GRIESBACH, grSs'bSa, JOHANN JAKOB- German New Testament scholar; b. at Butzbach (11 m. s. of Giessen) Jan. 4, 1745; d. at Jena Mar. 24, 1812. He was educated at Tübingen, Halls, and Leipsic, and after a tour through Germany and Holland to London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris, he entered the theological faculty of Halls as privatdocent in 1771. Two years later he was appointed professor, but in 1775 was called to Jena, where he taught until his death. He was a deputy to the diet, and took a keen interest both in political and in academic affairs. As a textual critic Griesbach marks a new epoch in this department of study. He commenced his investigations by collecting and sifting variant readings, devoting special attention to the citations of the Greek Church Fathers and to various versions which had hitherto been little studied, such as the Philoxenian, the Armenian, and the Gothic. He then investigated the history of the text in antiquity, and on the basis of this history he constructed his theory of criticism which was intended to determine the choice and value of each individual reading, and which rested essentially on a combination of historic fact and logical principle. He was the first to print the text of the New Testament as modified by the results of his criticism. Before him there had been but two forms of the text, both products of the sixteenth century, the so-called Textus recepctta of Stephens and Elzevir, which represented unimpeachable orthodoxy in the eyes of the Lutherans, and that of the Complutensian Polyglot (see Bibles, Polyglot, L) and Plantin, which had been adopted by the Roman Catholics and, in part, by the Reformed. Griesbach's editions of the New Testament, which aroused conservative opposition, appeared in the following order: 47m: Novi. Testaments h(2

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parts, Halle, 1774; the first three Gospels synoptically arranged); Epistollce omnes et Apocalypsis (1775; containing also a second, non-synoptic, edition of the historical books). The synoptic edition has been frequently reprinted. The chief edition of the entire work is that published at Halle in two volumes in 1796-1806 with a complete critical apparatus and important prolegomena. The text in all editions, however, is not identical. See Bible Text, II., 2, § 4.

The other critical works of Griesbach are as fol-

lows: De codiclbus quatuor Evangelistarum Origenianis (Halle, 1771); Cure in historiam textus Epistolarum Pavlinarum (Jena, 1777); Symbolw criticw ad supplendas et corrigendas roarids Novi Testamenti lectiones (2 parts, Halle, 1785-93); and Commentarius criticus in textum Grwcum Novi Testamenti (2 parts, Jena, 1793-1811; also containing his Meletemata de vetustis Nova Testamenti recensiont'bus). His other writings are of minor importance, being chiefly academic addresses collected by J. P. Gar bler under the title Opuscula academics (2 vols., Jena, 1824-25). As a theologian, Griesbach assumed an intermediate position, conservative at heart, yet gradually yielding to the spirit of the times. Here his most important work was his Anleitung zum Studium der popularen Dogmahk (Jena, 1779), while his Vorlesungen aer Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments, edited after his death by J. C. S. Steiner (Nuremberg, 1815), is a product of the grammatico-historical school which was in vogue during its author's lifetime.

(E. Reuss+.)

Bibliography: J. C. G. Auguati, Ueber J. J. Griesbache Verdiensts, Breslau, 1813. Consult also: P. Schaff, Companion to the Greek Testament, pp. 82, 250-252, New York, 1883; S. Davidson, Introduction to the Study of the N. T., i. 549, ii. 248, London, 1882; B. Weiss, Manual of Introduction to the N. T., ii. 419, New York, 1889; H. J. Holtsmann, Einfeitung in das N. T., pp. BO-61, 343, 345, 354, Freiburg, 1892; A. Rilicher, Introduction to the N. T., pp. 325, 345, 620, New York, 19(1`1.