BUNSEN, CHRISTIAN CARL JOSIAS, BARON VON, was born 25th Aug. 1791, at Korbach. He was educated at Marburg and Gottingen, where he devoted his attention chiefly to biblical and lin guistic studies. He spent some time also in Berlin at the feet of Niebuhr, and at Paris under the tui tion of Silvestre de Sacy. In 1813 he was ap pointed secretary to the Prussian eninassy at Rome; in 1827 he became resident minister there ; in 1839 he was sent as Prussian ambassador to Bern ; shortly after he was sent on a special mission to England, having reference to the proposed bishopric of Jerusalem ; and almost immediately after he was appointed Prussian ambassador to the Court of St. James's. Having resigned this post in 1854, he was ennobled, and retired from the diplomatic ser vice to devote himself to the chosen studies of his earlier days. Among other things he set himself to accomplish what he had adopted as his proper life work, a translation of the Bible into German, ac companied with notes and dissertations, the design of which should be to convey to the community the best aids which modern criticism and scholarship afford for the justunderstanding of the sacred volume. This work, which he intended to occupy 8 volumes large 8vo, he began to publish in 1S58,and he had issued 7 parts before his death. These contain the Prolego mena, the translation of the entire Old Testament, except the Hagiographa, and the Bibel-U rkunden,or History of the Books, and restoration of the primi tive Bible texts, as far as Kings. As a preparation for this work he issued his Gott in der Geschichte, 3 vols., Leipz. 1857-58, in which he develops his
philosophy of history, and aims at a Theodicee. It is not fair, perhaps, to offer any decided criticism on a work which is constructed on a strict and comprehensive plan, but which the author did not live to finish ; nor is it easy to apprehend aright Bunsen's position in relation to the Bible. That he was a sincere, devout, and earnest believer in Christ no one can doubt, and in this respect he stands clearly distinct from the rationalist school ; yet in his treatment of the supernatural facts of the Bible, he does not scruple to follow in the wake of the narrowest and most carping rationalism. He borrowed much of his philosophy from Spinoza and Hegel, and yet it would not be true to call him a Pantheist, for he distinguished clearly between the immanence of God in the world as an all per vading power, and that doctrine which denies the self-existing and independent being of the God head. We fear, after all the thought and labour he spent on the Bible, his Bibel-werk is destined rather to remain as a monument of his good intentions, than to be accepted as affording any great help to the better understanding of God's Word. The translation is sometimes felicitous, but not always correct ; the notes are brief, and only occasionally furnish fresh instruction ; and the Commentary is so full of doubtful and dangerous speculation that it is more likely to bewilder than to guide.— W. L. A.