Franz Anton Knittel (April 3, 1721 – December 10, 1792) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, Lutheran
orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
, priest, and
palaeographer
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
. He examined
palimpsest
In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...
s' text of the ''Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis'' and deciphered text of
Codex Carolinus
Codex Carolinus is an uncial manuscript of the New Testament on parchment, dated to the 6th or 7th century. It is a palimpsest containing a Latin text written over a Gothic one. The Gothic text is designated by siglum ''Car'', the Latin text is d ...
. He was the author of many works.
Life
![Codex Carolinus (Knittel edition)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Codex_Carolinus_%28Knittel_edition%29.PNG)
In 1751 he became a priest, in 1753 Archdeacon of the main church in Wolfenbüttel. In 1766 he became general superintendent and the first preacher in Wolfenbüttel and in 1776 general superintendent in
Brunswick.
After receiving work in the main church of Wolfenbüttel Knittel started to examine manuscripts housed in the
Ducal Library of Wolfenbüttel. In 1756 he studied the ''Codex Guelferbytanus 64 Weissenburgensis''. The manuscript and its palimpsest text had earlier been examined by
Heusinger, who described it in 1752, but Knittel was the first who recognized that the palimpsest Greek text belonged to two different manuscripts of the New Testament. Knittel designated these two texts by sigla
A and
B. He recognized also lists of the (''chapters'') as another, the third Greek manuscript. Knittel also deciphered and reconstructed the
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
-Latin text of the palimpsest and published it in 1762 at Brunswick. It is known as ''
Codex Carolinus
Codex Carolinus is an uncial manuscript of the New Testament on parchment, dated to the 6th or 7th century. It is a palimpsest containing a Latin text written over a Gothic one. The Gothic text is designated by siglum ''Car'', the Latin text is d ...
''. The upper text of palimpsest contains text of
Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
's ''
Origines
(, "Origins") is the title of a lost work on Roman and Italian history by Cato the Elder, composed in the early-2nd centuryBC.
Contents
According to Cato's biographer Cornelius Nepos, the ''Origins'' consisted of seven books. Book I was the hi ...
'' and his six letters. Knittel designated it by siglum E and dated it to the 11th century.
Knittel made many errors in deciphering the palimpsest's text, especially in the Latin text of ''Codex Carolinus'' (e.g. ''enarrabilia'' for ''scrutabilia'').
Tischendorf Tischendorf is a German surname
Personal names in German-speaking Europe consist of one or several given names (''Vorname'', plural ''Vornamen'') and a surname (''Nachname, Familienname'').
The ''Vorname'' is usually gender-specific. A name is usu ...
made a new and more accurate collation for the Latin text (edited in 1855). A new collation of the Gothic text was published by
Carla Falluomini
Carla Falluomini (born 1970) is an Italian philologist who specializes on Gothic and Lombardic palaeography, languages and cultures. She is currently professor at the University of Perugia.
Biography
Carla Falluomini was born in 1970 in Ferrara ...
in 1999. Knittel examined also other manuscripts (e.g.
Minuscule 126,
429).
Knittel defended a traditional point of view in theology and was against the modern
textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in ...
. He defended an authenticity of the
Pericopa Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11),
Comma Johanneum
The Johannine Comma ( la, Comma Johanneum) is an interpolated phrase (comma) in verses of the First Epistle of John.
The text (with the comma in italics and enclosed by square brackets) in the King James Bible reads:
It became a touchpoint fo ...
(1 John 5:7), and
Testimonium Flavianum
The extant manuscripts of the book ''Antiquities of the Jews'', written by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus around AD 93–94, contain two references to Jesus of Nazareth and one reference to John the Baptist.
The first a ...
. According to him
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
in his
Novum Instrumentum omne
''Novum Instrumentum omne'' was the first published New Testament in Greek (1516). It was prepared by Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) and printed by Johann Froben (1460–1527) of Basel. Although the first printed Greek New Testament was the ...
did not incorporate the ''Comma'' from
Codex Montfortianus
Codex Montfortianus designated by 61 (on the list Gregory-Aland; Soden's δ 603), and known as ''Minuscule 61'' is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament on paper. Erasmus named it Codex Britannicus. Its completion is dated on the ba ...
, because of grammar differences, but used
Complutensian Polyglotta. According to him the ''Comma'' was known for
Tertullian
Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...
.
[Knittel, ''Neue Kritiken über den berühmten Sprych: Drey sind, die da zeugen im Himmel, der Vater, das Wort, und der heilige Geist, und diese drei sind eins'' Braunschweig 1785]
Works
* ''Gedanken von einem Lehrgebaude einer gemessenen Geistlerlehre und ihrem Bussen in der Gottesgelahrtheit'' 1746
* ''Epistola, in qua de eo, quod in Georgicis Hesiodes, quae εργα και ημεραι inscribuntur, supposititium est, disseruit de salis vallibus et a viro celebrrimo in arte critica M. horum, quae accusantus, vindice atquae assertore, dissentit'', Brunsvick 1754
* ''Neue Gedanken von den allgemeinen Christsehlern in den Handschriften des Neuen Testamtns u. s. w., mebst einem Versuche einer hermeneutischen Muthmassunge - Sitten - Lehre der ersten Kirche'', Braunschweig 1755
* ''Praecopium Ulphilanum primum'', Brunovici 1758; alterum 1760
* ''Ulphilae versionem Gothicam nonnullorum capitum epistolae Pauli ad Romanos e litura MS. rescript Bibliothecae Guelferbytanae, cum variis monumentis ineditis eruit, commentatus est, detitque foras'', Brunovici 1762
* ''Friedenspredigt'', Braunschweig 1763
* ''Prisca ruris ecclesia'', Brunovici 1767
''Beyträge zur Kritik über Johannes Offenbarung'' Schröder, Braunschweig und Hildensheim 1773.
* ''Neue Kritiken über das weltberühmte Zeugnis dea alten Juden Flav. Josephus von Jesu Christo'' Braunschweig 1779
* ''Neue Kritiken über den berühmten Sprych: Drey sind, die da zeugen im Himmel, der Vater, das Wort, und der heilige Geist, und diese drei sind eins'' Braunschweig 1785
* ''Ueber die Aufklärung des Lachmannes'', Frankfurt und Leipzig 1787
References
Further reading
* Johann Georg Neusel, ''Lexicon der vom Jahr 1750 bis 1800 verstorberen Teuschen Schriftsteller'' (Leipzig 1898), pp. 133–135.
* Heinrich Döring
Franz Anton Knittel ''Die deutschen Kanzelredner des achtzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhunderts'', pp. 171–175.
External links
Fragmenta versionis Ulphilanae: continentia particulas aliquot epistolae Pauli ad Romanos(Upsaliae 1763)
* Franz Anton Knittel & William Alleyn Evanson,
New criticisms on the celebrated text: 1 John V. 7. "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one." A synodical lecture', 1829.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knittel, Franz Anton
1721 births
1792 deaths
German scholars
German Lutheran theologians
18th-century German Lutheran clergy
18th-century German Protestant theologians
German male non-fiction writers
18th-century German male writers