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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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such passages as I John v . 7 ; Acts xx . 28 ; 1 Tim . iii . 16 . Even where no doctrine of orthodoxy was affected by the change , an attempt to disturb the established text was considered as
a dangerous impiety , tending to weaken the authority of the Bible . Wetstein , who had employed great part of his life in collecting MSS ., was not guided by any sound principles of criticism in estimating the authority of various readings—he numbered MSS . instead of weighing * them , and did not
distinguish between the age of a copy and the age of a text . Bengel , with a critical apparatus , far less splendid than that of Wetstein , possessed more just principles of criticism ; he first perceived that there existed in early times different recensions of the sacred
text , that the proximate business of the critic ; was to ascertain how far these coincided or differed , respecting any particular reading , and that one MS ., which represents a recension , is equivalent to any number which ,
belonging to the same recension , make up only one voice after all . These principles , timidly proposed by Bengel , adopted by Semler , and applied by him to the copious materials of Wetstein ' s edition , furnished him with
more correct conclusions than Wetstein himself had drawn . In particular , he defended , against the Remonstrant Professor , those MSS . which he had charged with being corrupted into a
conformity with the Latin Version , by shewing how improbable it was , that this Version should have been so highly prized in the East , where the Greek MSS . must have been written , as to lead to an alteration of the Greek text
to produce a conformity with the Latin ; and that the very readings which had fallen under this suspicion were generally less pure Greek , and consequently more likely to be ancient and
genuine than those of other MSS ., and were confirmed by the concurring testimony of recensions , versions and fathers . This view was at length adopted by all critics ; even Michaelis , who did not like that another should find
what he had missed , in the later editions of his Introduction declared himself a convert . Semler's critical princi p les formed the basis of Griesbach ' s editions , and in the more systematic form and extended application which he has given them , have met with
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the universal approbation of biblical scholars , with the exception of a few , who think that orthodoxy can ill spare the texts which this impartial criticism has pronounced to be corrupt or
spurious . In respect to the Old Testament , Semler embraced the critical principles of Richard Simon , but it is not recorded that he added any thing remarkable to them . In his work on the Canon of Scripture , he has endeavoured to correct the inaccurate notions
which prevailed on this subject , and to shew that the Jews meant by canonical not inspired books , but a collection of national literature of various contents and worth ; and the Christians , writings useful to be read in the public assemblies , and tending to promote
uniformity of doctrine . j [ o introduce more correct notions respecting inspiration , he translated Kiddell ' s treatise on that subject from the English . His own opinions were either expressed or conceived obscurely ; according to him , the proof of inspiration must , in
all cases , be subjective , i . e . must exist in the mind of the individual , and consists in his feeling that a particular portion of scripture produces spiritual perfection . Of course , the same passage might be the word of God to one person , and not to another 5 might by
the objective proofs of criticism be shewn to be a forgery , and by this subjective evidence to be inspired . This seems very like an attempt to retain a term in the theological system , which could not conveniently be banished from it , without connecting any intelligible idea with it .
In Ecclesiastical History 9 the Germans had contented themselves , from the Reformation to Semler ' s time , with drawing from the stores of the Mngdeburgh Centuriators , with little study of the original sources and less
philosophical reflection . Semler had always been a diligent student of history , especially during the period of his residence at Altdorf , chiefly , indeed , civil history , but that particular branch of it which is most connected with
ecclesiastical history , the history of the middle ages . Baumgarten , when he removed as professor to Halle , assigned him the department of ecclesiastical history as his province , and gave him a compendium of his own , as a guide in preparing his prelections , which Semler , after losing much time and
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138 Biographical Sketch of J . S . Semler ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 138, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/10/
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