Caspar René Gregory (November 6, 1846 – April 9, 1917) was an American-born German

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 ...

Life

Gregory was born to Mary Jones and Henry Duval Gregory in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. He was the brother of the American zoologist Emily Ray Gregory. After completing his bachelor's degree at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1864, he studied theology at two Presbyterian seminaries: in 1865–1867 at the

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) is a Reformed Presbyterian seminary in Point Breeze, Pennsylvania. RPTS is a ministry of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and was founded in 1810, making it the fifth old ...

, Philadelphia, and in 1867–1873 at the

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...

. In 1873, he decided to continue his studies at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

under Constantin von Tischendorf, to whose work on textual criticism of the New Testament he had been referred by his teacher Ezra Abbot. He administered the scientific legacy of Tischendorf, who died in 1874, and continued his work. In 1876, he obtained his PhD with a dissertation titled '' Grégoire the priest and the revolutionist''. The first examiner for it was the historian Georg Voigt. He completed his post-doctoral work in Leipzig in 1884, and became an associate professor in 1889 and a full honorary professor in 1891. He apparently had several doctorates: Karl Josef Friedrich (p. 130) even mentions five doctorates in his biography of Gregory. At least one doctorate in theology obtained in Leipzig in 1889 is attested. In June 1901, he received an honorary

doctorate of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. On 11 August 1914, Gregory, who had been a citizen of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

since 1881, enlisted in the German Army as its oldest wartime volunteer. He became a second lieutenant in November 1916 and fell in 1917 on the western front. He died on April 9, 1917 in a

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile A ...

in Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. Gregory specialized in New Testament

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 da ...

. He organized biblical manuscripts into a classification system (''Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments'', 1908) which continues to be in use throughout the scholarly world today. He is also credited with being the first to notice the consistent medieval practice (called Gregory's Law or Gregory's Rule) of collating parchment leaves so that grain side faced grain side and flesh side flesh side. He was also interested in

biblical canon A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word ''canon'' comes from the Greek , meaning " rule" or " measuring stick". The us ...

Works

Books

* * * * * * * * *

Journal articles

References

Literature

* . * * Karl Josef Friedrich, ''Caspar Rene Gregory'', in: ''Sächsische Lebensbilder'', Vol. I, Dresden 1930, p. 125-131. * Ernst Jünger, ed. (1928), "Caspar René Gregory", in: ''Die Unvergessenen''. Berlin: Andermann. p. 111 ff. * Bruno Hartung (1929), "Caspar René Gregory", in: ''Das Jahr des Herrn: Kalender für die evangelischen Gemeinden Leipzigs''. 5. Jg., p. 36-38.

External links

From the Papers of Caspar René Gregory.
In "Of the Incomparable Treasure of the Holy Scriptures: An Exhibit of Historic Bible-related Materials from the Collection of the Harvard Divinity School Library," October 1998 *
Biographical sketch in ''The Biblical World'', Vol. 38 (1911), pp. 350-354

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Caspar Rene 1846 births 1917 deaths 19th-century German Protestant theologians 20th-century German Protestant theologians 19th-century male writers American biblical scholars American Christian theologians American emigrants to Germany German biblical scholars German male non-fiction writers German military personnel killed in World War I German papyrologists Leipzig University alumni New Testament scholars Princeton Theological Seminary alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Writers from Philadelphia