This volume in History of Biblical Interpretation surveys the lives and works of significant theologians, lay people, politicians, and philosophers who represent the attitudes of their era. Largely concerning the development of biblical criticism, it begins with the controversy over the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament and extends into Enlightenment ethics, myth, and miracle stories. Early representatives include Richard Simon and Hermann Samuel Reimarus, followed by Johann Salomo Semler, Johann Jakob Griesbach, Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, and Philipp Jacob Spener. Biblical scholars such as Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette, Ferdinand Christian Baur, Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, Julius Wellhausen, Hermann Gunkel, Wilhelm Bousset, Karl Barth, and Rudolf Bultmann round out the volume and bring readers to the twentieth century.
“The most important investigation is directed at the history of the cult” (Page 317)
“Babylonian culture was known by the Canaanites at the time of Israel’s entrance into the land, and the immigrants soon adopted Canaanite culture (151) and thereby came indirectly under Babylonian influence.” (Page 342)