Bengel

Bengel, JOHANN ALBRECHT, a distinguished German theologian and commentator, born at Winnenden, in Württemberg, June 24, 1687. He studied at Tübingen, where, in 1708, he became theological tutor; later in life he held several high offices. He died 2d November 1752. He was the first Protestant author who treated the exegesis of the New Testament in a thoroughly critical and judicious style. He did good service also in the rectification of the text of the Bible, and was the first to classify the manuscript authorities for the text of the New Testament into families (Asiatic and African). The short notes in his Gnomon Novi Testamenti (1742) are invaluable, and have been translated into various languages. They were made much use of by John Wesley in his Notes on the New Testament, which forms one of the standards of Wesleyan Methodism. Indeed, Wesley's work may be regarded as little more than an abridged translation from Bengal. An exposition of the revelation of St John (1740) and a chronological work—the Ordo Temporum a Principio per Periodos Economice Divine Historicus atque Propheticus (1741)—gained for Bengal, in his time, a great reputation; some regarding him as an inspired prophet, but the majority as a visionary. In these works he calculated, on the basis he supposed to be laid down in the Apocalypse, that the world would endure for the space of 7777½ years, and that the 'breaking loose and the binding of Satan' would take place in the summer of 1836. See the Lives of him by Burk (2 vols. 1831-37) and Wächter (1865), and Reiff's Bengel und seine Schule (1882).