Johann Albrecht Bengel was one of the great biblical scholars of his age. Born in 1687, he laid the groundwork for those who followed. Among his accomplishments:* publishing a new edition of the Greek New Testament
* producing a text on NT exegesis that was to strongly influence John Wesley
* translating the NT into German, and correcting many of the errors in Luther's translation
* producing a harmony of the gospels
One of the leading Christian historians of the twentieth century, Jaroslav Pelikan, notes that his "technical achievements scholars of every party and every denomination had to praise." Beyond this, Bengel was a sincere man who was prepared to make tough choices to live by his pietistic beliefs.
But there is another side to Bengel. In the best tradition of certain latter-day sects, he "watched world news" in hope of seeing the prophecies of the Bible being fulfilled.
"Bengel believed the key to the book of Revelation was disclosed to him... The number of the Beast, 666 (Rev. 13:18), he thought he could clarify with an equal number of years, from 1143 to 1809, in relation to the history of the medieval papacy... he calculated the return of Christ for June 18, 1836."
Bengel wrote: That the number of the beast is running out I deem ever more certain, and we have to consider whether or not the beast will soon emerge on earth, and from Asia, as is referred...
"He observed keenly the events of his time..."
His was a pre-critical era, and Bengel may be forgiven for his misguided enthusiasms in light of the parallel trail he blazed that led to a modern understanding of the NT. While his reading of Revelation, on which he wrote three learned commentaries, was nonsense, his critical approach to the NT text itself was ahead of its time. His principle that the more difficult reading is to be preferred to the easier is a proven method in establishing the best text among variants today.
That indulgence can hardly extend to those who today choose to wallow in apocalyptic speculation. They do so in willful ignorance, spitting into the winds of 250 years of scholarship that has followed Bengel's death - hard won gains that owe a great deal to the very man who once fell under the same spell of prediction-addiction as they have.
Sources:
Jaroslav Pelikan. The Christian Tradition, Vol. 5, Christian Doctrine & Modern Culture (University of Chicago, 1989)
Hermann Ehmer. "Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752)" in The Pietist Theologians, ed. by Carter Lindberg (Blackwell, 2005)
