Eodor Zahn, Adolf Harnack, and Adolf Schlatter

5 eodor Zahn, Adolf Harnack, and Adolf Schlatter A J. K R Z, Karl Gustav Adolf von Harnack, and Adolf Schlatter Tlived in the engul ng shadows of the Enlightenment. is movement, with its quest for scienti c objectivity and its con dence in human reason, a ected every scholarly discipline, including biblical studies. One of the products of the Enlightenment was the historical-critical method pioneered by Johann Salomo Semler ( –) and Johann David Michaelis ( –). is approach reached a peak in Harnack,1 with Zahn and Schlatter representing a conservative counterpoint to the prevailing scholarly climate. ese three scholars not only lived in the heyday of historical criticism, they also did their work at the onset of a new movement, the return to a theological interpretation of the Bible. Stephen Neill and Tom Wright call this the “Re-entry of eology,”2 with the best-known representative of this movement being Karl Barth (–). Harnack, Zahn, and Schlatter, then, lived at a time when historical criticism was a formidable dam concealing increasing cracks that were gradually to give way to the “new” theological methods. THEODOR RITTER VON ZAHN Biographical Information eodor Zahn was the ninth child born to Franz L. Zahn ( –) and Anna Schlatter (– ; note the family relation to Adolf Schlatter, see below) in Mörs, Rhenish Prussia (now Germany) on October , . Although his great-grandfather, Johann Michael Zahn, was a Christian and initially taught philosophy and later studied theology and served as a pastor in Wassertallebel ( ), his grandfather, Gottlieb . Baird, History of New Testament Research, : . Neill and Wright, Interpretation of the New Testament, . Used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers. P H B I, V Zahn ( – ), was a rationalistic non-Christian who begrudged the conversion of his children and grandchildren. Ironically, Gottlieb reared two pastors and one missionary. Franz, Gottlieb’s third son and eodor’s father, was one of these two pastors. Although raised beneath his father’s rationalistic umbrella, Franz became a Christian at the University of Jena where he was studying jurisprudence ( ) before switching to theological studies ( ). Aer practicing law and training elementary teachers, Franz became pastor of a church in Mörs, his hometown. With such a father, eodor Zahn was no stranger to academics, theology, or rationalism, as he was exposed to each from an early age. His erudition and academic promise were evident already in his translation of the eight books of Caesar’s Gallic Wars from Latin into German at the age of ten ( –). Zahn was educated at the Universities of Basel, Erlangen, and Berlin. Encouraged by his father to attend the University of Basel, Zahn studied theology and was inuenced by the church historian Karl Rudolf Hagenbach. While studying at Erlangen for three semesters ( – ), Zahn was greatly impacted by his professor and mentor, Johann Christian K. von Hof- mann (central gure of the so-called “Erlangen school”). Zahn completed his studies in Berlin, seeking to ll gaps in his knowledge, which he thought to be dogmatics, history of theology, and the study of Martin Luther and Friedrich Schleiermacher. ese formative years shaped Zahn into an orthodox Lutheran as well as a New Testament and patristics scholar practicing a conservative form of historical criticism. Zahn described the three years subsequent to his graduation ( –) as full of trials. During this time, while teaching at his father’s school, he su ered from a major eye disease that hindered his reading and writing for an entire year. Once recovered, Zahn taught religion, world history, and German literature at the Gymnasium (middle and high school) of Neustrelitz (– ) before becoming a student lecturer at the University of Göttingen ( –). While at Göttingen, he advanced to Privatdozent (lecturer) in and then to Associate Professor in , publishing works on Mar- cellus of Ancyra ( ), the Shepherd of Hermas (), Ignatius of Antioch ( ), and a critical edition of the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp ( ). In addition, he earned his doctorate and served as university preacher. Unable to secure a permanent position in Göttingen, he le in to become professor at Kiel, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Friedrich Blass, known especially for his work in New Testa- ment Greek grammar. Zahn remained in Kiel for only eleven months before moving to Erlangen where he was called to replace Hofmann, his former mentor. Ten years later, in , he moved to Leipzig, where he remained until , to serve as Dean of the theological faculty. He then returned to Erlangen, where he spent the rest of his career ( –) teaching pedagogy and New Testament exegesis. Zahn’s contemporaries knew him as a scholar and a practitioner. roughout his academic life, he frequently preached in surrounding churches, addressing many of life’s practical concerns. Although he retired from Erlangen in , he continued to study, write, and preach until his death on March , , at the age of ninety- ve. K—eodor Zahn, Adolf Harnack, and Adolf Schlatter Major Views and Methodology Zahn’s scholarly goal throughout his life was to present a historical understanding of early Christianity through an independent investigation of the historical sources from the biblical and patristic records (including the Shepherd of Hermas and Igna- tius’s letters) up to CE.3 Although Zahn preferred to characterize his method as “historical-philological,”4 it bore a resemblance to the historical-critical method widely practiced in his day. Unlike most of his scholarly peers, however, Zahn believed that the Bible was historically and theologically accurate, including its record of su- pernatural events. According to Zahn himself, the question that remained close to his heart was, “How is a sanctifying faith in Jesus related to the facts by which God revealed Himself to us in Jesus, through Jesus, and by Jesus?”5 Since Zahn believed that the New Testa- ment accurately recorded history, he was convinced that through an ardent study of the New Testament data one could accurately reconstruct the historical events surrounding the life of Christ. us Jesus’ virgin birth, his sacri cial and atoning death, and his literal bodily resurrection were not fabrications or misrepresentations by the New Testament and early Christian writers but were in keeping with actual historical events. Zahn con dently stated: “e Christian faith is indeed based on facts and is tied to facts, regarding its origin as well as its continued existence, to such an extent that it stands or falls with these facts.”6 Likewise, Zahn regarded the Old Testament as an accurate record of the history prior to Christ’s coming. Methodologically, Zahn reached the conclusion that the New Testament was accurate by tracing canonical history backward from the third century CE.7 His argument was as follows. A new Christian sect, the Montanists, arose in the mid-third century that laid claim to new inspiration. is claim forced the early church in – CE to state that authority was con ned to the apostolic writings. Zahn suggested that during this time of the formation of the Christian canon the church accepted the four Gospels, Paul’s thirteen Epistles, Acts, and Revelation as authoritatively inspired.8 Continuing his retrospective argument, Zahn examined the era – CE. He concluded that rather than creating the rst canon, Marcion simply responded to an already- xed orthodox recognition of canonical works. is he found con rmed by the use of canonical books by other heretics. Given the depth, consistency, and distribution of this tradition by the mid-sec- ond century CE, Zahn concluded that the canon (the four Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s . Zahn, “eodor Zahn: Mein Werdegang,” . Merk, “Zahn,” . Zahn, Apostles’ Creed, . Zahn, Altes und Neues, . Zahn, Forschungen. Others recognized Hebrews, Peter, and John, while fewer included the Shepherd of Hermas and the Didache. P H B I, V Epistles) was solidi ed as early as – CE.9 e New Testament tradition, then, prompted by the Apostles and maintained accurately by the early church Fathers, re- liably portrays history and represents an orthodoxy that was faithfully perpetuated in successive generations. Unlike many of his conservative contemporaries, however, Zahn arrived at this conclusion not through dogmatic presuppositions but by way of a historical-critical study of the data. Similarly, Zahn argued for the reliability of the Apostles’ Creed utilizing historical rather than dogmatic means. For Zahn, the Apostles’ Creed was the hallmark of orthodoxy and historically and theologically accurate. In Apostles’ Creed, Zahn argued that the “contents of the Creed . give no ground for supposing it to have come into existence later than [CE], but rather allow of its being referred back to the st century, even to the lifetime of St. Peter and St. Paul.”10 For Zahn, the “assertion that the Apostles’ Creed was a production of the th or th century” is historically dubi- ous.11 His armation of the Creed is a natural corollary of his belief in the historical and theological accuracy of the New Testament documents. Since the latter are cor- rect and since the Creed represents them accurately, the Creed is to be trusted. Zahn concluded: “History, not legend, gives us a right to the ennobling thought that in and with our Creed we confess that which since the days of the Apostles has been the faith of united Christendom.”12 Since the New Testament and later Christian writings, including the Apostles’ Creed, were historically and theologically accurate, Zahn’s goal as an exegete was simply to expound upon, reconstruct, and harmonize the data found in these documents. According to Zahn, the exegete’s task was to determine what the original au- thor said and meant (i.e., to ascertain “authorial intent”). e historian’s task was to address the question of historical validity.13 us Zahn distinguished the role of the interpreter from that of the historian, maintaining that it was not the former’s task to question the historicity of events recorded in the biblical texts (following Gottlob Keil [ –]).14 Zahn’s diligence as an exegete and interpreter is evident in his voluminous biblical commentaries.

Load more