Bretschneider

Bretschneider, KARL GOTTLIEB, a distinguished German theologian, born 11th February 1776, at Gersdorf, in Saxony, studied theology at Leipzig, was appointed pastor at Schneeberg in 1807, general superintendent at Gotha in 1816, and afterwards councillor of the Upper Consistory there. He died at Gotha, 22d January 1848. Bretschneider established a reputation as a sound and judicious thinker of rationalistic bias, and his theological writings are admitted to have a permanent value. In 1820 appeared his Probabilia de Evangelii et Epistolarum Johannis Apostoli Indole et Origine, an attack upon the Johannine authorship from internal evidence, and in 1824 his Lexicon Manuale Græco-Latinum in Libros Novi Testamenti. Another work of importance is his Handbuch der Dogmatik (4th ed. 1838). Besides these, Bretschneider wrote on various theological questions and controversies. An autobiography was published at Gotha in 1851.