as that may be, when I speak of education, I speak of this aloneeducation involving the culture of the mind and of the soul, laying the basis and foundation of all knowledge upon knowledge of the Scriptures."

should have thought, had been too great to insure the
solidity of such a superstructure by securing its founda-
tions; by testing the interpretation and history of the text,
and by correcting any known errors in the translation.
Yet the foundations are here rashly assumed; tortoise and
elephant both hang dubiously over a chaos of uncertain
opinion and tradition; tradition either entirely unexplored,
or explored only in the partial spirit of advocacy and with
more or less predetermination as to the issue. The best
critical works in foreign languages are untranslated; and
Dr. Arnold, in 1835, spoke of Biblical criticism as almost
unknown in England. Interpretation too remained, until
quite recently, in the same unsatisfactory state.
found one of our old divines," says Arnold,
interpreter of Scripture, was above mediocrity.
this stamp have no facts to communicate; so I have left
off reading them, since, as Pascal said of the Jesuits-I
should have only wasted my time over a number of very
indifferent books." A singular confusion of mind seems to
prevail very generally in regard to this matter of Bible
interpretation. For while all other departments of know-
ledge avowedly rest on distinction and definition, here
the inference is made to precede examination of the

"I never "who, as Writers of

1 The sixth Article of the English Church defines "Holy Scripture" to consist of "those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church." This Church the commentators on the Articles explain to be the "Universal Church," "some particular churches having doubted of a few of them, viz.,--The Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistles of James and Jude, the Second and Third of John." But how can the "Universal Church" express opinions on questions of literary criticism? It can do so only through the hands or voices of its human members; through the councils of the fourth century, or earlier testimonies of the Fathers. But it is precisely the Fathers by whom the authenticity of the "Antilegomena" is contested; and even their testimonies only begin from the middle of the second century,-for no earlier date can be claimed for the spurious writings attributed to the "Apostolical Fathers." Bishop Burnet appeals in attestation of the authenticity of the fourth gospel to Irenæus, because he knew Polycarp who was John's disciple. But where is Polycarp's attestation? This is like the proof of Martin Chuzzlewit's descent from Guy Fawkes, or the story told on hearsay evidence of report by a credible witness, who had it from "very good authority."

2 Arnold's Life, vol. ii., p. 56.

premises, and we are emphatically warned to disregard distinctions and details, the first condition of a successful exegesis being not to harp on particular passages or books, but to seek the "general analogy and intention of the whole."

These indications may help to explain the seemingly anomalous contradiction between extreme activity in circulating the Bible, and extreme listlessness as to its comprehension. For it is of course comparatively easy to obtain confirmations of a preformed conclusion by means of affirmative instances and proofs collected from the whole Bible, if we deliberately shut our eyes to the negative ones occurring here and there in its several parts. But this can only be an elaborate process of self-deception. The Bible virtually offers religious freedom to the intelligent by appealing to the feelings and judgment of individuals. But the want of intellectual or moral competency, combined with the ingenuity of interested parties in taking advantage of its absence, creates a fetter out of what might have been the charter of emancipation; so that to many people the Bible is really little more than a pious memento like the Papal relic, or African fetish; degraded in fact to subserve that lowest kind of idolatry which consists in the unreasoning worship of a thing without any reference to the meaning. To a worshipper of this class nothing is so irksome as explanation. Like Horace's madman cured by hellebore, he exclaims

Pol me occidistis amici,
Non servastis,1

when by dispelling mystery and obscurity you destroy his favourite illusion. Examination, although Scripturally enjoined, seems a dangerous incongruity, nearly allied to profanation. Who cares to trace the history of a holy nail, or to subject the miscellaneous inventory of Roman

"Instead of saving, these well-meaning friends have ruined me.”

Catholic devotion to chemical analysis? The religious value of the idol ceases when you put it into a crucible, and too curiously measure its pretensions as a work of art or monument of history. Hence it is that while we hear so much about "believing the Bible," so little is said as to understanding it. Hence, too, the reluctance to correct errors of translation, or to expose the best efforts of commentators and critics to public scrutiny; and thus Protestantism, set helplessly adrift with a book which it cannot decipher, and committed to a principle which it cannot or will not carry out, becomes the jest of its antagonists,-standing bewildered between the two testaments, and, as recently instanced in the Sunday controversy, unable to see distinctly the difference between Jew and Christian.

Church Principles.

Escape from such bewilderment is impossible without a clear knowledge of its source. This the recovering patient will find to be in himself; in his very imperfect education;1 in the mental timidity and indolence which, shrinking from individual responsibility, seek refuge in formulas and institutions. A seeming shelter of this kind is offered by religious association. But religion is essentially individual; its nature changes when brought within the influence of association, then inevitably degenerating more or less into a fashion, a policy, or a compromise. Nor is compromise ever more fatally misleading and unprincipled than when, instead of being a mere temporary resource, it assumes the character of a principle, and

1 Dr. Arnold defines the evangelical,-"a good Christian with a narrow understanding, a bad education, and little knowledge of the world." Arnold's "Life and Correspondence," vol. i. ch. vi.

2 Like the shifting tabernacle in the wilderness preferred by Stephen, in Acts vii. 44, to the fixed house built by Solomon.