BENGEL, JOHANN ALBRECHT, prelate in Wiir temberg, was born at Winnenden, 24th June 1687, the birthday of his great ancestor Johann Brenz, whose great-granddaughter his mother was. His first lessons were received from his father, after whose death, which happened in 1693, he became a pupil at the Gymnasium of Stuttgart. In 1703, he entered the University of Tiibingen, where he devoted himself to the study of philo sophy and theology, but especially to that of the Scriptures in the original tongues. Having been led to use Fell's edition of the Greek N. T., Oxon. 1675, he was arrested by the various readings collected by that writer, and this seems to have first strongly turned his attention to the criticism of the sacred text. After filling several subordi nate situations, both as a pastor and as an academic teacher, Bengel was in 1741 made prelate of Herbrechtingen and in 1749 he was advanced to be prelate of Alpirsbach, with a residence at Stutt gart. In 1751, he received the tardy honour of a diploma creating him D. D., from the University of Tubingen. From this time, his time and energies were chiefly occupied in the manifold duties of his diocese. He died 2d November 1751, gently fall ing asleep with the words ' Lord Jesus, I am thine, living or dead,' on his lips. Few names stand so high as Bengel's in the annals of biblical literature. In 1734 he issued his edition of the Greek N. T. in 4to and Svo, prepared from a collation, not only of the previously printed edi tions, but of twenty-four Greek and several Latin MSS., several of the ancient versions, and other sources ; and to this he appended an Apparatus Criticus, in which he unfolds his critical principles and method, discusses the principal various read ings, and obviates objections which may be brought against his work, and such efforts in general. By this work the author greatly advanced the cause of sound biblical criticism. He has not, it is true, added much to the materials for settling the text of the N. T. ; his various readings were mostly borrowed from Mill, with the exception of the not very important codices which he himself collated ; and he timidly refused to admit into the text any alteration, however strongly supported by critical authority, if it had not already appeared in some printed edition. But his sagacity and discernment enabled him to bring out clearly certain principles of criticism, which all subsequent labourers in this field have recognised as canonical and indispensable. He was the first to see clearly that the extant MSS. are of different classes or families ; he was the first to discern fully the importance of classi fying readings according to their relative worth ; he was the first who laid down clearly the necessity of fixing some criterion by which to test the an tiquity of readings apart from the mere antiquity of the codex in which they were found ; and he was the first to adopt the practice of giving the evidence against a reading as well as the evidence for it.
In determining the relative worth of readings, his great law was proclivi scriptioni prrestat ardua;' a principle which he certainly was not the first to enunciate or employ, but to which he gave such prominence and establishment, that it has been ever since one of the most useful helps to the set tling of the sacred text.
Having by this labour endeavoured to set forth a correct text, Bengel next employed himself in an effort to expound its meaning. This he issued under the title of G1107#071 Novi Testamenti, iu yuo ex nativa vethoruns vi simplicitas, profilnditas, eon einnitar, salubritas sensuzrm calcstium indicatur, of which the first edition appeared at Tiibingen in 1742, 4to. This work has been repeatedly re printed (t759, 1773, 1788, 1835 [edited by Stew. dell 180) ; it has been translated into German J by E. J. Werner, Stuttgart, 1853, and into English under the editorship of the Rev. A. R. Fausset, 5 vols. 8vo Edin., and its value has been acknowledged by scholarly theologians of every school. The notes are short, but often condense in a few words a whole paragraph of meaning, and by a single happy phrase dispense with the neces sity of a minute exegesis.
These are Bengel's best-known works. They are not, however, his only contributions to biblical literature which deserve to be noticed. In t741 he published Ordo temper:sun a principle per periodos sreonomice divine historical atyue propheticas ad finem usque ita dea'uctus ut tota series ex V. et N. T. proponatur, of which a second edition ap peared at Stuttgart in 177o. Connected with this work in purpose and principle, is his Verkliirte Offenbarung "'chant:is, Stuttgart 174o, of which many editions have been printed, and this was followed by his Erbaulichen Reden lifer die Offen barung "ohannis, 1747, also frequently reprinted. These works are of great value to the apocalyptic interpreter, both as settling principles of inter pretation, and as furnishing specimens of the ap plication of these. Like many others who have ventured to fix a date for the fulfilment of the apocalyptic symbols, Bengel has been proved by time to have been an erring prophet ; but waiving this, his writings on the Apocalypse are worthy of most attentive study for their exegetical merits as well as for the rich vein of pious thought and feel ing by which they are pervaded. In 1753 Bengel published a translation of the N. T. with notes, under the title das N. T. nach d. revidirten Grund tent iibersetz, and mit dienlichen Anmerk, begleitet. He wrote also on the Harmony of the Four Gospels (RUhtige Harm. der 4 Evangg., 8vo, Thb. 1736, 1747, 1766). Bengel's life has been written by his son, prefixed to the third edition of the Gnomon, and at large by his grandson J. C. F. Burk, trans lated into English by R. F. Walker, M. A., Lond. 1837.—W. L. A.